Adventist church celebrates 125th year
Washington Seventh-day Adventist Church, 901 N. Main St., will celebrate its 125th anniversary Aug. 14 and 15.
A vesper service will begin at 7 p.m. Aug. 14, and on Aug. 15, the worship service will begin at 11 a.m. and a rededication service will begin at 3 p.m. A luncheon also will be held Aug. 15.
The Washington church is part of the Pennsylvania Conference of the North American Division of the international Seventh-day Adventist denomination, which is composed of 12 additional world divisions and two attached fields. The denomination’s General Conference coordinates and assumes responsibility for its global spiritual and developmental plans.
According to the church’s historian and church records, the Adventist presence was established in Washington on April 19, 1890, following the denomination’s evangelistic revival meetings in the city’s west end, in what was known as McWilliams Woods, and in Burgettstown.
Washington’s first Adventist church building was constructed on Brookside Avenue and dedicated on July 4, 1891. Membership grew in the fall of 1904 following another series of evangelistic tent meetings on Broad Street in West Washington, where Archie Brownlee, a founding member, served as tent master.
On Christmas Eve 1904, Ida Perrine and Archie Brownlee were married in the church. They were key lay leaders for 50 years.
The church building on North Main Street was dedicated on June 6, 1959. The lot upon which it was built was purchased from Charles H. Russell.
A private elementary school operated out of the church building in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and several vacation Bible schools have been held at the church since 1960.
In 1999, the Washington church planted a church in Waynesburg under the leadership of Pastor Lynwood Spangler. Pastor Yves Monnier was instrumental in establishing churches in Charleroi, Greensburg and McKeesport.
The current pastor and his wife are Dr. Robert and Amy Williams. In addition to the Washington church, they serve Seventh-day Adventist churches in Belle Vernon, Uniontown, North Versailles and Greensburg. Robert Williams also is director of the Religious Liberty Department for the Pennsylvania Conference.
Seventh-day Adventists believe their movement is the result of the Protestant conviction of Sola scriptura, meaning that the Bible alone is the authority in all matters.
Reservations are required for the luncheon by calling Wilma Cale at 863-632-0299.