The Berbice Lutheran Church. 199 



administrators were wasting the Lutheran Church Funds. At once the 

 Government instituted a Commission of Inquiry. This Commission 

 ordered that the Lutheran Church should be reopened, and the moneys 

 be put to the use for which they were originally intended, and thus 

 fulfil the objects of the founders. 



The Vestry thereupon invited Rev. John Sanders, minister of the 

 Lutheran Church in Suriname, to reinstitute Lutheran ssrvices- Rev. 

 Sanders came, re-opened the services, confirmed new members, and advis- 

 ed obtaining assistance from some local clergymen to keep uo the 

 services. 



The Rev. J. R. Mittelholzer was invited to hold services as recom- 

 mended by Rev. Sanders. For three years Rev. Mittelholzer held the 

 ordinary services while Rev. Sanders made periodical visits to the Church. 

 Then in 1878 Rev. Mittelholzer was called as the pastor of the Church, 

 he having previously journeyed to Suriname to receive confirmation in 

 the Lutheran Church. 



On the 18th of September, 1890, the Church and pastor were 

 received into the membership of the East Pennsylvania Synod of the 

 general Synod of the Evangelist Lutheran Church in the United States. 



The Recognition from this body of Lutherans was of great import- 

 ance to the Berbice Lutherans. It removed from the pastor and congre- 

 gation that feeling of isolation that had alvvays been theirs. It assured 

 them of a continuity of a properly qualified ministry, and it helped them 

 in the difficulties with which they were then encompassed. Of this union 

 with the American Lutheran Church Rev. Mittelholzer wrote : The Lord 

 bless the Synod which came unknowingly but timely to the rescue 

 of this distant but not unimportant branch of the great Lutheran Church. 

 May our Zion flourish to the honour and glory of her divine Master 

 whose kind and ever-watchful providence had guided her from her com- 

 mencement, protected her amid crushing dangers and changing scenes, 

 and once more revived and established her ! May she ever prove a 

 satisfaction and credit to the venerable Synod with which she is 

 connected." 



Up until his death in August, 1913, Rev. Mittelhelzer remained the 

 pastor of the Lutheran Churches. The eleven members of 1875 had 

 now increased to a fine congregation in New Amsterdam. He had also 

 established, and for twenty-five years maintained, three Missions on the 

 Berbice River. Throughout his long and successful ministry he had been 

 a great influence for good and established himself as one of the most 

 successful Creoles of the colony. He was the man who introduced the 

 Christian Endeavour Society to British Guiana. He also conducted a 

 school known as Geneva Academy in which some of the most prominent 

 men of Berbice received their education. 



After his death the Vestry petitioned the East Pennsylvania Synod 

 to send a minister for their Church. Finally in 1914, Rev. M. H. Stine, 

 D.D., Ph.D., came to the colony to take up the work, 



