Bethel UMC Heritage Sunday, May 19,2019
Heritage Sunday
(from www.umcdiscipleship.org)
Normally observed on the Third Sunday of May (to correspond with Aldersgate Day, May 24), this day calls The United Methodist Church to honor its heritage by committing itself to the continuing call of God known and spread by Charles and John Wesley, along with others the early Methodist movement reached, and with whose denominations we are all joined as The United Methodist Church.
The following article/video describes a Methodist heritage that includes Bethel's community:
The Rural Roots of United Methodism
Heritage Sunday at Bethel
Bethel hasn't always observed Heritage Sunday on the denominational appointed date, but it has been an anticipated date on the calendar since Joe Stiles was the pastor in the mid 1980's. With Bethel's origin coming from a "brush arbor" camp meeting on the banks of Bethel Pond in 1834, Bethel's history and identity parallels much of the period documented in the "Rural Roots" video
above.
The property in which Bethel Pond and surroundings now lie are privately held but previous owner Jo Palmer, and now Don and Pat Singletary, have been generous in allowing Bethel to celebrate its founding here over the years.
The congregation at these Heritage Sunday services originally sat on chairs and blankets placed on the grassy sloped banks of the pond. The "wedding chapel" shelter came later. The service always included a sharing time for telling stories of significant...and insignificant but memorable events from the past and the service was followed with a covered dish dinner. Later, there might be games, swings and canoe rides over the pond, and children and adults might be found gathering blueberries from bushes around the pond. It was a day to be enjoyed remembering the past, enjoying the present and looking forward to the future, together.
Some Hymns Sung on Heritage Sunday
Today, the
service may have a different "look" and "feel" than in some previous years. The pond has receded a bit, as it has done with periodic regularity for hundreds of years and the berries on bushes surrounding the pond may not be ripe for picking. But we do leave, looking forward to Pentecost, with a sense of
anticipation for the future that awaits.
The Rural Roots of United Methodism
