Local Church Has Its Roots in Arctic 'Saami' Ministry

By Bob Davidsson
        There is a place of worship in the Palm Beaches with a unique legacy dating back to the 19th century "Laestadian" religious revivalist movement that originated among the native Finnic Saami (Lapp) people of the northern Arctic provinces of Sweden, Norway and Finland - the "Lake Worth Apostolic Lutheran Church."
        Finns have lived in the greater Lantana-Lake Worth area of Palm Beach County since the 1920s. After World War II the area's economy benefitted from a large influx of new residents consisting of first and second-generation families, Finnish pensioners and retirees, and seasonal visitors.
        In Lake Worth's Bryant Park there are two monuments placed by members of the Finnish community. The "Memorial to Finnish Immigrants" consists of two bronze geese soaring over a marble base with a map of Finland etched on its face. The migratory birds symbolize the journey of Finns and all immigrants to Lake Worth. It was donated by Thor and Saimi Soderholm, a local Swede-Finn couple, and dedicated in 1985.
        A second monument, often overlooked by park visitors, is a granite block once part of the Finnish Mannerheim Line and used as a crude barricade to stop invading Russian tanks. The monument is a memorial to veterans and war dead of all nations. Many retirees in Lake Worth were veterans of the Winter War (1939-40) and Continuation War (1941-44) against the Soviet Union, and the Lapland War (1944-45) against Nazi Germany.
        An annual three-day Finlandia Days/Midnight Sun Festival, celebrating Finnish heritage and music, has been held each winter in Bryant Park since 1983. Two Finnish-American meeting halls also are located in the greater Lake Worth-Lantana area.
        For more than five decades a Finnish Consulate has served the Finnish community and visitors in Lake Worth. Today, it is one of 32 consulate offices located in the United States.
        The population of Finnish emigrants and their descendants peaked at about 25,700 in South Florida during Census year 2000, then it slowly declined due to natural mortality, assimilation and changing lifestyles. The local Finnish community established three churches which have helped preserve their language, traditions and religious beliefs.
         The "St Andrew's Lutheran Church," located on South E. Street in Lake Worth, was founded in 1953 as part of the Finnish "Suomi Synod". It joined the Lutheran Church of America (LCA) in 1963, and today is a part of the nationwide Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA). The church began offering services in both Finnish and English in 1960.*
        The ownership of the St. Andrew's Church building was transferred to the "Iglesias Christiana Church Council," an Hispanic sister congregation for past 18 years, on Nov. 7, 2019. Today, services are offered in three languages within the church.
        The current "All Nations Church," located on High Ridge Road in Lake Worth, was established in 1971 as the "Finnish Pentecostal Church of Lake Worth" to serve the local Finnish community. It was not until 2009 that church services were offered in English in addition to Finnish. In an effort to broaden its outreach, it became the "All Nation's Church" in 2011.
        The "Lake Worth Apostolic Lutheran Church" was built more than 30 years ago by its parishioners on Kirk Road in suburban Lake Worth. It is one of 57 autonomous Apostolic Lutheran churches in the U.S., serving congregations with a total membership of 9,000, and the only one located in Florida.
        The Apostolic Lutheran Church of America dates back to the year 1872, and is one of several religious branches of the Laestadian revival movement founded by a 19th century Swedish Lutheran Church reformer, scientific botanist and explorer named Lars Levi Laestadius.

Laestadius and His Mission to the Saami People
        The Saami (often called Lapps by the Swedes and Karels or Kvens by Norwegians) are the native inhabitants of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. Historically, they were nomadic reindeer herders with a hunter-gatherer society which until recently retained its traditions unchanged for more than 4,000 years.
        The Saami speak six dialects of the Finno-Ugrian (Uralic) language related but not identical to modern Finnish. By contrast, their more sedentary Swedish and Norwegian neighbors to the south speak languages rooted in a northern Germanic (Old Norse) lexicon.
        Relations between the two distinct populations have ranged from friendship and beneficial trade in the best of times, to ongoing land disputes and cultural genocide at its worst. It was at a time of widespread poverty, alcoholism and forced cultural assimilation that Lars Laestadius began his mission among the Saami.
        Lars was born Jan. 10, 1800 in the northernmost Swedish county of Norrbotten. He was the son of a ne'er-do-well hunter and mine operator named Carl Laestadius and his Saami wife, Anna Magdalena. Despite the family's poverty, he was able to attend Uppsala University in 1820 through the financial assistance of an older brother.
        He majored in theology at Uppsala, and upon graduation was ordained as a Lutheran minister in 1825. He was posted as a regional minister of the State Church of Sweden in his native province of Swedish Lapland.
        He soon married a local Saami woman, Brita Cajsa Alstadius, and together they raised 12 children. Laestadius lived and worked in the Pajala parish of Swedish Lapland from 1849 until his death in 1861.
        For most of his adult life Laestadius would self-identify as a member of the Saami community. He could speak two regional Saami dialects, as well as Finnish and Swedish. Later in life, he would use a Finnish text for his sermons to reach his scattered followers.
        The minister's favorite pastime was botany. He was an assistant in Uppsala University's Botany Department, and is credited with the discovery and identification of three plants in northern Scandinavia which are named in his honor.
        His notoriety as a botanist and linguist among the Saami communities resulted in an invitation from the French Admiralty to join the "La Recherché Expedition of 1838-40" and explore the islands and Arctic coastline of Scandinavia. He was awarded the French "Legion of Merit" for his service.
        It was during this adventure that Laestadius began writing his "Fragments of Lappish Mythology," describing traditional Saami religious beliefs at time when the Swedish government and high church officials were discouraging the practice of Saami shamanism. For nearly 150 years, the priceless manuscript was lost. Fortunately, the document was rediscovered in France and belatedly published in 1997.
        As a missionary Laestadius searched for the key to spreading Christian doctrine in a manner acceptable to the religious traditions and culture of the Saami people. His prayers were answered when he met a poor Saami woman named Milla Clementsdotter, later known to his Laestadian followers as "Mary of Lapland".
        Laestadius was moved and inspired by what he called "her spiritual journey through life to the living faith." He would later write that the encounter led to his own religious experience when he "saw the path that leads to eternal life."
        His "spiritual awakening" became the basis of the Lutheran "Laestadian Movement". The liturgy is based on Lutheran doctrine with an emphasis on forgiveness and a life journey of faith leading to a personal "salvation experience" shared with the congregation.
        Laestadius spread his revival theology among the scattered Saami communities by training lay clergy to live and travel with the nomadic herders. His clergy were not college educated, but rather selected for ordination "by a call by God to preach the word."
        Within his lifetime the Laestadian Movement spread beyond the frozen tundra and taiga of Lapland to communities in Finland, Sweden and Norway. Wisely, both the State Church of Sweden and Lutheran Church of Finland would eventually accept Laestadianism as an apostolic branch of the Lutheran Church.
        Laestadius was not expelled from the State Church of Sweden, but was required to provide traditional Lutheran services at his parish, in addition to apostolic sermons to his followers. After he died in 1861, the movement continued under the leadership of one his followers, John Raattamas.

The 'Great Laestadian Migration' to America (and Florida)
        Between 1864 and 1895, thousands of Laestadians immigrated from Finland, northern Sweden and Norway to America. They wanted the freedom of worship without the dictates of a centralized state church, and to escape the hopeless poverty of northern Scandinavia in the late 19th century.
        Finns also resisted cultural "Russification" efforts by Czars Nicholas I, Alexander III and Nicholas II during its period of occupation as Russia's Grand Duchy of Finland from 1809 to 1918. This led many Finns to seek better lives in the U.S. and Canada.   
        Without the central authority of a state-sponsored American Lutheran Church, the Laestadian Movement splintered then reformed in the U.S. Laestadian congregations were formed in mining and agricultural communities in Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota, Oregon and Washington.
        After World War II, descendants of the Laestadian Movement came to Palm Beach County, where using their traditional architectural style, they built their current unadorned rectangular apostolic church with whitewashed walls suited to meet their spiritual needs.
        Today, there are an estimated 200,000 followers of Laestadianism worldwide. Within the borders of the four nations that make up "Sapmi" (Lapland) where the movement began, there are between 80,000 and 135,000 native Saami inhabitants.
        The informal Laestadian greeting in Finnish, dating back to the time its founder, is "Jumalan terve" - God's welcome.
*NOTE: The author served as the pastor's assistant and acolyte in 1965 during the dedication of the new St. Andrew's Lutheran Church in Lake Worth. See additional articles below and archived in Older Posts
(c.) Davidsson. 2017.