1980

A New Beginning
Pastor Christensen
Pastor Holmes
Pastor Bob Moland

A MOVE AND A NEW BEGINNING

Pastor Chell's departure left FIRST in a quandary as to where it stood in Calgary's concrete jungle. FIRST LUTHERAN, along with Trinity Lutheran and Mount Calvary Lutheran, maintained their presence in the inner city and formed the Calgary Downtown Lutheran Ministry (CDLM). CDLM entertained thoughts of merging to form one church, as all three congregations suffered similar problems. With the departure of Pastor Chell, FIRST was standing at the crossroads of its ministry. The general practice was to call a new Pastor immediately, but a decision was made to forego a call and conduct a study on our future ministry in downtown Calgary.

PASTOR CHRISTENSEN

Pastor Del Christensen, Chaplain of the Bethany Care Centre, agreed to serve as our Interim Pastor in 1976. Sister Frieda Gatzke assumed greater responsibility, and lay members gave their utmost support. We were indeed grateful to Pastor Christensen for taking the time from his schedule at Bethany to serve FIRST LUTHERAN.

PASTOR HOLMES

Pastor Corliss Holmes, from Church of the Cross on the southern fringe of the city, became our Interim Pastor as of January, 1977. During the time of Pastor Holmes' ministry, the CDLM continued to meet and discuss the possibility of joint services with the view to consolidating the three downtown Lutheran Churches. Pastor Holmes returned to full time ministry at the Church of the Cross in September, 1977. Upon leaving FIRST, Pastor Holmes said how much he had enjoyed sharing his time with FIRST, and he was very optimistic about the membership, ministry, visitations, CDLM, etc. We at FIRST were greatly indebted to him for sharing his time and talents with us during these troubled times.

Again, Pastor Del Christensen returned to serve as our Interim Pastor. On June 4, 1978, at a special congregational meeting, a call was sent to Pastor Robert Moland of Whitehorse, Yukon.

1978 saw several distinct decisions made for the ministry. The first and foremost was that on February 12, the merger proposal of CDLM was voted down. At last FIRST LUTHERAN knew where it stood and was able to make some concrete decisions on its future. Secondly, Sister Frieda Gatzke resigned to enter a new ministry at The Lutheran Church of Our Saviour. Thirdly, Pastor Robert Moland accepted our call to become our new resident Pastor.

PASTOR BOB MOLAND

Pastor Robert Moland was married with three children. He was born in Duluth, Minnesota in February, 1937. He was educated in Duluth and graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. He entered the Lutheran School of Theology in Rock Island, Illinois, graduating in 1973. He then served for three years at Clear Lake parish, Gibbon, Minnesota. Following this ministry,
Pastor Moland accepted a call to St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

For some reason, perhaps Winnipeg winters or perhaps he head read Jack London's Call of the Wild, Pastor Moland later accepted a call to become the resident Pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Whitehorse, Yukon.
Pastor Moland may have heard of our balmy Calgary winters and our famous Chinooks when he decided to accept our call to begin his ministry at FIRST LUTHERAN in 1978. His ministry began with an official membership of 300 baptized members and 236 confirmed members.

FIRST had been without a resident Pastor for two years and the new Pastor had some real soul searching to do. A difficult task lay ahead. Pastor Moland arrived in Calgary with a truck and camper and had trouble finding his direction in the big city. He faced a drastically different situation in relocating from a small community to a city, with an urban congregation that had been struggling within itself as to which direction to take. Now with a new full time Pastor, a decision was made to stay downtown. As the Pastor said in his annual report to the congregation in 1979, "We are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. We are still called to minister in His name and in this place."

That year we were introduced to the new Green Hymnal. The transition went fairly smoothly at FIRST LUTHERAN, because of a few rehearsal sessions prior to its official use. Our relationship with the other downtown Lutheran Churches was not as string as in previous times, but continued to the extent that the Pastors shared pulpits during Lent.

The City of Calgary was booming and the downtown skyline was dotted with construction cranes. FIRST was beginning to realize that it was sitting on some very valuable property. On a regular basis, Pastor Moland had inquiries about our property from developers and real estate agents. The Pastor had no answers, nor did the congregation. Even though we had committed ourselves to minister to the downtown, it appeared that the urban population existed contently behind closed doors.

At the annual meeting in January, 1980, a committee was formed to establish FIRST's position in downtown Calgary. They came back with a recommendation that we dispose of our downtown property and follow the trend to locate in the suburbs. The hour of decision came on July 20, 1981, at approximately 1:00 p.m. An offer was made by Toole Peet Real Estate for one million four hundred thousand dollars. The congregation voted 100% in favor of selling our downtown property and moving to the suburbs of Strathcona Heights on the western outskirts of the city. From an investment of $1,000 at the beginning of the twentieth century, FIRST was looking ahead with a sound financial base and a more optimistic view.

On Sunday, October 4, 1981, FIRST held its Thanksgiving services to accommodate the holiday weekenders. After the service, we gathered on the hill overlooking the city in the new sub-division of Strathcona to turn the sod for our new church structure. With spade in hand, Pastor Moland broke the sod in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Thus another chapter in the history of FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH had begun.

The future looked brighter as plans for the new structure had been finalized. Hornstrom Brothers had been chosen as our contractor. Lancor Developments were generous in postponing the takeover of their property. We were able to remain in our downtown location a little while longer. The best-laid plans quite often go amiss and this was true for FIRST. The winter of 1981 was one of the worst in decades for building, causing a considerable delay in the contractor's schedule. The contractor could have used temporary heating techniques, but this would have been too costly.

On Sunday, April 25, 1981, we held our last service at our downtown location at 7 Avenue and 9 Street S.W., which had served well for nearly thirty years. Our new facilities were far from complete, but our sister congregation, Trinity Lutheran, graciously allowed us the use of their facilities until our new building would be ready. Pastor Summers had resigned his position at Trinity and they were now without a resident Pastor. They would have a temporary reprieve with the services of our Pastor, as we shared facilities, and we would have a place to worship. This short reprieve turned out to be a five-month experience.

After a long, hot summer and many pilgrimages to the western limits of our city to watch the daily and weekly progress of our new church, we were finally able to make the long awaited move and hold our first services at FIRST LUTHERAN in Strathcona in October of 1982. A special thank you went to Trinity Lutheran for their extended hospitality. Dedication services were held in a filled-to-capacity sanctuary on November 14, 1982, with Bishop Sjoberg performing the rite of dedication.

Optimism was slightly shattered following the move from downtown to Strathcona. Many of us felt that the people would be knocking down our doors to come to FIRST LUTHERAN. However, the economy had taken a sharp nosedive, causing the construction of new homes in the area to almost cease. Secondly, the people in the suburbs were no easier to reach than those in the inner city.

There have been many rough spots and perhaps a few potholes in the road that FIRST LUTHERAN has traveled, and probably there will be more in the future. However, we have found many reasons to rejoice, even in troubled times. In 1990, FIRST LUTHERAN celebrated the 90th Anniversary of its ministry to the citizens of Calgary.

The Anniversary Celebration under the leadership of Marguerite (Flood) Mosher was indeed an uplifting experience for many of us. It brought back many former members who looked on FIRST as their church home for a good portion of their lives. Many had been baptized, attended Sunday school, were confirmed and married at FIRST LUTHERAN. Their early Christian learning stayed with them throughout their adult lives.

Later that year, after twelve years of service to the congregation of FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH, Pastor Robert Moland left to pursue the Lord's work in Hospital Ministry.

Back to top