By Jonathan Kunitsky
December 2019
For almost two centuries the First Trinity Evangelical-Lutheran Church has been a staple of Protestant god worship in Pittsburgh. Originally comprised of mostly German immigrants, First Trinity was officially organized on January 22, 1837 in Downtown Pittsburgh. The official language of the church was German and, throughout time, the community relocated to a number of buildings in Pittsburgh, either retaining or gaining members of other congregations. The community moved from one schoolhouse and an old courthouse between 1838 to 1839 to three different churches from 1840 to 1925 until the sale of the third church building when Oakland was decided to be its final home. Since 1927, Neville Street has been the site of the Gothic church.
Since its official beginnings, First Trinity has kept records of its congregation: baptism, confirmation, and funerary records, marriage dockets, church council meeting minutes. The documentation of the life of this church was certainly essential to its success. For a congregation that moved so often, these records archived by the ULS digital collections were certainly of high importance to priests and administrators. These records would have helped church leaders know the number of active members in their community, the population of incoming members via baptism, the spiritual progress of its growing youth and the loss of its elderly. In addition, these records hold a spiritual importance, as they show us the rituals of the community, and are imbued with the ritualistic powers imparted by the sacraments they themselves document. With the preservation of these records, there is the implication that the ceremonial forms of worship were not just personal, but were communally significant, even to the god figure worshipped in the denomination.
Further Reading
ULS Digital Collections. “First Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, Pittsburgh, Pa. Records.” Digital Pitt, University of Pittsburgh. https://digital.library.pitt.edu/collection/first-trinity-evangelical-lutheran-church-pittsburgh-pa-records.
Aho, James. Confession and Bookkeeping: The Religious, Moral, and Rhetorical Roots of Modern Accounting, State University of New York Press, 2005.
How to Cite
MLA: Kunitsky, Jonathan. “Baptismal Records of the First Trinity Evangelical-Lutheran Church.” ReligYinz: Mapping Religious Pittsburgh. University of Pittsburgh, 17 January 2020, https://religyinz.pitt.edu/baptismal-records-of-the-first-trinity-evangelical-lutheran-church/.
APA: Kunitsky, Jonathan. 17 January 2020. Baptismal Records of the First Trinity Evangelical-Lutheran Church. ReligYinz: Mapping Religious Pittsburgh. University of Pittsburgh. https://religyinz.pitt.edu/baptismal-records-of-the-first-trinity-evangelical-lutheran-church/.
Chicago: Kunitsky, Jonathan. “Baptismal Records of the First Trinity Evangelical-Lutheran Church.” ReligYinz: Mapping Religious Pittsburgh. University of Pittsburgh, 17 January 2020. https://religyinz.pitt.edu/baptismal-records-of-the-first-trinity-evangelical-lutheran-church/.