Huntington church to celebrate 200 years this Sunday

HUNTINGTON TWP. — For 200 years, the United Church of Huntington has been a center of worship for residents in the far southern reaches of Lorain County. The congregation will celebrate its bicentennial with a special service at 10 a.m. Sunday. All living former pastors who have served in the pulpit have been invited to return for the festivities. An open house will run from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. that day with displays showing photos from the past. "We're just proud of our heritage. The first settlers came in 1818," said Frances Rollin, a church member who has also been an officer of the Huntington Historical Society. After establishing themselves, early pioneers started meeting together for worship in homes in 1822, she said. The original portion of the church building on state Route 58 south of Findley State Park was constructed in 1848, and expanded in 1892 after a big membership drive, according to Sara Twining and Howard and Barb Quast, who have been compiling its history. By the 1940s, the church was experience problems, but the revivals of the 1950s and 1960s caused it to boom again, and by the 1980s it needed one more addition. At one point there were eight churches in Huntington. Over time, one by one they merged until the United Church remained — today it is the only church in town. In past decades, it has been a social hub for the community, with 4-H and scouting groups using its hall and voters turning out to cast their ballots there. The congregation is now recovering from the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, Twining said. About 100 people fill the pews on an average Sunday, down from a peak of 150 but attendance slowly is trending upward again. "God's been working here for a lot of years," Twining said. "I've seen the progression." When the virus hit in March 2020, the church closed for the first time in its two centuries, Howard Quast said. Services resumed outside during the warm summer months. When the weather turned cold and a spike in COVID deaths and hospitalizations swept the nation, attendance again dropped "enough to scare us," Twining said. With a trailer provided by trucking and freight company DW Nesbett & Sons, services were broadcast via radio to congregants safely tucked away in cars in the church lot. Normal services resumed last May. Howard Quast, who previously served as an elder for 27 years, said that as United Church of Huntington prepares for its next century it needs to prioritize being "a Bible-preaching church." "Too many denominations have gotten away from the solidness of the Bible," he said. For the short-term, goals include getting monthly community meals back up and running and starting to collect excess produce from local gardens to fight hunger in southern Lorain County, he said. Rollin said members are also steadily raising money to built a new multipurpose building, which will include a gymnasium, at the rear of the church. She said the church will open its doors again to the public from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 29, during the Huntington Memorial Day parade, so people can look at historical photos. "We're the sort of church that likes to celebrate," Rollin said. Jason Hawk can be reached at (440) 329-7122 or news@lcnewspapers.com.