St. Paul’s will host Nov. 15 reenactment of 1934 convention

Nov. 06, 2009

St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Waverly will host a Nov. 15 event commemorating the controversial decision in 1934 that brought Wartburg College back to Waverly.

The event is free and open to the community. It will begin with coffee and dessert in St. Paul’s Parish Hall at 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15. “Wartburg Returns,” a documentary drama by St. Paul’s member Michael Sherer, will follow at 4:30 p.m.

In October 1934, the Wartburg campus had been vacant for more than a year. Its programs had moved to Clinton, Iowa, during the summer of 1933. In an effort to bring Wartburg back to Waverly, a group of congregational and community leaders convinced the American Lutheran Church to hold its October 1934 convention in Waverly. St. Paul’s hosted the convention and delegates were housed in the vacant campus dormitories. Men, women and children from the congregation and the entire community were enlisted to furnish dormitory rooms, help with meals, serve as convention couriers and provide transportation.

Convention delegates were so impressed with the facilities of the campus and the hospitality of the community that they voted to close the Clinton campus and move the college back to Waverly.

Although Waverly residents were exuberant, “Clinton supporters were furious,” said Dr. Ron Matthias, author of Still on the Move, a 2002 history of the college. He noted that one person later called the decision “a shameful piece of ecclesiastical skullduggery.”

Many St. Paul’s members whose families were involved with the 1934 convention will read roles in the Nov. 15 production. Photos from the era will provide a historical context, and Matthias will offer a closing reflection on the ramifications of what he calls, “a marvelous example of a whole community committing itself to a common task and getting it done.”