Members recall long history of Connoquenessing United Methodist Church
CONNOQUENESSING — The Connoquenessing United Methodist Church was always a part of Michele Smith’s life — and her family’s lives.
Her grandfather, Arthur E. Smith, and his construction company built the church in 1962, her parents were married there in 1972, and she and her brother, Nathan Smith, were baptized there as well.
But recently the Slippery Rock woman had to say goodbye to the church that housed so many family memories.
The more than 60-year-old church held its final service on Christmas, which featured a baptism, Smith said.
The church, at 206 Connoquenessing Main St., was in service since 1962, but the congregation formed in 1859, when the borough was known as Petersville, Smith said.
While many people attended the church from in and around Connoquenessing in its heyday, Smith said that Sunday attendance was down to only around a dozen people by the time of its closing. Attendance dwindled just as gradually as it grew, Smith said.
“It was just a little building that had a congregation to it, and it just kind of grew from there,” Smith said.
Some of the last remaining members of the congregation had been attending the church for decades.
Norma Harter, of Connoquenessing, said she was baptized at the church and attended the church her entire life. She said she is sad to see the church close, and she is unsure of where she will attend services now.
Harter also said she knew many people who attended the church who have died over the years.
“We all were in tears, but we were down to about 10 to 12 people coming on Sundays,” she said.
Kurt Knobel, pastor of the church from 2011 to 2015, said the congregation and leadership worked well together.
“The church was really a good congregation,” Knobel said, “really a lot of dynamic people and excellent leadership.”
Harter said one reason she is hesitant to join another church, whether it be a United Methodist church or one of another denomination, is because she appreciated the attitude and acceptance among Methodist people.
“We all knew each other,” Harter said. “United Methodists, we’re noisy. We just talked among ourselves until the service started.”
Smith said the closing of the church likely will be hard on all its members because it means they will no longer see one another on a weekly basis.
“I just think everybody was just kind of like family,” Smith said. “They all looked out for one another in desperate times. It was more of a family-oriented (church), and I think this is hitting everybody hard, because when you lose family, it hurts.”
Harter said the church’s dwindling membership could be attributed to the loss of families and children at its services.
“You’ve got to have children to keep growing,” Harter said.
Knobel said that although membership shrank over the years, the people who did attend stayed involved with the community. He said the people he served were the best part of the church.
“The thing about running a church is you're teaching them, but they're teaching you as well,” Knobel said of the church’s members. “Connoquenessing (UMC) did a lot for its community, which I really appreciate.”
Smith said she is sad to see the loss of her family history, seeing that the church still had some of the original structures installed by her grandfather.
Smith said she is worried she will never set foot in the church again.
“My grandfather even designed and built the altar they used for Communion,” Smith said.
