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Time Stands Still
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| Time travel is the stuff of science fiction, but some folks in a small town in Tennessee got a taste of it recently. The Lynnville United Methodist Church celebrated its 100th birthday with a look ahead, and a look back. An eager crowd watched as the pastor opened a box that had been placed in the church’s cornerstone in 1903. It was a rare chance to visit a past century. Reed Galin was watching. | |||
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SCRIPT:
It’s not exactly right to say time stands still in Lynnville, Tennessee, but this is the kind of close-knit, rural American town where “Sunday best” still means what it did a hundred years ago.
And that is why most of the local folks – and a lot of others – gathered at the Lynnville United Methodist Church to honor its centennial year and to find out what is in “the box” – a time capsule sealed in the church cornerstone a century ago. The contents are a small mystery, but so much else is known, and remembered.
Elaine Adair and Twila Russel/Sisters : “We both married in this church.”
George Milton: “Daddy had lost everything and this Methodist church offered him a job leading singing.”
Pastor Steven VanHooser/ Lynnville United Methodist Church: “It’s a hard-working church. Their focus has been basically reaching out to the community.”
A hundred years of war … and peace … and potluck suppers…
“I taught Sunday school here for over 50 years.”
…and the ups and downs of a mostly agricultural community. The congregation has actually grown in the last few years. And a lot of folks returned just to be together again today, to share the past, finally revealed.
Pastor Steven VanHooser: “This is the history of the town of Lynnville...”
As it turned out, there wasn’t anything very dramatic in the time capsule. Newspapers of the day, church membership roles, old coins…
Pastor Steven VanHooser: “This is a hymnbook of the Methodist Church…”
… all of which seemed to say to people here that time has sort of stood still in Lynnville, when it comes to values.
Carol Ann Worthman/Lynnville United Methodist Church Historian: “Look how many people were here today and all the enthusiasm, and just that we’re carrying on, I think, what they wanted us to do.”
They will seal another time capsule for the next hundred years – which doesn’t sound all that long, now, to the Lynnville faithful … What would be?
Young girl: “A thousand years.”
TAG:
There were four generations of friends and family at the Lynnville church celebration. And too many casseroles to count…