Mike Rountree and Dennis Jones show off the cake.

Mike Rountree and Dennis Jones show off the cake.

A significant event occurred in the life of our church last week. On Sunday, October 18, the 25th we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the ordination of our beloved pastor Dennis W. Jones! George Fricke announced the event during the 10:15 service. He explained that he was given the honor of announcing this event because he has been a member here for so long—in 2016, he will celebrate his 50th year as a member. In preparation for this role, he dug back deep into his memory to recall some of his experiences with Dennis.

The first time was when Dennis was a police officer whose beat was helping members crossing the street in front of the church.  George recalled how Dennis would help many of us to jaywalk across Finley Ave. and West Oak from Brush’s grocery to the corner of our property. He explained to us that jaywalking was illegal but that he did not want us to get hurt. His next recollection was when Dennis visited one of our services to hear his girlfriend at that time sing in the choir. This got him involved with the young people, the Maine work camp, and eventually membership. He was in a new member class led by Jim Morris. Then George recalled that Dennis decided to study for the ministry and came under care of Session while he went to Princeton Seminary.

When he graduated, he was ordained on October 7, 1990 in our sanctuary. George was Clerk of Session at that time and presented Dennis with his first ministerial robe as a gift from the Congregation. Dennis interjected that he was wearing that robe this day. Dennis then went on to be Associate Pastor at the Sardis Presbyterian Church of Charlotte, NC.

But he couldn’t stay away from us for long and came back home not as a prodigal son, but a popular son, to be Interim Associate Pastor here. Interim Pastors are only supposed to serve for one year, but Dennis stayed for six years, because we were in transition at that time, because he was a an excellent Associate, and because Cal Jackson had some clout with Presbytery.  Although he was more than a Youth and Young Adult Pastor, he excelled in that role. George said that we have had many excellent Youth and Young Adult Pastors in his 50 years with us, but that three stand out. They are Todd Jones in the 70’s, Simon Steer in the late 80’s and Dennis in the 90’s.

After 6 years as an interim, Dennis was called to be the Senior Pastor at the Alexandria Presbyterian church in Milford, NJ. Then when Al Tisdale left us, George recalls writing a letter to the Search Committee that Dennis would be an ideal candidate for the position of Senior Pastor here because of his past experience, because he knew all the staff, and because he could hit the ground running which would be good for us after the transition problems we had experienced over recent years.

The congregation responded with a hearty round of applause.

The celebration continued in Westminster Hall following the service. Everyone enjoyed a lovely cake with their coffee and tea, then Dennis was presented with a handsome lamp for his office desk by Joan Eichhorn.  Joan read a beautiful list reasons we thank and appreciate Dennis, including a thank you to his wife and daughter for sharing him with us.  George thanked Joan, Mike Roundtree and Carol Skidmore for arranging this program. He concluded the ceremonies by telling Dennis that we have had a number of long serving pastors, one 54 years, one 36 years, 23 years and 18 years. We hope he will join the list before he’s through.