The primary reason for my trip to Kansas over Memorial Day weekend was to attend the Memorial Celebration Sunday at Bergthal Mennonite Church in Pawnee Rock. In the 1950s, my maternal grandfather pastored this church, and my mother graduated from high school during this time. At its height, the congregation boasted about 250 members in this rural community, but today only about 15 people make up the church. Couple this with the fact that the building has a black mold problem that is cost prohibitive to take care of, and after several years and heart-breaking discussions, the congregation has decided to tear down the building later this summer.
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| Street Sign Kitty-Corner to the Church |
In preparation for this sad event, the people decided to hold one final big church service and invite people who have a connection to the church to return. My parents planned on going and asked if I wanted to attend with them. Since I had never seen the church (except as an infant), and I am interested in my mom's heritage, I jumped at the chance to visit Kansas in May. It seemed that I was not the only one who wanted to come. The sanctuary was overflowing with about 350 people, including descendants of the founding families and a handful who had never even been to the church, but had some kind of reason to travel there.
We were in for an entire day of activities starting with breakfast. After the worship service and the noon potluck we had the chance to bid on a silent auction of various items from the church building. People shared memories of their time at the church during an afternoon service and the official day ended with more food - dessert and coffee.
On the dedication day of the church building (the third building for this congregation), people stood outside in front of the church for a group photo. (You can see this photo on a blog post about Bergthal on
another blog post here.) On Sunday we all came outside for a final group photo with the photographer on the top of a tall, tall ladder on the other side of the street with four people holding the legs so it would not blow over in the wind.
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| Table decoration in the basement |
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| Breakfast buffet |
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| Gathering for church |
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| Rules for the silent auction |
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| Offering Plate up for auction |
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Taking a group photo can be dangerous
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| But this is the end result! |
The primary reason for my trip to Kansas over Memorial Day weekend was to attend the Memorial Celebration Sunday at Bergthal Mennonite Church in Pawnee Rock. In the 1950s, my maternal grandfather pastored this church, and my mother graduated from high school during this time. At its height, the congregation boasted about 250 members in this rural community, but today only about 15 people make up the church. Couple this with the fact that the building has a black mold problem that is cost prohibitive to take care of, and after several years and heart-breaking discussions, the congregation has decided to tear down the building later this summer. 
3 comments:
What a nice post. Thanks for capturing that day in photos. Much appreciated. I have never been to a funeral for a church until May 26.
This post on your visit to the church with your family was so very special. How wonderful that you could be there! I hope that those beautiful stained glass windows will have a good new home. But, most of all, those who've been there through the years, as well as those who participated in the goodbye, will have warm, loving memories of a farewell well planned and carried out.
Charlotte thanks so much for commenting on my blog post. Wish we could have met while at Bergthal on Sunday! You have included lots of great photos and a great blog post.
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