Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor First Lutheran Church in Pasadena, CA. On Sunday, June 2, First Lutheran will celebrate its 110th anniversary with a day of prayer and celebration marking the extraordinary history of the church and its congregation.
First Lutheran was convened in 1892 at the Grand Hotel in Pasadena. Originally, due to the German congregation, all church business and services were conducted in German. The church's constitution was even written in German. It wasn't until 1914 that all services were conducted in English and it wasn't until the early 1920s that the church's constitution was translated into English.
Between the 1940s and 1960s, 800 to 1000 parishioners attended weekly Sunday services. The church had grown so large and so popular at one point that the services were broadcast for a time on Glendale radio station KIEV. First Lutheran's popularity was a direct result of the inviting atmosphere of the church's services and congregation. Parishioners from as far away as St. Louis, Missouri chose to attend First Lutheran as they settled in southern California and all of them remark that their decision was based on the feeling of "being home,'' that First Lutheran gave to them.
The feeling of "being home'' extended to, as the First Lutheran Mission Statement reads, "all people.'' While many churches around the nation fought against integration, First Lutheran embraced the call to treat all people as equals and it was in the 1940s and 1950s that the congregation began to integrate. Today, First Lutheran looks like America. It has acted and will continue to act as a refuge for all who come to worship together regardless of differences.
I am proud to be able to recognize First Lutheran for its 110 years of offering a place of solemn and joyous worship to the people of the San Gabriel Valley and I ask all Members to join me in congratulating the congregation for the years of remarkable achievement.