A South Burrowes Street Congregation
Albright-Bethune United Methodist Church sits at 206 South Burrowes Street in State College, a short walk from the Penn State campus and one block off Beaver Avenue. The name on the building honors two very different founders: Jacob Albright, a Pennsylvania German preacher who started the Evangelical movement in the late 1700s, and Mary McLeod Bethune, an African American educator, civic leader, and advisor to U.S. presidents in the early twentieth century. Their names live on in a congregation that draws worshipers from across Happy Valley, from the wider Centre County community, and from Penn State's faculty, staff, and student body.
A History Woven from Two Communities
The roots of the congregation reach back to 1915, when an Evangelical church with a mission to minister to college students was formed in State College. That body later merged with the United Brethren in Christ Church and subsequently with the Methodist Church, eventually emerging as St. John's United Methodist Church.
Across town, an African American congregation called Bethune Memorial was founded in 1985 as the United Black Fellowship Church. In its early years Bethune Memorial met in a number of borrowed spaces - the Baptist and Brethren Church, St. John's itself, and the Wesley Foundation at Penn State - before taking a historic step in July 1993.
That summer, St. John's (a predominantly white congregation) and Bethune Memorial (a predominantly African American congregation) yoked together to form the Jacob Albright - Mary McLeod Bethune United Methodist Church. The two congregations shared a pastor and the Burrowes Street building while continuing to hold separate Sunday worship services. In June 1996, after the St. John's congregation disbanded, the two separate services became one. Today, Albright-Bethune UMC exists to provide worship experiences drawing strongly on the African American tradition, while remaining open to people of every culture and ethnicity.
Sunday Worship at Noon
The congregation gathers for worship every Sunday at 12:00 noon. The service is also livestreamed on YouTube, so those unable to attend in person can still take part from home. Communion is celebrated on the first Sunday of each month.
Throughout the year the church marks several United Methodist special Sundays, including World Communion Sunday, Laity Sunday, Grandparents Day, and Disability Awareness Sunday. Children of all ages are welcome to sit with their families during worship. During the school year, Sunday School for children and youth begins at 11:00 a.m., giving the youngest churchgoers a full hour of formation before joining the rest of the congregation in the sanctuary.
Blue Mondays and a Midweek Zoom
On months that include a fifth Monday, the church holds a quieter, candle-lit service called Blue Monday Worship at 6:00 p.m. It is a service of presence, lament, and light, set aside for grief, loss, loneliness, patience, and prayer - a deliberate counterpoint to the busier rhythms of the year. Candles, quiet music, Scripture, and song mark the hour, and light refreshments follow for anyone who would like to linger.
Wednesdays bring a Zoom gathering at 7:00 p.m., open to all. The hour is reserved for fellowship, community building, and conversation around health and wellness topics. For those who cannot make it in person on Sunday, the Wednesday meeting is one of the church's main ways of staying connected across the week.
The Peanut Butter Express
One of the church's best-loved community ministries centers on a red wagon and a train whistle. The W. Terrell Jones Peanut Butter Express was started by the late Dr. Walter Terrell Jones, who served as Penn State's Vice Provost for Educational Equity. Each fall, Dr. Jones rolled a small red wagon up the church aisle during his famous children's sermons - "The Peanut Butter Express" - and collected jars of peanut butter for the State College Area Food Bank. He passed away in August 2014.
In his memory, the church kept the tradition alive. Jars of peanut butter are now collected between February and May each year, with donations left in the red wagon that still stands in the narthex. Penn State students - from Bunton Waller, the Lenfest Scholars program, and African American Studies classes - hold parallel drives on campus, augmenting the church's contribution to the food bank in honor of a man whose children's sermons still shape the congregation's youngest members.
Souper Bowl Sunday, Movie Nights, and Game Day Parking
On Souper Bowl Sunday, timed to the NFL championship game, the congregation collects canned soup and other non-perishable items for the State College Area Food Bank. Worshipers share a pot of soup together after the service, often gathered in the main floor Social Room. The tradition grew out of the Souper Bowl of Caring movement, started by a senior high youth group in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1993, and has been a long-running practice at Albright-Bethune.
On Friday evenings during the fall and winter, Movie Nights return with fresh popcorn, blankets, and a chance to gather. Recent showings have included Newsies and The Princess and the Frog, and all are welcome, with adults asked to accompany any children who come along.
On Penn State football Saturdays, the church opens its parking lots to visiting fans. One lot sits beside the building, with a one-way entrance from Beaver Avenue just past the nearby high-rise apartment building, and another sits behind the church. A printable game day guide is available for fans making their way to Happy Valley.
One Church Among Five: The Nittany Valley Charge
Albright-Bethune is part of the Nittany Valley Extended Ministry, a yoked charge with four other United Methodist congregations in the State College area: Fairbrook, Grays, Houserville, and Woodycrest. The five churches come together once a year for a potluck picnic - often at Circleville Park - sharing a meal and reconnecting across the valley. The church is also part of the Susquehanna Conference of The United Methodist Church, working within its Mountain Valley District.
Pastor Renee Ford
Pastor Renee Ford brings a wide range of experience to Albright-Bethune. A native of Mooers, New York - a small town on the Canadian border where the cows reportedly outnumber the 3,500 residents - she did not grow up in a church-going family, and that background fuels her passion for building an authentic, relational, and relevant faith community. She began ministry in 1993 as a campus ministry intern at SUNY Plattsburgh, then served as a youth minister in Dublin, Ohio, and as a circuit minister in the British Methodist Church. She has pastored churches across northeastern and central Pennsylvania since 1999 and has called Happy Valley home since 2003, when she began serving the Houserville-Woodycrest charge in State College. She looks forward with joy and hope to this next chapter of ministry with the Albright-Bethune community.
Pastor Renee earned a Bachelor of Arts in Individualized Studies (combining music, philosophy, and religious studies) from SUNY Plattsburgh, a Master of Divinity from The Methodist Theological School in Ohio, and a Ph.D. in Workforce Education and Development from Penn State, where her dissertation focused on clergy leadership effectiveness. She is married to Rev. Bob Ford, a fellow United Methodist pastor serving in Clearfield County, and they have a son named Wesley. By weekday she works as a Senior Instructional Designer at Penn State's Smeal College of Business and teaches MGMT 445: Managing a Diverse Workforce as a Supplemental Instructor of Management and Organization. She serves on Smeal's Diversity Council and on the Committee on Native American Ministries for both the Susquehanna Conference and the Northeastern Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church. Drawing on her French-Canadian immigrant and Haudenosaunee (Mohawk) heritage, along with Cuban roots, she centers her ministry on welcome, healing, and the kind of honest community she wishes she had found in church as a child.
Mission and Vision
The mission of Albright-Bethune United Methodist Church is to empower every member to be a disciple of Jesus Christ with the opportunity to worship, study, and serve. The vision is to have a congregation excited about its relationship with God, sharing spiritual gifts through ministry. Online giving is available for members and friends who would like to support the work of the church.
For parking on a Sunday morning or a Saturday kickoff, two lots sit adjacent to the building - one on the side with a one-way entrance from Beaver Avenue just past the nearby high-rise apartment building, and one in the back, where pulling forward helps fit another car behind - plus free on-street parking and a Beaver Avenue parking garage a block down the street.