Dating
from 1649, ours is the oldest congregation of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America, and the second oldest church in Albany.
It is the only ELCA church which came out of the Dutch period of American
history, and its services were originally held in the Dutch language.
The center design of the church seal dates from the 18th century and
depicts a swan, the old Dutch symbol for a Lutheran Church.
As the early years passed,
Dutch gave way to High German as the language of our worship services,
and this in turn was supplanted by English in 1808. There must be
very few congregations which have worshipped in three different
local languages in the course of their history.
Over
the centuries, the congregation has worshipped at four different sites
in Albany. The first church was built in 1670 at what is now the southwest
corner of South Pearl and Howard Streets, then just inside the stockade.
The second edifice of 1786 also stood at that site. Later, from 1816
to 1934, we had two successive church buildings at the northwest corner
of Pine and Lodge Streets, also in the downtown business section.
A sister congregation, the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer on South
Lake Avenue, became consolidated with First Lutheran in 1926.
The present site at 181 Western Avenue
has been in use since 1929, first with Friendship House on the State
Street side of the property, and then our lovely colonial edifice
with its unique historical windows was
added in 1954, facing Western Avenue. The newer parking lot at the
front of the church was added in 1979.
The domed
Court of Appeals Hall on Eagle Street, which now houses the State's
highest court, was built shortly after 1834 adjacent to our Pine and
Lodge property, on a parcel which the State purchased from the church
that year for $5,000. Our congregation still has a perpetual right-of-way
between the two courthouses for pedestrian access from Eagle Street
down to the truncated Steuben Street. This was negotiated with the
City in 1916, to give the congregation perpetual access to its then
church site when the upper part of Steuben Street was closed off to
other traffic.
Our sacramental silver-the
baptismal bowl in use regularly, the communion vessels occasionally-dates
from the 1820's and the four pieces were all crafted locally. They
are each engraved with the old name Ebenezer, by which the church
was called in those days, although the name has been First Lutheran
Church since 1871.
A 241-page
book, Swan of Albany, was published by the congregation in
1976, describing and illustrating its more than three centuries of
history. Ten years ago in 1989, a small supplement was published to
update the book. Since then, Dr. William H. Rittberger retired in
1991 after a 26-year pastorate; The Rev. Robert W. Busch served as
our pastor 1991-96; The Rev. Harry G. Souders, Ph.D. served as our
interim pastor from 1997-99; and The Rev. Vernon A. Victorson began
serving our congregation in January, 2000.
Dr. Henry
H. Heins
