This is the third in a series of articles about worship spaces through the years with specifics on Saint Matthew Church. They are taken from the thoughts and writings of Herman Hassinger, architect for over 200 churches, including this one. The article this month is primarily from a conversation with Pastor Ingrid Wengert shortly before he and his wife Doris moved their membership from Saint Matthew Church to a Lutheran church on Block Island where they had a home. The following story is written from that conversation.
The little white church on Chester Avenue was small in every way: worship space, narthex (foyer), choir loft, and almost no space for the Altar Guild. After trying to convince Pastor Herluf Jensen that a new church was needed for a growing congregation and then learning that the building was unsafe for continued use, Pastor Jensen was finally persuaded.
The church was demolished in 1971 and a new church building was begun, with Hassinger and Schwam as the architectural firm. In his church designs Herman liked to combine the human dimension with a sense of God’s presence. He did this with spacious social rooms and narthexes as entry ways into the worship space. He said the perfect church should be something like a good resort hotel. It needs a convenient parking lot, an obvious entrance, main lobby, front desk office where there is visual control of people entering and exiting, and strong graphic information so people know where to look for various rooms and functions. He continued the idea of the hotel approach to Saint Matthew by saying there is a grand ballroom, the worship space, which in terms of height, design and decoration is obviously the central feature. The floor plan, with the congregation on three sides of the altar and choir on the fourth, conveys the sense of church as people of God. At the same time, through a combination of line, color, quality building materials and appropriate, uncluttered placement of furnishings, it manages also to convey a transcendent quality.
The design won a Guild of Religious Architecture Award for excellence in design. Through the years architects from Herman’s office sometimes brought prospective customers across the parking lot to look at the Saint Matthew design.
“Humanly speaking, church consists of people, program and place, but only the first two of those are necessary. The place, the building, is simply a tool to serve the people and the program. But just as a carpenter seeks the best possible tools to do a job, so the church should pay attention to the quality of its tools.”
—HERMAN HASSINGER, ARCHITECT
The following information is quoted directly from Herman: “An unusual feature of the Moorestown church is the horizontal stained glass window in the sanctuary behind the choir. It is mounted on runners so it can be closed during services to avoid outside distractions, yet opened at other times to let passers-by look into the church. There is nothing in the design to be symbolic. The four quadrants do not represent the four gospels. The central focused design is a throwback to our earliest human gatherings, the campfire.
“The structure is modern laminated timers. The massive roof dominates the simple masonry base. The grand main entrance has given way to an automobile entrance facing the parking lot. The building was organized to connect the two existing structures, the education building and the parish hall, with the new construction.
“Humanly speaking, church consists of people, program and place, but only the first two of those are necessary. The place, the building, is simply a tool to serve the people and the program. But just as a carpenter seeks the best possible tools to do a job, so the church should pay attention to the quality of its tools.”
Saint Matthew Pastors
Senior Pastors
The Rev. Kenneth Frickert
April 1950 – January 1951
The Rev. J. Brooks Moore
June 1951 – June 1961
The Rev. Edwin L. Ehlers
November 1961 – May 1968
The Rev. Herluf M. Jensen
September 1968 – March 1978
The Rev. Carl T. Uehling
September 1978 – August 1986
The Rev. Gordon L. Huf
May 1987 – June 2004
The Rev. Mark A. Hoffman
December 1992 – February 1997
The Rev. Ingrid F. Wengert
December 2005 – November 2018
The Rev. Dr. Eric J. Trozzo
September 2020 – Present
Associate Pastors
The Rev. Edward R. Dufresne
June 1975 – June 1978
The Rev. Bruce W. Bassett
February 1984 – February 1987
The Rev. Nancy H. Truscott
January 1989 – August 1992
Vice Pastors & Interims
The Rev. David Mangiante
July 2004 – November 2005
The Rev. Linda Wood
July 2004 – November 2005
The Rev. Alexis King
December 2018 – November 2019
The Rev. Peggy Marks
December 2019 – August 2020
Interns
Margaret Gibb
1979 – 1980
Jonathan Jenkins
1980 – 1981
Kurt Strause
1981 – 1982
Bruce Bassett
1982 – 1984
Ryan Paetzold
2013 – 2014
John Nelson
2016 – 2017
Celebrating 75 Years
Interesting Facts About Saint Matthew Church
1. The stained glass windows in our sanctuary were created by stained glass master artist, Charles Z. Lawrence, whose work can be seen in the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. and United Lutheran Seminary at Philadelphia plus 200 other locations, including the Czech Republic.
2. The flagstones used as the floor of our altar space came from a sidewalk on State Street in Trenton, NJ that was about to be destroyed. Thanks to the Irish Catholic police who were very merciful to Lutherans removing them.
3. The fish-shaped handles on the front door came from an antique store in Mount Holly, NJ.
4. Piano wire was used to hold the cross that hangs from the ceiling in the sanctuary.
