EVANS CITY — Westminster Presbyterian Church, 330 E. Main St., had its 175th anniversary this year.

To mark the occasion, the church had a special worship service and luncheon last month.

Former student pastor Tom Davis spoke along with former pastor William Jamieson, who was pastor from 1970 to 1998.

The luncheon included a slide show of church history provided by Dan Flint.

One of Jamieson’s initiatives was to have students from the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary serve as student pastors. There were 20 during his tenure, and the Rev. Tom Davis, who traveled from Wilmington, Del., for the event, was the second student pastor, serving in 1972.

A table at the front of the church held photos of programs, weddings, plays, canoe trips, short-term mission work teams and former pastors.

To further mark the occasion, church members made quilt patches, and the church’s quilting group incorporated them into banners that are now hanging in the church.

“There were squares of different types of material and mediums that depicted something that happened in the church history,” said church elder and choir pianist Phyllis Walker.

“The quilting group took all of those panels, formed them into banners and quilted the hangings,” said Walker.

The hangings have had to cover a lot of history.

The Evansburg (Evans City’s former name) United Presbyterian Church was organized in 1838, and services were first held in a frame school building on the site of the old cemetery.

After a lot was purchased in 1842, the first building was built on the site where the present church now stands.

The Methodist Episcopal Church merged with the Presbyterians on Jan. 18, 1931.

On Oct. 11, 1951, Evans City’s other Presbyterian Church, known as the Presbyterian Church of Evans City, merged with the United Presbyterians to form Westminster Presbyterian Church.

In 1973, the church started a preschool, the Westminster Church Preschool, according to its present director Karen Sharrar.

The preschool, which started the 2013-14 school year with 35 students ranging in age from 3 to 5, meets in the church basement on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

“The school doesn’t meet on Tuesdays. Tuesday was the day that women’s groups met at the church is the reason, I’m guessing,” said Sharrar.

At present, the church’s 180 members are being ministered by an interim pastor, the Rev. Tom Clyde.

“I came in October 2012 to fill in for the Rev. John Parks, who left to take over several small country churches near Carlisle,” he said.

He had previously been pastor at Westminster between 1998 and 2000.

“It’s been wonderful coming back,” said Clyde.

But, he said, the church formed a seven-member pastor search committee in June and it’s actively seeking a permanent pastor.

“I just turned 80 this summer. This could be my last posting. My friends tease me about retiring, but I love being a pastor,” Clyde said.

The church doesn’t seem content to rest on past accomplishments.

Walker said in addition to the quilting group, the church has a yearly women’s retreat in Mount Pleasant, two Bible study groups, a summer vacation Bible school program and a Sunday school.

“Our church is also involved in community outreach,” she said.

This includes sending care boxes to deployed military personnel, supporting the Evans City Food Cupboard and New Castle Rescue Mission both financially and with food collections, making Linus quilts for hospitalized children, supporting an abused women’s shelter and mission trips and financial support to Presbyterian Disaster Relief.

“We also have collection jars for loose change and designate a different charity each month — it’s surprising how it adds up,” Walker said.