Overlake Park Presbyterian Church

Celebrating our 42nd Anniversary - by Janet Schumacher

Picture the multi-purpose room at Phantom Lake Elementary where our church services began in May 1959. Each Sunday members
would be setting up chairs and the pulpit that was kept in a closet there. Afterward it all had to be put away again

At Ron and Beverly Bohman’s home some members were there to load the piano from the basement onto a trailer towed by a car.
The piano was taken to the school for worship. Then it was loaded back onto the trailer and taken back to the Bohman’s basement.
This had to be done weekly.

Our church was chartered on December 6,1959, by the Seattle Presbytery with 107 charter members. A Session with 12 Elders was
elected and session committees formed. By that time church school, senior choir, women’s association, men’s fellowship, youth programs
and Mariners were active. The Rev. Elwood T. Dyson, called from Rutledge, PA, to organize the new church was installed as senior pastor.

The site of our church was purchased in May 1958. In January 1960 a building committee was formed and the first fund drive was done to
supplement loans from the Synod Corporation. Ground was broken at the church site on December 3, 1961. Construction began on our Sanctuary,
Building D and the Office Building. Worship was held in Building D until September 1962, when the sanctuary was ready. It was dedicated on
December 2. The Fellowship Hall was built in 1965 and Building E in 1973.

Members, to cut expenses, did much of the finishing work. Each piece of the siding had to be dipped in Cabot’s 247 Stain before being nailed onto
the building. It was a very strong stain that got on hands, arms, clothing and faces. There is a multitude of stories to be told about this. Just ask!

On Thursday, April 2, 1987 the sanctuary was destroyed by fire caused by an electrical problem. It was an emotional time for our members,
many of whom had helped build, paint and finish the structure. It was a place where children were baptized and some married. A service to
close the doors followed and the congregation worshiped in the Fellowship Hall for about three years.

Groundbreaking for the new sanctuary came in March 1989. Care was taken in its design to follow the reformed worship principles of inspiration
without distraction. The sanctuary was dedicated in April 1990 with a special hymn, “Open The Doors For Christ,” words by Jane Parker Huber.
Our parking lot was improved shortly afterward. The Rev. Charles E. Swartz began his ministry at OPPC in August 1997. In January 2001 the
Rev. Jon K. Nelson, Associate Pastor, began his ministry in Youth and Family Ministries.

OPPC’s 25th anniversary was celebrated in December 1984 and its 40th in December 1999. We thank God for the vision of those who came before.
We look forward to the future with hope, prayer, and the Glory of God. Celebrating our 42nd Anniversary In the past forty-two years Overlake Park
Presbyterian Church has been served by the following: life and death we belong to God.