Impending change doesn’t stop mission for Fairview church
FAIRVIEW — Despite entering a period of transition, a Fairview church still fulfilled its latest mission goal of donating new clothing, hats and blankets to the Kid’s Closet charity.
Fairview Evangelical Presbyterian Church, 109 Petrolia St., is parting ways with the national church in February, according to longtime member Glenda Miller of Chicora.
“The national church told us we weren’t viable as a church because we didn’t have the congregation,” said Miller, adding that although attendance had slipped to 7 in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, there were 33 congregants in attendance on a recent Sunday.
Miller said it was more a case of the Fairview church not being able to afford administrative fees that pay for the minister’s salary and health insurance for him and his wife.
So, the church parted ways amicably with its former minister, the Rev. David Perry, in the fall of 2021 and will be released from the Evangelical Presbyterian Church with no financial penalties in February 2023.
A minister, the Rev. Cecil Toy, a chaplain at the Sugar Creek Rest senior home, 120 Lakeside Drive, Worthington, and full-time state Department of Transportation employee, has been hired to preside over the church’s 11 a.m. Sunday worship service on a week-to-week basis.
The church members are also weighing changing the church’s name when the split becomes official next year.
But despite the impending changes, the church still fulfilled the holiday mission it set for itself.
“Every year at Christmas, we have chosen a mission to support, ” said Miller. “In the past, it’s been the Mars Youth Home or the Mechling-Shakley Veterans Center or the Salvation Army.”
This year, the congregation chose to collect clothing and other items for Kid’s Closet in the Petroleum Valley Food Cupboard, 106 Chestnut St., Fairview.
Amber Double, the head of Kid’s Closet, said the church donated five large boxes of clothes, hats, hygiene products and blankets, all brand new.
“There’s a big demand,” said Double. “We’ll get a call from Children and Youth Services. The Center for Community Resources sends people our way.”
“We give away clothes to anyone who needs them: kid, adults. We have them in every size,” she said. “The community donates everything. I have two volunteers who help.”
The Kid’s Closet is upstairs from the food bank and open from 9 a.m. to noon Tuesdays and Saturdays and from 9 a.m. to noon on the third Friday of the month, when the food bank distributes food.
Double said the food bank doesn’t charge Kid’s Closet rent, but does ask that it pay for electricity for the building.
“Electricity costs keep going up. We haven’t got much in the way of monetary donations,” said Double.
Miller said, “My daughter, Patty Miller, mentioned Kid’s Closet. I thought it would be a good thing. We put out the word through the church, and there you have it.”
In three weeks, the congregation had raised the clothes and other items turned over to the charity last week.
“We do missions year-round when we see a need,” said Miller. “We tell our members, ‘Keep your eyes and ears open. When you see a need, bring it to us.”
She added her church is doing more missions since the congregation decided to split from the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
For now, the latest beneficiary of the congregation was pleased for the church’s contribution.
Valerie Hilgar, of Greece City, a volunteer at Kid’s Closet, said, “It is a privilege and a great joy to serve this ministry. Amber and Linda are hardworking and wonderful people. We are a wonderful team and work well together.”
