At their 10:30 morning service this Sunday, August 22, Tyrone Presbyterians will practice the three R’s of modern worship as they remember, rejoice and revitalize.
To begin with, about 50 members of this 147-year-old downtown church will remember the musical heritage of their Sunday School by singing two traditional Sunday School hymns and Blessings. The Tyrone Presbyterian Sunday School began in a log cabin church at the corner of Logan Avenue and 13th Street in 1865 at the close of the Civil War.
Thirty-four years later in 1899, mission-minded Presbyterians established a Sunday School Chapel in east Tyrone in a building that now houses Grace Baptist Church. Fifty-five years later during the roaring 1920s, Presbyterians again expanded their Sunday School mission outreach to the country-side surrounding Tyrone by hosting Sunday Afternoon Christian Education Classes for immigrant families in Pemberton, just beyond Grier School.
During the depression era and the war years, more than 400 people of all ages would gather in the downtown church for Sunday morning bible study. As they remember the blessing of their Presbyterian Sunday School heritage during worship this Sunday, church members will sing two hymns about blessings popular during the golden era of Sunday School – “Count Your Blessings” and “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”
As they sing, some older Presbyterians will remember when people gathered in the Upstairs Assembly Room for opening exercises and sang favorite Evangelical hymns to the colorful piano accompaniment of musicians like Betty Wilder, Faye Gates, Virginia White, Edna Lake and Erma Kelly.
As they remember almost a century and a half of their Sunday School heritage, Tyrone Presbyterians also will rejoice while they listen to Mr. David Grazier of Tyrone’s Grace Baptist Church present his ministry in music at the morning service. A 1971 graduate of Tyrone Area High School and a 1975 graduate of William and Mary College, Mr. Grazier distinguished himself as an all-state football player, as well as a gym teacher and coach at Jersey Shore High School from 1975 to 1984.
Since 1984, David Grazier has served as Chief Executive Officer of Tyrone’s division of the Kunzler Corporation. Married to the former Janet Keller of Jersey Shore and the father of three grown children, Mr. Grazier clearly exemplifies a 21st century Christian as he commits himself each week to teach Sunday School, work as a Trustee and serve as soloist at Tyrone’s Grace Baptist Church.
Finally on this Sunday, August 22, Tyrone Presbyterians will revitalize themselves for the upcoming church year by learning to sing two modern praise choruses purposely composed for contemporary worship services in the 21st century. With the help of Mr. Grazier and the Westminster Choir, the long-time members of First Presbyterian Church will learn to sing and to include in their worship the 1998 praise chorus “Grace Alone” and the 1976 worship response “Praise the Lord with the Sound of Trumpet.”
This coming Sunday and on all Sundays of the church year, Tyrone Presbyterians continue to conduct blended worship services combining both the historic Evangelical hymns of the church and modern praise choruses. Hopefully, this philosophy of worship will help worshippers appreciate the truth of Fred Pratt Green’s lyrics describing the story of the church: What changes, challenges and tests the Church of Christ survives/ How rich the records left to use of dedicated lives/ Still must this church proclaim to all that now, and evermore/ The House of God is open house, and Christ the open door.
