Quiet hangs from the spreading branches of giant live oaks that embrace the two white churches on Alexander Street. The busy world is hushed.

The churches stand silently now, side by side, waiting for the Sunday morning arrival of expectant worshippers. But only one of the two Pittsview, Ala. churches will have a service this Sunday. If it’s the first or third Sunday of the month, Baptist and Methodist congregants will attend service at Pittsview Baptist Church. If it’s the second or fourth Sunday, the Pittsview United Methodist minister will greet the worshippers on the steps of his church. And if it’s the fifth Sunday of the month, there will be no church service, just a combined Sunday School in the low, white building between the two churches.

That’s the way Baptists and Methodists have worshiped in this town for as far back as anyone can remember. And that’s a long time.

Marjorie “Precious” Boon was born in Pittsview 85 years ago and the alternating services were a way of life even then. “I love it,” she said. “It brings the community together. We all get to know one another better.”

She’s the longest tenured member of the Methodist church.

Patti Harris, of the Baptist church agrees with Boon. “It’s the neatest thing we have, bringing one another together this way. It’s what makes us such a close-knit community.”

She also likes the way members step up to the plate when needed.  “We had Mrs. Annie Pitts, who lived to be 97. She was the treasurer and church organist. Then Mrs. Brenda Boyett stepped in as treasurer and served as song leader when we needed someone.”

Ninety-six-year-old Marie Cole, the oldest member of the Methodist congregation, referred all comments to Boon.  “I’m just a transplant from Kentucky, but I can tell you I’ve been very fond of the preachers we’ve had.

“I don’t go to the Baptist church because I can’t hear. The Methodist church has a special sound system for us,” she…

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