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Music in the church sanctuary will follow the meal. Concert performers will be Young, who will play Webster Methodist's restored 1882 Estey organ; Beckwith; and pianist Linda Stewart of Webster. The concert will include congregational singing of old hymns, said Joe Rhinehart, longtime church member and one of the organizers of the anniversary celebration.
Webster Methodist traces its beginnings from the foundation of the Webster Charge in 1852. It was then that the Waynesville circuit was divided, and James R. Long became the first preacher of what came to be known as the Webster Charge.
The separation of Jackson County Methodists from Haywood County followed the 1851 formation of Jackson County from portions of Haywood and Macon counties. At that time member churches included Love's Chapel and Speedwell.
Webster Methodist is still a member of the four-church Webster Charge and shares a pastor with three other Methodist churches - Johns Creek, Speedwell and East LaPorte.
Methodists in Webster initially shared worship space with the town's Baptists and Presbyterians. All three denominations held church services at the courthouse until 1870, when the three congregations moved into a building (now the site of the Lucy Hedden house) they shared with the town school. Methodists were the largest of the three groups and used the building on the first and third Sundays of each month, Presbyterians used the church on the second Sunday, and the Baptists took possession on the fourth Sunday. The fifth Sunday was left for special occasions for all three denominations.
Webster Methodists bought the site of the current church in December 1881 for $50. Six years later, in 1887, the Webster Methodist Episcopal Church, South, opened its doors.
Churches in the Webster Charge - which at that time were Cullowhee, East LaPorte, Johns Creek, Love's Chapel, Speedwell, Wesleyanna and Webster - bought the adjoining lot for a parsonage in June 1881.
Today's Webster United Methodist Church differs little from the church that was built 121 years ago. Its doors open into what Rhinehart describes as a "mountain classical" sanctuary where the "sunlight still sifts through handblown, frosted panes."
The church has been termed an example of a "classic country church built to serve rural America throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries" by Doug Swain of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources' western office. Typical of the type, the Webster church uses a simple gable-roofed rectangular form, Swain wrote in a 1983 issue of "Historic Webster," the newsletter of the Webster Historical Society.
"Most of the building's architectural interest, however, is found on its entrance facade," Swain wrote. "This face of the building is dominated by an engage bell tower that rises in two stages and culminates in a splayed pyramidal cap, which serves as the church steeple. Gothic arched vents are centered on all four sides of the tower's second tier, just beneath its cap. A blind fan and a diamond-shaped vent ornament its principal face above the church's entrance."
Swain saved his highest architectural praise for the church entrance, calling it "high-spirited and full of charm." Gothic arched windows flank the base of the bell tower, and the corners of the base are supported by boxed Ionic columns with recessed gothic-pointed panels.
Webster Methodist's early membership rolls read like a "Who's Who" from Western North Carolina, Rhinehart said, and contain names like Madison, McKee, Terrell, Alley, Enloe, Allison, Moore, Fisher, Broyles and Bryson - people who were leaders in both church and state.
"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help," wrote the psalmist David.
"Webster's Methodists have been following David's direction for 150 years, and the church's steeple continues to lift its lofty heights to God and directs the eyes of both members and passers-by to those hills," Rhinehart said.
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The congregation of Webster United Methodist will celebrate the church's 150th anniversary Sunday, Sept. 29, beginning with a reception at 10:30 a.m. A number of former pastors will participate in the 11 a.m. worship service, which will be followed by a covered-dish dinner and concert. Webster Methodist, built in 1887, looks much the same today as it did when it was constructed, said longtime church member Joe Rhinehart. - Herald photo by Lynn Hotaling