Cecil’s Chapel Church Celebrates 140 Years of Serving the Community

Karen and Cheryl Cecil, of the founding Cecil family, with Pastor Danny Collins and Pat Collins our newest pastor team.

By Sarah Smiley and Ray Whitlow

Cecil’s Chapel Church, founded in 1885, is celebrating 140 years and our history is Pulaski County’s history.  We respect our history while looking forward to the future and a key part of our history is serving the community.

In 1885 the families of Cecil, Cornett, Allison, and Bosang, came together and decided to praise God right here on this hill. They tied their horses to the surrounding trees and met outside. If the weather was terrible, they would meet at a one room schoolhouse up the road. About 2 years later, the original structure that exists now was completed.

Traveling preachers would come on horseback once a month.  In the beginning, the church was lit with oil lamps. In fact, one of them is still here and longtime member and pianist, Evelyn Wilson, lit it every Christmas to remind members of our heritage. Evelyn was also quoted as saying, “This spot is the prettiest spot in the world!”

In the 1950s, the church joined the United Methodist Conference, and we shared a circuit pastor with three other churches:  Draper, Glenwood and Allisonia.  Allisonia was closed by the Conference in the 1990s due to low attendance and is now privately owned.

In 2020, Covid came to call: social distancing, every other pew, no singing, no hugs, no handshakes.  And finally, under the direction of the United Methodist Conference, we were told to close the doors.  God was still with us and the church survived despite losing attendance and members.

In 2022, we experienced a hard-fought battle to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Conference.  Church attendance was few and as a group, we decided to fight for the future.  The Bible says in Matthew 18:20, “For where 2 or 3 gather in my name, there am I with them.” And God was right there.

We are now blessed to have Pastor Danny Collins and his wife, Pat, join us to lead the congregation and help renew this church.  Pastor Collins retired as Pastor of The Fairlawn Baptist Church, where he served for 27 years.  Since retirement, he has acted as Interim Pastor for several other churches in the area. He is a native of the New River Valley, born in Christiansburg. He married Patricia (Pat) Keatley of Pulaski. Pat, too, is an Ordained Minister and served the Fairlawn Baptist Church as Minister of Christian Education.

Pastor Collins has a Masters Degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (1975), in Wake Forest, North Carolina and has preached all over the world, including Peru, Korea, Haiti, and for the last 8 years, leading teams to Honduras.  Mr. Collins is a veteran of the United States Army, having served in both Germany and Viet Nam in active duty and was awarded the Bronze Star for combat service.

Pastor Danny and Pat Collins have brought a spirit of hope and love with them and attendance is growing.  As we say, we are a historical church renewing ourselves for the future and our community.

As of 2023, this old church, realizing the challenge in our community to access wifi, became a community wi-fi spot, so if you need wifi, come to our front yard. We also have a Little Lending Library/food pantry/hygiene supplies that we keep well stocked.  We are active in the community and work with the public to use our facilities for social activities, educational events, etc and regularly host free lunches and dinners for anyone who’d like a meal and company.

With all the new, we take pride in caring for the history of our community.  We welcome family members or those tracing their heritage to visit the cemetery that we strive to maintain. We greatly appreciate those that send donations to help fund the maintenance and upkeep of the cemetery.

We welcome everyone to come visit.  We are on Facebook (@cecils chapel) and have a website: www.cecilschapelchurch.com.  We are having celebration events for the rest of the year. Please plan to visit us during the month of October or anytime!  We have been here, at 5801 Cecil’s Chapel Road, Hiwassee, Va 24347, for 140 years and plan to be here, serving our community, for many more years to come.