MINOT – On four Sundays in August – and only on those four summer days – the doors of the Minot Center Congregational Church will swing open and the double ring of the steeple bell will call citizens to worship in its historic pews.

Thanks to the efforts of two ladies who are the last members of the church association, requirements for a minimum number of services each year are met. That means they tackle a lot of repair work and preparation, and they wonder how all this will be done in the future.

Helen Clifford and Eda Tripp have been principal caretakers of the 170-year-old church, as well as its traditions, for several decades. Charles Clifford, Helen’s husband, was a strong third steward until his death several months ago.

Now, it’s up to the two longtime Minot residents, and a loyal corps of people who attend other churches, to keep things going.

Clifford explained that the church association documents call for opening the church for at least the Sundays in August, as well as a service on the Sunday after Christmas. In order for that to happen, guest pastors are found.

This system has worked since about 1973. Many locals and visitors attend the summer and Christmas services.

Since 1992, Frances Lodge has officiated as guest pastor, and she will be at the pulpit for the 9 a.m. services each Sunday this month. She is pastor of the West Minot Union Church, which closes in August to allow her to preach at the Minot Center Congregational Church, located where Jackson Hill Road comes to a T at the Center Minot Hill Road.

Getting ready

On Friday, Clifford and Tripp were remounting flags on staffs after dry cleaners had removed soot. Contractors had spent recent days cleaning carpets, windows and pews. The women explained how the single winter service had been canceled this year – only the third time in three decades – because in a test run of the wood stoves smoke had poured from the stovepipe that rings the high ceiling and heats the large space.

Squirrels had probably built nests in the pipe.

Details inside and outside the old church are mostly original. Walls and ceiling are stenciled and the pews, now cushioned, still show signs of the pew doors once mounted on them and now kept in closets.

Children would peek through cut-outs in the doors of the old pews. They explained that the purpose of doors was to retain some of the heat from small foot-warmers that families would bring.

Clifford and Tripp agreed that the decline in attendance at the old church was the result of increases in the number of churches in the area. Newer churches didn’t require the outlay of cash it would take to modernize the Minot Center Congregational Church.

There was one question that caused them to hesitate and drop their voices to a whisper.

What is going to happen in the future?

Clifford looked around slowly and said, “I’d like to know. I really would. The young people are just not interested in it.”

Tripp, who has been a longtime member of the Minot Board of Selectmen, said, “As long as I’m alive, I’ll try desperately to keep it a church. It’s a unique part of the history of Minot.”