Pictured left to right: Charlotte Fritz, Marie Gursky, Pastor Michael Frost, Audrey Christ, and Barbara Lushia
By Pastor Michael Frost

In what does the unity of the Church of Jesus Christ consist?

For Zion's Stone Church in West Penn Township, Schuylkill County, it means becoming the first federated congregation in the synod.

From a long history as a union church, through seven years of shared ministry, and now into the bright future God has for us as one “federated” church affiliated with both the ELCA and the UCC, God has blessed the people of Zion’s Stone Church

Once upon a time German immigrants came to the new world and settled in northeastern Pennsylvania in a lovely little valley just north of what we have come to call the Blue Mountain (West Penn Township). They came to America with the faith of the Reformation—some of the Lutheran tradition, others of the Reformed tradition. Frugal in heart and mind, one church building was constructed and the two congregations shared their one church. The Lutherans would gather for Sunday worship one week while the Reformed congregation would gather the next Sunday.

In the late 1700’s the Lutheran congregation was part of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania, while the Reformed congregation was originally under the jurisdiction of the Reformed Church of Holland, finally becoming part of the newly formed Synod of the German Reformed Church. Over the next two hundred years, the Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania and Adjacent States became part of the United Lutheran Church in America (1918), which became part of the Lutheran Church in America (1962), then became part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (1987). Over that same period of history, the Synod of the German Reformed Church became part of the General Synod of the Reformed Church (1863), which entered into a merger that resulted in the formation of the Evangelical and Reformed Church (1934), which itself entered into a further merger that formed the United Church of Christ (1957).

In 1846, the year in which the current stone church was built, a proclamation was adopted naming this church and its congregations “Zion’s High German Reformed and German Evangelical Lutheran Church in West Penn.” The congregations were part of a four-point parish, in which one Lutheran pastor and one Reformed pastor served four local congregations. Worship alternated weekly between Lutheran and Reformed in each church, with each pastor leading worship and preaching in two of the four churches. In 1966 the Mahoning Lutheran Parish was dissolved and Zion’s became part of the West Penn Parish with St. Peter’s, Mantzville.

The 1997 Formula of Agreement, which declared full communion among the ELCA, the UCC, the Reformed Church of America, and the Presbyterian Church–USA, made it possible for the sharing of ordained ministers among full communion partner congregations. Under the provisions of the Formula, the two congregations at Zion’s entered into “shared ministry” in which one ordained pastor was called to be the pastor of both the Lutheran and the UCC congregations.

The two congregations began holding joint worship services each Sunday and a Joint Board, made up of six Lutheran Council members and six UCC Consistory members, began overseeing the life and ministry of the church. Following two years of interim pastoral ministry, Pastor Michael Frost became the first fully called pastor of Zion’s shared ministry in July 2000.

Consideration of yet one more step toward organic unity for Zion’s Stone Church began within a brainstorming session by Zion’s Long Range Planning Committee in January 2002. The goal for the committee’s work and for the life and ministry of the church was “to grow as one church in the ministry of Christ.”

In the fall of 2003, the committee recommended that the Church Board investigate the possibility of creating one new congregation that would be affiliated with both the UCC and the ELCA. Conversations with Bishop David Strobel of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod, ELCA, and Conference Minister Alan Miller of the Penn Northeast Conference, UCC, were followed by conversations with members of the congregations.

Overwhelming support from the members encouraged the board, and in early 2004 the Long Range Planning Committee drew up a draft constitution for the new congregation. A final draft was approved in October 2004. Congregational meetings were scheduled for Reformation Day, October 31st, 2004, for a vote on the adoption of the new constitution and approval of the process that would lead to the formation of a newly incorporated congregation. Once again the votes in favor of the proposal were overwhelming.

A charter document was made available for members’ signatures and by Christmas Eve, well over 200 signatures had been collected on the charter.

The legal process of getting state approval of the new corporation finally bore fruit with notification on March 14, 2005, that “Zion’s Stone Church of West Penn Township, Inc.” was a corporate reality. Plans are in the works for a massive celebration of this gift of God’s grace on Pentecost Sunday, May 15, 2005.

In what does the unity of the Church of Jesus Christ consist? In John 17 we hear Jesus pray that all who follow him might be one. At Zion’s Stone Church,  God has blessed us with unity of spirit and purpose, with a common life and ministry, and the confident understanding that there is far more that unites us in Christ than those things over which we may differ.

Thanks be to God!