Little Redstone Presbyterian celebrates 225th anniversary
Courtesy of Joshua Scully
Little Redstone Presbyterian Church in Fayette City is celebrating its 225th anniversary this year.
Courtesy of Joshua Scully
The Little Redstone Presbyterian Church in Fayette City will celebrate its 225th anniversary with a special ceremony July 16.
Courtesy of Joshua Scully
These pews seat about 50 parishioners at Little Redstone Presbyterian Church.
Little Redstone Presbyterian Church is celebrating its 225th anniversary this year.
That momentous anniversary will be marked with a special ceremony, set for 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 16 at the church at 304 Central School Road in Fayette City.
“It’s going to be a combination recognition ceremony and worship service,” said Joshua Scully, pastor of the church since 2018. “We’re inviting the congregation, family and friends of the congregation and neighboring congregations. We’d love to have anybody be there that would like to be there. Everybody who is in attendance on that day, we’re certainly going to invite back for worship the next morning.”
The ceremony also is expected to include the presentation of certificates of recognition by the Fayette County Commissioners. The commissioners have been invited to attend, as well as some state governmental officials.
Little Redstone Presbyterian Church was first established in April of 1797. That was just a few months after John Adams became the president of the United States, the country’s second ever president.
Over the years, the church has served parishioners from Brownsville, Fayette City, Charleroi, Monessen and Perryopolis.
“The congregation, where it’s located right now, has always had the distinct advantage of being situated between Perryopolis, Fayette City and Brownsville,” Scully said. “The fact that you’re a short drive from all of those places, I think, has always helped bring people to the congregation.”
Scully said he is aware of only about four or five Presbyterian churches in the area that were formed before Little Redstone.
The congregation is a PCUSA (Presbyterian Church of the United States of America) congregation, as well as a member presbytery of the congregation of Redstone, which oversees Presbyterians churches in Fayette, Somerset, Westmoreland and Cambria counties.
The church draws its name from the Little Redstone Creek, a tributary the Redstone Creek, which flows into the Monongahela River.
The original church building, a log structure, was built along the banks of the Little Redstone Creek. The current building, a brick structure built in 1845, is less than a few hundred feet from the creek.
“That structure has gone through a lot of changes, the roof has been changed, a basement has been added,” Scully said. “But the outside of the church has not changed a great deal.”
The first pastor was Dr. Jacob Jennings, who served the congregation from 1797 until his death in 1813.
“He was known to pray during these times of worship for hours at a time,” Scully said. “He was very fondly remembered by the records of that time in the church’s history.”
Currently, the church has a congregation of about 50 members. Weekly Mass is 9:30 a.m. on Sunday.
“It’s a very consistent membership,” Scully said. “We have increased by a few members during my time. Unfortunately, my pastorate has been really hallmarked by the pandemic. A lot of my working with them has been navigating that experience for everybody.”
That led Scully taking a step many parishes took during the height of the pandemic, streaming services. Services continue to be recorded and shown on the church’s Facebook page.
Bible study also has been taking place online, but Scully said plans are in motion to have an in-person Bible study.
“We do have a very successful Bible school program,” Scully said. “We had it the summer before the pandemic, then we canceled it until last summer. That’s a program we’d like to keep going. We are searching and planning as many different ways as possible to get children involved in the congregation.”
Scully said that will be a big part of the church’s future. But for now, a little time will be taken to celebrate the past.
“We love these instances to consider our history and where we’ve been,” Scully said. “But at the same time, we see our story as very much to be continued. We’re constantly looking for new ways to branch out our ministry.”