On Sunday, October 7, the Amesville Presbyterian Church held a celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the formation of the Amesville/New England Cooperative Parish in Athens County.

The worship celebration included an inspiring bell choir, special music by 2 young sisters, greetings from Frank Hare, and a great sermon by John Gilmore, former student pastor and the first Commissioned Lay Pastor in Scioto Valley.

These 3 congregations, the United Methodist and Presbyterian Churches in Amesville and the Presbyterian Church in New England, worked together closely for many years before they officially came together in 1987 to form this Ecumenical Cooperative Parish.

The First Presbyterian Church in Athens serves as a Partner in Mission.

The covenant agreement for the Amesville-New England Parish includes combined worship, church school and other programs.

This Cooperative Parish also provides a broad range of outreach programs to the community, the surrounding area and around the world!

Congratulations to The Reverend Frank and Educator Catherine Hare for so generously sharing their many talents, gifts and creative energy with this parish for over 20 years!

Photo: John Gilmore and Frank and Catherine Hare

Sometime late last spring, Rev. Timothy J. Luoma happened across the Bible in 90 Days website and immediately thought, “90 days?! That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard!”

But then… the more he thought about it, he decided it was something he wanted to try. “Hrm, if I turn it into a Sunday school class, that would keep me from giving up!” So he started talking up the idea from the pulpit and in the church newsletter. “I really had no idea if anyone else would be interested, especially over at 9 on Sunday morning!”

The first Sunday we had about 20 people show up (given that a “good Sunday” attendance is about 100, this was especially encouraging). The final Sunday we had about 20 people show up, and attendance stayed consistent all through the summer. In addition we had several others who were reading along at home. Each week’s sermon came from the readings of the week ahead.

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On Sunday, September 30, worshipers at the Waverly First Presbyterian Church marked the 20th anniversary of their pastor’s service with a special fellowship time following the service.

The Rev. Richard S. Hays began his ministry in Waverly October 1, 1987, following an eleven year pastorate at the Rockford, Ohio, Presbyterian Church. With his guidance and support, in 2001 the congregation moved out of an 1840’s inaccessible downtown building into a contemporary, functional, hospitable (and, since 2005, debt-free) building with room to grow and expand if the need presents itself.

The church session surprised Rick and his wife Paula this summer by presenting them with a four week sabbatical opportunity. They attended the National Pastor’s Sabbath in Snowbird, Utah, spent a week at Ghost Ranch, and attended a week-long training event on church transformation in Chicago, in addition to wonderful sight-seeing in the Southwest.

Since becoming a member of Scioto Valley Presbytery, Rick has been involved a many aspects of the presbytery’s work. He chaired the former Division of Care of Churches, the Bills and Overtures committee, and the Hanging Rock Area ministry. He was presbytery moderator 1998-99 and was a commissioner to two General Assemblies. He was recently elected Stated Clerk of the presbytery and will be installed at the November presbytery meeting.

Paula serves as choir director the Waverly church. For seven years she was a Christian Education consultant for the Hanging Rock Area and coordinator for the presbytery’s Jackson resource center.

When Rick and Paula moved to Waverly their children Elizabeth and were ages 11 and 7, respectively. Today, Elizabeth uses her Ph.D. in physics at NASA’s Goddard Space Center, Greenbelt, MD, and Drew recently completed work for his D.F.A. in Music from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and is teaching at Greensboro’s Guilford College.

PSV Hanging Rock area church professionals gathered for delightful summer picnic at the lovely country home of Kay and Frank Puckett near Wilkesville.