A vision passed on: Methodist church celebrates 125th anniversary in Mulberry
An early sheriff of Polk County described Mulberry as a "drinking, gambling, killing place."
In 1896, a fledgling church began holding Sunday school classes in a former saloon, exerting a moderating effect on the phosphate mining community, still five years away from incorporation as a city. The church drew official recognition in 1898 as Mulberry Methodist Church.
After 125 years, Mulberry United Methodist Church, as it is now known, continues to influence a city no longer identified with drinking, gambling or killing.
The church commemorates that milestone of longevity Sunday, when it will hold a celebratory gathering. The schedule begins at 10 a.m. with “Coffee and Connecting” under tents on the south side of the sanctuary at 306 N. Church Ave.
Worship begins at 10:30 a.m. in the sanctuary, and a catered lunch will follow at noon in the Fellowship Hall.
The Rev. Val Hattery, pastor of Mulberry United Methodist Church since 2004, recalled reading that Christians should celebrate by looking back with eyes of thanksgiving and looking ahead with hope about what is to come.
“And I just thought that was so powerful as we move toward celebrating 125 years because somebody 125 years ago had a vision,” Hattery said. “Somebody had a relationship with Christ. They said, ‘This town, this community —“
“Let’s get together and have a Sunday school class,” interjected Laurie Hurst, chair of the church’s Historical Committee.
“It doesn't matter if it's in a saloon or wherever it was,” Hattery continued. “They found a place to meet, and through 125 years of changes in the world, through changes in people's lives, people have passed that on.”
The initial location, the converted tavern, soon became a private residence, and the Sunday school met in a brush arbor until the construction of a public school gave the nascent congregation a new place to gather, according to an official church history. A first sanctuary, built in 1905 and renovated two years later, soon proved too small for the growing congregation, leading to the construction of a new sanctuary within a decade.
The church continued using that structure, supplemented by an educational building added in 1955, until the building of the current sanctuary at the same site in 1963. Lacking in grandiosity, the sanctuary sits along the main road into Mulberry, low-flung with a modestly pitched roof offset by a sharply tapered steeple that rises not from the roof but from the ground at the building’s entrance.
Recorded hymns play from the steeple on the hours, the music swelling across State Road 37.
The church’s small vestibule serves as something of a museum, displaying historical items: an altar Bible presented to a church in the Nichols community in 1946; a ledger from the building fund account from 1951 to 1961; a roster of charter members of the Women’s Society of Christian Service; a copper cross given to the church in appreciation for its missionary work in Central Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Hurst began attending the church as a girl in 1947, after her parents moved to the nearby community of Pierce. At age 13, Hurst began playing the organ during services in the previous sanctuary, and when she left for college, her mother, Gladys Black, took over. During some services, Hurst played the organ and her mother played piano.
Mulberry United Methodist Church is the only church in the city with a pipe organ, Hurst said.
Hurst recalls watching two members of the congregation, A.M. Siegler Jr. and Bill Bargeron, toiling in the parking lot during the 1963 construction to fashion a large wooden cross that still hangs behind the altar.
The sanctuary originally had gold-tinted windows, but the church gradually replaced those with stained glass. A square of panes at the church’s entry depicts Jesus with his hands outstretched standing above the legend “Come Unto Me,” topped by a vaulting, colorful section of glass showing a cross with radiating circles and other geometric shapes.
Vertical panels line both sides of the sanctuary, portraying Jesus in various biblical scenes. Plaques on walls between the panels honor congregants, such as the four generations of the Ellis family.
Other families have seen multiple generations attend the church, generating birth celebrations, weddings and celebrations of life, Hurst said. The longest continuing member, Karen Campbell, represents the Ray, Campbell, Giberti and Caruthers families, an important presence in the church, she said.
Bob Mitchell, a congregant who returned to Mulberry after retirement, is the great-grandson of J.T. Mitchell, one of the church’s original members, Hurst said.
Longest-serving pastor
Hattery came to the church in 2004, having previously served as an assistant at Beymer Church in Winter Haven. She said she is the first female pastor and the first to remain with the church for more than six years.
Upon her arrival, Hattery met with some of the church’s small groups. She asked the congregants how the Mulberry community regarded the church and also what the members would like to say to the community. Congregants expressed a wish to see more children regularly attending church, a goal that Hattery said has been achieved.
“But the thing that now, I think, that they would say, and others in the community would say, is that we are community oriented, that we see the importance of the church working in partnership with our schools, with other nonprofit organizations, with a ministerial alliance,” Hattery said.
She cited the congregation’s efforts to help local residents affected by hurricanes. Members also participate in organized walks to support disadvantaged families and to raise money for food pantries.
Women United in Faith, a group originally called the Women’s Missionary Society, has evolved from sewing bandages for servicemembers during World War I to making tote bags for foster children aging out of the system.
Mulberry United Methodist Church has operated a food pantry and a thrift store for decades. The church also supports the Mulberry Community Academy, a school for children of migrant workers.
Hattery has an affinity for the African nation of Zimbabwe, and she organized a trip there with some church members in 2010. She said they delivered a parcel of homemade dresses, sports equipment and Beanie Babies for children in the impoverished country.
Mulberry United Methodist Church also maintains a relationship with a sister church in Cuba, offering financial support and providing medical supplies and eyeglasses, along with bracelets made by youth from the church bearing the message, “God loves you.”
'We've always made it' Episcopal church celebrates 125 years in downtown Auburndale
Hattery said she urges congregants not to be “passive pew potatoes.” She emphasizes the church’s motto, “Love, grow, serve.”
“I've always told them — and this came to light especially during the COVID times — church is not a place you go to; church is who you are,” Hattery said. “We'll hear God's word, praise him. You do all that in here, but then go and be the church. It's what happens outside these four walls. And I've watched this church grow from hearing it with their ears to hearing it with their heart.”
Even members with physical infirmities contribute however they can, Hattery said. She recalled an elderly congregant who offered to help in the church office by placing stamps on envelopes and feeding papers into a shredder.
Worshipping from afar
Like many churches, Mulberry United Methodist Church struggled to respond to the COVID-19 crisis, Hattery said. The church had not previously broadcast services online, and during the period of required and voluntary closures, members developed the capacity to do that.
“All of a sudden, we had to climb the technology mountain,” Hurst said. “We had to learn how to do live broadcasts and get the equipment to do it.”
She credited two members, Bill and Joyce Crowe, with taking charge of that task.
The church continues to stream its services, and Hattery said the videos draw viewers from such places as Canada, Vermont, Ohio and Indiana, many of them winter residents of Central Florida.
Mulberry United Methodist Church has about 180 members, Hurst said, and the average attendance in person on Sundays is slightly over 50. Another 200 typically watch the livestream of services, she added.
As such a long-established church, Mulberry United Methodist Church carries no debt, Hattery said. Church members paid off the mortgage on the current sanctuary within a few years after it opened, she said. That financial status allows the church to persist through economic downturns and unforeseen shocks, such as the pandemic.
The United Methodist Church has faced internal tensions over the past two decades, and nearly 20% of congregations in the Florida Conference have opted to depart the denomination over the past two years. But Hattery said her church remains committed to the denomination.
While her focus is on the present and future, Hattery welcomes the reflection on the past for Sunday’s 125th-anniversary celebration. She said the service will be heavy with musical elements, reprising some of the songs from the service in 1998 that commemorated the 100th anniversary. The lineup includes a recital by adults who performed in a handbell choir as children.
Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Mulberry United Methodist Church celebrates 125th anniversary Sunday
