Rod Chamberlain
Reflections on St. Paul’s UCC 275th Celebration: Part 6 - Collaboration On
September 10, 2023, St, Paul’s UCC celebrated its 275th anniversary. For the following three weeks, a series of Sunday morning classes were scheduled to focus on key stories from the congregation’s past. These devotions are taken from those classes.
5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. - 1 Corinthians 12:5-6
For over its first 150 years, St. Paul’s was always a part of a pastor’s multiple church charge, i.e., the pastor had responsibility for leading multiple congregations in the Shenandoah Valley. This produced many collaborations that were a part of St. Paul’s extended service to others. Among the most noticeable collaborations have been:
• With the support of the regional Classis (the German Reformed Association which included St. Paul’s) a seminary to prepare pastors was started in 1825, which is now known as the Lancaster Theological Seminary.
• Massanutten Academy, which began in September of 1899 when the Virginia Classis of the Reformed Church (of which St. Paul’s was a member) opened the school to “equip boys and girls for entrance into the best colleges and universities of the land.” This was quite different than the other education options at this time. (Historical Note: the Academy shifted to a military academy during World War I).
• The 1934 merger of the Evangelical Synod and the Reformed Church in the U.S. into one denomination since both drew memberships from the German American community, followed the Augsburg confession and the Heidelberg catechism, and had a liberal theology, e.g., they supported social welfare programs that included ten hospitals, ten children's homes, 18 homes for the aged, and institutions for epileptics.
• The Evangelical and Reformed Church, passionate in its impulse to unity, committed to “liberty of conscience inherent in the Gospel,” and the Congregational Christian Churches, a fellowship of biblical people under a mutual covenant for responsible freedom in Christ, joined together in 1957 as the United Church of Christ.
Today, St. Paul’s has many partnerships, including The Woodstock Clothes Closet, Luke’s Backpacks, Captain Underpants, the JMU Nursing Students “Campus Closet”, and both Woodstock’s Bread of Life and Fort Valley’s Mathews food pantries. The church also provides meeting space for local groups like NA - Narcotics Anonymous, TOPS - Taking Off Pounds Sensibly, Girl Scouts, and AA - Alcoholics Anonymous.
This series of six devotions started on Monday, Sept. 18, 2023, by looking on our founders - a group of strangers looking for a safe start in a new land. They established a church to worship God and to do good unto others. Their commitment to serve God and their community helped them through the very difficult times in the 19th century and to a century of new partnerships with others. It is not surprising, then, that St. Paul’s celebrated a new ministry on Sunday, August 27, 2023: the Sibert House to help with homelessness. This is a partnership to help others who now feel like strangers in a strange land.
Over 2,000 years ago, Jesus prayed that those who followed him “may all be one.” For 275 years, members of St. Paul’s have studied, worshipped, and acted to follow Christ’s direction in their lives. Perhaps the final question for this series is, “Based on this powerful history, what is the call of St. Paul’s today?”