A colorful stained-glass window of Jesus with opened arms welcomes people to services at First Christian Church in Orange. But members of the church didn’t always have such artwork for worship. Back in 1885, when Orange was a small village and the church organized, members were baptized in the Sabine River.
From that simple beginning, First Christian has lasted through storms, wars and even a fire. Today, it is one of the oldest congregations in Orange County and on Sunday, the church will celebrate its 130th anniversary.
Worship service will begin at 10 a.m. and a dinner will follow in the Keown Fellowship Hall. At 5:30 that afternoon, the congregation and guests will return for a performance by singer and musician Britt Godwin and his band. Godwin and his family have been long-time members of the church. A reception will then be held in the fellowship hall.
The keynote minister for the morning service will be the Rev. Bill Anderson, who is now retired. He served 23 years as senior pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Clearwater, Florida. For the past 10 years, he has served as interim pastor for First Baptist churches in Dallas, Sherman, Wichita Falls and Bonham.
The Rev. Anderson and his wife, Addie, have been friends since childhood with the Rev. Andy Pate, and his wife, Carol. The Rev. Pate has been senior pastor at First Christian for more than seven years. The Andersons and the Pates grew up together in Refugio, Texas.
The public is invited to the events. The church is at 611 Ninth Street, at the corner of Cypress Avenue in the Old Orange Historic District. However, the brick sanctuary and church campus weren’t always there.
The Rev. D.A. Leak formed the original congregation of 10 members. The church is affiliated with the Disciples of Christ denomination. For the first years, First Christian members likely met in the homes of members, according to the congregation’s history for a Texas Historical Marker. The Rev. J.C. Mason formally organized the church in November 1894 and they met at the Orange County Courthouse. But not for long.
Church members James and Sallie Seargent in December 1894 bought a lot for the church at the corner of Ninth Street and Main Avenue. The land donation would be among many more contributions from members that helped the church grow and thrive. Members were able to build a modest wood-frame church on the lot in 1895.
The Captain and Mrs. I.H. Bettis were among the pioneer members and they donated the church bell. The steamboat captain bought the bell on a trip to St. Louis.
The church prospered enough to build a parsonage behind the sanctuary in 1919. Then in 1922, the church building was remodeled.
Orange grew with the shipbuilding boom of World War II and in the mid-1940s, the church bought land at the corner of Ninth and Cypress with plans to build a new sanctuary. Again, the congregation contributed to the effort. The congregational group Christian Women’s Mission held fundraising bazaars, sold gumbo dinners and spaghetti dinners. Mrs. Allie Lock was known for her pies and she sold them to add to the fund.
By 1952, the church formed a building committee and the new sanctuary was dedicated on March 28, 1954. The signature stained-glass window of Christ was a donation from George and Etta Mae Craft. The church’s history tells the story of how Mrs. Craft told her husband they were going to donate the window. He agreed, even though it took all of their savings.
Mrs. Craft lived to be 104. Church members say that after Hurricane Rita in 2005 and Hurricane Ike in 2008, Mrs. Craft was the first caller to the church to check to see if the window was intact. It was.
However, the church itself wasn’t untouched by the storms. The surge from Hurricane Ike flooded the sanctuary and the ground floors of other buildings on the campus with 16 to 18 inches of water. Members of the congregation pitched in to clean and repair. The Rev. Pate, the current pastor, said Richard “Diesel” Durkin was at the church the morning after the storm to begin the work toward restoration.
The storm wasn’t the only disaster in the congregation’s history. Keown Hall was dedicated in 1974 and named for members Mr. And Mrs. Alvin Keown. Alvin Keown once served as Orange police chief and was a prosperous businessman. Keown Hall was destroyed by fire in January 1981. The congregation quickly replaced it with another Keown Hall that was dedicated eight months later.
Other notable contributions to the campus include murals painted by artist Tom Windham, who is also a member.
First Christian has long been active in the Christian community in Orange as other churches join for charitable projects. First Christian participates with the local Habitat for Humanity, Orange Christian Services, Friends Helping Friends and the Gideons.
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