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>Orthodox Presbyterian Church
1 19104? 215? Philadelphia(PHLA), PA
1936(06/11)
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A History of OPC Churches(Mostly in the Chicago Area) 1974-2024 and Beyond

My involvement with the OPC in the Chicago Area starts in 1974 when I attended a service at Grace OPC in Hanover Park, IL. I turned 14 in October of that year. I attended that service with my family because my uncle, Douglas Kittredge, was candidating to be pastor of that church. At that time, that church met in the former pastor's garage that had been modified to serve as a worship facility. The former pastor(Jim Bosgraf) became Regional Home Missionary of the Presbytery of the Midwest.

I know of two other people that were likely at that service who were later members of a PCA church(that I was also a member of at the same time). The first is Diane Galante. Galante is her married name and I'm not sure of her maiden name(and she wouldn't have been married in 1974). Diane and her husband Steve are members of Christ PCA in Roselle, IL. They live in Keenyville, IL. Steve is/was a pilot with Southwest Airlines. Diane is/was a flight attendant. I sang in choir with Diane at CPC.

The second person is Jill Baldwin Roberts. Jill and her husband Phil were members of Christ PCA in Roselle, IL and now attend Bethel PCA-Palatine(part of the PCA's Korean Central Presbytery). Phil and Jill live in Palatine(they aren't Korean). Robin and I were in the CPC North Community group that frequently met at Phil and Jill's house in Palatine.

Jill's parents John and Joanne Baldwin were married 1957(11/02). John became Grace's first RE in 1968(09/13). He is now Elder Emeritus. Their son Kevin is an active elder there. They have at least one other child Mark who lives in Irvine, CA. More of the story of Grace is at opc.org/today.html?history_id=548.

I attended Grace a lot starting around the year 2010. In 2020, it was among the churches I considered joining before I eventually joined Bethel PCA-Niles on 2022(02/20). More later on Grace church plants and my later ties with Grace.

In 1966, Bethel OPC-Wheaton assumed oversight of mission work at Grace that the Presbytery of Wisconsin had started in 1964. In the 1970s, my family was also at a service at Falls OPC in Menomonee Falls, WI when my uncle preached(possibly candidating) that church at the time was part of the same presbytery as the Illinois churches. My wife Robin and I went to Falls once around 2010.

My uncle was pastor of Grace OPC in Trenton, NJ from 1971 thru 1975.

Westminster OPC in Countryside, IL was formed in 1951(04/15). Edmund Clowney was an early pastor there. I went to a number of meetings there starting in 2010.

Bethel OPC in Wheaton, IL began as a mission work in 1957. My family and I attended Bethel at least once in the 1970s at the recommendation of my uncle. More of the story of Bethel is at opc.org/today.html?history_id=84.

I have some additional ties to the OPC with limited connection to Chicago area in the 1970s. I'll mention one of those ties here. Thru my uncle Doug(and aunt Mary Jane), I started to have some contact with former OPC foreign missionaries Karl and Debbie Dortzbach. They and my aunt and uncle met at Wheaton College(in the Chicago area) in the 1960s. They and my aunt and uncle also were at Westminster OPC Seminary together in the Philadelphia area starting in 1968.

On 1974(05/27), Debbie was working as an intern at the Mihireta Yesus (Compassion of Jesus) Hospital, an Orthodox Presbyterian medical mission in Ghinda, Eritrea. She was abducted at gunpoint by four armed members of the Eritrean Liberation Front. Her coworker, nurse Anna Strikwerda was killed by the abductors. More of the story is at opc.org/today.html?history_id=196.

On 1974(06/22), Debbie was released in Massawa, Eritrea. A few days after 1974(05/27), my dad and I(and my brother) were reroofing our house in unincorporated Lombard, IL, when I remember my mom coming out the front door and yelling up to us to pray for Mary Jane's friend Debbie had been kidnapped in Africa and that we should pray for her.

My uncle's graduation from Westminster Seminary-Philadelphia area - 1971
front row - me, my brother, my sister
back row - my grandfather, my great-grandmother, my uncle, my grandmother, my mother. 		John, Mark, Jill, and Kevin Baldwin - 1975
I was at their church in 1974 when my uncle candidated there. 		My uncle and aunt and their family with the Dortzbachs in Africa in the late 1980s.

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