History of Resurrection Lutheran Church, Seward AK
Seward Townsite was settled and named in 1903. The first Lutheran family, Mr. and Mrs. John Rosness, arrived in 1905. In 1917, a group of ten Lutheran families gathered for occasional worship. Traveling pastors from Juneau stopped in Seward periodically to conduct services and baptisms.
In 1945, Pastor A.O. Odengaard of Anchorage held worship twice monthly in the Episcopal Church basement. Ladies Aid began in 1947, and Sunday School began in 1948. The first church building, located at 303 Church Street (now Resurrect Art Coffeehouse) was purchased from the Methodist Church in 1949 for $10,500, and incorporation was July 16 of that year. RLC was known as “The Sunshine Church” because of the brightly painted yellow siding it once sported.
Kent Spaulding was called to be the first resident pastor and was installed on July 7, 1950. Since the road to Anchorage was not yet open, church members drove to Moose Pass to meet the Spaulding family arriving by train.
In the fifty-plus years since 1950, Resurrection Lutheran Church has bought and sold three parsonages and built a brand new church building. The current church facility, located at 400 Third Avenue, was constructed between May 1997 and March 1998 through the efforts and labors of the congregation and ELCA’s Mission Builders. The building was dedicated on May 31, 1998, and the mortgage was burned 10 years later in 2008.
Pastors of RLC:
- 1950 – 1953: Kent E. Spaulding
- 1953 – 1958: Dwight J. Boe
- 1959 – 1960: Duane E. Ulleland
- 1960 – 1964: O. B. Fjelstad
- 1964 – 1967: Gerald Sundby
- 1968 – 1970: Oliver Wigdahl
- 1971 – 1974: Luther Abrahamson
- 1974 – 1985: Glenn Groth
- 1985 – 1991: Mark E. Woldseth
- 1991 – 1992: Ivar Pihl (interim)
- 1992 – 1999: Thomas Hallowell
- 1999 – 2007: Lance R. Jennings
- 2008 – 2009: Ed Hardwick (interim)
- 2009 – : Ron Nitz