Manning church celebrates 150th anniversary

By JASON WERMERS
Item Staff Writer
jwermers@theitem.com

MANNING -- Pastors and members past and present helped Manning United Methodist Church celebrate its 150th anniversary during a special service Sunday.

"The church has seen tremendous changes since its beginning in June of 1859," a statement on the back of a brochure handed out Sunday says. "however, the mission of the church remains the same in that we continually seek to know God's plan for this church as we serve him, our members and our community."

The Rev. Lemuel "Brother" Carter spent his teen years at the church after his family moved from Daytona Beach, Fla., to Manning in 1951. He graduated Manning High School in 1956, but he credited Manning United Methodist with steering him off the path of becoming "just another juvenile delinquent."

"If anything touched me deeply in my life, it was the extended open arms of the people in this United Methodist Church to me and my relatives after we moved here," Carter said.

Anna Paige Durant's father, the Rev. Paul Betsill, was Manning United Methodist's pastor from 1966 to 1969. Betsill was in Palmetto Health Richland Sunday being treated for pneumonia, so Durant spoke on his behalf.

"Here in Manning, I have had many firsts," Durant said. "I got my driver's license. I forged a lifelong relationship with my best friend. I went on my first date. ... And I finally got my first father-daughter portrait. I figured he's in his 80s, so we'd better get that done soon."

The Rev. Dr. Steven Shugart admitted that Manning wasn't exactly his top choice when he was looking for a church to lead.

"I didn't know what kind of life God had for me in this ordained calling," Shugart said. "I asked the district superintendent if there was anything in Columbia. When he said he would send me to Manning, South Carolina, I asked, 'How close to Columbia is that?'"

But Shugart got many nods and affirmative responses when he asked parishioners if they remembered some of the programs that were started or developed under his watch: Clarendon Habitat for Humanity (which holds its annual author lunch at the church) and "Disciple Bible studies," to name a couple.

"There were so many Disciple Bible studies, some of them met in the (Clarendon County) Chamber," Shugart said fondly.

The current pastor, the Rev. Debra Quilling Smith, said it was a blessing to be able to celebrate the church's 150th anniversary milestone on Pentecost Sunday, which is traditionally considered the birth of the Christian church. Pentecost, as recorded in the second chapter of the Book of Acts, is when the Apostle Peter gave what is considered to be the first Christian sermon proclaiming the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

"I pray today for our church, that we will be faithful to the God who created us, in spite of all the pressures and swirls of the world in our lives," Smith said. "Thank you, church, for the blessing you are. I pray for the church of tomorrow, even as our grandparents and great-great-great-grandparents before us prayed for us."