The Concordia Lutheran Ministries is expected to acquire Bethlen Communities in Ligonier.

The board of directors for Concordia Lutheran Ministries and Bethlen Communities have signed a nonbinding letter of intent for Bethlen to join the Concordia family of locations and services, according to a Thursday news release.

“Concordia and a few other partners were contacted by Bethlen when their expenses grew unsustainable in recent years,” according to Frank Skrip, Concordia director of public relations. “After reviewing the organization, we thought it was a great mission fit.”

During the next several months, both organizations will move forward with a “due diligence process” for an expected affiliation date in the spring.

“It’s going to take meeting with staff and taking a deep dive into every part of the Bethlen community,” Skrip said. “Just operations in general.”

Bethlen Communities is a faith-based nonprofit organization located in Ligonier.

It was founded in 1921, serving the needs of older individuals through personal care, memory care, skilled nurses, home health and hospice, independent retirement living, adult day services and more.

“We are very interested in preserving their mission and history,” Skrip said. “The next couple months will tell us a lot and have a lot of those decisions made, but we want to make sure we are honoring and being respectful of their mission and history.”

Concordia is one of the nation’s largest nonprofit senior care providers and serves about 50,000 people annually, while Bethlen serves approximately 800 people annually, according to Skrip.

Concordia currently serves inpatients throughout Western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio and Tampa, Fla.

Bethlen and Concordia are licensed by the state Insurance Department as insurance products and operate as continuing care retirement communities.

According to Skrip, Concordia has an annual revenue of about $250 million.

During the past 14 years, 10 senior care facilities and a number of home health and hospice care agencies have joined Concordia to become a “Christian consolidator” in the industry.

This idea aligns perfectly with Bethlen, Skrip said.

“There are a lot of similarities,” he said. “We are both faith-based nonprofits. Both have a history that dates back over 100 years. We even both started as orphanages before serving seniors. We are really excited for the opportunity.”

The Evangelical Lutheran Concordia Home for Orphans and the Aged opened in 1881 after Christian and Margaretha Oertel started caring for two orphaned sisters on their farm in Cabot.

Eventually the couple donated their land to a group of Pittsburgh-area pastors to create a faith-based mission for orphans and the elderly.

Bethlen got its start when it opened an orphanage in a former hotel in Ligonier to care for children of miners killed in the Darr Mining Disaster of 1907.