By Eva Hofmann
Bridgeport’s oldest Christian congregation, First Lutheran Church of the Trinity at 634 W. 31st St., shut its doors on June 30. Having served the community for nearly 160 years, First Trinity enjoyed a long history of activism and social justice ministry before succumbing to increasing financial insolvency.
The Lutheran Church calls the process by which the church shut its doors “Holy Closure,” according to Bob Leone, former director of music for First Trinity, who played piano at the church for 17 years. “First Trinity was struggling financially, and basically the synod sent the pastor [Rev. Christina Montgomery] to put us out of our misery.”
According to Thomas Anderson, general manager of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ECLA), church members voted to close their congregation.
“We don’t know where the members will find a new faith community, but we’re confident there are other churches in the Bridgeport neighborhood or neighboring communities that will welcome them,” Anderson said. “Our nearest ELCA congregation is Christ the Mediator Lutheran Church, also located on 31stStreet.”
Genesis and early years
According to Richard Albrecht, retired associate in ministry who wrote a history of the church, First Lutheran Church of the Trinity began in 1865, the first Lutheran church on the Near South Side. Originally located on the southeast corner of 25th Place and Canal Street, the church moved to the 31st Street location in the early 20th century after a railroad took possession of its first property.
First Trinity started as a German immigrant parish named Ev. Luth. Dreieinigkeits (Evangelical Lutheran Trinity). It supported an elementary school and earned the nickname “Mother Church of the South Side” by numerous Lutheran branch schools and churches that eventually developed into “daughter” congregations south of Madison Street.
Throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s, First Trinity partnered with nearby Lutheran churches to develop a network of social resources for the community, including founding the Concordia Cemetery Association; the German Evangelical Lutheran Orphan Home, now known as Lutheran Child and Family Services; a retirement home known today as the Lutheran Home and Services for the Aged; and the Luther Institute, which by the 1950s, grew to a district of three high schools.
First Trinity and partner congregations, guided by belief in Lutheran education and that pupils should be educated close to home, built five more schools during this time, following immigration and industry patterns that shaped neighborhoods on the South Side.
Modern era
Attendance dwindled in the second half of the 20th century, but “During the 2000s the church that for so long hovered on the brink of closure was breathed with new life,” Albrecht wrote. “The parish has realized positive directions often because of and sometimes even in spite of human efforts.”
In 2015, when the church celebrated a milestone anniversary, Albrecht said, “These 150 years have seen eras of God’s grace generously given in everything from schooling German immigrant children to giving away free clothes.” Albrecht was referring to God’s Closet, a free “store” of sorted and donated clothes, shoes, books, and toys the church ran until a few years ago.
According to Leone, closing God’s Closet was a tragedy. “It was closed before the new pastor arrived, and the people kept asking when it was going to reopen, and instead she set up her office in God’s Closet,” Leone said.
First Trinity also hosted a free community meal at the same hours as God’s Closet each week and hosted youth urban summer campfires, complete with making smores and singing songs while discussing Bible stories. Other programs included a young peoples’ coffeehouse and performance space, which became known as the Orphanage.
Holy Closure
To prepare elders and congregants for the possibility of losing their worship space, the synod offered a document, the Three Pathways Guide, providing options for transforming the church in light of its financial challenges. Those pathways consisted of Continuation through Transformation, Community through Partnership, and Holy Closure. As the guide explained, “Holy Closure includes sober realization of the existing situation and a period to grieve the loss of the church many people have loved.”
Leone said the church elders and main financial supporters who have been at the church their whole lives, although very sad to see it closed, believed the best and most holy thing to do was to give the property over to the synod through Holy Closure.
“They were all for it and worked hard into reading the fine print in their constitution to make sure their vote was legal,” said Leone.
The ECLA synod also provided input, along with Sustainable Solutions for Sacred Sites (S4), an organization formed in 2021 that works to produce sustainable solutions for churches and congregations facing trouble. Lilly Endowment Inc., a private philanthropic foundation, funds S4.
Sad to see the church close are people who, like Leone, attended, lived, worked, or volunteered at the church and the community center that ran God’s Closet, Midwest Books to Prisoners, and the Orphanage as well as those who benefited from the church’s programs—the poor, the homeless, and prisoners. According to Leone, volunteers for Midwest Books to Prisoners have continued to meet weekly.
First Trinity held its final Holy Communion worship service on Sunday, June 25, with pastors from ECLA participating. On Friday evening, June 30, church members gathered in the church’s sanctuary for prayer and reflection. Following this final service, the elders and congregation turned the church property over to ELCA.
For more information, contact the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of ECLA at (773) 248-0021 or go to https://mcselca.org/.