January 22 Today in OPC History

On January 22, 1973, the session of Berea Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Dayton, Virginia, met for the first time. The previous year, Timothy Gregson, then a licentiate of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, had started to lead a Bible study in Bridgewater, Virginia. Those participating searched the Scriptures to see if the things being taught in churches in the area were true. Two ruling elders from other denominations, Ray Mason and Leon Lucas, attended. On May 11, 1973, Mr. Gregson was ordained. At the end of the next year, Berea Church was organized under the Presbytery of the Mid-Atlantic with eighteen communicant members.

In 1985, the congregation purchased a brick-and-stone United Brethren Church building on Main Street. By the mid-1990s, the congregation's membership had grown to over fifty as the Lord blessed Mr. Gregson's gospel ministry. However, the membership began to decline at the start of the next decade. Mr. Gregson accepted a call to Covenant OPC, Amsterdam, New York, in 2002. The congregation called Stephen Dufresne in 2004. Berea Church dissolved on December 3, 2005.

Picture: Tim Gregson in front of the Berea Church building in 1998