Lutheran bishop to conduct services Crisis team to serve New Sweden church

The head of the New England Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America said Tuesday she will be in New Sweden this weekend and hopes to conduct worship services Sunday at Gustaf Adolph Evangelical Lutheran Church.

It was unclear Tuesday afternoon whether law enforcement officials would have completed their investigation and returned control of the church building to the congregation before Sunday.

“The primary thing immediately is to provide care for the families of victims,” Bishop Margaret Payne said in a phone interview from her office in Worcester, Mass. “We are cooperating fully with the authorities

“In every way, we want to know what happened and to support members of the congregation and the community.”

The Rev. Elaine Hewes, pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Bangor, has been visiting the four men sent from Cary Medical Center in Caribou to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, according to Payne. On Monday night, Hewes conducted a worship service at her church for the families of the victims hospitalized in Bangor.

Payne, her assistant, the Rev. Hans Arnesen, and other ELCA ministers in Maine and New England are forming a crisis team to help serve the needs of the congregation as the investigation continues and the situation unfolds, said the bishop.

Arnesen was expected to arrive in Bangor late Tuesday and go to northern Aroostook County later this week, she said. Complicating the situation is the fact that Gustaf Adolph church has been without a pastor for sometime, according to Payne. The Rev. James Morgan, part-time pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Stockholm, has been serving Gustaf Adolph temporarily.

Tragedy struck another Lutheran church in The County last November when fire destroyed Faith Lutheran Church in Caribou.

Payne said Tuesday that she has been in conversation with Bishop Chilton Knudsen, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Maine, about the possibility of sharing a minister with area Episcopal churches. Recent changes allow the two denominations to exchange clergy.

“Right now, though, it’s important that we all remember that our main focus is to support the people and provide care,” she said. “That’s the thing the church does best.”