The History of Hope
The history of Hope began many years ago at what is now Forks UCC. The Forks UCC congregation and Forks Lutheran congregation both worshiped in the Reformed Church, which was located in Forks Township.
In 1971, the congregations split and the Lutherans moved to 7th street in Tatamy. Here, the Lutherans merged with the former St. John’s Lutheran Church of Tatamy, where they remained for only 2 years.
In 1973, the church on 7th street was sold and the entire congregation moved less than a quarter of a mile to it’s current location on 8th street in Tatamy. On this property, a new, handicap accessible Hope Lutheran Church was built. A renovation took place in 1989 in which a new fellowship hall was added to the building.
On December 31st, 2004, Reverend Charles Orem retired after being the Pastor of this congregation since it met at Forks Church.
In the beginning of 2005, Pastor Donald Billick came on board as the interim minister. During his time with us, he assisted in updating all church records as well as aided us tremendously with the transition between Hope’s lone, long term pastor and the incoming new full time pastor.
In June of 2007, Reverend Herbert C. Dolich, began preaching as our new full time pastor. November 11th, 2007, Pastor Dolich was officially installed as the pastor of Hope Lutheran Church. In June of 2008, the Hope family celebrated Pastor Dolich’s first anniversary. We all hope for many more to come!