Lewes celebrates History of Methodism in Sept. 18 lecture

The Lewes Historical Society’s 2015-16 Speaker Series will kick off Friday, Sept. 18, at 7:30 p.m., at St Peter’s Church Hall on Mulberry Street in downtown Lewes.

Russ McCabe, retired state archivist of Delaware and vice chairman of the Peninsula-Delaware Conference of the United Methodist Church Commission on Archives and History, will discuss Lewes’s role in the formation of the Methodist Church in the United States.

For generations historians have proclaimed the Delmarva Peninsula to be the "garden of American Methodism." Though the story of how the founders of this "new" faith laid the foundation in this region for the many denominations which can be traced to the Methodist movement is relatively well-known. The unique factors which contributed to their success in this particular place and time have often been overlooked and poorly understood.

That is the case as well as concerns the broader impact of Methodism on society as a whole in such areas as race relations and education, both locally and nationally, during the century that followed the nation's' establishment. Bringing the discussion closer to home, what was it about Lewes and the surrounding area that made Sussex County one of the primary seed-beds of this "garden"? The story begins many years before the visits of such pioneers as George Whitefield and Francis Asbury, with world events and their impact on the area's early European settlers.

2009 reprints of The Garden of American Methodism: The Delmarva Peninsula, 1769-1820, by Dr. William H. Williams, will be available for sale following the presentation.

This presentation is being made in conjunction with the designation of the Old Bethel Meeting House as a United Methodist Historic Site, with a ceremony to be held Thursday, Sept. 17. The presentation is free and open to the public. For questions, call 302-645-7670 or go to www.historiclewes.org.