05/30/2025
The Ending of a Era
This past week has been difficult for me. All week, my mind has been busy with many personal concerns. On Thursday, as I visited with the radiation doctor treating my cancer issues and he gave me a positive report, my mind’s attention was on events 50 miles away. As I received his report the Presbytery of Ohio Valley was taking the necessary action to dissolve and close the Scipio Presbyterian Church at the request of the few remaining members.
This is a holiday weekend to celebrate and remember the fallen Heroes who have defended this great country. The closing and the ending of the existence of a church such as that little Red Brick Sanctuary on a hill in Scipio is like the death of those fallen Heroes.
The handful of settlers living in what is now called the Scipio church. It was born after a Tent Revival with Rev. Parsons along the banks of Sand Creek in 1832. The good folks then formed the Scipio United Presbyterian Church. That same church died this past week at that meeting of the Presbytery on Thursday, May 22, 2025, after serving God and bringing the true word of God to the people of Scipio for 192 years.
The closing of a church that has been an essential part of many lives is more like a funeral. It is more than a simple act of locking and closing a door and moving on. For many people this was the center of their religious life. For many Scipio folks like my wife, it the only church they attended for most of their lives. Every item throughout the building provokes a memory. Many of these items have been given to the Jennings Historical Society. Many items are incidental to the church's functions but are a part of the congregation’s life. Though the regular weekly Sunday worship along with Advent and Christmas, Lent and Easter were in the sanctuary upstairs, the love and fellowship was shown in the basement of the fellowship hall. It was here that the memories were made. The dinner prepared for a family after the loss of a loved one, the chilly suppers, and Easter Sunrise Breakfast. The church basement was the place where you met and visited with your neighbors. The youth would come for many activities, such as scouting or coordinating youth activities, including mission trips with other churches.
I’m too old to understand why the last few generations have rejected God and organized religion. Why do churches that just a few years ago with significant membership at regular worship have now closed their doors. When our country was first forming Indiana was just a territory not yet a state. Settlers came down the Ohio River. The Central national offices of the Presbyterian Church saw the need for ministers to form churches for the settlers. In 1827 they sent people to what is now Hanover to start a school to train ministers to form churches. At the time Indiana was called the frontier and most travel away from the Ohio River was by foot so communities formed about one days walk in that wilderness. Now if you begin your journey from you could travel plus or minus a little you could go about 6 miles a day. I can remember that not to many years ago there were communities everywhere just about every 6 miles and there would be a Presbyterian Church there. Starting from Madason to Columbus and continuing on we had Canaan, Smyrna Monroe, then on to Vernon where they just celebrated their 200th, anniversary. From there 6 miles to the Grame church, or through North Vernon where the Vernon church with support from Scipio started a Presbyterian Church 6, from there 6 more miles and you are at Scipio, then on to Gramer then to Columbus. What is unique for all these churches outside the communities of Madison and Columbus all the Presbyterian Churches have be closed except for the Vernon and Grame Churches. Not just in this small corner of Indiana but across the entire country mainline churches are being forced to close because though the current generation consider themselves religious few go to or attend a church service on a regular basis.
In light of the abandonment of organized worship, it may be time for these folks rejecting organized religion to look closely into their Bibles. Then let them look closely at the many issues across the country. The families of the bible went through cycles of strong, active worship to times of less observance of worship and religion. Each time the worship fell off it was followed by hardship and catastrophic events. A quick look at our national news we soon see a country out of control. We need to return to our churches. We may want to rethink the activities that fill our lives on a Sunday morning. A return to Christian love and fellowship can soon end the violence, the need or desire for drug abuse, yes, even diversity and inclusion in our communities, can be solved in a community of neighbors loving neighbors.
