Sunday's First Methodist Church in Marion, SC 10-09-16

Copyright 2016 AJ Horton

Hello and happy Sunday.  Welcome to the massive First Methodist Church in Marion, SC.  This Church is awe inspiring to look at and I love the dome.  Once upon a time, back in the 1700s, Marion was known as Liberty Precinct.  It was during that time period, in 1786, that this community became part of a large ministry unit called The Pee Dee Circuit.  At that time, meetings of the nearly 600 Methodists in this area were held in 22 different meeting houses.  One of those houses, The Flowers Meeting House, was visited by Bishop Francis Asbury in 1789.  In 1771 Francis Asbury, then a Methodist traveling preacher appointed by John Wesley, came to America from England in 1771 to preach.  The beginning of the Methodist Episcopal Church began in 1784 and Francis Asbury became  a Bishop charged with leading all Methodists in America.  His leadership continued for the following 32 years and Bishop Asbury visited Marion two other times during that tenure.

A school house once stood where the current building stands.  That school became the church on Sundays for a while until a separate building was built beside the school.  After only 20 years, the congregation outgrew that church and made a deal with the school to buy the property.  It turns out some of the students were vandalizing the cemetery located behind the school and it was best that the church have all the property.  A frame church was built on this site in 1853, and the cornerstone for the church that you see was laid in 1912.  The bell that you see in the far left corner of this photo is from the former, frame church of 1853 when the Church was called Marion Methodist Episcopal church.  It was renamed the First Methodist Church in 1912.  

You can read more about this church at:  http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/marion-county/first-methodist-church.html and more about Bishop Francis Asbury at:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Asbury if you'd like.  Those are the two sites where I gained most of my information for today's blog but there are other sites as well.

I hope you have a sensational Sunday.  Thank you for looking.  See you tomorrow.