St. Paul Lutheran Church to host German Christmas Service

St. Paul Lutheran Church in Mount Prospect will be hosting a German language Christmas service at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 21. The church is at 100 S. School St. on the corner of Busse Avenue and School Street. This is the congregation’s 12th annual German Christmas service, and it draws worshipers from across the Northwest suburbs. While the traditional Lutheran service will be conducted in German, an English translation of the sermon will be available. Musical selections will be sung by the German-American Singers of Chicago Choir. The German Christmas service is one of the few of its kind being held in Chicago’s Northwest suburbs.

St. Paul Lutheran Church was founded in 1912 by German farmers and small businessmen residing in the area that would soon to become the village of Mount Prospect. The first church was built in 1913 on farmland donated by the Busse family. Many of the village’s founding families such as the Busses, Meyns and Willes were early members of the congregation. St. Paul started as a satellite church of St. John Lutheran Church which is located on the south side of Mount Prospect. St. John was established in 1848 and was the first Lutheran Church in Elk Grove Township. St. Paul held services in German until the mid-30s and the congregation’s Lutheran school taught the German language into the late 70s. In 2011, the church reintroduced a German Christmas service as a kickoff to the congregation’s 100-year anniversary. The service was so well received by the congregation’s members and the broader community that it was decided to turn it into an annual tradition.

Senior Pastor Bo Graham noted that the service “is not just for German speakers but for all who would like to experience Christmas worship in the tradition of our area’s earliest residents.”