Zion's 135th Anniversary Celebration

An updated schedule of activities will be available soon. In the meantime, learn more about Zion's Lutheran Church, Trinidad:

Trinidad always has attracted many ethnic groups, including German Lutherans. These immigrants, with unfamiliar customs and speaking broken English, congregated around their faith, but had no place to worship. The Presbyterians invited them to join them, which they did. The Lutheran congregation was small yet determined to build their own church.

On the evenings of Feb. 10 & 12, 1888, at the First Presbyterian Church on Commercial Street, Pastor H. Rauh, a Missouri Lutheran pastor from Denver, held the first public worship, in German, for all German-speaking Christians in the area. Services again were held on Mar. 8, 1888, with 32 men in attendance, not counting women and children, worship was followed with a meeting proposing the organization of a permanent congregation. It was decided to call a pastor, who was to serve them, together with Las Vegas, New Mexico, as one parish. On Mar. 9, 1888, seven children were baptized and a temporary constitution was adopted. Eight officers were elected for the newly established German Evangelical Lutheran Church, Zion Congregation. 

The zeal of the members resulted, in rapid succession, in the formation of resolutions and actions to incorporate, to buy property for a church building, to purchase hymn books, and to call the first pastor at $400 per year. Documentation of those early efforts can be found in Zion’s historical archive and most are written in German. In fact, for many years services were conducted in English and German on alternating Sundays. The original name of the congregation was "The German Lutheran Church, Zion Congregation," according to the Articles of Incorporation dated April 21, 1888. By council resolution on Jan. 8, 1925, the name was changed to "Zion's Lutheran Church of Trinidad, Colorado." This name change, perhaps in response to the anti-German sentiment prevalent during and after World War I, was made official when papers were filed with the State of Colorado on Feb. 2, 1925. The church was the first and only Lutheran Church in Trinidad and it has been the home of a Lutheran congregation continuously since its dedication.