Sunday Morning Road Trip - Union UMC

Cindy Liming, a member of Faith Community, is in the process of visiting all 15 Common Cup churches on Sunday mornings so she can become better acquainted with her fellow Common Cup brothers and sisters in Christ.

I asked Cindy to send me a brief summary of each of her visits as a way of highlighting how Christ is at work in each of our Common Cup Churches. Here are her reflections from her recent trip to Union UMC:

"This morning I visited Union United Methodist church. This is a pretty, little country church where the regular members stretch out their hand to welcome a stranger with a smile and a greeting. The fellowship did not go unnoticed, everyone seems truly glad to see each other. I met a couple of good friends that I didn't know attended there."

I might add here that Union UMC has a unique distinction of our fifteen Green County and northern Clinton County Common Cup churches. It's the oldest. Here's a brief historical sketch of this church. More information can be found on our Common Cup website.

"In 1807, after meeting for several years, the church was officially established. In 1810, a new name was given to the congregation, when it became known as the Union Methodist Society. Most historians agree that the church received its name because of the "union" of several families who lived in the vicinity and worshiped together.

After the church was officially established, a tract of land was procured and a log structure was erected on the site. The main building was approximately three feet square with a gable roof and clapboard shingles with a chimney built of sticks and mud. With the addition of a puncheon floor, the building served as church, school and meeting house. Crude benches were constructed, and the outer walls chinked and daubed with mud.

A 16 by 16 foot log cabin was erected for the teacher, John Findlay, who was a grad­uate of Princeton University. He began his classes in the Union Seminary on Jan. 1, 1810. Apparently this was the first organized school in the county, and according to tradi­tion, only the second Methodist Sunday School established in Ohio."