For more than a century, the Presbyterian church located in Bedminster, PA, was simply a satellite campus for the congregation in nearby Doylestown. It would have been easy for the larger “city” church to sell off that property and the buildings that are located there. But it didn’t, and eventually a group of worshipers broke off from the Doylestown congregation and returned to Deep Run, restarting a new worshiping community of their own.
It marked a full-circle moment for what is now called the Presbyterian Church of Deep Run, a congregation that had started in 1725 in Bedminster. This year marks 300 years since that original church was formed, and the congregation is taking every opportunity to celebrate its somewhat disjointed history through gatherings and special worship services.
“It’s been a back-and-forth that some people look at as a beautiful story of support,” said the Rev. Cynthia Betz-Bogoly.
The Presbyterian Church of Deep Run restarted regular services on its property in 1956, snapping a period dating back to the 1840s when many worshipers had moved west or to the bigger city of Doylestown. The Doylestown church was yoked with the Deep Run congregation, sharing several resources at the time.
“There was occasional use of this property; we were sharing a pastor,” Cynthia said. “The history that some people look at with pride is that we came first. We and William Tennent planted Doylestown. But then the community changed, Doylestown grew, and Doylestown became the larger and still is the larger congregation. So, we had to come back and reactivate its founding congregation.
“People were moving from the country church to the city — the city being Doylestown, which was our county seat,” added Deb Walters, Deep Run’s clerk of session. “In the 1800s, the church that was built there grew larger and larger and our membership out here grew smaller and smaller. Our building was shuttered because we could no longer fill the pews. For a long time, we were called the Deep Run Doylestown Presbyterian Church. The Doylestown building was also called that.”
William Tennent, who helped bring Presbyterianism to the colonies in the early 18th century, was Deep Run’s founding pastor. Tennent is best known for starting nearby Neshaminy-Warwick Presbyterian Church in the 1720s, and while he was pastoring there, he also led other congregations in the area, including Deep Run. In fact, in 1732, the Deep Run church was reported to the Presbytery of Philadelphia as “Reverend Tennent’s Upper Congregation.” He pastored Deep Run for 13 years until 1738.
The 10-acre parcel of land where Deep Run Church is located today is where the original church building was 300 years ago. The oldest building currently on the property is the Irish Meeting House, which was erected in the 1840s. Other buildings on the current property include the Payne Building where Sunday services are held and offices are located, the Red School House and the manse. The Payne Building was constructed in three phases starting in the 1960s, and unbeknownst to the builders, the additions created a cross-shaped structure.
The cross-shaped Payne Building houses the Presbyterian Church of Deep Run’s sanctuary, offices and meeting spaces.
“We discovered that one day when we did a church photo out in the parking lot and somebody on a high-reach crane went up with a camera,” Deb said. “We did not plan it that way. The architect never said, ‘Hey, you have a cross now.’”
While Deb is a cradle “Deep Run” Presbyterian, having attended the church her entire life, Cynthia has only been pastor there since December of 2024. Being a new person to the congregation makes this celebration special.
“If you had asked me what should this church do to celebrate, I would have said invite outside groups, make press releases, be very public – get the police chief, school principal and mayor here,” Cynthia said. “Now that I’m here and have gotten to know the congregation better, their approach instead has been let’s bring back our own people to reminisce, to reconnect, to affirm our identity – how we planted seeds and growth for ministry. I am grateful for that approach. It’s better than the approach I would have come up with.”
For Deb, celebrating 300 years as a congregation is especially meaningful for her given her long history with the church.
“It means everything,” she said. “It is my life. I have been here my entire life. The church has meant so much to me through all the years – all the pieces from summer Vacation Bible School to Sunday School classes to confirmation class. I got married here. My husband and children all worshiped here. My parents were here.
“For me it is a personal celebration that allows me to share that long-term relationship with the church and the church family that I hope others can develop that same kind of relationship. Yes, I believe, I am a Christian, I go to church, but it’s in my heart. It’s not just something I do.”
Like most congregations, Deep Run has shrunk in size during the years. At its peak, 440 members were on the church’s rolls, but that number has decreased to around 140 today with an average Sunday morning worship service around 65-70.
“You’d think that we’d be sad, bemoaning that and wouldn’t be able to do what we used to do,” Deb continued. “What makes me proud of this congregation is that we still continue to do the ministry of the church, we still continue to do mission work, we still continue to educate our children. We can still do all those things even with less of us. We might be spread a little thin, but we do it because we love doing it. That’s our church.”
Among those outreaches is a community meal that has been feeding its neighbors to the tune of 150 free meals a month for the last decade.
“That’s impressive to have 140 members produce 150 meals once a month at no cost to the community,” Cynthia said.
One of the ways Deep Run Church reaches out to the community is by using local high school students to do the tech work for Sunday services and other events held on the property.
Twice a month the congregation also collects food for the local food pantry, bringing in 10,000 pounds of boxed and canned items a year.
“I think if you polled our pews and asked people what’s special about this church, that wouldn’t be in their top five,” Cynthia continued. “To them that feels like that’s the starting place. That’s not the extraordinary. They’d say, ‘We’re a church, of course we feed people.’”
The list of ways Deep Run touches the community is expansive, ranging from interns from the local high school overseeing the church’s tech and livestream to the Doylestown Art League meeting in the Red School House four days a week to providing space for seeing eye dogs to be trained.
“In my role of serving other pastors and being on COM at other churches in the greater expanse of the denomination,” Cynthia said, “many things that are just normal, everyday occurrences here would be a stretch for a different church.
“I am the only full-time employee of this ministry. All of that is done with part-time staff and amazing volunteers.”
Two main celebrations were scheduled this year to celebrate the tricentennial. In June, a Historic Worship Service was held commemorating the 1956 reopening. This included tours of the Historic Irish Meetinghouse, Red School House and cemetery, a potluck lunch and Strawberry Festival. An art exhibit with local artists painting something from the church’s property rounded out the day’s events.
“We started off in worship that morning mirroring the worship service from the June 1956 reopening of the Irish Meeting House,” Deb said.
“We had the bulletin,” Cynthia added, “and I verbatim used that as the liturgy.”
On Nov. 2, Deep Run will hold a Traditional Scottish Communion Worship Service, which will include a bagpiper, catered luncheon and tours of the church’s historic buildings and cemetery. Members of the church will also be asked to bake cookies using the church’s shortbread recipe.
The Presbytery of Philadelphia held its stated meeting at Deep Run Church in July as part of the congregation’s celebration of its 300th birthday.
There was also a music celebration in March that included the congregation’s choir, instrumentalists, handbells and children’s choir. Two hymns, one written by a former pastor and another by Grammy Award winner Donald Nally who was a past member of the choir, were also performed. Previous pastors, music directors and other church leaders were invited, and an estimated 200 people attended.
“It was music of Deep Run by Deep Run,” Deb said.
The 300th anniversary committee purposely piggybacked on many existing events at Deep Run for the celebration. Things like the Palm Sunday Easter Egg Hunt this year included a free lunch, ice cream truck, guided tours of Deep Run’s buildings and a touch-a-truck event with the local fire department. This drew many children from Deep Run’s nursery school.
“We figured if we already are getting people onto our property because they know about the egg hunt, let’s expand what they’re doing while they’re here,” Deb said.
“The ice cream truck was owned by someone who grew up in our Cub Scout pack at the church,” Cynthia added. “The firefighter who came was a member in our pews.”
Deep Run also gave a presentation at the local monthly Historical Society meeting in March. This featured sharing all seven of the church’s three-minute videos they created that give an overview of the church’s history, buildings and cemetery. They are narrated by Chris Fickes, a member at Deep Run who is currently doing sound work for Major League Baseball.
The July meeting of the Presbytery of Philadelphia was held at Deep Run, and the Synod of the Trinity’s executive, the Rev. Forrest Claassen, brought greetings through a video at the church’s June gathering. Having the larger church help celebrate Deep Run’s 300th anniversary has been important.
“We are the farthest north church in the presbytery,” Deb said. “To have presbytery come to us is a big deal. To have the Synod recognize and know where we are and that we exist, we appreciate the broader view from everybody and for everybody.”
The Deep Run Striders walked 300 hours this year in celebration of the church’s anniversary.
Before holding these celebrations, the church did a deep dive into its past, most notably looking into the history of its cemetery. The graveyard includes church members who fought in all the major wars including the Revolutionary and French and Indian Wars. The videos were another major undertaking. QR codes posted around the property allow visitors to watch the video that details the area at which they are standing.
“We’ve created a way for the larger community to learn our history in that fashion,” Deb explained.
As of this writing, only $200 has been spent by the church for the celebrations, and that money was spent on promotional items like lawn banners and red aprons.
“Everything else has been contributed by vendors, members and friends of the church,” Cynthia said.
Internally, individual committees at the church were challenged to do something to celebrate the anniversary. For instance, one group walked for 300 hours, and the children in the congregation gave 300 fist-bumps by greeting members.
“That engagement of the youngest to the oldest and continuing the generations of the congregation to be involved and have the children feel such a part of it, too,” Deb said. “This isn’t just grownups having a party.”
All the celebrations and opportunities to pause and reflect on three centuries of worship and outreach at Deep Run Presbyterian Church have not been lost on the congregation.
“It’s amazing to see that instead of the committee that planned this and the church feeling burdened, tired and slowing down, exactly the opposite has happened,” Cynthia said. “More people have volunteered, and more things have been added to the calendar. The enthusiasm, excitement, gratitude and energy has exponentially exploded rather than petering out as we went through the year.”
“I give a whole heck of a lot of the enthusiasm to Pastor Cynthia,” Deb said. “She brought an ability to connect the community with online Facebook technology that us old committee members would not have thought of first. That has allowed us to be excited about the things that are happening because we have reached a broader audience.”