Organized in 1821
Homecoming
Bethany Baptist Church
Burnt Corn, Alabama
Sept. 28, 2003
Web page and photos
by Ed Williams
Auburn, Alabama
Retired Bethany Baptist pastor,
the Rev. John Finklea Sr., delivers the Homecoming sermon
Bethany
Baptist Church
Annual Homecoming
Sept. 28, 2003
10:30 a.m.....Dedication of CSA Marker at Fowler tomb in Church Cemetery
Invocation/Scripture.....Rev. John Finklea, Sr., former pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
Opening Song....."How Great Thou Art"
Love
Offering
Hymn of Preparation....."Because He Lives"
Sermon....."I have Decided to Follow Jesus"
Benediction.....Rev. John Finklea, Sr.
Pianist.....Maria
Salter Godwin
Immediately after the ceremony we will have a cake raffle to benefit the church.
Dinner
on the grounds will follow.
The
offering today will go to the maintenance of the church
and cemetery.
The church required a new air-conditioning unit
this past year.
History of Bethany Baptist Church
The second location was where today the African-American Bethany Baptist Church States. After the War between the States the congregation divided, with the black congregation buying the church. The white congregation moved up the road and built another Bethany.
They also exhumed many of the dead burned behind the church and reburied them at the new location. Dr. John Watkins was one of the "exhumed" who was reburied in the Bethany Church Cemetery. Dr. Watkins was the first physician in this area. He came to the Tombigbee settlement in 1813, moved to Claiborne in 1817, and moved to Burnt Corn about 1825. In 1996 the last remaining members donated the church to the Monroe County Heritage Museums.
In 2000 the Lowrey trust gave the two-acre site to the Museums.
.
Kathy McCoy, left, Monroe County
Heritage Museums director,
and Eugenia Ellis Brown of
Brownville, Ala., in Conecuh County.
Mrs. Brown is a native of Burnt Corn and attended
Bethany Baptist Church as a child.
Dinner on the grounds...
...accompanied by heritage music performed
by Jerry Daniel of Burnt Corn
