Memorial Community Church in Everett seeks a new purpose

EVERETT — The chapel dates back to World War II.

There is no pattern to the stained glass panels in the windows. In those days, parents who lost a son in war were allowed to pick any color for a commemorative panel.

After the war ended, the chapel was moved from Paine Field, a military base at the time, to its current location at Memorial Community Church on Pecks Drive.

Now, the church is going through another series of changes. Time passed and the neighborhood transformed. The church no longer has a home congregation. Its leaders are looking for a new future for the site as a community gathering space.

The building is being used for a preschool. It’s used for weddings, funerals and a Zumba class. Other churches use it. Praise Chapel has it Sundays. A Kenyan congregation is using it as they get their new church started.

The rent helps with insurance and utilities.

“There really are a lot of connections going out into the community,” the Rev. Sharon Layton said.

She became the pastor at the Baptist-affiliated Memorial Community Church in 2004. The hope is the calendar of events will continue to fill up.

“It really could be a wonderful thing and a solidly Christian thing if we didn’t forget the message of the chapel,” Layton said.

She and her husband, Don, are joined in their efforts by Geneva Peterson, 85.

As a young woman, Peterson worked as a secretary for Alaska Airlines at Paine Field — in the 1950s before jets were stationed there.

She also served as the church secretary and a church volunteer for years, and remains the church treasurer. Her family has celebrated weddings and mourned at funerals inside the church’s walls.

She started attending the chapel in April 1965, when her daughter, Lisa, was 3. She knew it was something special the first time she walked in, she said.

“I just felt like an arm was cuddling me and saying this was it,” she said.

Much thought has gone into the church’s transition, Layton said. The Laytons became “church tourists” for awhile, to observe and learn, she said.

“It’s important to get out the church doors and see what God is doing and join him there,” she said. “We’ve been really pleased to see what he’s doing.”

Layton has presided over many funerals for the World War II generation, she said. Sometimes others from that age group no longer can participate in church activities in the same ways they’ve done in the past.

The church organist began suffering from arthritis. A man who always helped fix stuff had to stop climbing ladders.

Layton said she keeps in mind the lesson in the Bible for people not to hold on to life as a possession but to give it in faith and service.

“Then you don’t lose it,” she said. “That’s when it gets found. I think we live that out.”

Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.

Activities at Memorial Community Church, 710 Pecks Drive, Everett, 425-760-6483.

A bread ministry is open every Wednesday during school hours, though supplies go fast. After Easter, a mechanic fix-it shop ministry is open on Saturdays, which includes free or for-a-donation lawn mower repairs and rentals. Volunteers are needed for an Easter egg hunt on April 4, the Saturday before the holiday.