The Danish immigrants were still settling in and our Church was barely started when the Great Depression descended upon us. The hopes and plans for both the individual members and for the Church were reduced to survival, – to “just getting by.” Some lost their home to foreclosure, some were unemployed for long periods, some had to choose between such essentials as food or coal. The congregation, like many families, had difficulty in keeping up with its bills. One winter the coal company lost its patience with our tardy remittances and demanded that we pay half the projected annual coal cost in advance of the first coal delivery! When Pastor Bondo arrived in 1930 he received a modest annual salary package of $2100. This annual amount had to cover rent, utilities, car allowance and wages. His salary went down annually for the next 8 years and after 15 years of service never rose to the ‘heights” of his first year’s salary. Yet the parsonage hospitality and generosity continued. Many in the congregation, though very poor, shared with those who were more needy and the pastor showed a good example in this.A good effect of the depression was the importance that the Church and its fellowship had to its members. People gathered in homes or on farms, and in the church-house for talk and the singing of hymns and folk-songs. The Young People’s Society Dansk Luthersk Sammensluttet Ungdom flourished from the very beginnings of the congregation. Their Saturday night meetings provided a good time for just 104 and the annual conventions of the youth and the District were the big celebrations of the year. Another beneficial consequence of the “hard times” was that several Danish Lutheran families fled the even deeper depression of Western Canada and settled in Toronto and strengthened our St. Ansgar Church.
Original Credits Carl Larson, Philip & Irene Jorgensen