This week is known as Heritage Sunday. A reception provided by the Presbyterian Women will follow the service in the dining hall. It will include time for sharing photographs and stories of church history.

Sunday also marks the church's 180th anniversary. Center Church was founded April 16, 1828, when a group of men asked the Presbytery of Ohio for permission to form a church equidistant from the then existing parishes of Bethany, Bethel, Chartiers and Mingo. Originally using the old English spelling, "Centre" was so named as it was in the center of the four established churches. Its name would later be modernized to "Center."

The new Centre Church was built for $1,200 on land given by Daniel Bell for the purpose of erecting a meeting house and providing a cemetery adjacent to it. It was located just north of the present building on Center Church Road. The Rev. Matthew Brown, president of Jefferson College in Canonsburg, was appointed to be moderator. Sixteen months later, he officially organized the congregation on Aug. 29, 1829, and in January 1830, the Rev. John H. Kennedy, a professor at Jefferson College, was installed as the church's first minister.

The congregation used the original structure until early in 1852, when it moved into its new meeting house built of brick. This original sanctuary is still incorporated in the existing building.

Today Center Church has about 450 members.

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