Our History

Welcome to Christ the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, a new congregation with a bright future! The congregation was born on January 1, 2021, from a merger between two former Hamden congregations – the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd and Christ Lutheran Church.

Christ Lutheran Church was organized as a mission congregation of the former United Lutheran Church in America in 1958 and was served by the same pastor, the Rev. Owen Sanderson, from its beginning until his retirement in 2018.

Originally a congregation of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd was founded in 1953. Twenty-five years after its founding, the congregation affiliated with the new Association of Evangelical Churches.

The merger of the two congregations resulted from nearly two years of thoughtful discernment, prayer, planning and determined effort on the part of the two congregations. One step led to another–joint Congregational Council meetings, shared servant ministry projects, combined worship services and fellowship activities–until it was clear that this partnership was opening the way to a promising future in ministry together. Even the pandemic could not slow the progression toward the merger. Zoom proved to be a useful tool for meetings and worship alike. At the heart of it all was a conviction that the Holy Spirit was leading us into a new day.

Christ the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church is a congregation of the New England Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA), the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States with more than 8,900 congregations and more than 3.3 million members. The ELCA was formed in 1988 from a merger of the three major Lutheran bodies. The New England Synod, comprised of some 180 congregations from Maine to Connecticut is one of 65 regional synods of the ELCA.

We are still in the midst of many transitions as we develop our new ministries of gathering together as a community of faith and being sent into the world to serve. In April 2021, we appointed a Call Committee to work with the office of our Synod Bishop in the search for a new pastor, and on August 8, 2021, we elected a new pastor: The Rev. Joshua N. Sullivan.

Our permanent church home is located in the former Christ Church facility at 600 Shepard Ave., Hamden. The building was dedicated in 1965 with an addition for education and fellowship space completed in 1980. The building has long been known not only as a gathering place for its members but for a variety of community groups.

Although located in Hamden, the members of this congregation come not only from Hamden, but from a number of surrounding communities. We look forward to including growing numbers of people in the coming days as we reach out to serve the needs of the people of our many communities with life-giving and grace-filled ministries.