Building and History
History
First Lutheran Church began as First Norwegian Danish Lutheran Church on October 29, 1870. We are excited, in the year 2020, to celebrate our 150th anniversary. We are calling it our Jubilee following the Biblical precedent that every 50 years is a year in which all debts are forgiven and all people and the earth are given rest.
Our current site is the 4th building for First Lutheran erected in 1950. Bethesda Evangelical Lutheran Church, originally a break off church from First Lutheran in 1892, agreed to merge back with First Lutheran in 1945. The current building is home to the Bethesda chapel on the first floor – a lovely space for small worship gatherings, prayer services, and the occasional small funeral.
We are glad to have a beautiful and well-cared for building to offer the community for its use. Many different community groups gather in our space from a Saturday morning AA group; Nar-Anon and many others. We are the home for Arrowhead Chorale.
We open our building on Thanksgiving Day for the Thanksgiving Day races sponsored by our neighbor, the Duluth Running Company. We are also a precinct voting site. We have been approved for a community garden in our parking lot along 11th Avenue East. We are excited to offer not just our internal but our external space to the community.
One of our church members said, “I wish people who drive by could see inside just how beautiful our sanctuary is.”
In 2008, First Lutheran undertook a Time for Renewal project to add a gathering space, update the sanctuary and replace the organ. Our sanctuary is now a moveable space with chairs instead of pews, an altar that can be moved and altered in size, and kneelers that can be added during more meditative seasons. Windows that allow natural light to stream in were also added – sometimes leading parishioners to be bathed in sunlight!
The flexibility has freed us to be creative-
The heart of who we are is shaped by the Word of God. The Bible shapes and molds us and reminds us of who and whose we are and how we are called and empowered to live.
Even our worship space reminds us of that with the Beatitudes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount carved into stones on the wall and beautiful stained glass windows recalling the “I AM” statements of Jesus:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life”
“I am the Bread of Life”
“I am the Light of the World”
The windows are in keeping with the carving over the Superior Street doors – I am the Resurrection and the Life carved along with the Lord’s Prayer behind the high altar by Arnold Flaten, once a professor in the art department of St. Olaf. The stained glass windows are made of mouth-blown glass from Germany, designed and made by Peter Dohmen, a German artist and craftsman who spent many years in this country following WWII. The windows were dedicated in 1956.
“I am the Vine and you are the branches.”
“I am the Good Shepherd”
Opus 52 Jaeckel Organ
The sanctuary houses two tracker action pipe organs by local builder, Daniel Jaeckel. The small organ, Op. 1, purchased from a church which was closing, was originally placed in the balcony, then moved to the front of the sanctuary to lead singing while the the new instrument was being built and installed. Jaeckel's model was the south German organ of J. S. Bach's era, its primary purpose to lead congregational singing of hymns and liturgy. Other ranks of pipes were included to make it a versatile instrument capable of playing the full range of organ literature and accompanying choirs and instrumentalists.
View the YouTube video of our Opus 52 Jaeckel organ being built.
Listen to the glorious sound of a Jaeckel pipe organ.
First Lutheran Church
1100 E. Superior St.
Duluth, MN 55802
