OUR STORY
Community Presbyterian Church began with a simple question:
how could a growing community be complete without a church within its boundaries? In the late 1950s, the Cavalier Manor, Victory Manor, and Victory Park neighborhoods were home to hundreds of new families, and the Board of National Missions of the United Presbyterian Church, USA, together with Rev. Thomas B. Hargrave, Jr., recognized the need for a congregation to serve them.
The church's first service was held on May 18, 1958, in a community of roughly six hundred homes.
Fifty charter members gathered that Sunday under Rev. Jim Chambers to begin the work of organizing a new church, and on July 20, 1958, that work was formally completed. Representatives from the Southern Virginia Presbytery and the Synod of the Catawba joined the celebration, standing alongside members of the Church of the Evangel who had already given generously of their time and resources to help the new congregation take root. By the end of that day, one hundred thirty-five members had been received into the church.
The land the church was built on was a gift.
George T. McLean, the developer behind the surrounding community, donated three acres to Rev. Hargrave, and the Board of National Missions contributed sixty-five thousand dollars toward construction, a sum matched by forty-seven thousand dollars raised from members and friends. What rose from that partnership was more than a building. It was, in the words of the founding generation, a house built in the name of the Lord.
Rev. James C. Chambers served as the church's first pastor from 1958 to 1961, guided by its first elders and deacons. In 1960, the congregation dedicated its first sanctuary, and in 1974, the church expanded its mission into the surrounding neighborhood with the dedication of the Thomas B. Hargrave, Jr. Educational Center, opening its doors to a daycare and a range of community programs.
The decades that followed brought new pastors and new seasons of growth.
how could a growing community be complete without a church within its boundaries? In the late 1950s, the Cavalier Manor, Victory Manor, and Victory Park neighborhoods were home to hundreds of new families, and the Board of National Missions of the United Presbyterian Church, USA, together with Rev. Thomas B. Hargrave, Jr., recognized the need for a congregation to serve them.
In 1989, following the national reunion of the Presbyterian Church, US and the Presbyterian Church, USA, the congregation became part of the Eastern Virginia Presbytery and took the name Community Presbyterian Church. In 2000, members launched a three-year capital campaign under the theme "Building a New Community for the Community," and after years of fundraising and construction, the congregation held its first worship service in its current sanctuary on December 5, 2005.
Rev. Dr. Wilbur C. Douglass, III, became Moderator of Session in 2007 and was installed as pastor in 2012, leading the church through a season of transformation marked by growing worship attendance, deepening stewardship, and expanding outreach ministries. He retired effective June 30, 2023. Rev. Veronica Thomas was appointed Moderator of the Session by the Commission on Ministry, and the congregation has since been supported in Sunday morning worship by a rotation of pulpit supply ministers.
PASTORS OF COMMUNITY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Rev. Dr. Wilbur C. Douglass, III
2012–2023
Rev. Eddie Deas, III
1999–2007
Rev. Compton J. Ramsawh
1979–1995
Rev. Tyrone Burkette
1973–1975
Rev. John N. Hollis
1969–1971
Rev. James Henderson
1967–1968
Rev. James C. Chambers
1958–1961
Rev. Wilbur C. Douglass, III*
2007–2012
Rev. Wilbur C. Douglass, III**
1995–1999
Rev. Thomas B. Hargrave, Jr.*
1975–197
Rev. Thomas B. Hargrave, Jr.*
1971–1973
Rev. Thomas B. Hargrave, Jr.*
1968–1969
Rev. Robert E. Foster
1961–1967