I would greatly appreciate help getting this information to other folks,
groups, and churches! So please help. Please contact me directly at
neil(a)1works.net if you have any questions. If you respond to a list it is
possibly I may not see it because of the volume of emails on various lists.
Please forward this circular letter to potentially interested parties. This
would include people generally interested in the history of the church and
families, Universalist Convocation members, churches within the Thomas
Jefferson District of the UUA, Churches and groups within the Universalist
or Universal Reconciliation movements, Family Members & Decedents of Bethel
Church, Historians & Similar interested parties.
Bethel Church Reunion & Meeting:
Dear Friends,
First a mighty big thank you to the folks at Clayton Memorial Church &
Pauline Church of Christ for assisting me. This is especially true of Johnna
Mills of Clayton Memorial who has been helping in this effort since early
on.
We had a nice meeting and even with rather bad weather we had a good
attendance. It included members of various descendants of the church
families, representation by other local Universalist Churches including
Clayton Memorial Church of Newberry and the Pauline Church of Christ of
Wagoner SC, and folks from the Beaufort area to name just a few.
For the record we had close to 30 present, and as a result we have a church
membership roll with almost 20 members from this first meeting. It is
important to note the weather was not great, and the church we met at was
far from most of civilization. I cannot express how great it was to see so
many show up!
We had in attendance people who in their youth had attended the church, some
who could remember the Pastors of the church. This is very interesting
because the church has been dormant for 40 years. The church most likely
stop meeting for worship pre UUA merger around 1960.
One of the descendants of the Blease and Chapman family brought the church
bible which was given to him by his Grandfather, which appears to have been
the church bible of another Universalist Church as well. Three, maybe four
of the folks in attendance may be direct descendants of the Universalist
Ministers Thomas Chapman, Giles Chapman and others. There were also Rushton,
Coleman, and Wertz members present.
Based upon this meeting:
* We will be making efforts to have meetings most likely quarterly
that will be scheduled at such a time that individuals who attend churches
elsewhere or have to travel can attend.
* We work towards restoring the Meeting House with the idea of
creating a new retreat center. This will include efforts to add to the size
of the property and bring new resources for such use.
As such we will be seeking assistance from other groups and individuals.
I will act as something of a long distance Pastor and hopefully motivator
for these efforts. The Universalist Church in Wagoner (Pauline Church of
Christ) and the Newberry Church (Clayton Memorial) I believe will play an
important role in helping to make this a possibility.
Also based upon my conversations with some of the local Universalist
Ministers we will be attempting to begin anew the South Carolina Convention
of Universalist (based upon our records the last meeting was pre-civil war).
My recommendation is that we meet at the time that the Georgia Convention is
convening at Clayton Memorial Church. Some of the existing Universalist
Ministers have agreed to begin this effort and meet this summer.
I apologize for not getting some of the historical information online but
this effort has been a time consuming effort. I have driven over 1000 miles
in two weekends on efforts related to this. I must admit I have had so much
historical information thrown at me, consolidating it for use is going to be
an incredible task. I have at least 400-500 pages of materials to go through
and I am aware of at least 5 books that I need to study to begin this effort
in putting this history together.
Regards,
Pastor Neil Carrick
Bethel Church, Saluda Universalist
Founded in 1887, Restarted 2004