Our Mission

Gilead's Mission is to be a welcoming and caring church, committed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit to do God's work in our community and beyond.

History

Gilead Presbyterian Church was first known as the West Church of Christ in Philips Patent, with Elisha Kent as Pastor. Its first house of worship was a log structure that was built in 1743 in the area now known as Tilly Foster. From 1755 to 1834, Gilead worshipped in a building atop Seminary Hill in Carmel. The old Gilead Burying Ground is still located there, and is final resting place to patriot spy Enoch Crosby. Crosby was listed as one of the elected trustees when the congregation was incorporated in 1803 as the Second Presbyterian Congregation and Society of Carmel. In 1773, while the church was on this second site, a portion of the congregation migrated to found the present Baptist Church of Millerton, which still retains possession of Gilead's original record book.

In 1836, the church moved to "Center City" (present-day Carmel) on the shore of "Shaw's Pond" (now called Lake Gleneida). The congregation was later incorporated in 1893 as the Gilead Presbyterian Church and Society of Carmel. The name "Gilead" appears to have been associated withe the church as well as with the nearby Lake Gilead from the time of Elnathan Gregory, who in 1760 preached with great effect on Jeremiah 8:22. From church records, it appears that a formal Presbyterian relationship dates from the enrollment of the church in the Presbytery of Bedford in 1835.

The present edifice was dedicated on January 31, 1924. It is Gilead's fifth house of worship and is the third on the current site, replacing an 1894 structure that was lost to fire in 1922. The existing building is substantially a replica of its 1894 predecessor. A modern school wing was added in 1958 and it houses the Gilead Church School as well as Carmel Nursery School (founded in 1949).

Since 1743, Gilead Presbyterian Church has had 48 pastorates, and over 100 men and women have served the community as Elders and Deacons.