(Caption for image above: The old log church which was located in the oldest section of the New Jerusalem Cemetery may have looked something like this. The image is of the 1806 Old Stone Church in Bedford County PA, which is an area to which many families from the German Settlement (Lovettsville) moved after the Revolutionary War. )
New Jerusalem at 260:
COMING OF AGE IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Presented by Michael Zapf and Edward Spannaus
Sunday, November 9, 2025, at 2:00 p.m.
St. James United Church of Christ,
10 East Broad Way, Lovettsville VA
New Jerusalem Lutheran Church in Lovettsville dates its founding to 1765—a decade before the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. It established itself as a legally independent congregation in 1786, its 21st year.
How did the American Revolution impact this frontier church? How did New Jerusalem contribute to the revolutionary effort?
Church historians Michael Zapf and Edward Spannaus will discuss these and other questions at the next presentation in the Lovettsville Historical Society’s Second Sunday Lecture Series, to take place on Sunday, November 9, at 2:00 p.m.
Among the questions which Zapf and Spannaus will discuss, in a conversational format, are:
- What is the earliest evidence of Lutherans in the German Settlement?
- Where did the German settlers come from in the German-speaking territories in western and central Europe, and how did they make their way to what is now Loudoun County?
- Were the German churches (Lutheran and Reformed) even legal, in a colony where the Church of England (Anglican) was the established church?
- What happened to the Loyalist-leaning founding pastor, Rev. Schwerdtfeger?
- What do we know about those who provided military and patriotic service during the Revolutionary War?
- What happened with the church and the German settlers after the Revolutionary War?
- What kind of growing pains did New Jerusalem experience in the 19th century? (War of 1812, the language issue, Civil War)
Admission is free, but donations are welcome to defray expenses of the program and to support the activities of the Lovettsville Historical Society.