|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| llinois country church takes its name from blooming dogwoods |
|
|
|
DOGWOOD, Ill. — Dogwood Prairie United Methodist Church is in its second century of providing a place of worship for the Dogwood community, five miles north of Oblong.
Records show the church was started in the 1850s with Sunday class meetings held in the Dogwood School building. Eventually a church sanctuary was erected and set across the road from the present structure, which was built in 1907-08. Numerous additions and remodeling has occurred over the years, and a youth building was added in the 1950s for classrooms and youth fellowship activities. Eventually, a parsonage was added, as well.
The church is located in an area of many dogwood trees that bloom in the spring in every wooded area, fencerows, and in many lawns of the community, which is bisected by the Dogwood Creek, which winds its way through Crawford County, a rural farming area.
Originally the church was supplied by early circuit riders who served six churches on the Oblong Circuit. After church closings and mergers, there remain only three of those original six – Seed Chapel, Kirk Chapel and Dogwood Prairie, which came about in 2002 when Dogwood and Prairie United Methodist churches merged. The two had been located only two miles apart.
Dogwood Prairie United Methodist Church, a small country church with an average Sunday worship attendance of 50, stands as a lighthouse for the lost and weary. Its present pastor is Rev. Nicholas Gleason, serving his first full-time pastorate since graduating from seminary.
-Rondel Boyd |
| 5/13/2010 |
|
|
|
|
