History

OVER 108 YEARS OF MINISTRY TO OUR COMMUNITY

The Methodist Church was, for a long time, "the church of America," especially as it grew during the 19th century. The Methodist churches in South Highland (whose current building was built in 1887 on the site of the smaller 1829 sanctuary) and Cold Spring (built in 1868 to replace the smaller 1832 building at Church and Main) grew while the West Point Foundry was operating.

"Methodism grew up with America," Laemmel said. "Our charter is very similar to the American Constitution." The church also held up the idea of all people being created equal. "That is reflected in the idea of the church, even though we haven't been very good at it at times, like America has not been very good at it at times," she added, alluding to divisions within the church as well as in the nation.

One of those divisions occurred over whether blacks could take communion with whites, resulting in the creation of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816 and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in 1821. The question of slavery and the Civil War further created a rift, with the churches of the South splitting off in 1845 as the "Methodist Episcopal Church, South." The two did not reunite until 1939 as the Methodist Church.

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