new church life : may / june 2017
Revolutionary War . When the U . O . Heilman family discovered the New Church , they travelled to the city to worship with the Pittsburgh New Church members . Dr . Rene Heilman married Alexander P . Lindsay , and the two families purchased land in the Buffalo Valley to hunt , fish , farm and establish their homes . The Brown family followed , and then the Horigan family , the Aldens and other adventurous friends and family .
The early members of the New Church in the Freeport area met for worship services in their homes . In the 1970s-1990s we sent our children by bus to the Pittsburgh New Church School and provided Vacation Bible School for the growing number of children in our New Church families and among our community friends . In the 1980s we rented the Episcopal Church in Freeport for afternoon worship services , and later we were welcomed to the Fair Winds Manor meeting room for Sunday worship to accommodate our growing numbers .
The Rev . Donald L . Rose came up from Pittsburgh to baptize our children , hold family services wherever we were meeting , have classes for the adults , and teach at the summer Bible School . Our church members have many fond memories and stories of Don Rose and the earlier ministers – the Revs . Kurt H . Asplundh , Louis B . King and Willard D . Pendleton .
Finally , in 1986-87 , the Freeport / Sarver area embraced a sufficient number of members to take on building a permanent place of worship , The Sower ’ s Chapel , located at the “ other end ” of Iron Bridge Road , in Sarver . The Rev . Ragnar Boyesen was called to serve as our first resident pastor and fortunately he was gifted in skills to facilitate the building of the church and to attract people in the community to join us in worship .
We named the church “ The Sower ’ s Chapel ” to reflect the farming community in which we lived , as “ The Sunrise Chapel ” reflects the Sunshine State . We also wanted the name to reference the Parable of the Sower , one of the few parables in which Jesus revealed the spiritual meaning of the parable He was teaching to His disciples .
At the 30 th Anniversary Dinner on April 22 at The J-Barn , a local restaurant , we reminisced with slides and stories about all the people who contributed to the building of our chapel . After a short history of the establishment of the New Church in the Freeport area , our emcee , Dr . Dan Heilman , invited people to offer memories of the building of our church and other incidents and events of the last 30 years . We noted that our dedication dinner 30 years before had been celebrated at the same restaurant , Jardines , whose ownership had changed , but which was still in business just over the hill from the chapel .
As we reminisced , we were reminded of the resident pastors and their families who joined us in our country chapel : Clark and Margie Echols , the first residents of “ the manse ,” Les and Bev Sheppard , Ethan and Jessica
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