Faith UMC to hold Annual Homecoming Oct. 6 in Rehoboth

Faith United Methodist Church will celebrate its Annual Homecoming at 11 a.m., Sunday, Oct. 6, at 19940 Church St., Rehoboth Beach, where the Rev. Marjorie Belmont-Burns is pastor. This year’s theme is The Past, Present, and Future: Faithfully Serving God and Community. The guest messenger will be the Rev. Marie Robinson, formerly of Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church (now Faith UMC) and a native of Rehoboth Beach.

Robinson graduated from Duke Divinity School in Durham, N.C.; served as pastor of several churches in Maryland and Delaware; was the first female pastor to serve at the New Revived United Methodist Church, Taylors Island, Md.; retired in 2013 and was called back to preach in July 2016 at Metropolitan United Methodist Church, Harrington.

Following the homecoming, everyone is invited outside to celebrate the dedication of a historical marker for the former Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church. Dinner will be served immediately after the historical marker dedication at the fellowship hall, 37439 Oyster House Road, Rehoboth.    

Records show that Rehoboth Beach was established in 1873 by the Rev. Robert W. Todd as a camp meeting town for religious groups. However, these groups did not include African Americans or Native Americans.  

This history of Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church shows that on April 1, 1881, Elijah Burton, conceiving the idea of a church for the black community in Rehoboth Beach, first donated land for a church site and a graveyard. It was located on the old Rehoboth-Lewes Road, and in 1883, a building was completed. It was called Little’s Chapel and was a one-story frame structure with a gallery.  

As the membership grew, in 1884, Elijah Burton donated the present one-acre church site and the building was moved there. The old site was then used exclusively as a graveyard. Between 1884 and 1894, renovations and additions were being done to the building, and worship services and church school were combined with another church, John Wesley Church at Wesley Corner near Five Points, Lewes.

The church was incorporated on Jan. 23, 1899, at which time the name Mount Pleasant Methodist Episcopal Church was adopted. The church was enlarged again in 1946, and several renovations and additions have been made since that date. 1984 marked the 100th anniversary of Mount Pleasant UMC, and in 1986, a new parsonage was constructed, followed in 1989 by an education wing.

In 2007, Mount Pleasant merged with John Wesley and St. Paul United Methodist churches to become one church, Faith United Methodist Church, with services held mainly at the Mount Pleasant location in Rehoboth. The new charge comprising Israel and Faith United Methodist churches would become the Lewes Charge.

For more information on the history of these area churches, contact Waynne H. Paskins, 302-227-8738 or the Rev. Marjorie Belmont-Burns, 443- 298-0076.