This small but active congregation has been in the same location for over 200 years and was the site of the establishment of the Eastern Canada Synod (ECS) of the Lutheran Church in America (LCA) in 1861. ECS is now a division of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC). The original wooden structure was replaced in 1860 by the current brick building. The cemetery behind the church dates from the early 1800s and is still in use today. The oldest known burial was recorded in 1817, although it is thought that there were others which took place earlier.

Our history goes back well over two hundred years. In the 1790s, German settlers arrived in Vaughan township from Somerset County in Southwest Pennsylvania. The Jacob and Michael Keffer, and Jacob Fischer families received deeds to lands and established homesteads. They were faithful people who established a Lutheran congregation in 1806 with Jacob Keffer as its lay leader who taught catechism classes. On August 10, 1811, Jacob Keffer gave a plot of land to the Lutheran congregation. The congregation’s first baptism was recorded at Zion on January 23, 1808.