That's me and my sister Shawn in the back, my brother Steve and sister Donda-Lin in front
I sure am wearing a lot of plaids here! Why, Doug... why.
I have very, very fond memories of this small country church. Our great grandparents were married here, as were our grandparents, and our mom & dad. So were our Morris aunts, uncles... our oldest brother Duke married his first wife Cheryl here in 1981.
The church was built in 1840, and in 1970 had 68 adult members.
It had a beautiful dark wood ceiling (as you're about to see) and gorgeous stained glass windows on both sides of the church that sadly, are no more.
I told my friend Diana the other night that I always felt a tremendous sense of peace here. The basement had half windows that filled it with soft light, and a 1940s kitchen where various church or family events were attended with plenty of food. In the summers during Bible School, we worked on crafts down there.
As I sit here writing this, all these memories come flooding back. Every year (besides my siblings and first cousins) we'd see other families like the Bland kids. The oldest Rodney was my age, they all had orangey red hair and loads of freckles. Their mother loved to sing and had a loud, booming voice. There were the Zollars girls (the older one was an awful bully who grew up even worse), the Hendersons (BJ, Eddie & Pam, good kids) and our second cousins from our Grandpap's brother Kenneth's family, also named Morris.
Farm boys, quiet and good looking, with dark hair and tan faces and clear eyes.
On April 19, 1981 the Morrisville Methodist (top) & Coal Lick Methodist church (bottom) had their final day of services. They joined together to form a new church, the Oak View Methodist
Anyway, this past week my sister sent me a Zillow listing for the Coal Lick which is up for sale.
They're asking $200,000 for the structure and 1/8 acre. Gosh that sounds steep.
After the church closed up shop in the early Eighties, it sat empty for a number of years before being bought by a family for use as a home.
Over the years they removed the stained glass windows, added a wooden deck on the left side... what happened to the doors on the vestibule in front?
And here's the side opposite the deck--those beautiful stained glass windows replaced with ordinary ones.
Here's a couple pics of the cluttered interior. Aside from the ceiling (which looks beautiful as ever) it's difficult to picture the church as it once was. I can still see it clearly in my mind's eye though.
The current owners have got a lot of bric-a-brac going on here!
One more...
I began having spiritual doubts when I was around 17 or so, and pretty much lost any remaining beliefs in college. A Sociology professor of mine would talk at length about the need for religion to placate the masses, and I began seeing things in a different light. I'm not an atheist, but not into organized religion either.
Finally, I wanted to share this: I was telling my friend Diana that behind the pulpit of the original church was this very large portrait of Jesus by Heinrich Hofmann. It was absolutely huge, it must've stood fifty feet tall.
She said "Well, I'm sure it looked that way to a child's eyes." Maybe so. But it never intimidated me, seeing the Savior praying always brought me peace inside, and comfort. This was the artwork below.
I will never forget you, Coal Lick Church.
Our childhood churches, for most of us, bring warm fuzzy memories. My mother was a charter member of the church where I grew up. Although she had passed away by the 60th anniversary of the church, they invited me to attend their celebration. My sister was the first to be married in the "new" sanctuary that my father helped construct. Although no longer a member of a Southern Baptist Church, having changed to Presbyterian, that church gave me a strong faith foundation that has carried me through the decades of my life.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing dkzody, I'm glad your former church helped you to become spiritually who you are today.
DeleteNice post, Dug... and appropriate for a Sunday. Lovely memories. I don't remember much of St. Anthony's where we attended before we moved to Lakeview when I was 8. There we attended St. Dominic's and where DH and I were married. Church and school were only 3 blocks from our house. I do have memories of walking those 3 blocks and how comfortable and safe I felt doing so. I still have dreams of that neighborhood. And although I do still consider myself Catholic, we no longer attend church services and have my doubts also for the need for organized religion. Over the years it has become more of a personal thing, a "One on one" for me.
ReplyDeleteRian, this was also a nice read. Thank you, I appreciate you sharing. :^)
DeleteI grew up in a church that had a basement similar to yours with a kitchen that put out the food for fall fowl suppers. I didn't attend as often as my mother would have liked - we had a tendency to hide in the chicken coop or the woods around the house to avoid church on Sunday. She would yell and holler and we'd just ignore her and only come out when she left, spinning her tires in the gravel driveway!
ReplyDeleteHahaha! Maebeme, thanks very much for the chuckle! You're quite the character, aren't you :^)
DeleteWhat wonderful memories. But so sad they removed the stained glass. Maybe selling them helped pay for the conversion. We have had several small country churches around here sold and made into homes but I think all of them kept the windows!
ReplyDeleteI just saw a listing for one in a neighboring town today. It is a huge stone structure that looks like a castle, two stories high with a cupola with a balcony on top. I believe they are asking 224,000 and marketing it as a residential home.
Our Vacation Bible school was held at the big Catholic Church downtown in classrooms. I do not have any warm fuzzy feelings about the classes or nuns.
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/400-Southwest-St_Bellevue_OH_44811_M99002-28541
Thanks for sharing Miss Merry, and I look forward to checking out that link. What you said here is interesting, I was just talking to an old friend on the phone who was also raised Catholic, and she said almost word for word what you did. I hope you're having a good day. 👍
DeleteThe people who bought that church are maximalists whereas I'm a minimalist. I love that ceiling! My parents' home had open beam ceilings which were so beautiful and somehow warm. My Episcopal church is still in business although I'm sure the congregation is dwindling as younger people seem fonder of the evangelical fundamentalist type churches. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and sharing Margaret, and I loved your parents ceilings, I'm glad I got to see them. Well, hopefully the new owners of my old church will be a little less busy with things than the current ones. 😉
DeleteHello Doug! What a great post you have published this morning. First of all, “I'm not an atheist, but not into organized religion either.” Doug, that makes two of us! I think you are ahead of me in recognizing this as I only came to this belief in the last 4 or 5 years. We humans have so much more knowledge today than we had 2 or 3 thousand years ago when humans began to write down their thoughts which ultimately became the books of religion. When you can accept that all of the religious books are human creations then you can start to understand why you simply cannot agree with parts of what they wrote. Getting back to your post, I totally understand your memories of the Coal Lick Church and how sad it must be to see the building changed as it is. Also, I don’t recall ever seeing a church that was remodeled into a family home. I hope you will keep us posted if it sells and for how much. Lastly, on a totally different subject, our dear fellow blogger, DJan, as you know, lost her dear SG this past week. I feel so sorry for her and especially as she goes through all this with reduced eyesight. Doug, I wish you well and happy days ahead. Thank you for your kind comments on my blog. John
ReplyDeleteHi John, so nice to hear from you and thank you for your very thoughtful response here. Not that it's required, but I'm very glad we're on the same page. If I learn anymore here, I'll be sure to share. Thanks again, and yes I did see DJan's sad news about SG, I expressed my condolences on her Djanity blog. She has been in my thoughts. I'm glad she is in yours.
DeleteThank you, Doug, for your kind reply.
DeleteHi Doug, wow, that church has a lot of history in your family! Such an interesting name. Our family grew up going to a United Church. My dad grew up Mennonite, my mum Anglican so this was a compromise. Church was a big part of our life then. My grandparents were founding members of their church, one of my uncle’s the minister. As my siblings and I got older we pulled away from church. I have been a few times as an adult but nothing regularly. With all the clutter stripped out of the former church now home it would probably look nice. The green carpet is pretty hideous! Take care Doug.❤️
ReplyDeleteRobin I was just thinking about you this morning, thank you for reading and for sharing. Boy did your parents make a compromise! I must say, you had quite the background and the Mennonite fascinate me to no end. I want to read up more on them. As for my old church, how I wish I could see it again without all this. Thanks again my friend. ❤️🙂
DeleteWell, we’re out of my comfort zone. I’ve been a lifelong unbeliever, even as a kid – I would call myself an atheist. Around about 7 years old I realised I didn’t believe all that stuff. I didn’t say anything at the time.
ReplyDeleteMy parents were married in the Nhill (that’s the small town where I was born and raised and it’s pronounced nil, and yes, I’ve heard all the jokes) Methodist Church. My sister used to go along, to meet the boys, she said. I didn’t go.
I’m with you – even if the owners used the church as a home why remove the stained glass? Even I would have retained it if they were as beautiful as you say.
Thank you Peter, I'm always glad for & enjoy your feedback. Well, you knew how you felt & believed pretty early on, I'd love to know how common that is. I must admit that for me, church was more "get to see my cousins and my grandma" more than anything. My Aunt Dena pretty much ran things when I was a kid, and it was more family than faith for me. I do believe there's something bigger than all of us! :^)
DeleteGood post, Doug. I usually like to see "non residential" buildings transformed into nice housing--but not this time. No, no, no. Too bad. It could have been made into a home AND kept more of the architectural appearance of the historic church.
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I were both raised in church from our births. We're now 72 and 69 and, while we've changed our choice of denomination, we haven't stopped attending or participating. I believe strongly that church attendance and participation is a very valuable strengthening element of human society. No matter the "faith beliefs". It serves so many other necessary and healthy purposes in society. And, there are enough varied choices of churches so that everyone can find one they like if they just look. And I'm not just talking about Christian churches. All religions serve these same societal benefits. It's so sad that we as a people have begun to think that we don't really need to be with other people for positive "belonging" and participation--exactly what church provides. Our son also grew up in our "church attending" home and now he, at 41, and his wife are raising their two little ones in church, too. Not the same one we attend but that's perfectly okay. Like I said, there's a church flavor for everyone. Not one of them is "perfect" but then neither are we. It's always amazing to me that flaws in a church or in a particular denomination are quickly used as grounds for abandoning it while we tolerate openly flaws and imperfections in every other part of our systems. Oh, well. I'll step down from my soapbox now.
D9n, thank you very much for reading and taking the time to share this, much appreciated. First, I couldn’t agree more about the poor turnout of this former church. One friend of mine said the layout looked haphazard and she was so right. As for the second part here... 10 years ago I might not have agreed with you. That's different now. This is one of the reasons I've attended church senior gatherings these last couple holidays. I'm not antichurch, as I make a full recovery from this chronic covid I still wrestle with, we’ll see.
DeleteGigi Hawaii. Beautiful portrait of Jesus. Quite inspiring. There are so many religions in the world, each with their own concept of the afterlife. I tend to like the Jewish concept. Better than Christianity.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Gigi, and we are kindred spirits. I just told a friend recently that if I were to pursue interest in religion again, it would probably be Judaism. I feel drawn to it.
DeleteI think if you believe that energy can neither created or destroyed, it means that we don't simply die. I am an agnostic. I have questions. Lots of them. A woman was filming the inside of my mother's church. There were orbs. Lots and lots of them. She doesn't believe in such things. She was filming for reasons unrelated to that. She posted her video with her own questions. I just thought how wonderful it would be to live beyond the cares of these days in a place you loved with others who loved it too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your opinion Debby, I believe the same about our energy, I just don't believe it retains our consciousness. But what you said about being with loved ones again... gosh yes that would be wonderful.
DeleteI am not a woo-woo girl. I just accept that their are things I don't understand. But as I read all the excited comments on her post, it occurred to me that if you are going to believe in something, that is a nice one to believe.
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