The First Five Years, Page 1
Abiding Presence Lutheran Church

In 1961, the Lutheran Church of the Saviour, Trenton, recognized the need for a ministry in the suburbs. The Senior Pastor, the Reverend Alford R. Naus was the primary force in organizing the new congregation as a suburban mission. Pr. Naus conducted a survey of the townships that led to a recommendation of Ewingville as a location. At that time, a location for the building was established by Pr. Naus, and Mr. Carl Jacobelli, president of the council at the Church of the Saviour. The site, four acres located on Pennington Road, was purchased by the Board of American Missions. Pr. Naus served as pastor to the mission congregation until his death.

Tuesday, March 20, 1962, persons interested in the organization of a Lutheran church to serve the Ewing and southern Hopewell Township areas, gathered at the home of Mr. and Mrs. John E. Wigley and met with Rev. Howard A. Lenhardt, Director of home missions. Several weeks later, Sunday, April l, thirty people attended the first regular worship service of the proposed church, conducted by Rev. Walter A. Maier. Sunday School was also held. For nearly five years Lanning School was to be the congregation's winter home, with summer worship at Fisher School. Every week during those years, the altar, paraments and lectern had to be assembled and set up, then later dismantled and stored.

Roy Miltner, a student in Switzerland at that time, was called as mission developer by the Board of American Missions. After accepting the call, he was ordained in his home congregation in Maywood, NJ. In a letter received in 1978, Pr. Miltner writes,

"We struggled a lot during those early years. Visitors to our services were practically smothered in an attempt to make them feel welcome and I visited every new family in the area even before their trunks were unpacked. It was slow going. The recession of the mid-sixties slowed the building boom of the late fifties and a higher percentage of Roman Catholic and Jewish families moved to the suburbs than were anticipated. But we struggled on, and we had some wonderful times together........With such a small number of persons to work with, we came to know each other well and the impact of those lives have been great on my memory and my heart."

To the tune of "Faith of our fathers" and "A mighty fortress is our God", played by pianist Mrs. Carol Smith, the congregation celebrated on Sunday, September 22, 1963. Worship was conducted by Rev. Walter A. Maier. There were 54 adult charter members and 36 baptized child members.
 
On November 3, 1963, Pastor Miltner was called as the first pastor of Abiding Presence, at a salary of approximately $6,000 (including allowances) and the free use of the parsonage. At that time, the parsonage on Lower Ferry Road was acquired. (Salary aid from the Board of American Mission amounted to $3,900; the loan to buy the church property was $20,500.) In a short time, Roy married Freda Ammon and they moved into the parsonage.
 
About our name
Our name was suggested by Pastor Miltner, a graduate of Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. Pastor Miltner recalled with fondness time spent at the chapel of the same name at Gettysburg. Mark Oldenburg, chaplain at Abiding Presence Chapel, Gettysburg Seminary, sent the following note on the occasion of our 45th anniversary (September 22, 2008).

The Church of the Abiding Presence was named for a central tenet of Lutheran theology -- that Jesus has not abandoned his people, but continues to work in their midst -- not only in Holy Communion, but in evangelism (Matthew 28:20), reconciliation (Matthew 18:20) and service (Matthew 25:31-46).

A centerpiece of this understanding (and our chapel) is the Ascension. While some Christians understand the Ascension to be Christ's leave-taking of his disciples (and this world) for heaven, Luther and Lutherans understand it as Christ's departing a single place to be present wherever he desires ("at the right hand of God."). Thus, it is for us the story par excellence of the Abiding Presence.

But not the only one -- each of nave windows also takes a Biblical story which takes place on a hill, distills a theme from that story, and then goes down the window showing occasions when the Word of God (from the OT) or Jesus (from the NT) carries on that theme throughout church history, up to the present.