Jefferson Center Presby marks 150th year
JEFFERSON CENTER — The Jefferson Center Presbyterian Church, 390 Frazier Road, is getting a new pastor just in time to help it celebrate its upcoming 150th anniversary.
The Rev. Mark Allio presided over his first worship service Sunday, replacing certified ruling elder Tom McMeekin, who had served as interim pastor for the past three years.
It had been a long search. Ruth Walker, a member of the church's pastor nominating committee, said the search had taken almost a year. “The congregation formed the committee in February (2020),” said Walker, and began reviewing what she called “pastor resumes.”
Walker and other committee members said the process was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions that went into effect last year. The committee members met and reviewed candidates via Zoom.
After zeroing in on Allio, Walker said the Beaver-Butler Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (USA) arranged for the committee to hear Allio preach at a neutral pulpit, a church in Beaver.“We listened and we came back and came to a unanimous agreement on him,” Walker said.Allio was invited to the church to give a candidate sermon, and after the service the congregation voted at the end of January to offer him the position.Allio said this is his first solo pastorship after sharing a pulpit at a church in Mechanicsburg for the past nine years.“It was, for me, definitely God's leading,” said Allio. “I don't want to steal Olive Garden's slogan, 'When you are here, you're family,' but I immediately felt it was the right time for the church and my family.”Allio, his wife, Carrie, and their four sons, ages 2 to 11, moved to the county after the end of the school year.“Coming in for the 150th anniversary is no more pressure,” he said. “It's a blessing to work into the celebration. I think it is exciting to examine the past and move forward.”
According to church history, on July 8, 1871, the Butler Presbytery granted the request of the Rev. Carl Linn and 12 persons requesting the establishment of a German-speaking church.Originally named the Linville Presbyterian Church, its cornerstone was laid on Oct. 11, 1871. In April 1873, the name of the church was changed to the German Evangelical Presbyterian Church-Jefferson Center.A call for the Rev. C.W. Seaman was presented to the presbytery for one-half of his services in 1873, and at this meeting the church's name was changed to Jefferson Center Presbyterian Church.From the beginning, the church struggled to survive. Five years after the church organized, it had no pastor and its session (church council) didn't meet.The exclusive use of the German language began to wane because the young people of the church could not read German. By 1902, German no longer was used in church services.The church didn't get its first full-time pastor until 1986, with the Rev. Robert Langston. Still, the congregation, today numbering 91, pushed ahead.“At one point, there wasn't enough money to pay for a pastor full time,” Walker said. “Once, one church member gave a large sum of money to keep the doors open.”
In the words of the Rev. A.J. Sauerbrum, “The people simply plodded along and patiently carried on and so managed, by the grace of God, to keep the church in a prosperous condition, and in some instances setting a worthy example to other churches in the Presbytery.”Charlene Taylor, a 50-year church member and a member of the anniversary committee, said, “Right now, this is a healthy church financially. But it had a lot to conquer in the earlier years, the 1918 pandemic, the Great Depression.”Virginia Thinnes, one of the eight congregants on the anniversary committee, said the church will observe its 150th anniversary at its 9:30 a.m. worship service July 11.This will be followed by a catered lunch in the church's basement fellowship hall from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.Thinnes said eight former pastors are expected to attend as well as “older members that we haven't seen.”“A slide presentation will be running continuously after the church service in the sanctuary,” Thinnes said.As to what the next 150 years holds in store, Allio said, “Only God knows that. We are excited to see what will happen.”
