Bath Church celebrates bicentennial with eye on the future

by John Benson

It’s safe to say that 1818 was a busy year in Bath. Not only was the township officially founded that year, it also is when Bath Church was established.

Senior Minister Dan Doty said the house of worship, located at 3980 West Bath Rd., is spending the entire year celebrating its milestone.

“We had an April event where our church historian gave a talk during church about the history of our congregation,” Doty said. “Then in June, we had a special service where we did a bunch of hymn singing with a lunch afterwards where we actually wrote a hymn for our bicentennial year.”

That hymn was scheduled to be performed at the church’s Sept. 23 event, which planned to have food trucks and plenty of music.

“We had an Ohio composer write us an anthem for a brass choir, our singing choir, our hand bells and our organist all together,” Doty said. “It’s quite a major piece.”

During the affair, the church also planned to open a 50-year time capsule and unveil a small model stained-glass church, where members are encouraged to write down their wishes, dreams, prayers and visions for Bath Church going forward into the next 200 years.

“It’s not necessarily a time capsule, but more of a living thing where people can add to it from time to time,” Doty said.

Doty said that in 1818, like-minded families gathered for Sunday worship at a log cabin or log church located close to the Bath Township Museum on North Cleveland-Massillon Road. Later, a wood-framed church was built on Ira Road.

“In bad weather, it was hard to get horses up or down the hill, so they actually picked the church up to a higher point where the horse traffic and the wagons could get to it,” Doty said. “But they kept growing and growing and in 1949, they were in a quandary as to whether build a new church or what to do.

“For the second time, they picked up the church and moved it down Cleveland-Massillon Road to Bath Road where it sits today. The Historical Chapel, as we call it, is the Bath Church from the mid-1800s that was moved twice.”

Doty said the church’s 200-year anniversary was put into perspective during his recent trip to Germany.

“We visited a lot of different churches, some of which have doors way older than 200 years,” Doty laughed. “It’s kind of fun to put it into perspective, because we’ll say 200 years, and they don’t really grasp that that’s a long time for a church. In America, we know it is.”

And Doty is confident that the church will continue to thrive for another 200 years.

“Oh, I think so,” Doty said. “We have quite a lot of young families. It’s a very family-oriented congregation. We continue to have a large confirmation class every year. We do new membership classes three or four times a year. So, yes, I think Bath Church has 200-plus years in its future.”

 

 

 

Featured image photo caption: A photo from the early 1950s shows the church’s old sanctuary. Photo courtesy Jackie Bettick