DENMARK -- Bethel Park United Methodist Church will celebrate the centennial anniversary of the first church service held in its sanctuary the week of July 6-13.

Although the building, situated at 25 Beech Ave. in Denmark, is 100 years old, the history of this Methodist congregation began more than 200 years ago in the Denmark area and much longer ago with John Wesley's first meetings.

"In 1801, in an area approximately four miles northeast of Denmark near Binnicker's Camp Ground, a parcel of land was given on which to erect a Meeting House. No record remains of this Meeting House, later known as Hepzibah Methodist Church, except an old abandoned cemetery. Thus began the history of Bethel Park Methodist Church," according to records compiled by the Rev. F.S. James and published in his yearbook, "Church News for 1950."

The development of Methodist congregations in what is now the town of Denmark was strongly affected by the railroad tracks and population movements along those tracks. Deeds and church records indicate there were two or three small churches meeting in the area in the mid-1800s.

In the early-1900s, Capt. James B. Guess wrote the following account of the formation of the church: "Many years ago, the Methodists of this community worshipped at old Bethesda, about two miles northeast of Denmark on the Springtown Road. Upon the building of the church at Graham's in 1858 by Zachariah Graham, the Coxes, Felders, Guesses and others of that time, Bethesda was discontinued and abandoned. The old church at Graham's, now Denmark, witnessed and enjoyed many fine revival meetings and was served by many of the best pastors and preachers of the South Carolina conference. In 1907, after Bethel Church was merged with Graham's Church, the new church at Denmark under the pastorate of Rev. J.B. Traywick was built and has been shepherded by able and noble Christian pastors ... "

In an account of the building of the present Bethel Park UMC sanctuary, Herbert Fogle wrote in 1977: "In the year of 1894, a change in circuits was made, and Graham and Bethel became known as the Denmark Circuit. In the summer of 1906, the Rev. J.B. Traywick, pastor of the Denmark Circuit, proposed that a church be located in Denmark. This proposal was met by much opposition, but a building committee was appointed at the 3rd quarterly conference in 1906. This old, original document drawn up by the building committee had 54 subscribers with amounts opposite their names from $5.00 to $1,000, to be paid over a three-year period. Something rather unique about the subscribers is that they were Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians -- all subscribing to the building of the church which we now have as Bethel Park. ... $6,040 was the original amount pledged. Work was begun on the church Oct. 3, 1907, and after many discouragements, was finished at a cost of $10,000. The first service was held in this Sanctuary on July 12, 1908."

Fogle said that in 1920, the first major renovation and addition to the church sanctuary was made with the addition of Sunday school rooms to both sides and the back of the sanctuary. A Mueller pipe organ was installed to replace the pump organ then in use in 1921 at a cost of $60,000. (After 65 years of use, it was replaced in 1987 by a $160,000 Gress-Miles organ.) A steam heating system was also part of the 1920 renovation.

The Bethel Park Educational Building, on the south side of the sanctuary, was constructed for $54,000 in 1956. A parsonage was built about 1908 in front of the present sanctuary on property now occupied by the Denmark school system. In 1939, it burned down.

In 1940, the current parsonage was built on land behind the sanctuary. It has been modernized and remodeled several times over the years. The church sanctuary has also been extensively modernized and remodeled to both preserve the structural integrity of the building and to enhance the worship atmosphere over the past century.

Judy Hames, Bethel Park UMC's new preacher and the church's first female pastor, having preached her first sermon on June 22. Hames came to Bethel Park from St. Matthews, where she served three churches -- East Bethel, West Bethel and Mount Zion -- for the past six years. Before entering the ministry, she taught choral music in Greenville County schools for 30 years. She earned a bachelor's degree in music education from Oral Roberts University, a master's plus 30 hours in music education from Furman and a master's in divinity from Erskine Theological Seminary.

"It's fascinating to think that this church building has been here for 100 years and to think of all the people who have attended services here, the number of people baptized and married, so many funerals -- so much joy and so much sadness within these walls," Hames said. "The history of this building as well as of this Methodist congregation is a history of this community's walk with God. Before I came here, the history and reputation of Bethel Park United Methodist Church preceded itself. This church is well known in South Carolina for its solid faith.

"This event, Bethel Park's centennial celebration, is not an ending but a celebration of the past and a commencement into a strong future. This church is indeed built on a strong foundation."

T&D Correspondent Laura G. Carlson can be reached by e-mail at Laura@carlsonclan.com. or by telephone at 803-793-3336. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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