On Christiana Road in New Castle, Delaware, Hope Evangelical Lutheran Church has been gathering for worship since 1958, when seventy-three charter members signed the papers to make Hope an official mission congregation under the United Lutheran Church in America. Today the ELCA congregation is known for being a family-oriented and food-loving community, a Sunday gathering place for food pantry volunteers and Confirmation students, and home to a sixteen-foot painting of the Last Supper that dominates the wall to the right of the altar.
A New Castle Mission Born in 1957
In the summer of 1957, eighteen adults met in the New Castle area to discuss starting a new Lutheran church. Within weeks that number had grown to fifty. On September 15, 1957, more than a hundred people crowded into the old Shrine building on Route 13 for Hope's first worship service, and by December 9 of that year seventy-three charter members had signed the charter making Hope an official mission church. The name "Hope" edged out several competitors in a close congregational vote.
Hope Lutheran was unusual in one respect. Instead of the national mission board deciding where new churches should be planted, the Lutheran community in Wilmington had petitioned to start one themselves, citing the rapid development of the New Castle area. The new congregation met in the Shrine building until that structure's heating failed, sending worshippers across the road to Toman's Restaurant, where member Emilie Toman welcomed the cold congregation each winter Sunday. Services next moved to a chapel on the nearby US Air Force Base, where members hauled in their own chairs after the military had removed the pews.
The Sanctuary on Christiana Road
On December 28, 1958, the congregation approved the purchase of several acres along what would become a main artery into the city, in the developing Coventry area. Ground was broken on November 5, 1964; the cornerstone was laid on May 30, 1965; and the first service in the new unit was held on September 5, 1965. Ten years later, in 1976, today's sanctuary and fellowship hall were added, giving the congregation enough room for a larger worship space and a wider range of programming. Several pieces from the early days remain part of the building's fabric. Silverware donated by St. Luke's Lutheran Church in 1958 still appears at church dinners, many of the pieces still engraved with the donor's name. The altar, lectern, and pulpit were built in the congregation by members John Ludwig and Frank Kramer; only the original altar rail is no longer in use, since the sanctuary expansion. In May 1994, Hope installed its current pipe organ, a 914-pipe, 14-stop, two-manual mechanical-action instrument built by Wissinger Organ Company of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Hope's Last Supper
The single most striking work of art inside the church is a sixteen-foot-long, six-foot-tall acrylic painting of the Last Supper that fills the wall to the right of the altar. It was painted by member Richard G. Grabher, who took up the project after a 1977 business trip to Italy inspired by Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes. Working in six-foot sections on a homemade scroll in his basement, using ordinary house paint on a canvas donated by the DuPont Company, Mr. Grabher spent about eighteen months on the work. The finished canvas weighs over four hundred pounds and required six to eight men to lift onto the brackets that hold it in place today. The frame, made of hundreds of individually cut four-by-four-inch pieces of wood, was constructed by fellow member William D. Beck. The painting was dedicated on Palm Sunday 1979. Mr. Grabher passed away eighteen months later, and the painting remains one of Hope's most treasured pieces.
Sundays at 9:30 AM
Hope gathers for worship each Sunday at 9:30 AM, both in person and through a livestream on the congregation's Facebook and YouTube channels. Holy Communion is celebrated at every service. The sanctuary's liturgical year is marked with changing paraments and seasonal focus: blue in Advent, white at Christmas, the greens and purples of Lent, the red of Pentecost, and the warmth of Reformation Sunday. Musical leadership is provided by organist and choir, and a fellowship hour with food and conversation follows each service.
The welcome at Hope is explicit. "You will always have a place at our table," the congregation's own statement reads. "At Hope, you are family." Visitors considering membership are invited to meet with Pastor Amy Wright, an introduction that walks through Luther's Small Catechism, a brief look at Lutheran theology, and time over coffee and donuts to get to know one another.
Advent, Lent, and the Long Walk to Easter
Beyond the rhythm of ordinary Sundays, Hope observes the seasons of the church year with local flavor. Advent brings a blue-dressed sanctuary, an Advent wreath, and a four-week focus on the names of Christ: Light of the World, Prince of Peace, King of Kings, Emmanuel. Christmas Eve at 7:30 PM is one of the most popular services of the year, with the worship space transformed into a giant Advent wreath and a fellowship hour full of Christmas treats. When Christmas Day falls on a Sunday, the 9:30 AM Christmas morning service is held, and the Sunday after Christmas Eve brings Lessons and Carols.
Lent at Hope is built around Wednesday-evening Lenten Soup Suppers, with the congregation providing the food each week. The suppers rotate through the five ecumenical churches of New Castle: Immanuel on the Green Episcopal, St. Peter the Apostle Roman Catholic, New Castle Presbyterian, New Castle First United Methodist, and Hope itself. Holy Week begins with a Maundy Thursday service in the evening focusing on the Last Supper, continues with a Tenebrae, or service of darkness, on Good Friday, and culminates in Easter worship with breakfast following. Pentecost Sunday is usually marked with red, in keeping with the paraments, and Confirmation is typically held that day. Reformation Sunday on October 31 honors Martin Luther and the 1517 posting of the Ninety-Five Theses. Each year Hope also hosts an outdoor Blessing of the Animals service, a joyful gathering of four-legged friends and their people.
Music at Hope
Music has long been central to life at Hope. Organist and choir director Mike Mekailek has served in that role since 2013 and is also an operatic baritone whose regional performances include work with the Wilmington Concert Opera and the Dickinson Theatre Organ Society. He studied organ at Lebanon Valley College and at the University of Delaware, where he was a member of the UD Chorale, an ensemble that competed internationally in Spain and Hungary. At Hope he plays the 1994 Wissinger organ, with its mechanical key action and two manuals, in worship each Sunday.
Hope's volunteer choir rehearses on Wednesday evenings at 7:30 and sings in services from September through May, plus special holiday and feast celebrations. Each Thanksgiving the choir joins a combined choir for New Castle's Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service, and the choir sings with larger ELCA gatherings in New Castle County for festivals throughout the year. No prior experience is required, though the ability to match pitch is.
Sacraments and Faith Formation
Holy Baptism and Holy Communion are the two sacraments regularly celebrated at Hope, with communion offered at each Sunday service and baptism upon request. The congregation's teaching on baptism draws on Luther's Large Catechism, particularly the insistence that "these two, the Word and the water, must by no means be separated from each other. For where the Word is separated from the water, the water is no different from the water that the maid uses for cooking." The catechism teaches that baptism is a daily reality begun once and continuing throughout a Christian life, the constant slaying of the old self and the rising of the new.
Confirmation at Hope is a deliberate two-year program for young people in middle school and entering high school. Taught by Pastor Amy Wright and a Christian Educator, students work through Luther's Small Catechism, the Apostles' Creed, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Holy Scriptures, and conversations about daily life and where God is in it. Confirmation is the affirmation of baptism, the point at which each confirmand becomes an adult in the church, and the rite is typically held on Pentecost Sunday.
The Hope Lutheran Early Education Center
Since 1971 Hope has operated an early childhood program that began as a daycare with eight children under members Martha Shipe and Elaine Beck. Today the Hope Lutheran Early Education Center, known as HLEEC, is a state-licensed, nonprofit ministry of the church, offering early education and before-and-after-school care for children ages two through eight across New Castle County and the Colonial School District. Its program is organized around three emphases - mind (an academic curriculum), body (health and nutrition), and soul (Bible study lessons) - and earned the 2022 Lieutenant Governor's Challenge Award for "Cooking with Cory." The center is directed by Laura Cahall.
The Mobile Food Pantry
Hope's longest-running outreach to the wider community is its mobile food pantry, founded in the fall of 1980 and still operating today in partnership with Lutheran Community Services. On the third Thursday of each month, from 2:00 to 4:00 PM, the congregation gathers in Hope's fellowship hall to share food, fellowship, and the love of Christ with anyone in need. A blue sign in front of the church announces each monthly distribution, and volunteers are as welcome as recipients. Whether you are coming for support or to serve alongside the congregation, the food pantry is one of the clearest expressions of the church's stated commitment to being the hands and feet of God in New Castle.
Leadership and Beliefs
The pastoral team at Hope is led by Pastor Amy Wright, who has served the congregation since August 2020. She is also available for home communion visits when members cannot attend services. Joining her is Vicar Eric Valentine, a seminarian at United Lutheran Seminary preparing for ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Before entering ministry he spent nearly three decades in business leadership, earning a Master in Theology and Leadership from Gonzaga and bringing to preaching a strong communication style and a practical approach to ministry and community engagement. As a single father of two teenagers, his ministry is rooted in the realities of balancing family, work, and faith.
Hope's stated mission is simple and direct: "Guided by God, we are a Christian community. We serve with love and share the Gospel." As a member congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, within the Delaware-Maryland Synod, Hope proclaims that "together in Jesus Christ we are freed by grace to live faithfully, witness boldly, and serve joyfully." The values that mark this particular community are unmistakably its own: a family-oriented and food-loving congregation, a desire that every visitor feels both loved and enough, and a willingness to roll up sleeves, share a meal, and meet neighbors where they are, whether at the altar rail, the fellowship hall table, or the parking lot on a third Thursday of the month.