By Ashley M. Casey
Staff Writer
Five hundred years ago this October, a monk and scholar named Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany.
Fifty years ago this October, the Faith Lutheran Church of Cicero was incorporated.
Faith Lutheran is celebrating not only the anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, which led to the creation of their branch of Christianity, but the golden anniversary of the church they call home.
The church will hold a celebratory dinner Oct. 28. The community will be invited to share memories and stories and “celebrate the community we are, that we continue to be here,” said Pastor Mark Luscombe.
Faith Lutheran is fortunate to have some of its charter members still among the congregation. Phyllis Harm and Gary Schumacher shared their memories of Faith Lutheran’s beginnings with the Star-Review.
In the mid-1960s, the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod sent a deaconess to gauge interest in the area for a new Lutheran church. Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church in Clay was incorporated in 1833, but Lutherans in the Cicero area wanted their own church to call home. Deaconess Carol Jungermann stayed with the Harm family during her survey.
In August 1966, people gathered in the home of George and Anita Svoboda in Cicero. When the congregation outgrew the Svoboda home, M&T Bank let Faith Lutheran rent a property on Route 11 for a nominal fee.
“It was a lot of spider webs,” Harm recalled, adding that the furnace bit the dust only a few weeks into the services.
But the congregation came together to renovate the “McCulloch House” into its sanctuary. Bedrooms were converted into Sunday school classrooms and a public address system was installed so the sermons could be heard from all over the house. Harm altered her white-and-gold embroidered drapes to decorate the new church.
“It really made a very worshipful place,” she said.
A closing Lutheran church in Rochester donated many of its fixtures, including the altar, communion rail and baptismal rail.
“It was amazing trying to get this whole church together. “God sends the right people,” Harm said. “The volunteer service in the church was tremendous. Everybody was here for this mission.”
When it came time to give the church a name, several ideas were bandied about.
“We’re doing this on faith alone,” Harm recalled saying to her fellow charter members.
“Let’s call it ‘Faith,’” they agreed.
A new home
The congregation of Faith Lutheran quickly became a family. While many members lived in Cicero, others came from Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Eastwood.
“About half of the congregation knew each other from previous church affiliations. There was a very meager learning curve to get to know the rest of the people,” recalled Gary Schumacher, a charter member. “I think that’s one reason we’ve survived so nicely. Everything fell into place with minimal effort. People just worked together.”
By 1970, Faith Lutheran had outgrown the McCulloch House. The congregation then built its current home on Route 31, adding onto it in 1988. The church started a nursery school in 1972.
“My daughter was born in ‘68,” Schumacher said. “She was one of the first students and my wife was one of the first assistants.”
Pastor Mark Luscombe said the nursery school has built up an excellent reputation.
“We’ve had teachers at Lakeshore [Elementary School] tell us they can tell which kids came through this program,” he said. “It’s a testament to our teachers.”
In addition to nursery school, Faith Lutheran also hosts youth groups and vacation Bible school, Bible studies, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and a food pantry.
“Church doesn’t end at the front door,” Luscombe said of Faith Lutheran’s community outreach.
Faith Lutheran also has a group of avid quilters. Their work decorates the walls of the church, including a special 25th anniversary piece representing the quilters’ 25 favorite Bible verses.
“That’s what we stand for: the truth of scripture,” said Harm, who is one of the church’s quilters.
Faith Lutheran began with a “nucleus” of about a dozen families, Harm and Schumacher said. At its peak, there were 400 people in the congregation. It has dwindled to about 70 attendees each Sunday, Luscombe said.
“There are 170 seats in the nave,” Schumacher said. “There’s plenty of space for visitors.”
