MARINE ON ST CROIX, Minn. — When the doors opened Thursday morning at Christ Lutheran Church in Marine on St. Croix, the smell of lutefisk lingered in the air.
"Follow your nose," said the door greeter, as guests entered the church.
Christ Lutheran Church hosted its annual traditional Swedish Dinner for the first time since the pandemic. They estimated 600 people would come through the church basement for Swedish brown beans, meatballs, potatoes, rice pudding, beets, coleslaw and the main attraction — lutefisk.
"You watch. It's the answer to world peace because nobody comes through here without smiling," said Lester Rydeen, a volunteer who got the prime position serving lutefisk.
Guests had their choice of butter or cream sauce on their lutefisk. Rydeen said he usually has three helpings.
"I don't like to play favorites so one with butter, one with cream sauce, and one with both," he said.
Lutefisk, a traditional Scandinavian dish, is made from dried white fish soaked in lye and water.
"Norwegians in Norway, they don't eat lutefisk. The reason why is... why would we want fish that's been soaked in lye water when we can eat fresh fish?" Herbert Nelson said.
Nelson led his table in a Norwegian table prayer before eating the meal.
"The pastor of the Norwegian Lutheran church in Minneapolis whose a friend of mine... he won't eat lutefisk," Nelson said. "I told him I was going to have lutefisk today and he said he would pray for me."
Christ Lutheran Church started serving their Swedish dinner in the mid-1930s. They took two years off because of the pandemic. At first, they weren't sure the dinner would return.
"Like many congregations, even pre-pandemic, we were having people not certain they had time to volunteer or just everyone's busy with their life," said Cheryl Reinitz, chairperson for the Swedish dinner committee. "Then the pandemic hit and we obviously didn't have the dinner for 2021 and 2022 so we didn't know if people would want to participate. So we asked our congregation first, 'Would you volunteer?' and we had a resounding yes. Then the calls started coming like six months ago... are you having the dinner, what time is it, what day is it?"
"It takes a village," said Kevin Nyenhuis, mayor of Marine on St. Croix.
During the day, Nyenhuis was outside the church baking bread in a mobile brick oven he built over the summer. The bread then went to the church's bake sale.
Nyenhuis said he's not sure how many churches still host lutefisk dinners but the numbers have been dwindling.
"Some churches have abandoned it because it's just such a big effort," he said.
"We're like the only ones in this local area who are having the dinner so it's pretty special to us," Reinitz said.
Christ Lutheran's pastors Hannah Bartos and Joel Martin said proceeds from the dinner will go towards organizations and ministries they support throughout the year. Their bake sale will help raise funds for youth programs.
"It brings the church together to pull it off but it also expands our understanding of community as it brings in people from throughout the Twin Cities and even other parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota," Pastor Martin said.
Martin said they planned on going through 550 pounds of lutefisk and more than 200 pounds of meatballs.
"There are no grumpy people at a lutefisk dinner," said Bob Horn from Woodbury. Horn has been coming to this dinner for about 20 years and travels around the area to different lutefisk dinners. This is his seventh or eighth one this season.
Horn said he goes for the fellowship, adding, "The fish isn't all that redeeming."
Friend Jim Luadtke added, "I tried to have fellowship with those lutefisk and it just did not occur."
But a polarizing dish has brought people together.
Volunteer Mark Rossi said, "This silly little fish can either tear us apart or bring us together."
Watch more Breaking The News:
Watch all of the latest stories from Breaking The News in our YouTube playlist: