The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
+The Rev. Dr. Juan Cobrda+
August 11th, 1930-July 1st, 2010
The Rev. Dr. Juan Čobrda passed from this life on the evening of Thursday, July 1st at Evanston Hospital where he was receiving hospice care after recently being diagnosed with liver cancer. The funeral liturgy will be held at Trinity Slovak Lutheran Church, 5106 North LaCrosse Avenue in Chicago. The visitation and funeral schedule is as follows:
Visitation: Thursday, July 8th, 2:00-8:00 p.m. at the church.
Funeral: Friday, July 9th, 10:00 a.m., at the church. No visitation prior to the service.
Pastor Čobrda was born in Príbovce, near Martin, Slovakia on August 11th, 1930. Following World War II, his family fled to Austria, Germany and Italy as refugees before immigrating to Argentina where Pastor Čobrda served in the Argentine Navy for five years as an electrician. Following his service in the Navy, Pastor Čobrda studied four years at the new seminary in Buenas Aires which educated pastors from all parts of Latin America. He then studied English for one year in the United States at Wittenberg University.
Pastor Čobrda was ordained by the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Argentina on December 14th, 1958 and served as the bishop of that church from 1966-76. In the city of Rosario in 1960 where Pastor Čobrda served for a year as an interim pastor, he met his future wife Žofia. From Rosario, he was assigned to Grandburg to organize a German and Spanish speaking congregation. During these seven years in Grandburg, Pastor Čobrda was active in community organizing efforts which brought about many services to that community, including a school, electricity, sanitation, streets and a post office.
In 1970, Pastor Čobrda was elected Third Vice-President of the Lutheran World Federation, a position which took him to many parts of the globe. Then, in 1975, the Cobrda’s, with their two children, Analia and Jan, came to the United States where Pastor Čobrda served congregations of the Slovak Zion Synod of the Lutheran Church in America, first at St. John Lutheran Church in Trenton, New Jersey, then at Trinity Lutheran Church in Akron, Ohio, and finally, Trinity Slovak Lutheran Church in Chicago during the 1980s. From 1993–2002, he served as bishop of the Slovak Zion Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Following his retirement, Pastor and Mrs. Čobrda continued to live in Niles where he frequently provided pastoral supply and interim ministry for area congregations. They moved to Mundelein in December 2008. They have been members of Sts. Peter and Paul in Riverside since 1993.
Funeral Liturgy