WUMC To Reenact 18th Century Church Service

WOODBURY — Woodbury United Methodist Church (WUMC) will celebrate its Heritage Sunday on May 22 at 10:30 am with a reenactment of an 18th Century worship service. The public is invited to attend.

Heritage Sunday is the day the denomination celebrates founder John Wesley’s ministry in England and North America.

“Wesley was an inspired man who lived in an age of ideas and revolution. Perhaps one of his most revolutionary ideas was that the love of God was available to all of us at all times wherever we were, so long as we were willing to receive that love. In this way, he was a true democrat, and his democratic views continue to permeate our denomination’s structure and, more important, its mission to be the hands and eyes of God wherever we see need,” said the Rev Dr Earle B. Sanford, WUMC’s pastor.

The church members presenting this worship service will dress in period costumes and lead the congregation through an 18th Century-style worship service.

“We’ve been preparing a service that will include hymns by John’s brother, Charles, as well as prayers that would have been heard in the Wesleys’ time. The congregation will hear one of John Wesley’s many sermons,” said Ed Dzitko, chair of the ad hoc committee preparing the service. “All of this is meant to invite the congregation to reflect on a heritage infused with the energy of a passionate man of faith and how we celebrate our inheritance today,” he added.