A critical piece of history was recently restored at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church.
The church, located at 1501 West St., recently restored its original church register that was started in 1885, said the Rev. John Davis.
Davis said the church was started in the late 1800s when a seminary professor came to Emporia with the intent to establish an English Lutheran Church.
“At that time there were so many immigrants in the country from northern Europe, a lot of folks sat in their own ethnic groups,” Davis said. “There was a need for a non-European related entity and yet be faithful to the Lutheran doctrine...”
Thus, St. Marks English Evangelical Lutheran Church was established. The church started keeping records in its register. The register has a record of pastors, church officers, church members, births, baptisms and deaths. The leather-bound volume was rapidly deteriorating and church members thought it was time to restore and preserve the valuable history.
The oldest register has handwritten reports in it, written by pastorates — something that is not done today.
“For some reason, pastors stopped giving reports,” Davis said.
The register lists the 61 original church members. Today, the membership stands at around 325.
The book also held several items that were stuck in it, which became a part of the church’s history. When the book was submitted for restoration to the Northeast Document Conservation Center, the half leather and grained cloth binding was deteriorated. The boards were detached and the spine was missing. The sewing was broken in places and many leaves were loose in the book.
The book was placed in a new binder and cleaned where necessary and tears were mended. The book was post bound in full cloth, according to documents provided, and was titled using a gold-stamped leather label. The company also preserved any loose documents that were in the book.
“The feeling in the congregation was if we lost this and let it deteriorate it’s gone forever,” he said.
Funds for the restoration were not taken out of church donations. Donations were made specifically for the purpose of restoring the register, Davis said.
“That book is history,” he said. “If you lose it, it’s gone forever. Now it should be good for the foreseeable future.”
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church meets for services at 9 a.m. Sundays and 6 p.m. Saturdays.