It’s been a tough week for Central Longmont Presbyterian Church.
Just days ago, its congregation learned that a fire had been started in their place of worship, with police suspecting that a man had broken in and sparked it.
And though the damage was minimal, the Rev. David Barker said, “there’s no way that a church can experience something like that and not feel violated.
“So there’s a certain amount of sorrow and some anger I suspect, but we were very fortunate,” he said. “I mean the fire could have been much worse — the damage from the fire was very contained.”
Cassidy Cole Moroney, 34, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of first-degree arson in connection with the church fire, which caused more than $5,000 worth of damage.
The incident hasn’t deterred the church or its members from celebrating a momentous event this month, one that has been more than a century in the making — the 150th anniversary of the formation of its congregation.
It was founded in 1869 after Sheldon Jackson, a minister and missionary who established more than 100 missions and churches in the western United States during the 19th century, helped merge the Upper St. Vrain Presbyterian Church and the First Presbyterian Church of Longmont. Central Longmont Presbyterian Church has seen the town grow from less than 1,000 residents to approaching 100,000.
Barker, who joined the church as its pastor in 2011, said that preaching to a congregation with such history has been quite the experience.
“It’s humbling, you know, when I stop and think about how long this congregation has been here and all of the things that they have done in and for this community in the 150 years they’ve been here,” he said.
And over that time, just like the community it inhabits, the church has evolved. Over time both attitudes in the congregation and the building that houses it have changed.
The oldest part of the church, the sanctuary, was finished in 1905, and still has the same stained glass windows.
The rest of the church is a patchwork of multiple additions and improvements built in different decades.
Greg Smoot, who is 71-years-old, has been a congregation member his whole life and was baptized in the church. He said that a lot of good has come from the church changing along with the town and the times.
“Like all churches, we’ve gone through a lot of changes in society,” he said.
Rather than alienating folks that might be skeptical of religion for its perceived conservatism, he said, Central Longmont Presbyterian has become more liberal.
And though issues like the church being accepting of gay marriage have caused some to leave the congregation, Smoot said that adaptation is necessary.
“You either change or you die,” he said.
Now, he’s proud of the work that the church has done in the community, such as housing in its basement Recovery Cafe, a non-profit that helps people with substance abuse and mental health issues.
The church also hosts the Reentry Initiative, which helps people transition from life in prison.
And Barker, too, believes that the church should have an eye toward the contemporary. He said, while it’s “important to honor, we don’t want to live in” the church’s history.
“And we have our eyes firmly focused on the present and on the future, but we’re very aware of that history and all those who have gone before us,” he said. “Because in a very real sense, had it not been for the faithfulness of all the generations of people who called this church home, we wouldn’t be able to call this church home.”
What hasn’t changed about the church, though, is the sense of community that it offers. Sibyl Goerner, a long-time congregation member whose husband Stanley Goerner was the church’s pastor from 1951 to 1991, said that, after her husband retired, the two stayed in the congregation because it was her “home church.”
“I enjoyed being in the same church, and people said, ‘Well, where are you going to move now?’ Because a lot of pastors would move (after retiring), she said. “This was our home for 40 years. Our kids were born here, they graduated from high school here, and so I just stuck around.”
Goerner, who is still active in bible study, said that “It’s just wonderful to be able to be a part of the community and enjoy friends in the church.”
I think it’s wonderful that our church has reached this point,” she said.
The church will be celebrating the anniversary this Sunday, just like “churches do,” as Barker said, with a potluck after worship.
