As part of its celebration of its bicentennial year, Covenant Presbyterian Church, 230 E. Jefferson St., is choosing to highlight its tradition of inclusion.

One of the events planned to mark its 200th anniversary is an Aug. 24 community symposium on the Underground Railroad in Western Pennsylvania and Covenant Presbyterian's role as a stop on the escape route for fugitive slaves, said the church's current pastor, Rev. James Swanson.

Swanson said the congregation's commitment to racial justice is believed to have led Rev. Loyal Young, the pastor from 1833 to 1868, and church members to hide runaway slaves in the basement crawl space under the sanctuary as the fugitives moved north to Erie and freedom in Canada.

Swanson said the Aug. 24 symposium will be paired with the inauguration of an Underground Railroad museum at the church.

“It will mainly be in the form of posters and things on the wall and the actual crawl space you can view where slaves hid under the floor,” said Swanson.

“The interesting thing about the event in August is we want people to tell any stories they might have,” said Swanson.

“It was very dangerous. The son of the pastor at that time remembered seeing slaves at the kitchen table at the manse on Pearl Street,” Swanson said. “More than likely, the pastor brought them there.

“We want people to come and tell their stories,” he said. “We know that private homes were used as stations.”

Pat Collins, administrative director of the Butler County Historical Society, which is scanning and digitizing Covenant records to preserve them, said, “There's not a whole lot of history on that in Butler, but at the building on Pearl and Monroe, they thought slaves had been kept on the bottom of that building, as well as at the church.”

Other bicentennial events planned include a July 13 church picnic near Moraine State Park and a Sept. 14 organ concert by former Covenant organist David Daugherty.

But Swanson said the big event in the yearlong commemoration of the church's bicentennial will be a Heritage Banquet Oct. 5 and the Oct. 6 worship service with an old-style communion.

Swanson said five past pastors — Don Campbell, Robert Taylor, William Jamieson, Monica Hamilton and Steven Hamilton — are coming back for the banquet that will feature old-time recipes.

The next day's service will feature communion tokens, said Swanson.

“In many of the churches,” said Swanson, “they would distribute communion tokens. To receive communion, you had to attend a special service of preparation and receive a token. You would have to present that token to receive communion.”

Swanson said the church hopes to present congregants with special commemorative medallions in the shape of communion tokens.

But while communion practices may have been altered, the church's concern with the issues of peace and justice remain unchanged since the days of the Underground Railroad, Swanson said.

Today, the church supports the Covenant Food Cupboard, hosts three Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, houses a Montessori School and a chapter of PFLAG, Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

“A lot of community groups use our space, and we take our turn once a month, the fourth Wednesday, serving a meal at Saint Andrew,” said Swanson.

“We accept the lonely, the needy and the different,” said Swanson. “We welcome all who come in peace.”

It's been that way since April 7, 1813, when the Rev. John McPherrin of Concord Presbyterian Church in West Sunbury was installed as the first pastor at Covenant.

“In those days, pastors served a number of churches,” said Swanson. “It was publicized that the pastor would be offering sacrament at such and such a church at such and such weekend. And people would come from miles,” Swanson said.

“Churches were laid out three or four miles apart, because back then that was a convenient travel time,” said Swanson.

After holding services for a time at the courthouse, a stone structure was built at the site of the present church in 1815.

Swanson said a second building was constructed at the Jefferson Street location in 1833 and when it burned down in 1862, the present building was constructed. A steeple was added in 1874.

Other changes at the church have included a smaller congregation.

The present congregation numbers 64, down from a high of 1,100 in the 1950s.

“In the 1950s, Butler was a church-going community. But young people had to leave Butler to find work,” Swanson said. “We don't have that middle section of the population. It's gone.

“In the past, stores were closed on Sundays, and people went to church,” Swanson said.