Carmichaels church to mark 60th anniversary
First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Carmichaels will celebrate its 60th anniversary with a homecoming on Saturday, May 20. The program will begin at 3 p.m. with a worship service and comments from former ministers followed by a dinner. The church began as a new congregation on Feb. 25, 1946, under the direction of the Pennsylvania Christian Missionary Society. The charter members were Charles Reeves, Opal Reeves, Randol McCann, Ruth McCann, Arthur LaRue, Doris LaRue, Ralph LaRue, Marguerite LaRue, D.R. LaRue, Fred Gray, Jennie Gray, Mary Whoolery Devecka, Oliver Morton, Eva Morton, Retha Morton, John Headlee, Rerta Browser, Frank Sellers, Lean Sellers, Mildred Swartz, Pearl Holdsworth, James Harbison, Daisy Morrow, Clyde Reeves and Mrs. Clyde Reeves.
This church was the Pennsylvania Project of the Disciples of Christ’s “Crusade for a Christian World’ and was administered by the Pennsylvania Christian Missionary Society and was known as the Carmichaels Christian Mission.
The newly organized church began at the home of the Rev. D.R. LaRue. In the following months, Dr. H.A. Denton of the State Christian Missionary Society led the worship services. The small congregation met at the Carmichaels Central School, the American Legion Hall and the community hall at Cumberland Village. The Rev. Spencer Adamson served as the first regular minister.
In the fall of 1971, the Pennsylvania State Office suggested the Carmichaels church might consider a unity minister with its sister church in Marianna. For 12 years, the churches grew and flourished. Then on Dec. 1, 1983, this unity was dissolved because the Carmichaels church decided to call a full-time minister of its own. The church purchased a new parsonage in Carmichaels for the Rev. David Allen Mansfield, who had been a missionary in Africa. He was minister until 1992.
The Rev. Reagan L. Fike is the present minister, the first full-time female minister to fill the pulpit at the church. Officials said, “Due to her hard work and youthful energy, the church is growing again.’
To make a dinner for the complimentary dinner, phone the church office at 724-966-5174 or Fike at 724-966-8911 or Terri Donaldson at 724-966-7961.