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Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Pastor Rickey Parks and wife Felicia A. Stribling-Parks.
Sharing a 100th birthday this year: Danville dynamo Dick Van Dyke, the campus gym that would later take the name Huff Hall and the Champaign church that was first organized on May 7, 1925, as a prayer band.
Not far from the old Tisdale Hall building on East Grove Street, where its first services were held on Christmas Day a century ago, Pilgrim Missionary Baptist will celebrate “100 Years of Proclaiming His Goodness” with a series of special events next month led by the Rev. Rickey Parks, the church’s eighth pastor.
It all starts on April 13 at the church on North Sixth Street, with the Rev. D.L. Jenkins of Champaign’s Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church serving as guest preacher during a pre-anniversary celebration.
Grammy-nominated gospel artist Lemmie Battles has been booked as the special guest for the anniversary banquet on April 25 at Champaign’s Holiday Inn. Then it’s back to Pilgrim two days later for the anniversary celebration, with special guest Clarence Holman of Rose Hill Missionary Baptist in Pine Bluff, Ark.
Battles
Parks, who was installed as Pilgrim’s pastor in January 2008, is Pine Bluff royalty for his athletic achievements. A two-time All-American wide receiver at Arkansas-Pine Bluff, he went on to spend a season with the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, then returned to his alma mater as a professor, assistant football coach and head golf coach.
Also celebrating milestone anniversaries this year:
180 YEARS
Tuscola United Methodist Church
Mahomet United Methodist Church
170 YEARS
Mahomet United Methodist Church
Cisco United Methodist Church
St. John Lutheran Church, Champaign
160 YEARS
Allen Chapel AME, Danville
Fairmount United Methodist Church
First Church of Christ, Catlin
Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Farmer City
St. Paul Lutheran of Sadorus back in the day.
150 YEARS
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Gibson City
St. Mary Catholic Church, Pesotum
St. Paul Lutheran Church, Sadorus
130 YEARS
Fisher Immanuel Lutheran Church of Osman
110 YEARS
Community Church of God, Danville
70 YEARS
Dewey Community Church
St. Matthew Catholic Church
60 YEARS
St. Matthew Catholic Church, Champaign
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, St. Joseph
St. Christopher Episcopal Church, Rantoul
St. Thomas Catholic Church, Philo
50 YEARS
Mahomet Christian Church
Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church, Mahomet
River Valley Church of Christ, Fisher
