An anniversary committee, explained Orkney Church member Stephen Dalrymple, has been diligently preparing for the big day since June, thinking up creative ways to celebrate the anniversary in Orkney.

The Orkney Church, which sees roughly 35 people in attendance on any given Sunday, is gearing up for a crowd of 100 individuals on the day of the event.

The plan for the anniversary is that all 1.6 million members of the Nazarene faith, spread over 151 world areas and spanning 24 time zones will hear the same message, sing the same songs and go over the same readings at the same time.

The goal is for members to come together in unity to celebrate their beliefs about salvation, holiness and being a faithful follower of Jesus Christ.

“Our congregation is excited to celebrate this anniversary with all our Nazarene family around the world,”

Reverend Richard Dove, pastor of Orkney Church of the Nazarene stated. “At the same time, we want to emphasize that the family never stops growing and there is plenty room for all. In our society today, it seems that relationships often don’t last very long. We invite our community to join us on October 4th and 5th to see relationships that have remained strong for 100 years.”

The Board of General Superintendents declared October 5th Centennial Celebration Sunday, and highlight their mission with the slogan, “Out of Many One, Out of One Many”.

A century prior, the Nazarenes was made up of mainly American families with relatives in other nations. Today, the faithful families exist on every continent and no single culture, language, race or nationality holds a majority.

As time went on, the church continued to grow and as it grew, it was committed to be internationalized, which meant being one church of many congregations worldwide, instead of splitting into national churches such as the Protestants had done earlier.

Today, more than 60 per cent of the Nazarenes and 80 per cent of the church’s 428 districts are located outside of the United States. The Nazarenes continue their evangelical work to take the message of their faith to every continent in the world. Currently, missions are set up in six world regions including Africa, Asia-Pacific, Caribbean, Eurasia, Mexico, Central and South America and each region has a regional director who is under the supervision of the World Mission Department.

The denomination was officially recognized in October, 1908 and the Nazarene church has roots in Methodism, taken from the teachings of English evangelist John Wesley. Its headquarters is located in Kansas City, Missouri.

As the landmark approaches, the Orkney Church is very excited to celebrate this day with the other churches, which will be singing the same praises all across the world.

The celebration, slated for Saturday, October 4, will begin at 3 p. m. with a community barbecue, followed by the old time tent meeting and old fashion gospel sing.

The songs selected for the gospel sing are those from hundreds of years past that have become popular over time and would easily be recognized by Christians from any denomination, including The Old Rugged Cross and Amazing Grace.

The Orkney Church of the Nazarene is located at 1556 2nd Concession St. West.