One of the most troublesome features of life to German immigrants was the unavailability of pastors or religious leaders. The problem originated in Germany where the central organization of the churchs was not responsive to the needs of the German speaking citizens in America. The typical attitude was to enter the names of the emigrants from Germany into the death register and that became the end of the support for them. When Henry Melchoir Mühlenberg came to Pennsylvania in 1742, he found the Lutheran Church in disarray and without any organization. There were a number of Lutheran pastors but they operated independently of each other. The credentials of some of the pastors were weak.
Among our Germanna colonists, there was an unusual situation. When the First Colony came in 1714, they had with them a German Reformed pastor. This unusual situation may have been the result of Henry Häger, the pastor, already having a son, another German Reformed pastor, in New York. The father's motivation may have been as much to see the son again as to minister to his congregation. But whatever the motivation, the existence of a pastor was noteworthy and very unusual, especially one that was as well educated as he was.
When the Second Colony came without a pastor, they were typical of the larger body of immigrants of the Reformed and Lutheran faiths. They had no minister. During the approximate one year that the two Colonies were both in residence at or near Germanna, Rev. Häger surely ministered to both colonies. After he moved to Germantown, the Second Colony may have invited him to conduct services for them on special occasions. In spite of his advanced years and frail health, he lived until the early 1730's. After he died, the First Colony was without a minister. In this situation, they did what most Germans did; they had a lay member read services. In the case of the First Colony, this was Jacob Holtzclaw, the school teacher. For the Second Colony, Michael Cook was reader at least part of the time. The two Colonies together placed an appeal for a minister in German newspapers about 1720 but apparently nothing came of this.
On some occasions, the English church provided services for the Germans; however, they had a problem similar to the Germans in that they did not have enough ministers and control of the church resided in England. Later when the Second Colony was to have a pastor, the Rev. Klüg, he performed services for the English. In recognition of his efforts, the Assembly of Virginia voted him a significant monetary award for services to the English community.
The Second Colony, after they had moved to the Robinson River and were relatively independent, sent two of their members to Europe to try and obtain a minister. Probably as a result of this visit, the church does have pieces of the communion service with the inscription, "A gift from Thomas Giffin, London, May 13, 1727". Other pieces have a similar marking. When one considers that the King of England was German and maintained a German chaplain, it is not so unusual to have the communion pieces; however, the trip was unsuccessful in its ultimate purpose and the members came home without a minister.
Church officials, when they did arrived from Europe, were amazed at what the local lay people were doing on their own. One can see, in these efforts, the beginning of the attitude that Europe was not necessary.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.