A major restoration project at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tamaqua wrapped up recently, and the congregation celebrated with a blessing and rededication service.

According to the Rev. Dillon Epler, the last time the church at the corner of Mauch Chunk and Pine streets was restored was in 1973.

“Now it has been secured for another 50-100 years with the generosity of many members and community people,” said Epler, the church’s pastor.

Epler said St. John’s congregation decided in 2023 to embark on another restoration and redecorating project to bring the church into a new era and preserve it for generations to come.

The project Epler said the biggest change was liturgical — similar to the 1973 installation of the sanctuary lamp and free standing altar.

“This time the chancel rail was removed, in order to relay a message of God’s openness to come share in the sacrament of Holy Communion and a return to a much older custom which existed before chancel rails were installed,” Epler said.

Another major decision was to relocate the baptistery from near the entrance to the area of the narthex.

The move relays the message that the sacrament of Holy Baptism is what welcomes us into the Christian community, Epler said, and offers the promise of new life and renewal to follow Jesus Christ.

Ready for worship

St. John’s reopened its worship space for a first look on Palm-Passion Sunday, April 13, with hopes to embrace the pageantry of Holy Week and the rebirth and renewal that come with Easter.

A blessing and rededication service followed on June 1 and featured a visit from the Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod Bishop Rev. Christopher deForest.

Other special guests included the Rev. Dr. Allison deForest, spouse of the bishop; the Rev. Richard Hinkle and the Rev. David Searing, former St. John’s pastors; Kathleen Tigerman, synod director of evangelical mission; Brian Doran, architect; Ryan Ritterbeck, painter and decorator; and the Bishop of Saxony, Germany, and his church delegation.

Participants for the blessing and dedication included Epler; Karen Campomizzi, president of the church council; and Hannah Kistler, Joshua Hadesty and Jonathan and Cecilia Ulicny. A luncheon organized by the Shepherds of St. John’s was held in the parish fellowship hall.

“My family and I feel blessed to be at such a vibrant congregation filled with energy and life for generations to come,” Epler said. “It is my hope that St. John’s doors remain wide open to all who enter, and that we may be a place where the message of God’s unconditional love and grace is shared and taken into the community.”

A long history

St. John’s is the oldest continuous Protestant congregation in the Borough of Tamaqua.

According to the church’s history, the first Lutheran worship service was held in 1820 under the hospitality of Tamaqua’s first pioneer, Burkhardt Moser, who opened his log cabin for the occasion.

Moser and many of his family members are buried at the St. John’s Cemetery in the Dutch Hill neighborhood of Tamaqua.

Officially established and chartered in 1821 by Tamaqua’s early German immigrants, St. John’s was a union congregation between the German Lutheran and German Reformed (UCC) traditions.

The union congregation met in a log cabin church in the Dutch Hill from 1835-1855. In 1855, the log cabin church was torn down and a new brick church was built in the same location.

In 1895 the congregation tore down the brick church in the Dutch Hill neighborhood and the German Lutheran congregation separated from the German Reformed (UCC) congregation.

In 1895, the German Lutheran congregation of St. John’s erected a new brick church at the current site.

In 1968, the Rev. Richard Hinkle was called to be the new pastor of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church. In 1973 the congregation embarked on a restoration and redecorating project to bring the church into a new era.

That project included, new paint, new flooring, new pews, as well as new paraments and vestments.

The most forward thinking of all was the move to install a sanctuary lamp and have a free-standing altar facing the assembly, not the east wall, as it had been for centuries.