Circuit rider

Lay minister brings a welcome word to Michigan's Upper Peninsula

JUDY MATTSON, near Copper Harbor, ministers to the remote 400-square-mile Keweenaw Peninsula from her four-wheel drive truck.

We're thrilled because we have church now," says Bonnie Harrer of Copper Harbor, Mich. Residents of this remote village in Michigan's Upper Peninsula now have worship, communion, Sunday school and confirmation through a unique lay ministry program.

The Upper Peninsula is a sparsely populated region. Some small towns don't have enough people to support a typical congregation. The Northern Great Lakes Synod has responded with synodically authorized worshiping communities led by trained lay ministers.

The worshiping community at Copper Harbor, Mich., is one of these special ministries. Judy Mattson leads the congregation. A graduate of the synod's Lay School for Ministry in Negaunee, Mich., she is licensed by Bishop Dale Skogman to give communion, perform baptisms and provide other aspects of pastoral ministry.

Mattson also provides pastoral leadership to other communities served by Keweenaw Ministries. She is the lone ELCA minister on this 400-square-mile area of pristine birch forests.

"Over half the towns in Keweenaw County have no church," Mattson says. Most churches are abandoned or used only in the summer. The winters get lonely without organized worship and fellowship. Last winter Copper Harbor, population 60, received 350 inches of snow.

Keweenaw Ministries is quickly changing this situation. Year-round worship is now available each Sunday in Copper Harbor's community center. Home Bible study is beginning in Lac La Belle. A historic Finnish chapel in the woods near Jacobsville, complete with pump organ, will now have "summer" worship through the fall and spring. Worship in Eagle Harbor is being extended to five months. Year-round ministry isn't possible in the Jacobsville and Eagle Harbor chapels because they're not heated. Mattson hopes to have home worship in both towns during the winter months.

"There's so much support," Mattson says. "I went out yesterday knocking on doors in Lac La Belle. I did not get far because everybody's so welcoming. They want Bible study in homes. They want to be able to worship on a regular basis."

The Northern Great Lakes Synod has two other worshiping communities led by licensed lay ministers. Robert Gardner leads First Lutheran in Grand Marais, Mich., and Cynthia Cowan leads Calvary Lutheran in Quinnesec, Mich.