According to Ron Green, the gathering was called at the urging of Alice Bothell. On Nov. 5, 1885, it was held in the parlor of the home of her in-laws, David and Mary Ann Bothell.

With about 16 people participating, the first service of what would become the Bothell United Methodist Church, consisted, Green continued, of scripture readings and hymns. One of those hymns was “To the Work” and the modern congregation of Bothell United Methodist has retained the lyrics and the music.

Appropriately, the hymn will be part of the 125th anniversary celebration of the oldest congregation in Bothell. With former pastors and other guests in attendance, the dinner will take place at 4 p.m. Nov. 13 at 18515 92nd Ave. N.E.

Saying he is a newcomer to the congregation only having been around for two years, Senior Pastor Stephen Tarr said he is very much aware — and appreciative — of the weight of history on his church. Several walls of Bothell Methodist’s lobby and meeting rooms are filled with aging pictures of Alice Bothell, the original church and other memorabilia from more than a century of existence.

“But there’s history and there’s history,” Tarr added.

He said the Bothell church has not been “putzing along” during its 125 years.

“The church has a great tradition of service and ministry to the community,” Tarr stated.

According to Virginia Searles, coordinator of congregational ministries for the church, that service includes the founding of well-known food bank Hopelink in the church’s choir room. A large community garden still supplies that organization with a couple of tons of fresh vegetables every year. In another vein, the Bothell church has hosted Boy Scout Troop 420 continuously since 1947.

Moving back to the nuts-and-bolts history of the church, Green said that while he moved away from this area for a time, he grew up as a member of the Bothell congregation. He is the unofficial historian of the church, a role he inherited from his parents, though Eleanor Green still is a member. Green said the fledgling church first moved from that parlor in the Bothell family’s home to the city of Bothell’s first schoolhouse, the one that now sits awaiting restoration in the city’s Centennial Park. The church got its first permanent home in 1890, moving into a newly constructed building that sat at the corner of 102nd Avenue and Main Street, where a Wells Fargo Bank sits today.

Green said the original church saw some renovations in the early 1900s and a basement was added in the 1950s. It was also in the 1950s that three women — Erma Olin, Merle Olin and Sarah Simonds Green — donated the land that became the church’s present location on 92nd Avenue Northeast.

According to Green, those three women represented three-fifths of the tiny, first graduating class of Bothell High in 1912. A group picture of the trio hangs on one of the church walls.

In September 1957, the current church opened its doors on that donated land. The bell from the original church made the trip up the hill from downtown Bothell. An addition, including a new sanctuary, was completed in 2001. According to Tarr, the church now has about 583 members. He really emphasized what he feels has been the church’s continuous community involvement. “Becoming Christ in the community” is, at his urging, the church’s formal mission statement.

But Tarr offered that when he proposed the saying, a church member pointed out that motto was hardly a new one for the congregation. From Tarr’s point of view, that was a welcome observation.

“It meant it reflected the ethos of the church,” he said.

While Hopelink long has outgrown Bothell Methodist, Searles said a similar mission has taken its place. Through what’s been dubbed the Bothell Community Kitchen, the church offers regular free meals. She also talked about the church supporting a mission in the Congo and other spots overseas. With the church sitting next door to Bothell High, snacks are offered to students who might otherwise do without. They have a Baby Corner that supplies new moms, especially young moms, with items they might need. One longstanding tradition is the “Dedication of the Dolls,” a blessing of dolls made by the congregation and donated in time for Christmas.

“There’s a lot of little things that really add up to something,” Searles said.

For his part, Green talked about a “sense of rootedness” that permeates the church.

“We are carrying on something that has great value,” he said.

Searles added an observation about a “great cloud of witnesses.”

“To carry on that tradition, that’s very important,” she concluded.