ALTAMONT — Karen Williams, Linda Zell, and Megan Connolly consider themselves to be sisters.

“The bond is that strong,” said Connolly in this week’s Enterprise podcast.

The three women are not related by blood. Rather, they are part of what they describe as a “church family.”

They belong to St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year.

Williams, who does academic advising at the University at Albany, came to the church when her daughter was a baby — she’s a teenager now. But Williams still calls herself a “newbie.”

That’s because Zell, who recently retired from Tax and Finance, and Connolly, a stay-at-home mom who works now at Bella Fleur in the village, have each spent a lifetime in the church. Both of them were baptized at St. John’s and married in the church.

Zell’s father was a member of the church and so was her grandmother. Connolly, who has four children and seven grandchildren, says her children who live elsewhere have come back with their babies to have them baptized at St. John’s.

She also said it was difficult for her siblings, when they moved away from Altamont, to find a church that felt like St. John’s.

Connolly says it’s important, “especially in this day and age,” to be with her church family “for those important times that are so meaningful in our lives, like welcoming a new child and sharing the beginning of a new life together with someone else.”

When St. John’s was founded, almost everyone went to one church or another. Now, fewer than half of United States residents go regularly to a synagogue, a mosque, or a church.

“It’s a smaller family, sadly, but the ties are still there,” said Zell. “Hopefully our connection with the community helps with that … It’s not the religion part of it that holds me there. It’s the sense of family and it doesn’t matter how big or small it is — it’s still my family.”

Connolly said “a vast number of new faces have come into the church” since she and Zell were children as a lot of long-time congregants have passed on.

“So that changes the tenor of what the community is like,” she said.

Zell shared a book that was published 25 years ago when St. John’s celebrated its 125th anniversary. 

The late Keen Hilton, who was himself baptized at St. John’s and married there, was a long-time minister at St. John’s. Connolly said, in the book, Hilton stressed the importance of diversity in the church “and welcoming diverse types of people.”

During the Vietnam War, when much of the country was divided, she said, Hilton and his church were important in bringing the community together. It’s important, she said, to share and argue and not always agree but “still be family.”

Zell said each of the pastors leading St. John’s “impacted us in different ways.”

The current pastor, Eric Reimer, in an earlier Enterprise podcast, just before last Thanksgiving, had challenged listeners, whether Christian or not, to look for things to be thankful for and to have gratitude. “And I will then challenge you,” he said, “to find new ways to express that gratitude to others and to help build relationships and spread love.”

Williams spoke about one of the relationship-building projects taken on by the church’s youth group, a 30-hour famine for world vision.

“My daughter is so excited that, after two years of COVID with not having had it when she was just finally old enough to go, we’re having it and working with other churches,” Williams said. The event is scheduled for September.

The teenagers spend 30 hours experiencing what it is like not to have food. They stay at the church “and spend time with each other and get to know more about the world together and our place in it,” Williams said.

Music is another element that binds the congregants together. The church’s music is led by Agnes Armstrog, a well-known organist.

Connolly remembered a Christmas program where the entire congregation sang along with the choir. “Even though not all of us were great singers or even part of the choir, we lent our voices …,” she said. “When a mass of people join, it really doesn’t matter how well they sing. It was amazing.”

The church also has a carillon that can be heard throughout the village.

The church building itself is inspirational, said Williams, describing the arched doors and the wood in the sanctuary. “It’s old wood with a nice patina. Around the balcony, it’s carved,” she said. “And the windows are absolutely gorgeous … and we have a beautiful mural at the front behind the altar.”

“I love to sit on the wood and you can feel the history and all the people that were there before you,” said Williams. “And when the sun shines through the windows … it just changes the atmosphere of the church continually.”

“There are times when the sun’s coming through the crown of thorns …,” said Zell of one of the stained-glass windows, “and it just makes my heart stop.”

She said that, when people visit the church during the village’s annual Victorian stroll at Christmastime, “hearing people’s expressions when they come into the church and how beautiful it is, it’s heartwarming.”

As part of the church’s 150th anniversary celebration, Williams is putting together a cookbook that will be published in time for Thanksgiving.

“We joke in church sometimes that, you know, we’re Lutheran, we love food, but we do,” she said.

In the cookbook, Williams is documenting the way recipes have changed over time. She looked through issues of The Enterprise going back to the 1880s and found “some really fascinating and amazing recipes” as well as “some really wonky recipes,” she said. She also put a notice in the paper to get recipe contributions from members of the community.

The book will include a recipe for Almond Cheesecake Bars from a former pastor’s wife as well as a broccoli salad recipe from the current pastor’s wife.

“Food is still a way to bring people together and to share something with each other,” said Williams. “But also it’s kind of a reflection of the community, too, and a reflection of the church.”

“We bring things to the table that other people might never eat …,” said Connolly. “We’re there to celebrate our differences and share them.”

Zell said of preparing and sharing food, “It’s also a way to give.”

She went on, “My mom for years made an eggplant parm for the fellowship club because my dad loved it.” She later found out her mother herself did not like eggplant.

“She made it for years for that group and my dad but never liked it herself. So it was the giving of herself through that food too,” said Zell.

All three of the women invited others to attend their church.

“We want to offer to people in the village that might be new or people that are old that just want a sense of greater community — we’re not going to sign you up for 10 million church councils or anything like that,” said Connolly. “We just like having the variety of thought and sharing of ideas. And it’s a way to help give back to your community — sometimes that’s hard to do on your own.”

Zell added, “If coming into church is not comfortable for you, then come see us at some of our community events and get to know us.”

“If you had told me 20 years ago I would be doing a podcast with a church, I would have told you, ‘I will not,’” Williams said.

Although she believes in God, she had gotten away from church a bit, she said. “This community really brought me back in,” Williams went on. “Not because people were, like, overly friendly and fell all over you, but because they’re kind, caring people in church … I’m very grateful that I have that kind of community and people who care about other people and help.”

“That,” concluded Connolly, “is why we’re here for 150 years.”