In many respects, the Rev. Gary Close says, it's just another birthday.
It's not unlike a person "up in years," who doesn't see what the big deal is about another candle on the cake.
But when those "candles" number 200, that's a decidedly different story, says the pastor of Puckety Presbyterian Church, Lower Burrell.
Generations of Stewarts at church
Puckety Church has been a major part of Janet Karan's life for all of her 69 years. The Lower Burrell resident is the sixth generation of the Stewart family (her mother was Pearl Stewart) to attend Puckety. Karan has granddaughters who represent the eighth generation.
"Two hundred years ago, a member of the Stewart family was involved in establishing Puckety Presbyterian Church. I pray that Puckety Church can celebrate many more years with the Stewart family participating and contributing," says Karan, who has been a deacon for many years.
She recalls when she and others used to walk some challenging roads to the old church building, near the current one at 1009 Puckety Church Road.
"They had to start an old coal furnace. By the time it got the church heated up, the meeting was over, and it was time to go home," she says, laughing.
Reid Stewart, 73, of Lower Burrell, who grew up in Puckety's old frame church -- built in 1898 in a cemetery -- admits that he had his thoughts on home as a small and, sometimes, impatient child sitting through Sunday services.
"I always took the bulletin and marked off each item in the order of service to see how near the end we were," he says, chuckling.
He eventually grew more comfortable in church, becoming one of the members of the congregation to go on to a career as a Presbyterian pastor. He never pastored at Puckety. His great-great grandfather, William Stewart, was one of the original elders.
Rev. Reid Stewart will participate in the Oct. 3 celebration. "It's important to make people conscious sometimes that something has gone before them, and they are part of a train of history," Stewart says.
That history is believed to have begun before 1804, when a nucleus of what was to become the congregation met during the summer of 1795.
Puckety's printed chronicles note:
"Within the very nature of this pioneer people was a rugged strength of faith, an unconquerable tenacity of purpose and a self-sacrificing loyalty to high ideals. To the frontier of America came these hearty Scots souls with Bible, psalm book, rifle and axe."
The first place of worship was described as "a temple not made by hands." It was a grove of oaks on the Ross homestead, not far from what became the boundary with New Kensington along Leechburg Road.
Their numbers were increased by Scotch-Irish immigrants, including John Ross in 1801, and William and John Stewart and John and William Watt in 1804.
The first church was a log building, 32 feet by 38 feet, built on the Beale property in 1815. The building was enlarged, then destroyed by fire during the mid-1830s.
The Rev. James McConnell was invited to preach the first sermon in the building on the first Sunday in May 1836. It was his first and last in the structure, which burned the next day -- not the result of a "fire and brimstone" sermon, incidentally.
Close sees that fire as early illustration of the commitment and resolve of the people of Puckety Church, who were determined to rebuild on the site the next year.
After the fire, services were conducted in barns, schoolhouses and even the woods. One communion service was in the woods near the current site.
The going rate for supply preachers at the time was $6 per Sunday; $20 for communion season.
Rev. Jonathan G. Fulton, Puckety's pastor for a year in 1838, was described as an eloquent preacher whose sermons were "pervaded with deep thought and a logic that was always on fire."
"One said of him 'I think he would knock you down if you wouldn't believe what he says,' " the Puckety history notes.
At one time, he was assigned a room in an inn with a Roman Catholic who was well versed in his own beliefs, the history adds. "As you might expect there was no sleep for either of them; they debated the whole night."
Link in a chain of history
A "lingering sense" of a link to Puckety's beginnings is found in today's congregation, Close says. "Our bicentennial celebration, and the long-range planning done during the previous two years, have helped some of the newer members see some of the connections to the history and tradition," he says.
"Having said that, the more significant emphasis is on recognizing that it is our responsibility to be the people of God at Puckety and to serve God faithfully in building God's Kingdom as did those who have gone before us."
The bicentennial offers opportunity to assess the church's effectiveness in carrying out its mission and ministry, says Chuck West, 64, of Lower Burrell, who is an ordained deacon and elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and a member of Puckety since 1968. West is among 11 who are serving a term as a ruling elder.
It is vital, he says, that mainstream denominational churches recognize and adapt to the changing nature of society. "It is appropriate and crucial that the message of the church remains unchanged, but the method of communicating that message to and in a changing society must adapt to the needs and behaviors of the society," he says.
West believes the message of the church is as relevant as ever, but if it fails to understand how to present the message, the church will continue to decline as a meaningful institution. "Worse yet, it will fail in its primary function, which is to be the 'Body of Christ,' " West says.
A church must look beyond its doors to reach out to the needs of the community, Close says.
"At the heart of it, all we do is motivated by our response to the love of God that has touched our lives. We reach out to others because God first reached out to us," he says. "God blessed us, so we, in turn, seek to be a blessing to others."
Puckety comes alive
Members have told West that the church came alive in 1969, when the congregation decided to reach into the community through ministries such as Meals-on-Wheels.
Scout Troop No. 141 has been active for more than 50 years and has produced many Eagle Scouts. Many Puckety members have been involved, a number of them serving as scout masters.
Connie Baker of Lower Burrell, a church elder and a Puckety member since 1951, helped organize Meals-on-Wheels. "It was the first totally volunteer Meals-on-Wheels in western Pennsylvania. It started with a donation of $50 and served seven people. Now, it's up to more than 130 people," she says.
She also taught Sunday School for 17 years, fielding questions such as "Where did God begin?" from youngsters. Sara Johnston was the first woman's elder, elected in 1967.
"The congregation is real friendly; everyone helps one another," Baker says. "When we started Meals-on-Wheels, people just pitched in right away. Then we spoke to other churches about how to start their own Meals-on-Wheels. It's really satisfying work."
That spawned another program, called Repairs on Wheels, no longer in operation, in which members went to homes to do small repairs.
Puckety also assists many community activities by providing meeting space for groups such as Animal Protectors.
Close, an avid bicyclist, has formed a bike club, leading youth and other members on week-long cycling trips of as many as 200 miles.
He led a journey from Cumberland, Md., to Washington, D.C. on the C&O tow path during the summer, and a trip from Meadville to Niagara Falls is planned.
"It's been a great way to relate to young people," he says.
On its 200th birthday, Puckety remains a mission-minded church, Baker says.
"What we do elsewhere is more important than what we do for ourselves," she says.
"The primary thing is your focus needs to be on God and serving God and other people, not on survival," Close says.
Harry Fisher
New Year's Day 1984 brought one of the most profound events in the modern history of Puckety Presbyterian Church.
It was the sudden and unforeseen death of its beloved pastor and community leader Rev. J. Harry Fisher. Fisher, who was 53, was in his 20th year of ministry at Puckety when he died of a heart attack.
A memorial service was conducted at Burrell High School's auditorium to accommodate the hundreds of mourners -- a testament, elder Charles West says, to the extent to which Fisher's ministry and outgoing personality had affected the community.
The City of Lower Burrell recognized Fisher's contribution by naming a social room at a city park Fisher Hall.
Fisher believed that the church would be strengthened as members identified their individual talents and learned how to use those gifts.
"He was very outgoing," says his widow, Ellen Fisher, who remains an elder at Puckety and serves on the bicentennial committee.
"I still have people in the community tell me stories about how he used to come into their places of business and what he said. People, not just from the church, looked to him for guidance sometimes. He came home from the Lower Burrell Chamber of Commerce one day and said, 'Can you believe they asked me to be the president?' "
He had joined the chamber, she says, because "He wanted to know people and understand what was happening."
Fisher preferred to be called Harry, without a title attached. West remembers him as "a man of words and a man of action."
"He required only four to five hours of sleep and seemed to have boundless energy. He had a hearty laugh that was immediately recognized," West says. "He could and would strike up a conversation with a complete stranger. His mannerisms and behavior belied the stereotypical 'minister.' "
Pastor Gary Close says Puckety had been growing under Fisher. "His untimely death sent shockwaves throughout the congregation. It took several years to recover from that loss," Close says.
Ellen Fisher praises Close's leadership. "It's very, very difficult to come in as the new pastor. People get so used to doing things the way somebody else did. He has done well. He's very kind and encouraging. He listens to people well, and he is very sincere in his concern."
When he went to Puckety in 1988, Close's approach was to encourage people to talk about Rev. Fisher and their church. That allowed them to complete the grieving process, he says.
"By my best estimate, that process took approximately six years. Then we were ready to begin moving forward into a new era of ministry," Close says.
Close has served churches throughout western Pennsylvania, and he was in the Army Reserve for 31 years, the last 23 as a chaplain. He retired in 1995 after having reached the rank of colonel.
Close used to tell people that being a chaplain was a lot like being a pastor. "Instead of being hired by a particular congregation to serve them and lead in their ministry, though, being a chaplain was like being hired by the mayor and told you were responsible for the religious needs of all the people within a square mile area of the city, regardless of what they believed."
One of Close's most stimulating experiences was supervising the efforts of 10 other chaplains as they served 3,000 soldiers during an annual training exercise.
"We were all Protestant, and we had to provide for the spiritual needs of all of the Roman Catholic soldiers, plus all of the Jewish soldiers, and this was during Passover," Close says. "Needless to say, I learned a lot about coordination, teamwork and creativity."
Additional Information:
