The Westminster Presbyterian Church of Metro Cleveland has moved and changed their name. They are now identified by their location, the Pleasant Valley Presbyterian Church of Parma, Ohio.

The purchase too place without realtor fees (the property was never listed), without legal fees (two lawyers worked pro bono), and without interest on the loan (the Ukrainian Baptist Church allowed for a three year 0% interest deal with no payments at all the first year).

The pastor of Pleasant Valley is the Reverend Jeff Fartro. Jeff arrive about 2 and a half years ago and set one of his goals to move the church into its own building (that had been meeting in the basement of an old, unused Roman Catholic Church building in Broadview Heights section of Cleveland).

Fartro believes the building will facilitate growth — and there’s plenty of room for that, with only about 40 communicant members.

“We don’t believe the church is a building,” Fartro said. “The church is people.
“But we also realize that people feel more comfortable with a building and it is helpful in establishing a presence and credibility and a base of operations.”

With this new location comes the opportunity to work on revitalization. The pastor will be attending an Embers to A Flame Conference at the end of this month in Auburn, Alabama.

The church building is located on a very busy street just six doors down from the pastor’s current residence.

“That is a blessing,” said Fartro, “and a time-saver for me. And, believe me; I am going to need to save every minute in this next year. There is
so much work to do here. It is all mind-boggling when I think about it.”

Fartro adds: “We are very grateful, too, for the help–both financial and otherwise–we have received from other PCA congregations. The building acquisition would have been much more difficult without it. Yet we still are in need of additional financial assistance and prayers, and we will be appealing by an e-mail communication (and some hard-copy letters) to PCA congregations soon.

Like a large portion of today’s Presbyterian Church in America, Pleasant Valley came from RPCES roots. Pastor Fartro provided the following brief history of the congregation:

“Pleasant Valley Presbyterian Church (PCA), formerly named Westminster Presbyterian Church, began as Bible study classes of the denomination known as the Reformed Presbyterian Church Evangelical Synod (RPCES) in the home Mr. Carl Smith and his wife Hannah in the 1960?s. According to the personal records of Mr. Smith, the first worship service of the congregation was conducted on Sunday, June 14, 1964 at Twinsburg High School by Rev. James Conrad. On September 9, 1979, Rev. Paul Taylor led the first Sunday morning worship service at Hilton Grade School. Rev. Steve Horning received a call to the mission congregation and was installed as their pastor on November 2, 1980.

“In 1982, the RPCES joined the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), thus making the congregation of Westminster Church a part of the PCA. The congregation has met in various locations since its inception, including Highland Grade School, Lakeland College, and, most recently, in the old Church of the Assumption building in Broadview Heights while maintaining a small office at the Smith Electronics building in Brecksville. Westminster Church became particularized on November 20, 1983. Rev. Roger Spence also served as the associate pastor until 2008.

“In July of 2007, the congregation called Rev. Jeff Fartro, a graduate of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and at that time a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC), to be its pastor. He was installed on October 14, 2007. “