Changes in Downtown Casper. First Presbyterian becomes City Park Church, the former First Baptist Church.

I debated on whether to put this entry here or on our companion blog, Lex Anteinternet.  In the end, I decided to put it up here first and then link it over. This will be one of a couple of posts of this type which explore changes, this one with a local expression, that have bigger implications.

When we started this blog, some of the first entries here were on churches in downtown Casper.  These included the First Presbyterian Church and the First Baptist Church, with buildings dating to 1913 and 1949 respectively.  First Baptist, it should be noted, has occupied their present location, if not their present church, for a century.

Indeed, while I wasn't able to get it to ever upload, I have somewhere a video of the centennial of the First Presbyterian Church from 2013, featuring, as a church that originally had a heavy Scots representation ought to, a bagpipe band.  Our original entry on that church building is right below:

First Presbyterian Church, Casper Wyoming

This Presbyterian Church is located one block away from St. Mark's Episcopal Church and St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, all of which are separated from each other by City Park.

The corner stone of the church gives the dates 1913 1926. I'm not sure why there are two dates, but the church must have been completed in 1926.

Well, since that centennial, First Presbyterian has been going through a constant set of changes, as noted in our entry here:

Grace Reformed at City Park, formerly First Presbyterian Church, Casper Wyoming

This isn't a new addition to the roll of churches here, but rather news about one of them.  We formerly posted on this church here some time ago:

Churches of the West: First Presbyterian Church, Casper Wyoming: This Presbyterian Church is located one block away from St. Mark's Episcopal Church and St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, all of whi...

People who have followed it would be aware that the Presbyterian churches in the United States are undergoing a period of rift, and this church has reflected that.  The Presbyterian Church, starting in the 1980s, saw conflict develop between liberal and more conservative elements within it which lead to the formation of the "moderate conservative" EPC.  As I'm not greatly familiar with this, I'll only note that the EPC is associated with "New School Presbyterianism" rather than "Old School" and it has adopted the motto  "In Essentials, Unity; In Non-Essentials, Liberty; In All Things, Charity. Truth in Love.".

The change in name here is confusing to an outsider in that this church is a member of the EPC, but it's no longer using its original name.  As it just passed the centennial of its construction, that's a bit unfortunate in some ways. 

We'd also note that the sought set of stairs is now chained off.  We're not sure why, but those stairs must no longer be used for access.

The changes apparently didn't serve to arrest whatever was going on, as there's a sign out in front of the old First Presbyterian, later Grace Reformed, that starting on February 23, it'll be City Park Church.

City Park Church, it turns out, is the name that the congregation that presently occupies another nearby church, First Baptist Church, will call its new church building, which is actually a much older building than the one it now occupies, which is depicted here:

First Baptist Church, Casper Wyoming

This is the First Baptist Church in Casper, Wyoming. It's one of the Downtown churches in Casper, in an area that sees approximately one church per block for a several block area.

This particular church was built in 1949, and sits on the same block as Our Savior's Lutheran Church.

What's going on?

Well, it's hard to say from the outside, which we are, but what is pretty clear is that the rifts in the Presbyterian Church broke out, in some form, in the city's oldest Presbyterian Church to the point where it ended up changing its name, and then either moving out of its large church, and accompanying grounds, or closing altogether.  I've never been in the building but I'm told that its basement looked rough a couple of years ago and perhaps the current congregation has other plans or the grounds and church are just too much for it.  At any rate, the 1949 vintage building that First Baptist occupies is apparently a bit too small for its needs and it had taken the opportunity to acquire and relocate into the older, but larger, church.  It can't help but be noted that both churches have pretty large outbuildings as well. Also, while they are both downtown, the 1913 building is one of the three very centrally located old downtown Casper churches, so if church buildings have pride of place, the Baptist congregation is moving into a location which has a little bit more of one.

While it will be dealt with more in another spot, or perhaps on Lex Anteinternet, the entire thing would seem to be potentially emblematic of the loss that Christian churches that have undergone a rift like the Presbyterian Church in the United States has sustained when they openly split between liberal and conservative camps.  The Presbyterian Church was traditionally a fairly conservative church, albeit with theology that was quite radical at the time of its creation.  In recent years some branches of that church have kept their conservatism while others have not and there's been an open split.  As noted elsewhere this has lead in part to a defection from those churches in a lot of localities, and a person has to wonder if something like that may have happened here, as well as wondering if the obvious fact that a split has occurred would naturally lead to a reduction in the congregation as some of its members went with the other side.  We've noted here before that the Anglican Community locally not only has its two Episcopal Churches in town, but that there are also two additional Anglican Churches of a much more theologically conservative bent, both of which are outside of the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming.

A person can't really opine, from the outside, if something like this is "sad" or not, but it's certainly a remarkable event.  We've noted church buildings that have changed denominations of use before, but this is the first one where we've actually witnessed it.  And in this case, the departing denomination had occupied their building for a century.

Carpenter United Methodist Church, Carpenter Wyoming.

This is the Carpenter United Methodist Church in Carpenter, Wyoming.

Carpenter is a very small, but still there, town in southeastern Wyoming.  Indeed the town is almost in Colorado and and is has much of the character of western Nebraska.  Founded as a railroad town, the town hangs on in spite of its very small size and is quite isolated.

This church was obviously built early on as a Prairie Goth style church and then modified, probably in the 1970s, to have a new entry way.  The entry way is architecturally inconsistent with the remainder of the church so the exact thinking of the addition isn't obvious to an outside viewer.

Wapiti Valley Church, Wapiti Wyoming.

This large log church is a protestant church in Wapiti Wyoming.  The establishment of the church dates to 1988, but the structure to 1992.

St. Matthew's Catholic Church, Hulett Wyoming

The church depicted above is St. Matthew's Catholic Church in the small northern Wyoming town of Hulett.  The Church is served by the parish in Newcastle, which while not far away is a substantial drive in the winter.

Community of Christ Church Hulett, Wyoming

This is the Community of Christ Church in Hulett, Wyoming.  The Community of Christ was formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and, as the name would indicate, its an offshoot of the Mormon religion, having separated from the LDS quite early.

This church is immediately adjacent to the Catholic St. Matthew's church.  It's not unusual to see churches built side by side, but in this instance the appearance is a bit unique as both churches were built from house like structures.

St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Moorcroft Wyoming

This is St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Moorcroft, Wyoming.  The parish is served by the larger parish in Gillette, Wyoming.

Grace Mission Baptist Church, Kaycee Wyoming.

This is Grace Mission Baptist Church in the small Johnson County town of Kaycee, Wyoming.  Other than the location and that its a Baptist church, I don't know much about it.

Holscher's Hub: Echos of Parco. Sinclair Wyoming.

From our companion blog; Holscher's Hub: Echos of Parco. Sinclair Wyoming.:

Not too many people stop at Sinclair who are just passing through.  But at one time that wasn't true.  And that's why the town has what was once a luxury hotel (now a Baptist church), a spacious park, really nice tennis courts, and the like.  Only the sign on the hotel remains, as well as a historical monument, to remind us that Sinclair is the town's second name.  It was originally Parco, a company town founded by the founder of what is now the Sinclair Refinery, the Producers & Refiners Corporation.

This post has had the unusual distinction of being on three of our blogs.  It's put up here because, as noted above, the Parco Hotel is now used as a Baptist church.

Or at least part of it is.  The hotel is quite large and it doesn't appear that the church occupies the entire building.  Oddly, Sinclair has an abandoned church that looks as if it would serve this purpose better, but then that's engaging in a lot of speculation.

Abandoned Church, Sinclair Wyoming

Given the Spanish style of this abandoned, but apparently still maintained, church in Sinclair, my guess is that it was contemporaneous with the  construction of Parco, as the town was originally called.  All the principal buildings that were built in the early 20th Century along the refining town on the Lincoln highway, were built in that style

I'm not sure what denomination used this church, or even when it was last in use.  As noted, it's still receiving maintenance even though it is not serving as a church and is partially boarded up.  Oddly enough, the Baptist Church in Sinclair is using the giant Parco Hotel of the same vintage for its church.

St. Barbara's Catholic Church, Powell Wyoming

This is St. Barbara's Catholic Church in Powell, Wyoming.  This church was built in 1964 on the site of the original St. Barbara's which it replaced.

First United Methodist Church, Powell Wyoming

This is the First United Methodist Church in Powell, Wyoming.  Other than its location, I can't provide any other details about this modern architecture church.

Traditionalist Anabaptist In Wyoming?

Starting at some point about six or so years ago, which means its actually probably more like ten years ago as things that occurred about that time seem more recent to me than they really are, I started running into some type of traditionalist Anabaptist from time to time here in Wyoming.

The first ones I ran into were at the rest stop outside of Waltman.  There was a travel trailer there with a flat tire that was being repaired and the people with it were outside of the trailer.  In my naivete, as I didn't expect to run into Anabaptist here, I thought at first "oh. . . reenactors", as the women were all wearing what appeared to me to be very traditional 19th Century style dresses with sun bonnets and the men were wearing straw broad brimmed hats, blue shirts, and jeans; and sporting that type of beard which lacks a mustache.  Very quickly I realized, however, that they weren't reenactors, they were some sort of community of Anabaptist adherents or perhaps a family of Anabaptists traditionalist.

Now, for those for whom this term is a mystery, what I'm referring to is Christians who are members of a traditionalist Anabaptist denomination, such as the Amish, traditionalist Mennonites, or Hutterites.  The most famous of these groups is, of course, the Amish, but there are some Mennoites in Colorado and Nebraska and there are Huttertites in Montana and the prairie provinces of Canada.

This is the Greeley Mennonite Church in Greeley Colorado.  The church was originally a Lutheran church but I don't know when it the Prairie Gothic church was built. 

 

Now, while these groups are all Anabaptist, they are not all the same, and I don't want to suggest that they are.  That is not my intent at all.  And while it is my understanding that all Amish are traditionalist in the sense I'm using it (which would likely be grating on their nerves and be regarded as singularly unfair by them), and I think that this is also the case for Hutterites, it is not true for Mennonites.  Indeed, there are Mennonite congregations that are not distinct in dress and which are not otherwise traditionalist such as limiting the use of technology over time.   I'm frankly unclear on which denomination the group I've been seeing belongs to, and that's what I'm curious about.

 

I've noted above the first instance in which I encountered them.  The second time was, oddly enough, in Sam's Club. There were a group of women who met the description set out above, except I see that their head covering is a simple covering, not a sun bonnet, buying huge lots of flour and other baking goods.  Since then I've run into them here and there, most recently at the past two gun shows here in town.

On the first of those occasions two men and a boy were present selling old farm equipment.  A woman was present selling baked goods, and seemed to be married to one of the men.  The men were all dressed as described save for wearing cowboy boots, which causes me to lean towards Hutterites.  This past weekend they were back but it was two different women and a different man, and they were all selling baked goods. The man was wearing heavy work boots.

The presence of traditionalist Anabaptists in Wyoming would be a new thing and I'm curious.  Does anyone know who they might be, what group they're actually in, and where their community or communities are located?

Ft. Laramie Community Presbyterian Church, Ft. Laramie Wyoming

This Prairie Gothic church in the small town of Ft. Laramie, Wyoming, is in the Prairie Gothic style.  The town of Ft. Laramie is just a few miles from the historic frontier era Wyoming fort.

St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, Torrington Wyoming

This Romanesque style Catholic Church is St. Rose of Lima in Torrington Wyoming.

First Baptist Church, Torrington Wyoming

This Romanesque style church is the First Baptist Church in Torrington Wyoming.  I'm unaware of the history of the church itself, so I have no other details on it.

St. Anthony's Catholic Church. Upton, Wyoming.

St. Anthony is a very popular patron saint for Catholic Churches in Wyoming for reasons of which I'm not aware. This is one of three churches in the Diocese of Cheyenne which is dedicated to St. Anthony.

This St. Anthony's is the smallest, being in the smallest town. This Prairie Gothic Catholic Church is located in small Upton, Wyoming, near the Black Hills.  It's a mission church of the church in Newcastle.

First Baptist Church, Big Piney Wyoming

This is the First Baptist Church in Big Piney, Wyoming.  Other than its identify, I don't know anything about it.

St. Brendan Catholic Mission Church, Jeffrey City Wyoming.

This is St. Brendan Mission Church in Jeffrey City, Wyoming.  The Church is served by Holy Rosary Church in Lander Wyoming.

This is one of those photos here that isn't particularly good, as light conditions were completely wrong for the photo when I took it.  However, as I take these when the opportunity presents itself, I went ahead and photographed the church.  If I have the chance, I'll swap it out for a better photograph at some later date.

This small church appears to have been converted from a building used for some other purpose originally in small Jeffrey City.

Eden Valley Baptist Church, Farson Wyoming

This is the Eden Valley Baptist Church in Farson Wyoming.  Other than that is what it is, I don't know anything else about it.

Latter Day Saints, Farson Wyoming.

These photographs are of the Mormon church in Farson Wyoming.  I was stopped to take a photograph of something else at the time, which explains the unusual camera angle of these photos.