A Landmark Church on 148th Avenue
Beulah Presbyterian Church sits along 148th Avenue in the rolling country between Coal Valley and Sherrard, just outside Orion, Illinois. From its front door the cornfields of western Henry County stretch away in every direction, and for more than 170 years the small steepled building has been a fixed point in that landscape. The congregation's own vision statement names it "A Landmark Church, visible in the community, vibrant in ministry and impacting the world," and the word landmark is not chosen lightly. Two crosses built from the charred timbers of the 1860 sanctuary, one lit on the outside and one placed inside the present worship space, still stand as a reminder of the night in March 1968 when the original country church burned to the ground while the new one was being built beside it.
Today Beulah is a member congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA), working through the Rock River Presbytery and the Synod of Illinois. The motto on the front of the church's materials is simple: "Love, Thrive, and Grow for the Glory of God." The mission underneath that motto reads, "Working together for spiritual growth to glorify, praise, worship and share God's love." Everything else at Beulah - the Sunday schedule, the Bible study, the food pantry drives, the new organ - flows out of those two sentences.
Sunday Mornings at Beulah
The weekly gathering of the congregation centers on a 9:00 a.m. Sunday worship service in the sanctuary. The service is biblically based and follows a familiar pattern of Bible readings, prayer, music, and a sermon. Traditional hymns are a regular part of the singing, along with special music presented by members of the congregation. A Children's Message is woven into the service, after which the children are excused to their own Sunday School classes. The whole congregation is described as friendly and welcoming, and Interim Pastor Dr. Andrew McDonald, along with the rest of the staff and the people of Beulah, makes a point of inviting visitors to come and worship.
Children's Sunday School meets at 9:15 a.m., immediately following the Children's Message, and runs weekly from September through May. The program is organized by grade level. Preschool children are taught by Jan Passini, grade-school children by Karlyn Crosby and Lynn Fritz, and the music portion of the hour is led by Rita Elsbury. The Christian Education Committee, chaired by Jan Passini, oversees this work and the rest of the church's formation ministries for young people.
Communion is celebrated on the first Sunday of each month. Elders and deacons share in the leadership of the service, and the observance is open to all who wish to take part.
The Session, the Deacons, and the People Who Keep Things Running
Beulah is led by a Session of elders in the classic Presbyterian pattern, with classes rotating on three-year terms. The current Clerk of Session is Tim Fritz. Elders serving the Class of 2024 are Carla Zwicker and Heather Nichols. The Class of 2025 includes Bill Metzler, Wanda Cross, and Jon Cross, and the Class of 2026 is made up of Dennis Morgan and Tim Fritz. The Board of Deacons, which looks after the caring and practical needs of the congregation, includes Lynn Fritz and Jan Green in the Class of 2024, Jan Passini in the Class of 2025, and Jean Hughes and Sherrill Hills in the Class of 2026.
Around the Session and Deacons, a network of committees carries the day-to-day ministry. The Worship Committee is chaired by Dennis Morgan. The Building and Grounds Committee, with members including Jerome Bina, Jon Cross, Tim Fritz, Bill Metzler, Dennis Morgan, and Jim Zwicker, cares for the property and the cemetery that shares the church grounds. The Mission Committee, co-chaired by Wanda Cross and Jan Passini and joined by Carol Browning and Jean Hughes, organizes the church's outreach to the wider community. The Congregational Life Committee, chaired by Donna Metzler, looks after fellowship. A Financial Committee, a Memorial Committee, and a Personnel Committee round out the structure.
The staff team includes Dr. Andrew McDonald as Interim Pastor, Barb Belville as Pastor's Assistant, Nancy Roberts as Secretary, Ellen Cooke as Pianist and Organist, Dennis Morgan as Financial Secretary, and Jon Cross as Treasurer. The church office is open on Thursday mornings from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m., and the secretary can be reached at (309) 787-5755 or by email at secretary@beulahpcusa.org.
Reaching Out: Mission and Community Service
If there is a single word that describes Beulah's life beyond its own walls, it is mission. The church supports a wide circle of ministries with volunteer time and with money from the Presbyterian Women's Group and the Mission Committee. Among the regular outreach efforts are several long-running partnerships with neighbors in Orion and the surrounding area.
Every month, Beulah takes up a collection for both the Orion Food Pantry and the Sherrard Food Pantry, and members help on distribution days at both locations. The Orion Food Pantry also runs a weekly Backpack Program that sends a bag of nutritional food home with children on Fridays who might not have enough to eat over the weekend. Beulah volunteers join other community helpers on a rotating basis to pack those bags. The church is also a regular participant in the QC CROP Hunger Walk each October, sending a team of walkers across the Centennial Bridge over the Mississippi River on the bi-state route. In several recent years the congregation has earned the Golden Shoe Award, given to churches that collect more than one thousand dollars for the cause.
Each February, on Super Bowl Sunday, the church takes part in the national Souper Bowl of Caring. The money collected in the big soup pots at the door is sent to Kings Harvest Ministries in Davenport, Iowa, a long-standing partner of the church. In the colder months, the Head to Toes Project, which Beulah started in 2013 as an expansion of an older Hat and Mitten collection, supplies new snow boots and socks to children in two surrounding school districts. The project has grown through grants and church fund-raising, and it remains one of the most visible pieces of the church's witness to children in the area.
The church also keeps up an annual presence at the Orion Area Churches Pie and Ice Cream Tent, where the proceeds of homemade apple pies baked by the women's circle support a variety of charities.
The New Allen Organ and a Living Music Tradition
Music has been part of Beulah's story almost as long as the congregation itself. The first elected pianist on record, a Miss Marion Anderson, began playing for services in 1930 and was formally elected to the post in 1936. In 1945 the sanctuary hosted the first two "big" church weddings in its history. Music has continued to be central under pianist and organist Ellen Cooke, who leads the singing from the front of the sanctuary each Sunday.
The next chapter of that story is the arrival of a new Allen Renaissance R-230 digital computer organ. The church has planned a three-event dedication series to introduce the instrument to the community. The first event, an introduction to the organ with organist Stephen Steely, is set for June 28 at 6:30 p.m., with Whitey's Ice Cream served afterward. The second event, on September 20 at 6:30 p.m., is a celebratory program of piano and organ duets and congregational singing led by organist Chon Wherry and pianist Laura Crumbleholme, using music from the Wilson and Wells library that honors Beulah's musical past. The third event, "Imagine the Possibilities," is an interactive afternoon on January 24 at 3:00 p.m. with organist Gail Tutt, exploring fresh arrangements and new music with the organ joined by guitar, flute, percussion, piano, and congregational singing. Refreshments follow each event.
Agape Bible Study and the Women's Circle
Adult formation at Beulah centers on the Agape Bible Study, the women's circle that meets on the fourth Monday of each month from September through June at 7:00 p.m. A new curriculum is chosen each year, and the circle also takes responsibility for the yearly Apple Pie Day, baking the pies that are sold at the Orion Area Churches Pie and Ice Cream Tent. The proceeds of those pie sales are distributed to a number of charities supported by the congregation.
From a Handful of Christians in 1854 to a Country Church Today
Beulah's history is told in the careful pages compiled by Maryan Wherry. In the middle of 1854, "a handful of Christians residing between Coal Valley and Sherrard wanted their own house of worship." A committee from the Rock River Presbytery investigated, and on August 22, 1854, Beulah Presbyterian Church was organized. Its first services were held in the Bailey Schoolhouse, with twelve members on the roll. By 1856 there were thirty members, and the pastor's salary was two hundred dollars a year for one-third time.
The first church building went up in 1859 and 1860, with the building contract going to Frederick Weyerhaeuser of Coal Valley. The cost was about sixteen hundred dollars, and the title to the land was given to the congregation "so long as it shall be used for an Old School Presbyterian Church." The building was dedicated on August 17, 1860. In 1908 new windows and seats were installed and the interior was remodeled; in 1922 a south-side annex with a kitchen was added and the exterior was recovered in stucco. In 1954 the church celebrated its hundredth anniversary with a membership of 171, and two years later it called its first full-time pastor, building a manse on land donated by the Gust Andersons.
The 1968 fire is the hinge of the whole story. On the night of March 14, the old stucco-covered frame church burned to the ground. The glow could be seen as far away as Orion, and more than one hundred firefighters from six departments responded, but the old building could not be saved. The new sanctuary, still under construction next door, was protected by a concrete wall that was meant to be the outside wall of a Sunday School room. The 205 members of the congregation met for a time in the chapel of Kirk and Huggins Funeral Home and in the Rural Township Hall, and when the new building was finally ready the people brought their own chairs from home to fill it. The new church was dedicated on December 7, 1969, with a sermon titled "What's a Nice Church Like You Doing in a Place Like This?"
Today, more than 170 years after that first meeting in the Bailey Schoolhouse, Beulah Presbyterian Church is still an active and engaged home for a small but steady community of faith. Coal Valley Presbyterian Church is listed as a sister congregation, and the two churches share ties of friendship and support along the same stretch of western Illinois countryside that gave Beulah its beginnings.