Oldest Church in Western Kentucky
Closes Its Doors

What might have been the beginning of the third century for the First Presbyterian Church in Marion, Kentucky, on January 19, 2003, was an ending instead.

The 200-year-old congregation in this river town on the northern edge of western Kentucky was down to eleven members. They voted in November to turn the historic property over to the Presbytery of Western Kentucky and close the doors of the church.

In the 1890’s the church had 194 members. In a town of 3,000 and a county of 9,000 residents, the church watched its membership decline as children moved away and older people died.

The Rev. Phillip Falk, who had been the church’s pastor since 1999, said: “I have enjoyed reading what this place may have been like 200 years ago. When a person crossed the Mississippi River, he was in France. When he crossed the Tennessee River, he was in Indian Territory.”

Organization of the church came with the Great Revival in Kentucky around 1800.

Western Kentucky Presbytery Executive Rich Cooper preached the final sermon, saying: “God wanted this church here . . . Its closure, too, is a part of God’s eternal plan.”