Usma church marks 90 years after locals thwarted relocation

The Usma congregation in Renda parish is celebrating 90 years in its current church, which locals once saved from being moved elsewhere, LSM reports, citing Skrunda Television.

The church was built with state funding to a design by Pauls Kundziņš and Pēteris Ārends. After Latvia regained independence, a neighbouring municipality wanted to move it for its own congregation or place it in an open-air museum in Ventspils. Local residents refused, restored the building themselves and registered the congregation in the early 2000s.

The church bell was silenced for a long period by the occupation authorities in the 1960s. The building later became overgrown as nature gradually took hold. The congregation has continued to care for it, and two years ago it completed a full roof restoration, described by board member and project manager Jēkabs Šalms as its biggest project of the past 10 to 20 years.

Usma’s church tradition goes back much further than 90 years. A church made from hewn logs was built on the shore of Lake Usma in 1704. It was later moved to the Latvian Ethnographic Open-Air Museum in Riga because of its uniqueness, and the state gave the congregation the present church in its place.

Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church evangelist Agrita Staško has served the congregation throughout this period. She said keeping the church open helps sustain and carry faith forward. Congregation leader Ernests Bušers said people should give thanks each evening for the day they have lived and for having peace, food and good health.

The congregation has nearly 40 members, many of whom travel from further away. Rūta, her husband Ints and their children Rūdolfs, Maija and Kristers come from Ezere.