Kaylor Methodist celebrates anniversary
KAYLOR, Armstrong County — The whole congregation of Kaylor United Methodist Church is pitching in for Sunday's observance of the church's 175th anniversary.
“Our church is so small that the whole church is the anniversary committee,” said Carol McCollough of Donegal Township, who's been a church member with her husband, Donald, since 1971.
“Our congregation is about 20 or less. We're a small church,” said Linda Gaiser of Chicora, who has been a member with her husband, Gary, since 1972.
“We've been here the longest. We're not the oldest, but we've been here the longest,” said McCollough.
“I married into it,” said Gary Gaiser. “It's like one big family that we have here.”
“We are just like a close family,” agreed his wife. “I feel guilty if I don't go.”
“We've been told by the district (the Butler District of the Western Pa. Conference of the United Methodist Church) that it's the 175th anniversary. We don't have a lot of records because they were lost in a fire,” said McCollough.
From what the present members can piece together, the church began in 1840 in the home of R.K. Rumbaugh, who was also the church's first pastor, said Gaiser.
A church was built on Kaylor-Petrolia Road, but moved to its present location along Route 68 in 1924 and was dedicated in January 1925.
In 1977, the church was renovated with the pews, stained-glass windows and lights taken from the Methodist church in Petrolia that was later torn down.
“Bruce Junker, who was the shop teacher in East Brady, cut all the pews in half because we wanted a center aisle and added endcaps to the one end,” said McCollough. Even though the Kaylor church's small congregation is aging and has to share Pastor Denise Mains with the United Methodist Church in Queenstown, Gaiser said, “We're very small, but we still keep plugging along.”Mains said, “I love being here. I fit in well here. I think I have a real heart for the older congregation.”“Too often pastors want a young, vibrant congregation,” Mains said. “Youth is important for the life of the church, but it is important to care for the older congregations.”Today, the Kaylor church has a single 8:30 a.m. Sunday service and alternates celebrating major holidays such as Christmas and Easter with the Queenstown church.“We used to have some pretty good spaghetti dinners that we served up here for many years,” said Gary Gaiser.And his wife and McCullough started the church's Sunday school. At one time the church had a kids club that numbered nearly 30 teens.
McCullough said, “It's just like my husband says, 'This church should probably be closed down, but until the Lord leads us elsewhere, it must be intended to be open.'”“Actually, all the little churches of Western Pennsylvania all have the same problem,” said Mains. “They say 'This is my church and I'm not going to leave.'”“We ask people to come,” McCullough said. “We would love to have new members, particularly younger people, but Kaylor is kind of an aging community.”“When we first moved here, we visited six or seven local churches. They just made us feel like we belonged the first time we visited. I hope we still give visitors that feeling,” said Linda Gaiser.
