Rev. Jeff Lowrance papers

Jeff Lowrance was born in Mooresville, North Carolina on January 20, 1951 to William and Betty Jo Lowrance, and he spent most of his life in the Tar Heel State. He attended public schools in Mooresville and matriculated through Davidson College from 1969 to 1973—graduating cum laude. From there, he went on to the Union Theological Seminary from 1973 through 1977. While a seminarian from 1975 to 1977, he served at the First Presbyterian Church in Carthage, and the First Presbyterian Church in Salisbury, North Carolina. After his ordination on June 26, 1977, he served a three church yoked field in Ashe County, North Carolina (Lansing Presbyterian Church, Gillespie Chapel, and Foster Memorial Chapel) from June 1977 to November of 1980. From there, he moved to Lenoir, North Carolina and served the First Presbyterian Church of Lenoir from 1980 to 1986. In September of 1986 he and his family moved to the Tazewell Presbyterian Church in Tazewell, Virginia—remaining there until July of 1993. It was then that he moved to his last congregation—the Hopewell Presbyterian Church near Charlotte, North Carolina, where he remained until his death. In mid-October of 2004, Reverend Lowrance was diagnosed with colon cancer. He preached his last sermon on Easter Sunday, April 8, 2007 and died on May 28, about six weeks later. During his many years in Christian service, he served on a number of committees and ministries, including the Committee on Women, the Outdoor Christian Ministry, the Committee on Ministry, the Committee on the Preparation for Ministry, the Special Committee for Elderly Housing, the Committee for Clergy Education; and he also served as a delegate to the General Assembly in 1985 and in 1993. He married Anne Doll, a certified Director of Christian Education, on June 18, 1978, and with her had two daughters—Claire Noelle and Erin Anna Lowrance. Among his hobbies and interests were literature, music, film, ACC basketball and history. In addition to his committee service, he also served on the boards of Latta Plantation, Historic Rural Hill Farm, the Hugh Torrance House & Store, and was instrumental in adding the Hopewell Presbyterian Church to the National Register of Historic Places. He helped locate and preserve a number of cemeteries for enslaved people in the Hopewell area and also served as chaplain of the Loch Norman Highland Games for ten years. HISTORICAL NOTE: The Hopewell Presbyterian Church (the last church where Rev. Lowrance served) can trace its origins to Reverend Alexander Craighead, who moved to North Carolina from Virginia in 1758 to preach at the Rocky River Presbyterian Church. Craighead is known as the ‘father of the seven colonial churches’ in the Charlotte area (the others being Hopewell, Sugaw Creek, Center, Providence, Poplar Tent, and Steele Creek Presbyterian churches). The Hopewell church recognizes the year 1762 as the year of its founding, and the first meeting house was a log structure, built around 1765. Since then, the members have had a number of building projects and expansions. In 1830, the congregation built a large sanctuary, which is still in use today. In 1860, a vestibule was built on the south side of the building; in the 1920s they built an education building; in 1953, a fellowship hall; and in 1964 they built a recreation building. As the area surrounding the Hopewell church experienced rapid growth in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the HPC experienced a corresponding growth in membership.