Saddened Congregation Finds Strength
in Faith, Long History in Community

By BILL SCHANEN IV

© 2002 Ozaukee Press – Used by Permission

Members of Friedens Evangelical Church stood outside their place of worship late Monday and early Tuesday in silence, listening to the sound of 100-year-old stained glass windows breaking and watching black, acrid smoke pour out of the openings.

Some held each other, others cried as their church burned.

Flames destroyed the old and the new, charring and melting the religious symbols of a thriving contemporary church and scarring a Port Washington landmark built in 1889 by German immigrants who founded the congregation in 1854 as they helped settle a fledgling city.

New history was being made as flames devastated the interior of a church that in its 113 years has gone untouched by fire or disaster.

But when the smoke had disappeared, the Rev. Mark Voll, pastor of the church, said the blaze serves as an important reminder for the congregation.

"We are reminded the church is about our mission and our people. These transcend the building and even precious stained glass windows that were damaged. These things are temporal," he said. "We're thankful the structure was saved, no one was injured and the fire department did a great job. Our congregation is already very strong, but sometimes things like this can end up pulling a congregation even closer together.

Voll and his wife Sue, who live next door to the church, were at a retreat in Delafield when they were told the church was burning.

"With the stormy weather conditions and accidents along the highway, and wanting so bad to get back but not orphan our children, the drive back was very hard," he said. "It really hit us hard when we turned the corner and saw all the fire trucks and police cars and smoke pouring out of the church."

"We just wanted to wake up from this horrible dream."

Edna Guenther, who grew up attending the church and remembers when services were said in German, was standing in her yard just blocks away from the church Monday night when she heard the sirens.

"The sirens seemed to be coming from everywhere," said Guenther, who recently celebrated her 90th birthday. "I saw kind of a hazy glow, but I thought it was coming from downtown. I had no idea it was the church."

"Friedens Church has meant a lot to us. I grew up in that church. I think I'm still pretty much in shock."

Although the congregation is girded by its mission to rebuild the interior of the church, members realize that some of what was lost can never be replaced. In particular, the damage done to some of the stained glass windows seems to represent the significance of the loss and how the long history of Friedens Church remains relevant today.

"This will be hard to handle for a lot of parish members, especially when they see the broken 100-year-old stained glass windows," said Ray Schwinn, president of the congregation's council. "Those windows were donated. They don't even make glass like that anymore. You just can't replace things like that."

The windows were donated by church members and bore the names of some of the congregation's founders. They were installed in 1914 when the church was remodeled in honor of the congregation's 60th anniversary.

In honor of that occasion, the pastor at the time, S. Lefkovis, who later changed his name to Lefton, penned a history of the church in German.

"Among the first emigrants were four families Runkel from Neumied in the Rhine province," he wrote in a booklet that was later translated into English. "Their arrival marks the beginning of our congregation."

The church was reorganized in 1872 as Friedens Evangelical Church. In 1889, the congregation dedicated a new church on Milwaukee Street that was built for $7,394.

Although its name was changed, the church remained loyal to its German heritage. In 1919, the congregation voted not to allow services to be held in English. It was not until 1924 that the church leaders relented.

"I remember sitting in church and having to hurry in my mind to translate the German that was being spoken," Guenther said. "I remember men sitting on one side of the church and women on the other."

By this time the church had undergone a significant remodeling. In 1915, a Shuelke organ was purchased and installed with a sizable contribution from the Carnegie family. That organ was seriously damaged in Monday's fire.

Over the years, the church and congregation underwent significant changes. In 1991, Memorial Hall was added to the church and the parish became non-denominational.

But the church history remains important to the congregation and the community, Voll said.

"When this church was built, it was in the center of town," he said. "The bells used to ring to tell the community that someone had died. The church has been used for years as a way to share news with people, as a gathering place."

Now faced with the daunting task of rebuilding the interior of the historic church, congregation members have found support from other churches throughout the community who offered everything from condolences to the use of facilities for services.

Friedens Church will hold services this Sunday in the Port Washington High School auditorium at 10 a.m.

The surroundings will be different, but the church's faith and mission will remain unchanged, church officials said.

"We have to get it through our minds that what was lost were material things," Schwinn said. "Our God is living; he didn't desert us. We'll pull together. We'll stay together. It's just that now we have an awful lot of work to do."

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