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A day of dedication and celebration Sunday will mark the relocation of the church, which has also had a series of renovations, additions and other improvements in connection with the move.
Church services will begin at 11 a.m. They’ll be held as a joint worship and dedication service with the Westminster Presbyterian Church of Ripley. An open house from 1 – 3 p.m. will follow.
The guest speaker will be Dr. Greg Goodwiller, Executive Presbyter of the Presbytery of St. Andrews.
The church – which dates to 1963 -- was formerly located at 20311 Miss. 15 in Falkner.
The church building was recently moved in two trips by flatbed truck courtesy of Elder Moving. The church was moved slowly, carefully from its location across the street from Falkner High School to a site on County Road 301, just off the intersection with Miss. 15. The land was donated by Hillman and Quay Hopper.
The relocation was the result of a lot of effort by a lot of people to save the building from destruction. Ironically, that destruction would have come in the name of progress.
The church was moved after it appeared it would be torn down to make way for forthcoming state highway improvements.
“The state told us in the early 1990s we’d have to tear it down or move it. After that, eight years elapsed and we didn’t hear a thing.
“About fall of 2008 they said they were coming, and they told us we couldn’t move it because they said there was asbestos in the caulking. By then we’d already painted over the caulking,” Church Treasurer and Elder Mike Hopper said last week.
“We asked our local Representative, Greg Ward, for help,” and a lot of discussion followed between local church members and Rep. Ward on one side, and the State Highway Department on the other.
“We finally got the right to buy our own church back – with the windows -- but it took a world of influence from Representative Ward to make that happen,” Hopper said.
The church now sits comfortably at its new location, hopefully never to move again.
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