After 150 years, Duluth's Pilgrim Church stays true to values

DULUTH — Stained-glass windows line the sanctuary walls of Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ. Each paints a scene in crimson, baby blue or gold. Sunlight streams through the colorful images of creeks, mountains and trees; and apostles stand tall, with rolled parchment, swords and quills in hand.

Denny Falk repositions a large potted fern, and says: “Matthew here, he has six toes.”

This is one of the many details in Pilgrim’s history, which dates back 150 years in Duluth.

Pilgrim Church was founded in 1871. After a couple of moves, a fire and a 1957 transition to the United Church of Christ, Pilgrim’s congregants have worshiped at their current location at 2310 E. Fourth St. since 1917.

Due to COVID, the congregation held “a muted celebration” for their 150th, said John Fochs.

Fochs started attending 49 years ago. In his time at Pilgrim, the church has conducted a peace and justice committee, Meals on Wheels, cooked and served meals at the Damiano Center, read to Myers-Wilkins Elementary students.

He and his wife raised their three children in the church, and he has decadeslong relationships from this ministry.

“Being a member of a church is one of the most meaningful things in my life. It's a community that lives together, works to help each other and support each other and it's difficult to find that any place else except a family.

“It is a family,” said Fochs.

Standing in the basement of Pilgrim, Falk charts the church’s history in a mural on the walls.

A portrait of Pilgrim’s first minister the Rev. Charles Salter, choir singers, a globe, and, of course, Matthew’s six toes on stained glass.

Falk offered more insight into its imagery: “The dove is an indication that we’re a just church. Rainbow flag indicates that we’re open and affirming. The bread is hospitality."

Looking deeper into the church’s past, old pamphlets and programs list pastors and renovations, but the most telling seems to be in the fine details of the people serving and worshiping here.

In a stack of old artifacts, an invitation to a “lemon squeeze” party, hosted by the ladies of the church is handwritten on bright yellow paper. “Ice cream and cake, 25 cents,” it reads. "Please bring a lemon.”

A tiny Bible bookmark from 1886 lists prayer meeting topics — fruitless trees, temperance, the Beatitudes.

Church historical documents describe the Ladies’ Union in 1889 responding to membership that was “so large as to be unwieldy” with the creation of small groups based on geographical locations. Years later, they’d split alphabetically.

When an 1894 fire displaced families in Hinckley, the Ladies' Union turned the church's parlor into outfitting rooms and the Sunday school room into a dining hall.

During WWI, a Pilgrim program listed men serving on the church’s “honor roll.”

The United Church of Christ formed in 1957; those from Pilgrim who didn’t want to join started Duluth Congregational Church on Superior Street.

In 1988, a Dan Jaeckel organ, complete with 3,200 pipes and three keyboards, was installed in the sanctuary by the Duluth-based company with an international reputation.

“They said it cost so much money, they should move the pews around,” said Fochs.

In the early ’90s, Pilgrim minister Jack Kemp helped start a chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. The history of accepting gay people in the church helps define what Pilgrim stands for, Kemp said in a 2013 News Tribune story.

"It's part of open and affirming inclusion,” Kemp added.

Pilgrim’s approach to community and service ranges from holding a remembrance for the 2016 Charleston shooting victims to hosting adoption support groups and opening their halls to Echoes of Peace Choir rehearsals and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

As for the previous celebrations for church milestones of 50, 75 and 100 years, congregants went modest, and sometimes, they went big.

The small invitation for a Jan. 25, 1921, event boasts a gold stamp with a matching string adorning the top. For it, Oscar Mitchell acted as toastmaster for a program focused on the church’s past, their heritage, the building and their future.

In 1946, the church hosted a special tea service for visiting pastors’ wives, and a list of guests ran a page long.

In 1971, the program spanned a few weeks and included a “church family birthday party,” a centennial banquet and later, an organ recital.

Fast forward to Nov. 21, 2021. The bell choir performed in the sanctuary and retired senior ministers Charlotte Frantz and Kemp spoke on Pilgrim’s latest milestone.

During a News Tribune interview, Frantz recalled the start of a capital campaign for renovations.

It was a financial burden that “hung over” most of her tenure, which ran from 2002-2015, but their goal to raise around $1 million brought unity to the congregation, Frantz recalled.

The result: Pilgrim had a new slate roof, new front steps, new gutters and more, totaling nearly 30 projects.

“We were literally months from paying off the mortgage by the time I retired,” she said.

Frantz saw the start of Pilgrim’s Hogwarts Halloween, and among other things, the awarded Lilly Foundation grant, which funded the basement mural, designed by Duluth artist and designer Ann Gumpper.

“I have a supportive attitude toward the ministry,” Frantz said.

Pilgrim’s new minister Carla Bailey relocated from the east coast this fall. She had visited the church more than 30 years ago to watch her friend’s installation as associate minister. “I remember how beautiful the sanctuary is,” she recalled.

Bailey hopes to hire someone focused on faith formation and youth and families ministry.

“It’s critical for the vitality of a healthy culture to make sure that families are supported,” she said.

During a recent Sunday morning service, Bailey’s face was projected onto two big screens at the front of the sanctuary. The televised program shifted seamlessly from Bailey to a slide show, to another camera dedicated to the pianist, and then the organ player.

Chris Kirby manages the livestream of the service. His job: “Making sure people who are at home, can get the same quality of service as someone sitting in the congregation,” said Kirby, 17.

He has been attending Pilgrim his whole life — his early memories are of the now-replaced "giant red" carpet and the organ.

Along with making friends, Kirby said being a member has added invaluable help by way of multigenerational connections; he noted his confirmation mentor, his church music director and an elder who on top of a lifetime of support, helped him study for his AP chemistry test.

Kirby, Grace Beaster and other youth group members helped with the church’s Souper Bowl Sunday efforts to cook, sell and donate proceeds to Loaves and Fishes.

Pilgrim’s youth group has participated in immersive mission trips to the Cities to gardening at senior care facility Aftenro Home.

Participating has been crucial, said Beaster, 17.

“It was good to be able to always have something to plan and work on, especially during the pandemic. ... something that gives you a purpose," she said.

The Beasters are Duluth transplants, who felt an immediate welcoming at Pilgrim, said Karl Beaster, Grace’s father and the new church moderator.

Participation has been key to feeling at home and building relationships in the Twin Ports, he said.

“My friend network is composed mostly of members or past members from Pilgrim. I’ve played basketball for seven years with people from church. I go ice fishing, I’m in a band now with mostly members of Pilgrim. It’s amazing in that regard,” he said.

For Carolyn Sundquist, the church’s roots run deep.

Her great-grandmother traveled to New York’s Tiffany Studios to hand-pick one of the church’s stained glass windows. While it didn’t mean much to Sundquist when she was a child, it now offers an additional way for worship and meditation on a Sunday morning.

“I sit in front, so I can look at the family window and notice the sun coming up on the daffodils and the mauve clouds,” Sundquist said.