Pilgrim Faith To Celebrate 125 Years With Mass Vow Renewal Ceremony

An Oak Lawn church plans to celebrate its 125th anniversary by inviting 125 couples to renew their marriage vows.

Pilgrim Faith United Church of Christ, one of the oldest churches in Oak Lawn, invites married couples to a mass vow renewal ceremony on June 25.

The ceremony is inclusive. Couples need not be members of Pilgrim Faith or of the Christian faith. LGBT couples are also welcome to participate. The whole purpose is to celebrate love.

“We wanted to do a public event,” said Rev. Peggy McClanahan, pastor of Pilgrim Faith. “We’ve always been a public church. Initially we were just going to do a dinner dance but then we just started talking and dreaming. Someone suggested a vow renewal ceremony.”

The ceremony will take place from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. June 25 on the Oak Lawn Village Green at Cook and Dumke Drive. If it rains, the ceremony will be moved indoors. Pastor Peggy says they’ll find a way to squeeze all the couples and their guests into Pilgrim Faith.

A registration fee of $25 includes the vow renewal ceremony and certificate, cake and punch reception with a live concert, one 4X6 color photo of the couple, and up to five guests (additional guests are $5 each).

Couples interested in saying "I still do" can register online at Pilgrim Faith United Church of Christ's 125th Anniversary Renewal Ceremony.

Awards will be handed out to the longest married couple, the couple who travels the farthest to the ceremony, the couple with the most unusual wedding story, as well as recognition of couples who got married at Pilgrim Faith.

“We have some men who are former members of the church presently living in Germany that are planning to come back for the ceremony,” Pastor Peggy said. “We also have a couple who won a radio contest where they got married in a mass wedding on Valentine’s Day.”

The church was formed on Oct. 31, 1891 as the First Congregational Church of Oak Lawn. Members met in the old Simpson farmhouse at Central Avenue and 93rd Street, in the same building that today houses the Homestead Barr.

“Unlike a lot churches that were founded in the city, ours was founded by both men and women,” Pastor Peggy said. “That was unusual for its time because most churches were founded by men.”

The First Congregational Church of Oak Lawn met in other homes around the village. In 1949, the church built its current building at 9411 S. 51st Ave. While the new church was being built, members met in another existing building on the property.

“It was a real trip,” Pastor Peggy said. “The basement apparently had a dirt floor where women worked in the kitchen. It is was raining hard, they had to wear galoshes. A few of our members still remember it. Sometimes grass would grow through the floor in the Sunday school room.”

By the time members finished constructing the new building, the church had already outgrown the space. Another fund drive was held, and the middle and north sections of the present day building were added in 1955.

“The church was growing fast. It was the post-World War II baby boom,” Pastor Peggy said. “Oak Lawn’s population mushroomed. Those folks, bless their hearts. They were all building schools and parks and homes in Oak Lawn.”

During the 1990s, the First Congregational Church as well as many other denominations merged with the United Church of Christ. The name was changed to Pilgrim Faith.

“The congregational church history goes directly back to the Pilgrims. We wanted to honor the Pilgrim heritage by adopting the name for our church,” Pastor Peggy said. “In the early years, most of the leaders who ran Oak Lawn and the schools were members of this church. The names of the families who were on the church board were the same people the schools are named after.”

Pilgrim Faith has always been a church that encourages its members to get out and get involved in the community. Today, the church operates a community food pantry and a South Suburban PADS shelter site for homeless persons, as well as provides space for various 12-step groups, a support group for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and Girl and Boy Scout troops.

“We are a very active church,” Pastor Peggy said. “We’ve always encouraged our members to look outward looking to see what we can do to help people in the community.”