Back in 1874, the United Meeting House began holding Christian worship services in the chapel along Creek Road in the tiny village of Oregon, northeast of Lancaster city.

This month, the chapel, now Oregon Community United Methodist Church, celebrates 150 years of serving the community of Oregon with a special birthday party.

“Everyone is invited,” says the Rev. Jason B. Perkowski, pastor of the church. “We invite church members, friends, family and neighbors to join us. It’s a free event for the community to come out and enjoy fun and fellowship together.”

The Oregon Community UMC 150th Anniversary Community Celebration will be held 2–6 p.m. Saturday, June 22, with a 6 p.m. worship service and dessert reception.

The birthday party will include live music at 2 p.m. with Tara and Mike, along with yard games and activities for kids and adults, a bounce house, free food and a food truck with additional items for sale. It’s also an opportunity to take a tour of the recently updated church building.

That building, a small white clapboard structure with a red roof, is a familiar sight to anyone who travels to and from Oregon Dairy on Oregon Pike. It’s just yards away from Reflections restaurant in the heart of the village of Oregon.

A stone wall runs along Creek Road, and a small cemetery with gravestones going back to the 1800s surrounds the church. Services are quiet and intimate, with a feeling of family getting together to worship. Everyone seems to know each other.

“That’s one of the special things about Oregon Community United Methodist Church, is that we have a real sense of community,” Perkowski says.

There are usually around 25 church members at Sunday morning services, although there are about 50 active members of the church. On a recent Sunday morning, those attending services included all ages, from seniors to a mom with a young infant who didn’t cry once.

There is an openness in the services, when church members have the opportunity to ask for special prayers for loved ones — such as asking for prayers for a wife who is struggling with recovery after surgery or prayers for a grandchild with kidney disease.

Perkowski asks for prayers for his own family. He and his wife, Julie, are foster parents to baby boy twins, who are not sleeping well.

Sharing their struggles and coming together to pray seems to be the cornerstone of the small church.

“Our welcome statement each week includes some variation of our motto, which is that God is beyond our understanding, but comes to us in many different ways to be revealed, so that we may know the love of God more,” Perkowski says.

He reads to those at the service, “You are welcome in this sacred space no matter who you are; from where you have come; what experiences, struggles or gifts you bring; or the questions, doubts and beliefs you carry. We are so glad you are here!”

The worship services includes traditional hymns and an engaging, practical, Bible-based message. It provides an intimate atmosphere where church members get to really know each other and be known, Perkowski says.

Carrying on tradition

In many ways, the Oregon Community United Methodist Church is carrying on the same tradition that began 150 years ago, when it was a small community meeting house.

In the years since, various congregations and denominations have worshiped in the space. It became a United Methodist Church in 1887, with Pastor G.A. Loose, and since then has been a United Methodist congregation.

In the sanctuary, there is large painted mural of Jesus the Good Shepherd, surrounded by sheep and holding a lamb. It’s hard to not notice that Perkowski also has a beard and long hair, except that he is wearing jeans with his black clergy shirt and white collar.

Perkowski has been a youth ministry leader since 1993 in churches in Lancaster and in Marlton, New Jersey. He responded to a call to pastoral ministry in November 2011 and began serving part-time as a lay pastor at Faith UMC in Manheim Township while also teaching gifted education at Conestoga Valley High School and Millersville University.

In July 2016, he became a full-time licensed local pastor and was appointed to serve at both Oregon Community UMC and Faith UMC. In May 2020, he earned his Master of Divinity degree with a focus in public theology and community engagement. He was ordained as an elder in the United Methodist Church in May 2023.

“I have a passion for youth and young adult ministry, and engage regularly in social justice and working with public leaders and civil society to serve his neighbors and to advocate with the marginalized,” Perkowski says.

Oregon UMC holds a weekly Sunday night youth group, a grief-share support group every other Monday, and Wednesday night and Friday morning Bible studies.

Services are broadcast on Facebook for those who cannot attend in person. The church website is OregonCommunityUMC.us.

“In the last year we have added a handicap-accessible restroom on the main floor in the lobby of the sanctuary. We have also remodeled the fellowship hall in the basement of the church to make it more hospitable for our guests and useful for church functions,” Perkowski says.

Honoring those here before

In keeping with the church’s spirit of welcoming, the congregation will be doing something new for its 150th anniversary, as it honors the very first people who once lived on the land.

The service will include a land acknowledgment ceremony on behalf of the Native nations that once lived, gathered and worshiped on the same land.

As the acknowledgment reads, “We are grateful for their stewardship and caring for the land that we now gather on in fellowship to pray, worship and demonstrate God’s great love for His creation and his people. We also acknowledge that we are on this land without permission, that Native peoples live among us, and that the injustices of the past have continued into the present. We will actively honor the Nanticoke, Conestoga and Lenni Lenape peoples by being good stewards of the land, working for justice for Native Peoples and truly being the loving community to our Native neighbors based on the teachings of God. We ask for forgiveness for our shortcomings in this, and grace as we work to be and do better as fellow children of God.”

As Perkowski notes, “Our goal is to provide a fun opportunity for our neighbors to gather together and get to know each other during the community event. We are hoping that those who had lived in the Village of Oregon or worshiped here will return to celebrate their memories.”