Dumbarton United Methodist Church celebrates 250th anniversary

The church has been celebrating its 250th anniversary since January, and can proceed to take action all year long. It started in 1772, and later moved to its current web site off Dumbarton Avenue in 1850, in accordance with the church. Its management says it’s one of many oldest Methodist congregations in the US.

“We began out with a research of our historical past e-book,” Cornwell, the church’s pastor, mentioned. “Sort of , from the beginnings of our church, what’s the story of our congregation been and who’re we referred to as to be now?”

Members of the congregation mentioned Sunday that the church traditionally has been an inclusive area. The previous 40 to 50 years have been centered on social justice points, Cornwell mentioned. She pointed to how the church turned a sanctuary church within the Eighties for immigrants, and the way it’s their thirty fifth anniversary of being a LGBTQ-affirmative church.

D.C. statehood was one other subject with which members of the congregation have been engaged. Sunday’s service featured practically 60 small quilts across the constructing from greater than 40 makers from 14 states and D.C., additionally in celebration of its anniversary. The quilts had been part of the Quilts4DC Statehood Problem, a venture of the League of Girls Voters within the District of Columbia. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) was scheduled to talk on the service, however needed to cancel due to a battle.

Different celebrations are deliberate all year long earlier than the church’s official founding date of Dec. 24. An enormous “homecoming” is deliberate for October, the place the church plans to ask again a number of former seminarians and pastors, Cornwell mentioned. A particular hymn is being written for the church by a retired clergy member. Final week, the congregation honored its anniversary 12 months by celebrating the anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln visiting for a service on March 8, 1863. A member shaved his mustache so he may look and gown like Lincoln and sit within the church’s pews.

Dozens of individuals sat within the church’s pews on Sunday, however about two-thirds had been watching by way of Zoom due to the coronavirus pandemic. The church has at all times been a “vacation spot church,” mentioned Shirley Timasher, the church’s coordinator of grownup schooling. Two-thirds of its members drive in from Virginia and Maryland to attend providers. A few of its members have watched just about from so far as Colombia in South America.

“Lots of people who come right here haven’t discovered one other church the place they’re that works for them, and now they will be part of us on Zoom, which is very nice, and which was not an possibility a number of years in the past,” Kelly Dickinson, 34, mentioned.

“After which there are folks like me who walked within the door on Palm Sunday 1971 and by no means left,” Debbie Woodcock, 73, added.

The church follows conventional orders of worship by singing hymns, studying scripture and designating prayer time by the service, Cornwell mentioned, however there’s a particular sense of group at Dumbarton. The church’s pews have cushions that had been sewed collectively by members years in the past to make folks really feel comfy. Everybody wears a reputation tag so it’s simple to establish who’s who.

“I feel to the extent that individuals share right here, the depth at which individuals share right here, the period of time we spend on it within the service — these are distinctive to Dumbarton,” Cornwell mentioned. “A part of what I feel is so essential concerning the tradition right here is that individuals really feel identified, folks really feel related, folks really feel secure to carry all of who they’re.”