All who have roots in the China Grove community in the rural area of northern Pike County are invited to homecoming and dinner on the ground Sunday at China Grove Primitive Baptist Church.

The gathering will begin around 11 a.m. and dinner will be “spread” at noon.

Dr. John Key, chairman of the Concord and China Grove Cemetery Trust, said the annual homecoming and dinner on the ground is not celebrated in the traditional sense of a church homecoming.

A homecoming sermon will not be preached in the historic church building and a choir will not sing those old gospel hymns.

But there will be dinner on the ground under the 100-year-old oak trees, wonderful fellowship and an opportunity to support the trust that maintains the cemetery and the church.

Marsha Boutwell, whose family has deep roots in the China Grove community, said homecoming and dinner on the ground at China Grove is traditionally held the third Sunday in August and is well attended by those whose families are associated with the church, the cemetery or both.

“The reason homecoming was set in August was that, by that time, the crops were laid by,” Boutwell said. “People had time to cut stack poles and firewood for the winter and time to enjoy dinner on the ground at church.”

Boutwell said the members of the Concord and China Grove Cemetery Trust have continued with the tradition and, even though August is, traditionally, hot and humid, there’s always a breeze beneath the old oak trees that surround China Grove Primitive Baptist Church.

“China Grove has a rich history,” Boutwell said. “According to Margaret Pace Farmer’s book of Pike County history, China Grove was established in December 1821, by the Alabama General Assembly, as the temporary site of the “Seat of Justice” for Pike County.”

China Grove Primitive Baptist Church was established before 1830 and graves in the Concord China Grove Cemetery date back further than that, Boutwell said.

“There is evidence that people were buried in the cemetery long before the church was there,” Boutwell said. “There is a black section of the cemetery and a white section and the cemetery trust keeps up both sections. We are working on building the cemetery census but that’s difficult because there are no records.”

The present church building was built prior to the 1900s and was sealed in 1900, Boutwell said.

The China Grove Primitive Baptist Church is a magnificent old building that has been preserved just as it was when the last sermon was preached and the last note was sung.

“We invite everyone with a connection to the church or the cemetery and all of those who have an interested in historic preservation to join us for homecoming and dinner on the ground Sunday at China Grove Primitive Baptist Church,” Boutwell said.

“We’ll have dinner around noon and then a short business meeting and the sit around and reminisce the afternoon away.”