Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1950, Page 57

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Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1950 57

Two of the children and two of the adults were also baptized. The
church attendance is good, and the Sunday school attendance varies
from 160 to 200 a Sunday.

While the gains of Bethlehem have been very gratifying, the
removal of members to other parts of the country has also been
considerable. Whole families have moved to the North and the
West; many of the young men returning from military service left
to seek their future elsewhere. In spite of these losses, Bethlehem
is enjoying a steady spiritual and numerical growth.

Two of our teachers, Prof. A. Wiley and Mrs. Bernice Wiley,
have become veterans in the service, the former rounding out
42 years in the schoolroom, and the latter having taught now over
30 years in our school. Both are pupils of Bethlehem. A third
teacher, Miss Frances McCants, also a pupil of our school, is
approaching 20 years of service in the school. These teachers have
held out and have held through, sometimes under very trying
circumstances brought on by lack of space and lack of equipment;
but with all the handicaps their work has been outstanding, and
the rating of our pupils is among the best in the city.

G. M. Kramer, Pastor
Trinity, New Orleans, La. .

Trinity is located in the far downtown part of the city, near the
Industrial Canal, in a once densely populated Negro section. In
recent years the Negro population has been “planted near the
tracks,” about ten blocks from our present location.

The congregation has 190 souls, of which 130 are communicants.
Seventy-five are enrolled in the Sunday school. Our day school
has at present 72 children, most of whom are non-Lutherans.
_A major effort is being made to gain all of these children for the
Lord of the Church. A class is being prepared for Baptism (most
of the children are too young for confirmation). Only eight souls
were gained for the church during the past two years.

Quite a few of our members have made progress in church
attendance, interest in property upkeep, and contributions. For the
year 1949 five individuals (leaders in this department) contributed
as follows: $96.00, $75.25, $67.00, $60.00, $59.25.

The City Board of Health required that we make certain
plumbing repairs. To date we have spent $297.54. Other necessary
repairs must be made, too. Our congregation has a special collection
for this purpose.

Our present monthly budget is $150.  D. Rosinson, Pastor

Concordia and St. Philip’s, New Orleans, La.

I began my pastoral work at Concordia in June of the year
1940, During my ten years here I have baptized 33 children and
10 adults; confirmed 26 adults and 11 children; communed 3,374;
married 16 couples; and buried 14 persons.

In the year 1944 we started a building fund, which reached the
sum of $1,720 at the end of 1948. With this money on hand, we
set out to purchase our building and grounds from the Missionary
Board, but no concrete action was taken. We then purchased an
Army surplus chapel from the Government with the Missionary
Board’s permission, only to have it returned because the cost to
remove and erect this chapel on our present site was too great.
Several times we tried to build on our grounds, but could not