Elgin’s Christ the Lord Lutheran Church marks 60th year with community giving

Christ the Lord Lutheran Church in Elgin is wrapping up a yearlong 60th anniversary celebration.

The celebration kicked off with a banquet last December held at the Elgin Country Club, and attended by current members, charter members and former pastors.

Each resident of Hanover Landing also received a quilt made by the Needles and Pins group at the congregation, which also participates in the Quilts of Valor program.

Throughout the year, the “Decades Potlucks” each month featured food, mementos, trivia and clothing from the 1940s, ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s.

During the anniversary year, the congregation did away with the use of plastic, Styrofoam, and paper products. Cloth napkins and real dishes are used each Sunday and all events where food is served.

The justice centered, environmentally conscious congregation has a natural prairie, Monarch Butterfly way station, numerous members raise monarchs, and its community garden harvested 516 pounds of produce this summer for those in need.

To cap off the year at least 40 gift cards for the holidays will be given to Elgin Area School District U-46 families in need and very soon the $6,000 goal for Habitat for Humanity will be met.