By Colleen Nelson
Here’s the church, here’s the steeple, open the doors and see all the people!” When I was a kid I loved folding my fingers together, pointing my index fingers up and opening my thumbs to see all the “people” wiggling inside my church. That memory came back to me as I was writing this story about the old Presbyterian Church in Jefferson. When Thomas Hughes and his extended entourage settled the land around Jefferson, they brought their faith with them.
At Cornerstone Genealogical Society, I found a newspaper clipping from 1981 that celebrated the Presbyterian faith’s 200th anniversary in Jefferson, including bits of its backstory. Earliest church records, the article tells us “date back to September 1781 when the church requested its first minister from Redstone Presbytery.” But further historical research “points to an earlier date, perhaps 1776.”
In those early days the church was “yoked” with New Providence, or Glades Church in Carmichaels and shared John McClintock as pastor. The first Presbyterian Church was built of logs. By 1814, parishioners bought land from Thomas Hughes for $40 and built a frame church, which was destroyed by fire in 1843. In 1845, Reverend McClintock lead the charge to replace it with a brick structure. The church became United Presbyterian in 1958, a more modern house of worship was built next door and the old church became a fellowship hall and Sunday School.
But by the time I finally got to Pine Street Jefferson to find those two churches and write this story, I would be meeting with Wendell Bates, pastor of Little Zion Baptist Church. I thought of my childhood “church” and grinned. Old church – new people!
Prior to visiting, I pulled up the latest sermon and settled in for a dynamic rendition of faith, lead by Pastor Wendell Bates and his wife Kim. Kim, I learn later, also leads Restored Women, a phone discussion group that meets weekly to share personal stories of spiritual growth.
“I’ve only been pastor for three years and I’m not sure when the church moved here,” Pastor Wendell tells me over the phone. “You’ll have to talk to Sister Janet Capozza.” When Kim’s job took them to Fayette County, the Bates moved from New Orleans to Markleysburg. “When I got this calling we moved to Greene County. We love living here. The people are caring and the church doors are open.” The Bates are both nurses and Wendell works in Uniontown at a health care facility. Ministering is volunteering at its spiritual best for this couple. COVID-19 brought its share of blessings to their household – when Kim needed hospital care at the beginning of the pandemic, their daughter came with her two girls to help out and were caught up in the sequestration. As we talk I can hear the girls playing in the background. When we finally get together for a photograph beside the churches, they are at first shy then happy to be part of the picture.
“We kept the doors open – churches are a life sustaining entity.” Gradually, as the weeks wore on, a scattering of families returned, sitting in clusters at safe distances and “we cleaned all surfaces after service.”
Fresh fruits and vegetables are now part of the ministry. Pastor Wendell networks with Jubilee International Church in Plum to distribute boxes of produce, first come first serve, every Friday from 4 – 5 p.m.
There is a high expanse of windows in the chapel that replaced the old church. Kim tells me every year they put a tree there for Christmas and invite neighboring churchgoers to bring ornaments to help decorate it.
I meet Janet Capozza when I return to meet some of the people who stop by for the weekly produce. Her family was part of the congregation when Little Zion Church moved here from its smaller wooden building down the street, sometime in the mid 1980s. Everyone is looking forward to spending more spiritual time together if the virus can be contained and the older parishioners feel safe. But until then, Pastor Wendell reminds us, inside the church or outside, “The Kingdom of God is still open. God wants the relationship.“
