Up-Holy-Hill battle
Elgin hurches wrestle with evolving demographics

March 23, 2008
BY DAVE GATHMAN Staff Writer
ELGIN -- In a long-ago Elgin that bragged it was "The City of 51 Taverns and 52 Churches," the east edge of downtown became known as "Holy Hill."

By the early 1900s, 15 houses of worship, including most of the oldest and largest churches in town, clustered there on a few blocks.

» Click to enlarge image A view of "Holy Hill" from atop the Elgin Tower Building.
(Michael Smart/Staff Photographer)

» Click to enlarge image A cross perches atop St. John's Lutheran Church cathedral under a nearly full moon Wednesday night in downtown Elgin.
(Michael Smart/Staff Photographer)

» Click to enlarge image Pastor Paris Donehoo shakes hands with church member Tom Phillips after service at First Congregational Church in Elgin on Sunday, March 16.
(Shauna Bittle/Staff Photographer)

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As the decades wore on, the downtown changed. Businesses left. The watch factory shut down. But Holy Hill's churches remained middle class and overwhelmingly white. Churches built in an era of streetcar and foot travel found space hard to come by when every member drove a station wagon. Buildings erected in the 1800s began to seem obsolete. Attendance plummeted.

Membership at Holy Trinity Lutheran plunged from 1,650 in the mid-1950s to just 669 by 1995. Membership rolls were halved in the same four decades at First United Methodist, First Congregational, Faith United Methodist, Episcopal Church of the Redeemer and St. Paul's United Church of Christ.

Some churches responded by building new homes on Elgin's periphery. The exodus began with Bethlehem Lutheran Church in 1958. Four more departed in the 1970s -- giant First Baptist plus Elgin Bible, Evangelical Covenant and Unitarian-Universalist. Faith United Methodist followed in 1998.

Now one more congregation is wrestling with the decision to leave. Pastor David Ezekiel said St. Paul's United Church of Christ will make decisions by early summer about "types of ministry, worship style and where we can best fit with the demographics we are best-equipped to serve."

Founded by German-speaking immigrants, St. Paul's has been on the same spot since 1875. But attendance has shrunk. In 1955, St. Paul's had 1,600 members and 300 in weekly worship. Today, it has one-eighth as many members and a third as many attending.

"As time and circumstances change, each congregation has to figure out what will be the target of its ministry," Ezekiel said. "The churches that don't keep doing that, that just try to do things the way they always used to be, are the churches in decline."

New language, mission

But most congregations that stayed on Holy Hill have stabilized their numbers since the 1990s by focusing on missions that only can be done downtown, by modernizing their buildings and, in some cases, by aiming at the Hispanics who dominate the neighborhood. And some buildings left behind by the churches that moved were taken over by quick-growing new Spanish-speaking congregations.

Church of the Redeemer Episcopal, at one time a denomination that seemed to epitomize WASPs, now has a Hispanic pastor, the Rev. Pedro Lopez, and conducts half its services in Spanish. The sign out front reads "Church of the Redeemer/Parroquia el Redentor, Holy Eucharist 9:00 AM, Misa Espanol 11:30 AM."

At St. John's Lutheran, the building now houses a Spanish-language church inside the church led by the Rev. Carlos Catalan. St. John's head pastor, the Rev. Hannibal Frederich, said the Spanish service draws 50 to 60 people a week and the English services about 400. That compares with 550 in 1995.

Meanwhile, downtowners note that the area's location provides a chance to minister to the needy that would be hard to execute in a far-off, cushy suburban neighborhood.

A ministry called the Soup Kettle serves meals for the hungry, rotating between six downtown churches and one just west of downtown. The PADS homeless shelter recently moved into a building of its own on Elgin's far-west side, but for decades it rotated among downtown churches. And the All People's Interfaith Food Pantry, supported by many churches, is housed inside First Congregational.

First Congregational Pastor Paris Donehoo said the need to continue ministries like that was a major consideration when his congregation considered moving during the '90s. Proving First Congregational's commitment to Holy Hill, "We are in the midst of a capital campaign to raise funds to renovate our educational space," Donehoo said. He said attendance, while slumping from 180 in 1995 to just 75 or so in 2002, has climbed back to about 130 to 150 today.

At Holy Trinity Lutheran, Pastor Olin Sletto said its attendance also has been trending up. In fact, at 220 to 250 a week, it's about 60 bigger than in 1995.

"We discussed moving about 15 years ago," Sletto said. "But when you have a heritage like ours, a tradition -- last year we celebrated the 100th anniversary of this building. Our building is used by five (Alcoholics Anonymous) programs, by Golden Kiwanis, by the Soup Kettle, and we used to house PADS two months a year. We are a welcoming congregation, and we really take that seriously."



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