Mount Zion UMC to mark 200th year

Staff report

ROGERS

Mount Zion United Methodist Church, 49255 Pancake-Clarkson Road, Middleton Township, will mark its 200th year at a celebration Sunday.

The church, whose origins date to “some time before 1815” in Horace Mack’s History of Columbiana County, was started when Amos Stevens, a local farmer, opened his home to Methodist “circuit riders.”

It was a regular preaching stop and a church was built. The stop was known as “Stevens Meeting House.”

A new church structure was built in 1865 and the current name adopted.

While the congregation has been a relatively small one throughout most of its history, it has helped nurture many others.

John Burt’s home also was a preaching stop and became Burt Church, a direct predecessor of Centenary United Methodist Church in East Palestine.

Mount Zion fell on hard times between 1936 and 1953, opening and closing intermittently or operating primarily as a Sunday school until it was re-chartered as a Methodist congregation in 1955.

Current pastor is James N. Rhodes.

The Rev. Dan Bryant, superintendent of Mahoning Valley District, will preach at the 10 a.m. service.

The recently refurbished bell tower will be rededicated in memory of members recently deceased.

Afternoon festivities will include a covered dish dinner at 12:30 p.m. and musical selections by several invited vocalists at 1:45. Items of historical interest will be displayed.