Peters Creek United Presbyterian Church: People and Places of PCUPC

Pictures courtesy Jackson Brower and Lucinda Wiebe

Welcome to the home of the "Faithful Remnant" of the Peters Creek United Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)

We are the "faithful remnant" of the Peters Creek United Presbyterian Church, founded in 1795, and still afilliated with the PCUSA (Presbyterian Church, USA), and Washington Presbytery.

Our present, and very unusual, status as a church began in 2007 when our former congregation became divided over whether to realign with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) or remain with the PCUSA. By a close vote, the majority decided to leave the PCUSA, while we in the minority wanted to stay. Unfortunately, those who voted to stay were then dismissed from membership. A legal battle ensued between the majority and the PCUSA over the ownership of the church's assets, grounds and building, with the final outcome hopefully to be determined this year. The majority still meets in the original church grounds on Brookwood Road, now afilliated with the EPC. In 2008 the PCUSA and Washington Presbytery came to our aid, as we were then still members of the PCUSA, but without an organized church. They voted to recognize us as the "True Church" from the original Peters Creek congregation, helped us to "reorganize" with new church officers, and designated us as part of a program for a New Church Development. In 2011 we called as our full-time Designated Pastor, the Rev. Dr. John M. Wiebe.

Through all of these unfortunate events, we are moving forward as a church, still faithfully seeking to serve our Lord, Jesus Christ, as a smaller, yet growing congregation. As a New Church Development we are establishing new ministries to reach out to our community. These are described on this web page, as well as in our newsletter, "The Remnant". We worship each Sunday at 9:30 AM at the Venetia Heritage Society Building (the former Venetia Elementary School) on Venetia Road.

As we await the court's decision, we hope and pray that we might yet be reconciled and reunited as one church with the other half of our former congregation. In spite of our past differences, they still remain our friends, and brothers and sisters in Christ. We still cherish many warm memories of a shared past history, having worked side by side with them in the service of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We pray that the future holds more of such memories of service yet to be made.

If you are looking for a church home that is doing new things, please consider joining us for worship and fellowship as we continue to minister to the McMurray/Venetia communities.

If you would like more information or wish to speak with Pastor John, please call 412-420-9506, or you can e-mail us at peterscreekmail@gmail.com.

Whether you are a church goer or not, we exist in this community to serve you and your family, in the Name of Jesus, in any way we can.

You can check out our denomination's website at http://www.pcusa.org/

Sunday, February 5, 2012

People and Places of PCUPC

No comments:

Post a Comment