This past Sunday was a momentous occasion at Peace Lutheran Church in Paget, as long-time member Karsten Decker was installed as the church's newest pastor.

After serving for a year as the church's interim pastor, he succeeded long-time pastor Tom Andersen, who retired in May 2009 after 28 years of service.

"When Pastor Andsersen retired, the church council approached me about filling in," Pastor Decker shared.

After approval was given by the Rev. Richard H. Graham, Bishop of the Metropolitan Washington, DC Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Pastor Decker entered into a one-year contract with the church as interim pastor, while the rostering process as a pastor within the denomination was processed.

Once approved, Peace Lutheran Church then called Pastor Decker as their full-time pastor, where he received 100 percent backing from the congregation.

Originally from Germany, the 48-year-old Pastor Decker first came to Bermuda in 2001 with his wife, Diana, to whom he has been married for 23 years and has four children. He studied theology in Marburg, Germany; Knoxville, Tennessee; and at the seminary in Hofgeismr, Germany, where he received a double Master's degree in Divinity and Theology with a minor in education, as well as enjoying a sabbatical semester at the Toronto School of Theology at Knox College.

His first pastoral role was shepherding five villages in Germany, and then he served as the senior pastor of a congregation of 4,000-members in Kassel, Germany, for six years.

Sunday's installation service, proved to be very well-attended, including the ELCA Bishop, Rev. Graham and visitors from several Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist and AME churches on the island.

Several special groups, which use the facilities at Peace Lutheran on a regular basis, also attended the service.

Looking to the future, Pastor Decker is hoping to see much growth in the future, particularly in the realm of the spiritual walk of church members.

"Rather than (increasing) numbers, I want to get the congregation to see that they have a mission on this island," he shared.

Internal fellowship and development is also another aspect of this, and hopes to develop relationships within the church congregation, outside of the regular Sunday morning services, giving members the opportunity to exchange and grow together in their Christian walks.

He also hopes to develop youth programmes and outreaches to young people in the various schools on the island, where he already has had some inroads, thanks to his experience as a substitute teacher in the school system.

Creation Care is also on the agenda, helping congregants to become more conscious about preserving the environment and serving as good stewards of what God has given, even in the smallest of ways.

Finally, Pastor Decker has also been seeking ways to enhance the Sunday worship service.

"I've put in a lot of effort to make it relevant and to be present in the whole liturgy," he added, a process which includes centring hymns and prayers around the sermon. He is also thankful for the skills of talented laymen who have been involved in helping to create worshipful services.

Pastor Decker realises that the Lutheran Church, and what it stands for, may not be so familiar to many Bermudians.

Peace Lutheran Church was established as result of American Lutherans coming to Bermuda through the US Naval Air Station, as well as the small local German community wanting a place of their own to worship.

Lutheranism was founded by Martin Luther, a German priest, who led a spiritual reformation in the 1500s against some of the practices of the Roman Catholic Church, which was then the established church throughout western Europe.

"It came at a time when a lot of things were changing," Pastor Decker explained, including the discovery of North America and that the world was not flat and the development of the printing press, among other things.

Pastor Decker places the Lutheran church as somewhere between Presbyterianism and Anglicanism,

It also had a profound affect on the development of Methodism, after Charles Wesley became greatly convicted and challenged by Luther's writings on St. Paul's Epistle to the Church in Rome.

Most importantly, Pastor Decker explains, is Luther's focus on the Grace of God.

"The idea of being saved by grace, is the big action of the Lutheran reformation," he said.

"Salvation has nothing to do with anything we can do to make ourselves more worthy. It is what God did."