Bethany Lutheran Church

Bethany Lutheran Church was organized as Svenska Ev. Lutherska Bethania Församlingen on May 30, 1880 as a member of the Augustana Synod. The original building was located at 9118 S. Houston in 1881. 




Bethesda Lutheran Church was organized in 1891 by Bethany members living east of Calumet River. Bethany's steeple was removed in 1939 (pictured at right). The name of the congregation was changed to Evangelical  Lutheran Bethany Church in 1921.











In 1945 the congregation purchased five lots on the northeast corner of 92nd Street and Jeffrey Boulevard, and in 1949 the congregation moved to 9147 S. Jeffrey (pictured below).

The old building was used as a National Guard armory before being used by a Baptist congregation and a Puerto Rican Pentecostal congregation.

Pastors

Original records
Bethany's original record books should be located at Bethany Lutheran Church, 9147 S. Jeffrey Ave., Chicago, IL 60617-3755. The earlier books have beem microfilmed and are available from the ELCA Archives and from the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center at Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill. Augustana film #A4 has church minutes from 1880-1932, membership records from 1880-1955, and ministerial acts from 1880-1930s. The ELCA Archives also has congregation histories and other materials relating to Bethany, including copies of the church publication Herde Rösten.

Sources
"One Hundred Years of Ministry, 1880-1980," Bethany Lutheran Church, Chicago, Ill., 1980.

Gregersen, Charles E., "A History of the Swedish Ev. Lutheran Bethany Church -- Svenska Ev. Lutherska Bethania Kyrkan of South Chicago, Illinois with a short biography of its architect, Erick Gustaf Petterson," 1967.