PRESS RELEASE - WORSHIPPING AT BETHEL CEMETERY, 2018 HISTORIC SUNDAY PHOTOS, ASBURY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

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Worshipping at Bethel Cemetery (click on the photos and links) - On August 12, 2018 at 10 am Asbury United Methodist Church celebrated worship in Colonial fashion in Croton's Revolutionary War vintage hilltop Bethel Chapel built about 1790 and surrounded by historic Bethel Cemetery.

The message for the worship service was an reenactment of a1816 gathering of three members [Dorene Picker, Gloria Laemmel and Barbara Whipple – pictured left to right] of the Croton Methodist Society as they discussed the news of Francis Asbury’s death. Francis Asbury, born in England, came to the American colonies as a Methodist minister. He rode an average of 6,000 miles each year, preaching virtually every day and conducting meetings and conferences. Under his direction, the Methodist church grew from 1,200 to 214,000 members and 700 ordained preachers. 

Bob Collins, Asbury’s Music Director, led us in song while pumping one of the oldest pump organs in America. The morning's hymns, all written by Charles Wesley, the brother of John Wesley, who was the founder of the Methodist Church, were those sung when the chapel was the sanctuary for the Methodists in Croton before Asbury Church [on corner of Old Post Road and Maple Street]] was built. 

While one can no longer peer unobstructed from the chapel over grain and flax fields down toward the Hudson River, a feeling of timelessness and peace still graces worshipers at the chapel, while summer breezes move through open windows. Without electricity, running water and heat the Federal style chapel remains mostly as it was in the late 1700’s. The chapel and cemetery are listed on the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places. 

Worship Services at the Chapel, 10 am on Sundays, will continue through Labor Day weekend. It is a lovely little chapel where people have worshiped God for centuries. Please consider visiting. It is a relaxing way to think about life as our ancestors experienced it.

FOR MORE ABOUT ASBURY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, VISIT THEIR FB PAGE AT  https://www.facebook.com/AsburyCrotonUMC

YOU MAY ALSO ENJOY THE TOP THREE 2017 ASBURY METODIST ARTICLES HERE AT EVERYTHING CROTON  https://everythingcroton.blogspot.com/2017/12/top-three-2017-asbury-methodist-church.html