We’ve had a tough week with the loss of one of our ambassadors this week, but we decided the best thing for us was to be together this morning and get back in the saddle.

The list of churches we haven’t visited is getting shorter. Today was our 74th visit. We were back in the Northeast part of the city again.

Saints United is another church in transition. Sometimes it seems like they are ALL in transition. Today they were saying goodbye to their nine-month interim pastor, Rev. Dr. Laurie Andersen. I think we saw her last fall at St. John, Mayfair, too. She gets around.

There were between 40 and 50 people present for worship. There were about six children. All but one small girl seemed to be of grade school age. They were all engaged in worship. For the most part, younger children, youth and young adults were absent. The general demographics, like most churches, is older.

The children were dismissed for Sunday School but returned for communion which allowed barely a half hour for instruction.

They greeted us warmly, although we didn’t talk to many. We are somewhat in shock, still grieving, and not feeling very talkative. But they were quite welcoming and invited us to stay for refreshments.

Today’s service centered on saying goodbye to two people, Rev. Dr. Andersen and their church organist, Judith Lovat, who recently resigned. They look forward to a period of substitute pastors and organists, beginning with one of Redeemer’s former pastors, Jesse Brown, who will preach in October.

The service differed from other services we have attended in a fifth Sunday of the month custom of augmenting communion with optional “stations.” Worshipers could stay at the rail for prayer, visit the baptismal font for prayer or walk to the back of the church and light a candle with prayer.

The sanctuary is long and narrow but they had an adequate sound system. They had artistic reliefs on the wall. On another day I might have taken photos. But we aren’t ourselves at the moment. The only photo I took was the photo of our first impression—a large and imposing fence around their educational wing.

One of our ambassadors has some familiarity with the congregation and told us that they came from a Missouri Synod Lutheran background and once had a school there serving grades 1-8. The school has been closed for a while, he said. We hope they consider reopening, especially since it could help their financial picture (if not their mission).

They have a Kids Club, but I couldn’t find out too much about it. The website has some pictures but no explanation that I found.

Like many church web sites, Saints United uses its website primarily to communicate with  members. They will discover that a website’s worth is in communicating with nonmembers. Little Redeemer, deemed too small to be worth our own property, has 1000 visitors every week to our website. We’re betting we reach more people in mission than any other SEPA congregation.

One thing that struck me was the generality of prayer. Perhaps this was especially noticeable as we have been in touch all week with the Christian Church in Pakistan. Last Sunday, a congregation was attacked by terrorists. A suicide bomber struck during worship. 85 worshipers were killed including 17 children. 156 were seriously injured. They commented to us that they feel the western church doesn’t care about them. I suspect they are correct. That’s because we are unaware. A tragedy like this should be mentioned in worship. We, as small as we are, are collecting money to send to help with ongoing medical expenses of members. We looked to see if there was an ELCA companion synod we could piggyback. Pakistan is not on the ELCA’s Companion Synod map.

Well, we’ll make them OUR Companion Church. We’ve been online friends in ministry for nearly two years. If you’d like to contribute to our effort, here are the addresses.

Right now, Pakistani Christians are living in fear, but we are sure they will soon surface. They went through something similar earlier this year when a video ridiculing Islam went viral. A Lutheran church burned during that uprising. The only way we know is our Pakistani friends told us.

Imagine what the response might be if one of our churches here in Philadelphia had been blown up during worship—or in Alabama—or any of our United States.  The casualties would be lower as there are few churches with 250 in attendance. But the outrage would be real.

We wish the people of Saints United well. As always we hope that they might consider helping Redeemer be as great a church as they are. All the churches of SEPA Synod are responsible for what is happening in our neighborhood—whether they know it or not. They can turn things around if they speak up.