|
Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, located at W. 30th and Lorain on the edge of Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood, is the oldest Lutheran church in Cleveland. Founded in 1853, it thrived throughout its first 100 years as a neighborhood church within walking distance of most of its members. The classic sanctuary, home to a unique German Beckerath manual tracker organ (operated entired by mechanical means except for a 1 horsepower motor that blows wind into the instrument) was also once home to nearly 1200 worshipers on Sunday mornings.
Demographic and financial changes in the west side neighborhoods impacted many of the churches throughout the second half of the 1900’s. By early 1990 Trinity’s worship attendance was under 70 and declining. In 1992 Reverend Jeffrey Johnson became their pastor and began an outreach program into the neighborhood that is restoring Trinity’s prominence in the area. The church now has four services each Sunday morning:
- A traditional service in the sanctuary.
- Two contemporary services in a newly remodeled adjacent building
- An African immigrant service on Sunday afternoons.
The church also houses a clothing program, a tutoring program, a meals program, several bible studies and community-based efforts. Building Hope in The City, a non-profit offshoot of the church, provides church planting and renewal services to other urban churches.
Trinity is on the move and making a difference on Cleveland’s west side and beyond.
|
