Trinity Lutheran Church to hold final mass on Christmas Eve after 118 years of worship

It has been 118 years since Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church's congregation first gathered to worship.

On Christmas Eve, they'll come together for a final time.

"Honestly, that is the cycle of life, right? We're celebrating the birth of Jesus as we're also celebrating the end of our ministry," pastor Sarah Dymund said.

"Even in life, we are in the midst of death and even in death, we are in the midst of life, and it's a constant cycle."

The current structure at 1909 Ottawa St. is the third building the church has operated out of. The congregation can trace its origins back to 1906, just a few years after Regina officially became a city, in a private home in what is now Regina's Heritage neighbourhood. 

The number of church growers quickly outgrew the first building. A new church was built in 1913 and primarily served German Lutherans.

As attendance swelled to more than 700 people — mostly German immigrants and refugees from the Second World War —  they needed a new space.

The current building opened in 1960, providing services in German and English.

For many it has provided a second home. Carolyn Lakustiak Kitz, a longtime congregant, calls the church the "cornerstone of my life."

Kitz said generations of her family — from her grandparents all the way down to her great-grandchildren — have been baptized as members of the congregation.

"[The closure] is very painful because I've been such a long time member and gone through so much of my life in that church," Kitz said.

"I lost two husbands and this is as painful."

At its peak the church was serving well over 1,000 people, according to Dymund, although those days have long since passed.

"[The church] was constructed when what the people in this neighborhood needed was a great big Lutheran Church,"  pastor Dymund said. "Now, ideally, we'll find out what this community needs from this building,"