SHIRLEY — Wilkinson United Methodist Church and Shirley United Methodist were less than two miles apart.
In 1996, they moved even closer together — into the same building to become one church.
On Sept. 26, Shirley-Wilkinson Community United Methodist Church will celebrate homecoming. It will also celebrate the 25-year anniversary of the merger that united two churches as one.
Jack Driesbach remembers the Sept. 22, 1996, service that began in the Wilkinson church building. A unity candle was lit, and an area resident who’d been an Olympic torch bearer used that torch to carry the church flame from Wilkinson to Shirley. What he doesn’t recall is the mechanics of how it made the journey as rain poured down that day. Yet it and the parishioners made it to Shirley.
“There was definitely a caravan of cars,” he said.
Each church had a long and active history on its own.
Wilkinson United Methodist Church, known as Wilkinson Methodist Episcopal Church when it began in 1891, housed the Rainbow Kids Preschool. The church operated a food pantry and was the host church for a Boy Scout troop. Dreisbach, who was on the church’s board, said much of that continued there post-merger. Later, much of it was moved to the Shirley location. The building was later sold; in the years since its uses have included being a wedding venue and an animal massage center.
Shirley United Methodist Church was Shirley Methodist Episcopal Church when it began in 1896. It fielded teams in the Eastern Hancock County Church Basketball League. The Live Wire class organized events such as a missions dinner, and there were women’s circles that gathered for meetings and carried out projects.
The churches had also worked together at food booths for the Farm Progress Show and the Hancock County 4-H Fair, so there was familiarity between the people.
Driesbach said there was of course strong attachment among Wilkinson parishioners for the church building and the roots and memories connected to it; yet when the merge came to a vote, the support at both churches was strong. He said a retiring minister agreed to stay in the pulpit an extra year to help the joined church make the transition.
The churches gathered for worship as one church in Shirley on Sept. 29, 1996. In the years since, Shirley-Wilkinson Community United Methodist Church has been the site of choral cantatas and summer meals for children out of school or others needing a meal. It launched the Turkey Trot race that winds through Shirley each Thanksgiving, and it’s planted a community garden in the church yard south of the building.
After the merge, Driesbach said, parishioners worked together over time to buy some of the property south of the building. They fixed up a couple of houses and rented them out, using that income to help pay for the land. Eventually one house was moved out, and a couple of others plus a trailer were torn down.
This fall, parishioners gather in that south area every other week for an evening fireside devotional time around a fire pit near the garden.
Driesbach said it was important to have room to grow.
“We just did all this for the future,” he said. “We had a goal, and we really did good.”
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Shirley-Wilkinson Community United Methodist Church will celebrate Homecoming at 10:30 a.m. Sept. 26.
The church will also celebrate 25 years since the United Methodist churches in Shirley and Wilkinson merged.
A pitch-in dinner will follow worship. A historical display featuring hundreds of photos, many of them from the past 25 years, will be set up.
The church is located at 309 South St. in Shirley.
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Wilkinson
“The Methodist Episcopal church in Wilkinson was organized in 1891, under the pastorate of Rev. Perry E. Powell. It was organized with eight charter members, some of whom were Mr. and Mrs. Emslie Julian, Mary Johnson and Mr. and Mrs. Creteress. The people of this church worshipped with the Friends in their church until 1912. … In 1911 they began to build the Methodist Episcopal church, and on April 14, 1912, it was dedicated by Rev. W. D. Parr. The church cost about six thousand dollars. …”
Shirley
“The Methodist Episcopal church in Shirley was organized in the spring of 1896 during the pastorate of Rev. S. F. Harter. He was preaching at Wilkinson at that time, and through the efforts of Mrs. Rose Franklin and Mrs. Mattie Steffey he was induced to come over to Shirley and preach for them. He preached that fall and winter in the school house, and in the spring of 1896 he organized the church with twenty-eight members. The church was dedicated in the spring of 1897 … The names of some of the charter members are Mr. and Mrs. C. A. Franklin, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Taylor, Mrs. Harriett Kuhn, Mattie Steffey, Mrs. Gertrude Byrket, and Mr. and Mrs. Benton Jackson.”
–Source: “History of Hancock County, Indiana: Its People, Industries and Institutions” by George J. Richman
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