Snyder church welcomes sister congregation with open arms

St. John’s Lutheran Church in Snyder has opened its doors to welcome in members of its sister congregation from Gasline.

Originally founded in 1840, St. John’s Lutheran Church in the Gasline hamlet of Port Colborne held its final service on September 27 before officially amalgamating with Snyder, a hamlet in Stevensville.

“They had been in discussion with other churches in the area to see if they could amalgamate,” said Jim Priebe, a longtime member of the Snyder church and a member of the committee facilitating the amalgamation. “In the end, it got down to the wire and they approached us, and we agreed to take them.”

An amalgamation, he explained, is different than a merger. An amalgamation means only one church closes and the congregation joins another established church. A merger would be where two churches closed their doors to bring their congregations together in an entirely new church with a new pastor.

The reason for the Gasline church’s amalgamation came down to numbers. Despite its long history, the congregation had dwindled to only about a dozen active members while also sharing a pastor with Concordia Lutheran Church in Fonthill.

With all that, the church couldn’t afford to keep up with the building maintenance and operating expenses.

“This day and age, it could have easily been the other way around. It could have been us,” Priebe said.

In fact, about 15 years ago, the Snyder church was almost in the same boat. However, they had members return, others come from other churches and even new members come along.

Now, the Snyder church, which was dedicated in 1868, has a healthy-sized congregation of roughly 70 to 80 people.

And that group has welcomed those from Gasline with open arms.

One final service was held at the church on Highway 3 in Port Colborne. In some ways, Priebe said it felt a bit like a funeral as people got emotional.

“It’s hard to say goodbye. People get really attached to the building,” he said. “It’s all their memories, their lifetime. They went to Sunday school there. They got married there.”

Part of the service included the passing of the Gasline location’s record book to Reverend Saulo Bledoff, pastor of Snyder’s church. The book contains details such as weddings and other events that had taken place at the church.

The service moved from Gasline to Snyder, where the communion ware was presented in a ceremony, and then everyone gathered to have a meal and conversations.

A week later, the two congregations shared their first Sunday service in one church.

“They just about sang the roof off the building,” Priebe said, adding it got to the point they nearly drowned out the organist. “It’s quite amazing to have the church full.”

While the congregations have come together, there is still more behind-the-scenes work to be done. This includes going through the Gasline property to review all the records and eventually deciding what’s to be done with the building, which came under the Snyder church’s ownership with the amalgamation.

“There’s still a lot of work to do, but the main thing is the congregation is together. We’re worshipping together.”

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