HANCOCK – Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Hancock will be marking fifty years of ministry with a special celebration on Sunday, Oct. 6 following the 10:30 a.m. worship service. The celebration will include the opening of a time capsule that was lodged in the building’s cornerstone in 1969, memories from some of the congregation’s oldest members, and a feast.

St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church (Finnish Lutheran) and Salem Lutheran Church (Swedish Lutheran), both established in the late 1880’s in Hancock, merged in 1966. Three years later the congregation began worshiping at 1000 W. Quincy St.

Pastor Brahm Semmler Smith joined the staff of Gloria Dei in mid-September. The congregation is one of 80 congregations of the Northern Great Lakes Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a denomination of 9,500 congregations and 3.9 million baptized members.

E-mail rene.johnson@finlandia.edu for more information.