A chance to reflect: Church history on display during SC Humanities Festival

St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church and Trinity United Methodist Church were all open for self-guided tours.

The tours were organized as part of the SC Humanities Festival, which Orangeburg hosted for the first time over the weekend. The festival also featured live entertainment, art exhibitions and led into the annual Taste of Orangeburg.

Though the turnout was lower than hoped for on the rainy Friday, the event still gave church members a chance to reflect on the historical significance of their buildings and congregations.

The Rev. Eddie Williams said Trinity United Methodist Church “truly has been around for years in the community. It’s been a beacon.”

Trinity was first established in 1866, with the current sanctuary constructed between 1928 and 1944. The church served as the headquarters for civil rights organizing in the 1960s and was visited by leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Williams said.

Several families descended from founding members still attend the church, member Ronald Speight said.

“I’m just amazed that this old lady is still standing and is still doing the job of welcoming individuals,” Speight said. “We just look forward to her being around the next century.”

Mt. Pisgah Baptist was first organized in 1853 as Sunnyside Baptist, said Rosemary Smith-Hickman, chair of the church’s trustee ministry. The name changed when the current sanctuary was built in 1903, after the original was destroyed in a fire, she said.

“We’re one of the oldest churches in the state of South Carolina as well as the city of Orangeburg and a number of local churches grew out of this church,” Smith-Hickman said. “So we’re proud of our history. We celebrate it every year.”

The church was built by former slaves who left Orangeburg First Baptist, Deacon Joseph Thomas said.

Thomas’s family has been a part of Mt. Pisgah for a century, he said. A photograph of his grandmother, born in the 1880s, hangs on the fellowship hall wall. He is currently going through records to see if they were among the founding members.

Mt. Pisgah played a major role in educating the city’s Black community to make up for shortcomings in Jim Crow society, he said. South Carolina State used the current sanctuary for its commencement ceremonies in the past, he said.

“It was a lot of different things in order to educate the Black community,” he said.

The original sanctuary of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church was built in 1836, member Ken Stovall said. The current structure was dedicated in 1898 after the steeple was destroyed by a storm, he said.

The church’s first pipe organ was installed in 1902, replaced in 1968 and refurbished between 2018 and 2020, he said. The original roof was replaced in 2000 and doors in 2009, he said.

Light streams through the stained-glass windows on each of the sanctuary’s walls at different times throughout the day, giving the space a unique appeal, he said.

“The church is open to anybody. Every church should be open to anybody,” he said. “We’ve had other people to stop by sometimes while we’re working in the yard and want to look. (We say) ‘Oh, sure come on in, come to church Sunday. No problem.’”

All three churches appear on the National Register of Historic Places, but are also looking toward the future.

Trinity United Methodist is currently undergoing renovations of both its exterior and interior – the sanctuary has recently been repainted and had its floors and ceilings replaced, Williams said.

Mt. Pisgah is currently updating its technology to better serve its congregation, Thomas said.

St. Paul’s is trying to replace the sanctuary’s lights with LEDs, but will have to update the wiring and control systems, some of which date back 50 years, Stovall said.

Leadership and members of all three churches encouraged community members to continue to engage with the churches and visit on Sunday.