Pastor Channing Kearney of St. John’s Lutheran Church White Creek delivers remarks at the dedication of a memorial to members of the church who served from World War I onward. At right is Barbara Lewis, whose parents, Harold and Harriett Meyers, made a bequest that provided for the memorial.
Nearly 100 people attended a dedication ceremony Sunday, May 28, for a memorial to members of St. John’s Lutheran Church White Creek who served in the armed forces in conflicts from World War I through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The memorial was raised and dedicated at a special Memorial Day weekend event. Elder Greg Herkamp said Pastor Channing Kearney of St. John’s Lutheran Church White Creek led the dedication service. Barbara Lewis, whose family funded the monument, gave a short presentation about the history of Memorial Day and her family’s history of service in the armed forces in World War II and the Korean War.
Lewis, who now lives in Houston, Texas, is the daughter of the late Korean War veteran and St. John’s church member Harold Meyer, who, along with his wife, Harriett, provided for the memorial as a bequest to the church.
The memorial, installed in a reflective, parklike setting outside the historic church’s cemetery, includes the names of scores of church members who served in wartime, including five who were killed in action in World War I and World War II.
“It’s interesting, you take a small community church like that, and you realize how many people served our country,” Lewis said previously of the memorial.
Herkamp said the Rev. Jongmin Lee, Pastor of White Creek Methodist and East Columbus United Methodist Church, also “gave a speech honoring the brave men and women from our country that served in the Korean War. This meant so much to him and Pastor Kearney, as they were both born in Korea.”
The Bartholomew County Honor Guard also provided a 21-gun salute at the event, which also included the playing of Taps in honor of fallen soliders.
“Let us not forget the high cost of freedom that many men and women in the armed forces as well as their families have paid to keep us free,” Herkamp said. “And let us never forget the high price that our Father in Heaven paid to free us from sin, the sacrifice of His only Son, Christ Jesus on the cross.”
