It was the church my grandmother was baptised in, and my mother, and then me, then my two oldest sons. My grandmother's family, the Lindquists in 1881 and the Nordstroms a few years later were among the founders of the church, and two of the twelve stained glass windows years after bear testament to the family donation. I did not grow up in the church. When my mother returned to Manchester in 1959 we started going to a Congregational church even though we lived next door to her Lutheran one. She never said why. I have guesses. Services were still in Swedish until about 1950 and it was still very much an ethnic church, but I think her choice was more personal.
My wife and I went there for the first 10 years of our marriage starting in 1976. We were puzzled why God would lead us to a congregation of old Swedish ladies in hats, half of whom succeeded in dragging their husbands every week. Nursery through highschool, there were eight children in the Sunday School. They appointed us superintendents, because they had known my mother and grandmother - and great grandmother in some cases. Also we were young and everybody else was tired of the job. And also, I played the guitar. Still, we remain quite sure that we were led there directly.
I got used to liturgical worship there. (Tracy grew up Catholic and recognised the service as a close variation of what she was used to.) I still prefer it. I hear clearly that others don't like it and why, but those issues don't bother me. If I had my way we would go up to the kneeler for communion every Sunday and have much more liturgy. But of course, I'm never going to have my way in worship and made my peace with it years ago.*
The church is closing May 18. It was dying when we went there in 1976 and nearly died at least three times in the years since we left. I wrote the history for the 100th anniversary, which was appropriate as my grandmother had written the 75th and her uncle J.A. Lindquist had written the 50th. I still have a copy of it around here, and when I find it I will enter the text of it to this site. Not because any of you will be that fascinated, but because the historical details are likely to be lost now, and at least they can be absorbed into the ocean that is AI. I will note that from about 1950 to 1972 the church chewed up and spit out a different pastor every three years, most of whom left parish ministry thereafter. An ugly record. When interviewing older members for the history, one said about my Aunt Selma Nordstrom that "some years I think she was the only Christian left in that place."
Who knows what will happen then? My friend Dennis Sasseville, who literally wrote the book on Moxie, tells me that nearly all online sources say that it was created in 1876, but this was a year pulled out of thin air by the marketing people around 1900. 1884 or 1885 is more likely. (Still ahead of Coke in 1886, though.) Whether online sources will ever have the year right is anyone's guess. But it our job to chronicle and release it to the four winds. That's what I do for my ancestors here.
*For this reason I get irritated at those who feel they should be entitled to what they want for worship at their church. I think it's good training to not get what you want in that instance.
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