History of TBUMC
From the Early 1800's Our Area was on the Circuit of Methodist preachers who rode from New York to Boston.
Trinity-Boscobel traces its roots to three distinct congregations: Furnace Woods Church, Boscobel and Saints Delight.
The earliest of these is the Furnace Woods Church Which began as part of the Peekskill Circuit in 1833. In 1845 the Furnace Woods Church bought land for a Methodist Society and erected a church in 1854.
At the close of the Civil War a number of the members of the Furnace Woods Church who lived in the Crugers and Oscawana area organized and build their own church. In 1868 the Boscobel Church was completed. For the next 80 years the Furnace Woods Church and Boscobel would share a Pastor.
Meanwhile in the early 1800's there was no church in Centerville (Now Buchanan). In 1850 philanthropist John Henry Donated land to various denominations for the building of Churches. The Methodists Received land on Albany Post Road and the Centerville Methodist Episcopal Church, know as Saints Delight, was erected. Locals also called this church the "Turkey Roost" Because turkeys roosted in the trees behind the church.
The meetings at Saints Delight were of the "old time religion" variety. Sunday School was held in the afternoon; followed by worship services; then class meetings with singing, prayers and testimony. Revivals were held into the night.
In 1888 the congregation decided to sell the property and church on Albany Post Road and build Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church where our current church stands.
The Choir in 1906
The original church built on this location burned down in 1924. The Church that was built to replace the wood one, is the church that stands here today. The congregation also added a community hall to the new structure.
In 1962 Trinity and Boscobel merged and became the present community of Trinity-Boscobel UMC. in 1965 The Christian Education building was Added.
Trinity-Boscobel UMC has gone through many name and location changes...... Our current congregation has families who have been members of this spiritual community for generations, and we also have families that just joined us ~
There is a bit of the old and the new, the traditional and the expansive at TBUMC but the spirit moving in our midst is the same. We invite you to be part of our future......
To be continued.........
Who was John Wesley, anyway?
The Rev. John Wesley was born June 17, 1703, the 15th of 19 children of the Rev. Samuel and Susanna Wesley.
Samuel Wesley was controversial because of his poliitical leanings. Locals mocked his children, burned the family crops and damaged the rectory of the Epworth Anglican Parish in Lincolnshire, England.
John Wesley graduated from Oxford University and became a priest in the Church of England in 1728. Beginning in 1729, he participated in the Holy Club, a religious study group organized by his brother Charles (1707 - 1788). Critics ridiculed the "Methodists" for their methodical study and devotion. Bound by covenant, they worshipped, prayed and studied - and visited prisoners and cared for the poor, orphans and the sick, emphasizing both personal and social holiness.
A turning point in Wesley's life followed a two-year missionary trip (1735 - 1737) to Savannah, GA.
On May 24, 1738, Wesley then 34, attended a Moravian service at Aldersgate Street in London. Listening to the reading of Luther's Preface to the Epistle to the Romans, he heard an explanation of faith and the doctrine of justification by faith.
"I felt my heart strangely warmed," he wrote. "I feel I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins."
In 1739, Wesley accepted an invitation from his friend George Whitefield to preach in the open air to miners near Bristol. He said he had "till very lately" considered preaching outside a pulpit as "almost a sin." The miners' response led him to preach outside the church often to working-class people who found little welcome in established churches. Other Anglican clergy refused to follow in his example so, Welsey allowed lay people to preach and teach. Some scholars credit the Wesleyan movement with preventing civil war in England, especially as it crossed class lines and allowed women to share in leadership.
In 1743, as the number of societies grew, Wesley prepared "General Rules" for the societies. They became the nucleus of the Methodist Discipline. The breach between Wesley and the Church of England gradually widened, but Weley never considered his societies to be outside the Anglican Church.
After Anglican clergy fled America during the Revolution, Wesley was faced with caring for some 15,000 followers there. The Bishop of London refused to ordain any clergy for him, so Wesley ordained ministers on his own authority, an important step in the creation of the Methodist Church in America. The Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States was organzied in Baltimore on December 24, 1784.
Wesley is believed to have traveled more than 250,000 miles and to have preached more than 40,000 times. He died in 1791.
Wesley affirmed the Trinity, the Resurrection, the Ascension and the "sufficiency of Scriptures for salvation." He did not believe in Purgatory and opposed the practice of clergy speaking in Latin or any language not understood by parishioners. He accepted only baptism and communion as sacraments. He used reason, tradition and experience as tools to derive the truth contained in Scripture.
He considered the doctrines of justification and new birth to be fundamental. "In the moment we are justified by the grace of God, through the redemption that is in Jesus, we are also 'born of the Spirit,'" Wesley wrote.
- The Rev. J. Richard Peck
