HISTORY
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH
COPPERAS COVE, TEXAS
Organizing
- On World Communion Sunday, October 4, 1964
the first service of the future First Presbyterian Church
was held in the Cove Theater with Rev. J. Berkeley
SoRelle leading the service and 39 people attending. The
church was officially organized on February 13, 1965 when
52 members signed the charter and petitioned the
Presbytery of Alamo to organize them into a church. The
Presbytery appointed Rev. SoRelle as organizing pastor;
and the Service of Organization of a Presbyterian Church
was held at Robertson Avenue Baptist Church on April 1,
1965. The congregation called Rev. SoRelle as the first
pastor, and he was installed on World Communion Sunday,
October 3, 1965.
The first Elders were Kenneth Bouldin, Troy Donnell, Hal
Ewing, Frank Davis, William Haynes, R.D. Holt, Martin
Hughes, Richard Kennedy, and Frank Trower. The first
Clerk of Session was R.D. Holt, and the first church
treasurer was Troy Donnell.
Building
The congregation rented a house at 501 Turner Street and
began meeting there on November 8, 1964. In August 1965
the congregation obtained a loan to purchase six lots in
the Nauert Addition. They held a ground-breaking ceremony
on March 27, 1966; held the first service in the new
building on August 8, 1966; and dedicated the church on
World Communion Sunday, October 2, 1966. The original
building consisted of a small narthex, a combined
sanctuary / fellowship hall, a kitchen, two bathrooms, a
pastor’s office, and four Sunday School rooms.
The congregation continued to improve the property with
several projects:
* 1968 - purchased an additional lot behind the church
building for a playground and built a parking lot in
front of the church
* 1971 - purchased a manse at 114 Hardeman
* 1975-76 - added three classrooms and two bathrooms at
the West end of the building
* 1984 - built a storage shed in the back yard with two
rooms and a roofed porch
* 1984 – built a handicapped ramp to the front porch
* 1988 - built a private office for the pastor adjacent
to the existing office
Building Committees were formed in 1979–80 and again
in 1983 to discuss building a new sanctuary, but both
times plans were abandoned because of financial obstacles.
A Building Committee formed in 1991, and on January 16,
1994 the congregation broke ground for a 3,500 square
foot addition on the north side of the sanctuary /
fellowship hall that included a narthex, sanctuary, four
offices, and two bathrooms. At this time the congregation
sold the manse. The new addition was completed and
dedicated in 1995.
Over the years, the programs of the church have included
Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening
worship services; choir; Sunday School classes for
children and adults; Vacation Bible School; mid-week
Bible study groups and short-term study groups; a youth
group, a men’s group, and Presbyterian Women.
Fellowship events have included musicals, fashion shows,
square dancing, bowling league, softball league, and game
nights.
Serving
Besides the denominational ministries it supports through
benevolence giving to Presbytery, Synod, and General
Assembly, the congregation has been involved in local,
national, and international missions since the church was
organized. Missions have included programs begun by the
congregation as well as offering other organizations a
place to meet.
* 1967 -- Established the Parish Visitor Program in
collaboration with the Killeen Presbyterian Church, Alamo
Presbytery, and Trinity Presbytery. As part of this
ministry, a program to help military wives visiting their
husbands in Hawaii while on R&R (Rest &
Recreation) from Vietnam began in 1968. In 1975, the
Program became the Ft Hood Area Ministry of Christian
Concern, an ecumenical ministry offering emergency food,
clothing, transportation, and other services to military
families in the area. The ministry was disbanded in the
mid-1980s when Ft Hood established its own programs to
provide these services.
* 1967 -- Opened Copperas Cove’s first day care
center as a mission to the community. The Day Care Center
began with members of the congregation working as
volunteer staff, but within a few years the state
developed standards for Day Care Centers which included
requirements for a paid staff. Declining enrollments, a
new requirement that four-year-olds attend pre-school in
the Copperas Cove school system, and the amount of money
required to bring the Day Care Center into compliance
with new state standards forced the Day Care Center to
close in July, 2003.
* 1970s – Sponsored Citizenship classes.
* 1972 – 2007 -- Sponsored Boy Scout and Girl Scout
troops.
* 1973 – Began Operation Friendship, a weekly
fellowship time and support group for military wives.
Operation Friendship disbanded in the mid-1980s.
* 1973 -- Joined the Ft Hood Parish, consisting of
Presbyterian churches in Temple, Killeen, Lampasas, and
Copperas Cove.
* 1975 -- Sponsored Al-A-Teen, a 12-step program for
teenagers with alcohol-dependency problems.
* 1982 -- Began Operation Wind Crest at Wind Crest
Nursing Home, a program that eventually expanded to
involve five local churches leading devotional Bible
studies every week-day morning.
* 1982–1987 – Provided the Seventh Day
Adventist Church with a place to worship on Saturdays.
* 1984 – Served as the community food pantry
sponsored by the Copperas Cove Ministerial Alliance
* 1985 -- Collected vitamins for a medical mission in
Terlingua TX
* 1986 – Provided a meeting place for a chapter of
Compassionate Friends, a support group for parents whose
children have died. The chapter disbanded in 2002.
* 1987 – Sponsored a widowed persons support group.
* 1998-1999 – Provided a Korean church with a place
to worship on Sunday afternoons.
* 2005 – Established a PrayFAST (Pray For A Soldier
Team) ministry with the Ft Hood Chaplains’ Office to
pray for Ft Hood soldiers and their families during their
deployment to Afghanistan and Iraq
* 2007 -- Provided an Hispanic congregation a place to
worship on Sunday evenings
* 2005 - Established a PrayFAST (Pray For A Soldier Team)
ministry with the Ft Hood Chaplains Office to pray for Ft
Hood soldiers and their families during their deployment
to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Current ministries include support for Cove House
Emergency Shelter, Tools for Development, Inc., and
Souper Bowl Sunday
Pastors
* 1964 – 1969 Rev. J. Berkeley SoRelle, organizing
pastor / first pastor, full-time
* 1971 - 1982 Rev. Charles Bushnell, full time
* 1983 - 1989 Rev. Mary Currie, part-time
* 1990 Rev. Tom Moranville, retired, pulpit supply
* 1991 - 1996 Rev. Davis Taylor, part-time
* 1997 Rev. John Lewis, retired, pulpit supply and
Moderator of Session
* 1998 - 2003 Rev. Mark Brantley-Gearhart, part-time
* 2004 - 2005 Rev. Alvin D. Koons, retired, part-time
* 2005 - 2007 Rev. Marsha E. Brown, part-time
- * 2008 - Present Rev. Elizabeth Pang, part-time
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History / First Presbyterian Church / Copperas Cove, TX /
10/28/2007