Church History: Christ Reformed Church, Elizabethtown, Lancaster County, PA

Copy contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Abby Bowman

Copyright 2006.  All rights reserved.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/copyright.htm
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History of the Classis of Lancaster of the Eastern Synod of the
Reformed Church in the United States, 1852-1940;

Part II, Histories of the Congregations of the Classis of Lancaster, Pg. 214-217

Printed by The New Holland Clarion, New Holland, PA;
Editors Rev. Daniel G. Glass, Rev. C. George Bachman, Rev. Harry E. Shepardson,
Rev. John F. Frantz, Rev. J. N. Le Van, D.D.
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CHRIST REFORMED CHURCH, ELIZABETHTOWN

Rev. L. C. T. Miller, Pastor

The year 1744 marks the date of the organization of a congregation that is 
usually regarded as the beginning of Christ Church, Elizabethtown.  In this year 
the Rev. John Lischy organized a group of Reformed people into a congregation at 
Centerville, now Milton Grove, located about five miles northeast of 
Elizabethtown.  The Moravians and Lutherans were already worshipping at this 
place when the Reformed congregation was organized.  Little is known about this 
congregation except that very shortly after its organization a disagreement 
arose with the result that the Reformed group was forced to seek elsewhere for a 
place to worship.

There was another group of Reformed people in the northwestern end of what is 
now Lancaster County, who came together for worship as early as 1721.  The Rev. 
Michael Schlatter visited this group in 1747, and reported that John Conrad 
Tempelmann had been preaching to those people for some time.  In his report to 
the Holland Church, Schlatter mentions "the congregation at Jeremiah Miller's in 
Donegal where seventeen men promised 8 pounds and 38 bushels of fruit" for the 
support of a pastor.

One of the most prized historical possessions of the Elizabethtown congregation 
is a deed bearing the date, July 28, 1767, in which Peter Blasser and his wife, 
Magdalena, conveyed one acre of land for the consideration of twenty shillings 
of lawful money of Pennsylvania, with annual rental of "one grain of wheat" to 
certain men designated as "Representatives of the High Dutch Presbyterian 
Congregation".  Of equal value, historically, to the congregation is a recently 
discovered church record containing a list of 422 baptisms, written in German 
script by the ministers who served the congregation from 1752 to 1809.  Since 
the Donegal congregation or "Blasser's", as it came to be known after 1767, was 
not more than four or five miles from the Centerville group, and in view of a 
combination of circumstances that are historically reliable, it is not without 
reason to conclude that Lischy's organization united with this congregation some 
time between 1744 and 1767.  Although the year, 1744, has been accepted as the 
date of the organization of Christ Church, it is certain that its antecedents 
reach back considerably earlier than this date.

Not much is known about the years 1767-1815.  The Rev. John Runkel, 1779-1784, 
reported 20 families in the closing year of his pastorate.  Rev. Runkel also 
reports 11 pupils as students in the "church school," probably a parochial 
school.

The year 1815 is an important date in the history of the Elizabethtown 
congregation, for it was then that Blasser's was abandoned and the congregation 
brought to Elizabethtown.  Here a church was erected on a site less than one 
square from the present location.  With the improvements that were made from 
time to time, this building continued to serve the needs of the congregation 
until 1909, when the present edifice was dedicated.

During the pastorate of the Rev. John H. Pannebecker, 1874-1883, a parsonage was 
erected, the Runkel Missionary Society organized, and a monthly parish paper 
published.  The Rev. S. M. Roeder served the congregation from 1884 to 1893.  
The church was completely renovated and a sexton house built during this period.  
The present church edifice was erected during the pastorate of the Rev. B. M. 
Myer, 1893-1924.  The congregation more than doubled in membership during these 
years.  Hitherto, Christ Church had been a part of a charge; with the beginning 
of Rev. Myer's pastorate, it was constituted a charge in itself.  In recent 
years, since 1925, the church, parsonage and sexton house have undergone 
extensive improvements.  The membership, January 1, 1941, was 438.