SEA ISLE CITY — The United Methodist Church (UMC) has been worshiping here for 125 years. On Sept. 28 the church’s congregation will celebrate its longevity in this seaside community with a special service.
According to the church’s historian and organist Harriet Reardon Bailey, Sea Isle City’s founder Charles Kline Landis in 1883 donated two lots on 40th Street for the Methodist’s to build their church.
On Sept. 13 of that year, the cornerstone was laid in the old church. It was the same year the Brooklyn Bridge opened and the first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, began service in Roselle, Union County.
Henry Cheeseman served the congregation as its first pastor.
Because of the noisy 40th Street train station, the church was moved to the corner of Landis Avenue and 45th Street in 1905.
According to the church’s Web site, the congregation had grown so much by 1956 they decided to build a new church on eight lots that were purchased facing 41st Street (now John F. Kennedy Boulevard). The present building was completed and the first worship service held on Dec. 21, 1958.
Bailey, a lifelong congregation member, said she recalled the church and its parsonage remaining high and dry during the nor’easter storm of 1962 when much of Sea Isle and other communities in Cape May County were devastated.
“We’re on high ground here,” she told the Herald. “I remember helicopters landing at the church to evacuate people from the island.”
In 1970, the church housed school pupils while the new public school building was being constructed.
Bailey said some of her fondest memories were from the 22 years when Walter Sawn served as the church’s longest-tenured pastor.
“When he came (1950), we were on a circuit with Seaville and Avalon (UMC congregations),” Bailey wrote for another anniversary celebration in 2001. “Three churches kept him quite busy but he still found time to be active in numerous community and civic endeavors.”
In 1986, the church opened a state-licensed day care facility, the Children of Promise Christian Child Care Center, which teaches basic biblical concepts in a Christian atmosphere with appropriate skill development at each level for area children of all faiths. There are 25 children currently enrolled at the center, according to the Web site.
The center also offers before and after school care as well as a summer program.
Services are held on Sundays year round in the sanctuary at 10 a.m. in addition to ecumenical beachside services at 8:30 a.m. on the Promenade at JFK Boulevard. Sunday school classes are also available for children and adults of all ages at 9 a.m.
For Bailey this anniversary is very special.
She’s been a member of the congregation since 1950. Her mother joined the church in 1918 and her father in 1941.
She was married in the church in 1985 to George Bailey, who later became its pastor from 1993 to 1996.
“It has been an important part of my life since being taken there as a baby, baptized there and being a member for 58 years — singing in the choir, organist, Sunday school teacher, treasurer, trustee (the list goes on and on) and pastor’s wife,” she said. “What a joy and privilege.”
Throughout its history Sea Isle City’s UMC has been following its mission:
“To bring people into the fellowship of the church by reaching out to the local communities in a manner that reflects the love and compassion of Jesus Christ; then to nurture and strengthen them on their journey as they become disciples of Christ through
Christian education, worship, spiritual development, and stewardship so that they may proclaim the Gospel with their lives wherever God leads them.”
The men and women of this church support many charitable causes through their ministries, including: the Camden Neighborhood Center, Red Bird Mission in Appalachia, Shores at Wesley Activity Fund in Ocean City, UMC’s South Jersey camp and retreat center at Mt. Misery, the Society of St. Andrews “Pennies for Potatoes” project, Cub Scout Pack 76, Heifer International Program and the Skimmer Weekend bake sale.
For more information on the church or its 125th anniversary, call (609) 263-3353 or visit www.seaisleumc.org.
Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com
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