Washburn United congregation disbands

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Bob Griep leads the recession during Sunday's final worship service at Washburn Congregational Church in Lincolnshire. | Brian O'Mahoney~for Sun-Times Media

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Updated: January 2, 2012 1:42AM

A congregant pulled the rope in the lobby of Washburn United Church of Christ on Sunday afternoon ringing its bell-tower bell, calling worshipers to the last service before disbanding forever.

At the front door, the last pastor of the church, the Rev. Don Riemer, greeted the mostly elderly group of congregants.

“Welcome to a bitter sweet moment,” Riemer said. “This too will pass.”

The tiny Lincolnshire church’s congregation’s lineage stretches back almost 175 years, but had dwindled to about eight congregants. So, on Sunday, about 50 people gathered to say goodbye to the historic church and to each other.

Once the epicenter of communal life in the Half Day area - across from the Vernon Area Public Library on Olde Half Day Road - some attendees asked what went wrong.

“Somehow time passed it by,” said Joan Wilts, a church council member. “This is becoming common. Smaller churches are losing people, who are not going to church or going to mega-churches like Willow Creek.”

Rebecca (Pierce) Ayers was there with her mother, Lorainne Pierce-Bell, grandmother Sheila Whittington and great-grandmother Sylvia Lindskog.

“God bless everybody who walks through these doors and God bless everybody here,” Ayers said during the final celebration, adding she was baptized and confirmed in the church.

The small brown church, its annex and sanctuary are landmarks in an area once known as unincorporated Half Day. Built in 1844, the annex is the oldest building in Lincolnshire and was Half Day’s first Village Hall. Presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson twice voted for president there in the 1950s, presumably for himself.

With high, brightly colored stained glass windows, the church has just 10 rows of pews. A sign inside states its capacity is 120. A red banner with a golden cross hung behind the altar. There’s a small electric organ beside the altar. Red carpet match the red pew cushions.

In each pew were the Chicago-based “New International Bible” and song books, “Hymns for the Living Church.”

“I’ve been coming here since before I was born,” said Jill (Christensen) Nabinger, who with her husband, Gary, was a missionary twice in the 1990s in Kenya.

Nabinger said her mother, Carol Christensen, was pregnant with her when attending Washburn United Church of Christ services. She said her mother was a jack of all trades.

“In a small church, with not many people, you served in a lot of capacities,” said Christensen, who volunteered long hours in a variety of positions.

However, the church will not be boarded up and closed. For the past six years, the Korean Evangelical Churches of America’s Chicago Lighthouse Church has been conducting services and occupying the sanctuary. Senior Pastor Won Cho said he has about 30 congregants and the church is growing, in an area with about 600 Korean-Americans.

“The small church is good for us,” Cho said. “We love this place.”

Ownership of the church grounds turned over to the Illinois Conference of the United Church of Christ on Monday. Jonathan Knight, associate conference minister serving the Fox Valley and the Chicago area, said Washburn United’s fate is uncertain.

The Chicago Lighthouse Church might be able to take over in two to three years but Cho was circumspect about the church’s ability to continue as a place of worship.

Lisa Marie Smith, longtime Vernon Area Public Library District assistant librarian, is writing a book on the area’s history. She said the annex should be saved as a historic landmark and suggested it would be perfect for a historical society building.

The land, donated by the area’s first postmaster, Seth Washburn, the church and its congregation weathered the Civil War, World War I and World War II, Smith pointed out.

“This was the center of the community for so long, it really was,” Smith said.

The last regularly scheduled Church of Christ service at the church was Easter Sunday. Girl Scouts and other meetings have been held there in recent years, along with annual Christmas concerts.

There was talk during Sunday’s celebration about joining other area churches.

“It’s apparent your legacy will live on,” said Teamous Newberne, during a point in the ceremony when participation was encouraged. “If any of you are looking for a church, you are welcome at St. Peter’s (United Church of Christ in Lake Zurich).”

Several people said closing down the congregation doesn’t mean the end to the church’s spiritual mission.

“We thank our forbearers for the heritage we receive,” Knight said. “Something better is yet to come.

“There’s been a great story of faith. Not a story of despair or defeat. Washburn’s mission here has been completed.”

At the post-service buffet in the church basement, complete with Deacon Lorraine Johnson’s homemade raisin cookies, Johnson, Reverend Riemer and church council member Wilts agreed to an informal reunion next summer.

The exit sign on the back door of the basement, read, “Before you leave, please check: Are the lights off? Are the doors locked? Thank you, and go and be a blessing.”