Person:John Torpel (1)

John Phillip Turple was christened at St. John's church in Lunenburg. The German-speaking foreign Protestants brought with them to Lunenburg, both Lutheranism and Presbyterianism in the form of the Dutch Reformed Church. Until the completion of St. John's Anglican Church in 1754, the town's first minister, the Reverend Jean Baptiste Moreau, preached in the open in both English and French. His colleague, a Swede by birth, the Reverend Paulius Bryzelius, preached in English and German; his sermons were so moving, reported a Luneburg offical to the lieutenant governor, they caused many to shed tears. The church galleries were often crowded an in danger of collapsing. Initially, three denominations used St. John's for their services. For many years, women sat on the ground floor; the men sat in the gallery. The elders and deacons sat on either side.