Today we are observing Heritage

Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors.

The Family Church by the River

This history of our church was written in observance of Heritage Sunday 2003 by J. Leonard Bachelder.

Today we are observing Heritage Sunday. What does that mean? What does "Heritage" mean? Well, we all have a family heritage, the story of who our ancestors were, where they lived and what activities they were engaged in. There's been a rebirth of interest lately in genealogy and many of us, myself included, have done at least some research to learn more about our ancestors. Some of us are quite familiar with our family's heritage for many generations back while others may not know much of their heritage farther back than their grandparents. But that's not the heritage I am talking about today. For we have a heritage as a Church also.

As Christians, we may say that our heritage begins with Jesus, whose birth at Bethlehem, youth in Nazareth, career of preaching in and around Caesarea and later in many other places including Jerusalem, and then his death at Jerusalem are all reasonably well documented in the four books of the Bible that we call the Gospels. But as the writer of the book of Hebrews points out in the passage read this morning (of which we left out the middle section because it really is quite long), our heritage goes back many centuries before the birth of Jesus to the history of the people of Israel, God's chosen people. Even the writer of the first Gospel, Matthew, felt it was necessary to begin his account of the life of Jesus by documenting His heritage. If you look at the very beginning of that Gospel, ahead of the story that we are familiar with of God's announcement to Mary that she would bear a Son, you will see several verses we almost never read. In them, Matthew lists the ancestors of Joseph, the husband of Mary, tracing his genealogy back to Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation.

Our heritage as Christians continues through Peter and Paul and the other New Testament writers, through the many saints and martyrs of the first few centuries after Jesus' birth. It goes on through many centuries in which the Western Church was, for all practical purposes, unified under the guidance and control of the Bishop of Rome, who came to carry the Italian title, il papa, which we translate into English as the Pope. In the sixteenth century, events occurred in several countries of Europe movements which resulted in the division of the Church. Of primary relevance to our heritage, in England, King Henry VIII, according to legend, which most likely is true, rebelled against the Pope's refusal to allow him to divorce a wife who was unable to bear an heir to the throne. He defied the Pope's authority, and declared that he, the King, was the head and Protector of the Church in England and that the Archbishop of Canterbury was its spiritual leader. And thus was born the Church of England.

About 1700, the small country town of Epworth welcomed to its Church a priest named Samuel Wesley. Despite having a large family, he was able to provide his sons with an education at Oxford, then as now probably the most prestigious of English universities. Son John was very active in religious societies while at Oxford, and apparently fully intended to follow his father into active ministry in the Church of England. He along with his brother Charles were active in forming, in 1727, a group which called themselves the Holy Club, and of which John soon became the recognized leader. They advocated a strict disciplined approach to the study of the Bible, activities such as visitations to the sick and those in prison, and religious instruction of children of poor families. They were criticized, even ridiculed, by others for their insistence on a "methodical" approach to these activities, and were referred to, apparently originally at least in scorn, as "Methodists", a description which they freely accepted. After his formal training was completed, John was inspired with a passion to convert those who had not been exposed to the Christian message, and accordingly undertook a trip to Savannah in the colony of Georgia with the purpose of preaching the Gospel to the native Americans of that area. But he discovered to his surprise and discomfort that his own faith left much to be desired. He returned soon to England, judging his mission to Georgia as a failure.

But then in 1738, in the City of London, an event occurred that changed his life forever. We tell of it in his own words, familiar as they are to those of us who have been active Methodists for many years.

In the evening, I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

Following this life-changing experience, the Wesleys and their associates set out to bring the Gospel of this gift of salvation to as many people as they could. More often than not, they found that they were not welcome in the Churches, even though they had no intention of moving away from the established Church of England. So they preached and taught wherever they could - in the public squares, in homes, factories and mines - primarily addressing themselves to the poorer working people and to those who were not regular Church attendees. Following his "methodical" model, John Wesley organized his converts into "Methodist Societies", believing that they would be more likely to be able to sustain their enthusiasm and continue their "progress onward toward perfection" in the company of other like-minded persons. Since few ordained priests of the Anglican Church participated in (or approved of) these societies, the Wesleys permitted lay persons to lead them. Better to have enthusiastic though generally uneducated laymen to preach and teach the Bible than to let the societies die from lack of leadership. In this manner, the Methodist movement spread throughout England, gathering many thousands of followers. All the while, though, and even though they sanctioned the building of Chapels for their meetings, first in Bristol in 1739 and then in London, the Wesleys remained steadfast in their loyalty to the Church of England, and considered their societies to be acting within that established Church.

Wesley continually spoke out against what he regarded as the four greatest evils of his time: poverty, war, ignorance and disease. He preached that each person is a "steward" of wealth, not its owner. He translated this stewardship into acts to alleviate human need that were years ahead of his time. He believed that education should be available to all persons regardless of wealth or social standing, thus being one of the earliest advocates of what has become the public school system. Though not an absolute pacifist, Wesley preached that war was foolishness, and a patently insane way to resolve differences. Perhaps his greatest efforts in what we would today call social action were directed towards relieving the sufferings of persons who were ill. Members of the Methodist societies, with characteristic systematic rigor, visited the sick in hospitals and in their homes, tending to their spiritual needs and where necessary seeing to it that they got the best possible medical care. Prisoners were visited and where possible helped in a similar fashion. Wesley clearly was familiar with the last section of the 25th chapter of Matthew's gospel, and wholeheartedly strove to follow Jesus's teaching there.

As more and more men and women from England followed the earliest settlers to Massachusetts and Virginia and came to the "New World" of the Americas in the 18th century, inevitably the Methodist movement came with them to this side of the Atlantic. Probably the first Methodist preacher to arrive here was Philip Embury, a lay preacher who came to New York in 1760. At about the same time, another lay preacher, Robert Strawbridge, came from Ireland and settled on a farm in rural Maryland. Soon, Wesley began to specifically send other men, including Francis Asbury, who arrived in Maryland in 1771. Growth of the movement slowed during the American Revolution, as Methodists were often associated in the mind of American patriots with England, and thus were often persecuted or scorned. Francis Asbury almost single-handedly guided the Methodists through these hard times and became the undisputed leader of the movement on this side of the Atlantic.

True to his loyalty to the Church of England, Wesley had before the Revolution tried to get the hierarchy in London to ordain preachers for America, but they had refused. So, after hostilities had ended and the Americas were again safe places for Englishmen to visit, Wesley in desperation sent Dr. Thomas Coke, who was an ordained minister in the Church of England, to be the general superintendent to, in his words, "preside over the flock in America". Coke was instructed to make contact with Asbury and to ordain him as the permanent superintendent for the work in America. The two men met in a rural area of Delaware, outside the town of Newcastle, on November 14, 1784. At a Sunday service in Barratt's Chapel there, Coke and Richard Whatcoat, whom he had ordained before they left England, administered the Holy Communion for the first time in a Methodist meeting. Symbolically, this was the break with the Anglican authority, for Whatcoat had not been ordained by an Anglican bishop as the Church's rules required, but by Dr. Coke who was only an ordinary priest.

Reluctantly, realizing the political situation resulting from the newly-won independence of the American colonies and the steadfast refusal of the Anglican hierarchy to support the work of the societies here, Wesley had consented to the formal organization of a Methodist Church in America. After the meeting at Barratt's, Coke and Asbury went to a nearby farmhouse to plan for the organization of the Church here. Their work resulted in the convening of the Christmas Conference on December 24, 1784 in the chapel at Lovely Lane in Baltimore. Here about 60 preachers gathered, and the Methodist Episcopal Church in America was formally organized. 25 Articles of Religion were adopted as the Church's "constitution", all but one (which recognized the authority of the Government of the United States) taken from the 39 Articles of the Church of England. Both Barratt's Chapel and the current Lovely Lane Church (not at its original location) are officially honored today as Historic Landmarks of the United Methodist Church.

While Coke returned to England, Asbury remained here and under his guidance, the Methodist Episcopal Church expanded both in numbers and geographical coverage. By the time of the Christmas Conference, the Church could count almost 15,000 members, a phenomenal growth from the estimated 1160 Methodists in America in 1773. The movement was strongest in the Middle Atlantic States of Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania, but by 1784 had spread into New York and Virginia as well.

Despite visits by Philip Embury and other early Methodist preachers, the new Church attracted few converts in New England. In an attempt to "evangelize" in this part of the country, in 1789, Jesse Lee, a Virginian who had been ordained a few years earlier by Asbury and was his friend, was sent to spread the word to New England. He found himself unwelcome in any of the Churches in the towns he visited. The Puritans who had come to New England seeking the right to worship as they chose were not in the least inclined to grant that privilege to people who had differing ideas.

When he came to Boston, Jesse Lee as usual found the Churches closed to him, and so preached the first Methodist sermon in Boston under a great elm tree on the Common. A plaque marks the spot today though the tree fell in a storm many years ago. His efforts there did not immediately result in the formation of a Methodist society, but Lee moved on to Lynn where he met with more success. He oversaw the formation of a Methodist society there, which soon became the First Methodist Episcopal Church, the first such in Massachusetts. In the 1970s, this Church has since merged with another in the City and its building has been torn down, but the site is recognized as an official Historic Site of the New England Conference. Jesse Lee continued to travel throughout New England, and his efforts resulted in the founding of many Methodist societies. Another of our Historic Sites is the Jesse Lee Chapel in East Readfield ME, dedicated by him in 1795 - the first Methodist chapel in Maine and the oldest building in New England still active as a Methodist Church. Following Lee's visits, the Methodist movement spread throughout New England, being especially strong in the rural areas where there was less opposition from the established churches. The Methodist Episcopal Church survived two major splits, was reunited many years later, and has since merged with other American Churches based on the Wesleyan tradition to form the United Methodist Church, which now enters the 21st Century with about 9 million members in the United States.

I could, and would like to, go on for hours with the history of the Methodist Episcopal Church in New England, but time will not permit, so I must now focus on our own history here in Merrimacport. By 1874, there was a thriving community down here along the Merrimack River. But it was not called Merrimacport. What is now the Town of Merrimac was then part of Amesbury; the village here was called South Amesbury and the portion of the town around what is now Merrimac Square was known as West Amesbury. South Amesbury had had a post office since 1836 and a 12-grade school since 1868. Building of carriages had begun down at the bottom of the hill in 1799? in a small shop operated by Michael Emery, and the industry soon expanded to include several shops in both South and West Amesbury. A general store stood at Sharper's Corner, the corner of River Road (then called Main Street) and High Street. Down where the boat yard is today there was a steamboat wharf where in the summer the steamer Merrimack called on its journeys between Haverhill and Salisbury Beach. The wharf also served all kinds of commercial shipping, in particular as a point for receiving coal which at that time was widely used for heating homes and business buildings. On the roadside in front of the wharf stood a large building which had a store and coal company offices on the first floor and a hall called Citizens' Hall on the upper story. The religious needs of the village were served by a Baptist Church which stood on the now-vacant lot at the corner of River Road and Broad Street. This building, which stood well back from the road behind a row of tall trees, had been built in 1849.

There was by this time an established Methodist Church in Amesbury. At various times, preachers from that Church had journeyed to South Amesbury and addressed meetings in people's homes or at Citizens' Hall. These meetings had aroused some interest in the community, but not until 1874 was there any effort towards establishing a Methodist society here. Several people from South Amesbury began frequent travel to meetings in Amesbury Mills (as it was then called), and as a result decided that they wished to actively and regularly participate in a Methodist class. It was no small effort to go to Amesbury on horseback or in a wagon for worship, and it would be much easier, and they would no doubt be able to "bring many more souls to Jesus Christ" if meetings could be held in the village. Accordingly, Presiding Elder L. D. Barrows was approached for advice. He suggested that they invite a preacher living in Amesbury Mills, one C. M. Dinsmore, to conduct services here. This the South Amesbury people did, and he agreed. Services were conducted in Citizens' Hall each Sunday beginning on December 5, 1874. The following year, the New Hampshire Annual Conference officially appointed Rev. Dinsmore to serve as pastor at South Amesbury. In December of 1875, Presiding Elder Barrows came to South Amesbury and oversaw the organization of the South Amesbury Methodist Episcopal Church. Eleven people who had previously been members of a Church elsewhere presented themselves for membership, and formed the group of founding members. Methodist practice at the time required a probationary period for those wishing to join who had not previously been members of any Church, and several others were accepted into membership after the required time had passed. The names of Warren Weymouth, Charles L. and Mary Rowell, Judith Rowell, Judith Gile and Willett W. Titus (the school principal) appear among the list of founding members. Henry Haskell, though apparently associated with the Church during its formation, was not one of the original members probably because he, as was Charles E. Rowell (son of Charles L.), was required to wait out the probationary period.

As other changes came to the village, including the formation of the Town of Merrimac in 1876, the little Church grew, meeting regularly in Citizen's Hall. From 16 full members and 12 probationers reported in 1876, the community grew to 40 members and 20 probationers in 1888. By this time, it was thought that the Church could afford its own building. At a meeting on June 29, 1888, a "Standard Plan from the Church Extension Catalogue" was selected (apparently the Methodist Episcopal Church had a group of standard plans for Church buildings from which a small society like that at Merrimacport could select, thus avoiding the cost of an architect), and a building committee was appointed. Land was secured at Sharper's Corner. The new Church building was constructed, and by February of 1889, it was ready to be officially opened and dedicated.

At this point, we will switch from the heritage of our Church as a whole to the heritage of one of its families. But first I will say how you might get more information if you wish to do so. Unfortunately all copies of the histories that were written by Agnes Powers on the occasion of the Church's centennial in 1975 and by me for the Centennial of this building in 1989 have been exhausted. If you are really seriously interested, and I encourage you to be, in learning more of the history of our Church, we could probably Xerox a copy for you. Let me know and I'll see what I can do. I also have made a few copies, which I will give to any interested person, of a version of this talk that is about twice as long, with the addition of some significant items of Methodist history that time would not allow me to read here this morning. For those interested in the Methodist Church in New England, I refer you to the histories of the three Annual Conferences, Maine, New Hampshire and Southern New England, that were published shortly before they merged. I can get copies of these books for anyone interested.