Augustana Lutheran Church of Hyde Park

A message from Pastor Goede:

Annual meetings can be inspiring and uplifting, they can be boring or fractious, but they are not usually an occasion to party. This Sunday, however, we will indeed be partying at Augustana as we ritually burn a copy of our mortgage papers at the end of the late service.

A bequest from the late Polly Fehlman allowed us to pay off the balance of our mortgage a few months ago, leaving our congregation debt-free for the first time in almost twenty years. It will have lasting benefits for us, as we’ll hear about on Sunday.

When I was a kid and an acolyte at my church, I happened to serve on the day when we burned our mortgage. I still remember lighting the paper on fire in a big metal brazier on the altar (we’re going outside on Sunday). I still remember the excitement in the congregation as we marked that big step for the people of Messiah Lutheran Church of Burlington, Iowa. This is a big step for Augustana Lutheran Church of Hyde Park, too.

So come and rejoice! Have some homemade soup and other good things for lunch and stay for a happy meeting to talk about the year ahead.