Posted: 10:46 PM - Aug 27, 2000
I just attended our annual August meeting at Old Bethel Church where we had as our speaker Mr. Christopher G. Miller, President of the Piedmont Environmental Council. http://www.pec-va.org/reports/index.html
He spoke of many interesting things that relate to the future of Clarke County, Va. and also Bethel Church which is located in a very rural area.
If you've visited the section on Bethel Church in this website you can see that the work being done to restore and upkeep the building and grounds is an on-going process. One thing that helps is spreading the word as I have been doing with The Robert Mackay Clan website because Bethel is an intregal part of our Sowers & Kerfoot family heritage. Families which are heavily intertwined with the branch of Robert Mackay Sr.'s family that lived in the lower Shenandoah Valley (Frederick, Clarke & Warren Counties).
In order for our projects to keep going and continue, support is always needed in the form of joining in membership, sending in donations and participating in the events held at Bethel.
Bethel holds two primary events a year and is also used for other activities throughout the year like marriages, concerts & recently as a tour stop on the Winchester-Clarke County Garden Club tour.
The two primary events are our annual August meeting and picnic which is held on the fourth Sunday in August and the Christmas Carols and Lessons which is held on the 3rd Sunday in December.
If you are a descendant of the Jacob Sowers family, the William Kerfoot family, or the Rev. William Davis family then likely your ancestors were prominently involved with this church.
Bethel is now a memorial dedicated to the memories of these and other people who once worshipped here.
If you are interested in helping to keep this memorial going and contributing to it's further restoration and upkeep I encourage you to join The Bethel Memorial, Inc.
I know many of you probably do not live in the area anymore but your membership and donations would still be appreciated. If you should happen to come back to Clarke County, Va. I invite you to come and visit the church building. It is always open to the public. You can contact me at my e-mail address if you would like for me to take you on a tour of the building and grounds.
For those of you who do live in the area, please remember that those who we relied on to do these things in the past are gradually passing away and each void they leave behind needs to be filled by someone else.
I encourage all of the younger members of our family to step up and fill those voids. All it takes is a little time and effort to help out in any way you are able to. This is a part of our heritage that should be passed on to our children and grandchildren on into even the 22nd century.
Remember, this isn't someone else's heritage I'm talking about. It's OUR heritage and OUR past. It is OUR people who worshipped here many years ago and it is something I hope to help keep going for many more years to come.
If you want to see more info. about The Bethel Memorial, Inc. click on this link:
http://www.geocities.com/mckyrbnsn/bethel.html
You will find Membership options and a mailing address in which to send your membership and/or donations to.
Bethel relies on the contributions of it's members to keep it's projects going.
(P.S. I intend to put some pictures showing the interior of the church building up soon. I was going to take a few this afternoon but it was overcast and rainy which made for poor picture taking. I'll try and get a few shots in later this week)
He spoke of many interesting things that relate to the future of Clarke County, Va. and also Bethel Church which is located in a very rural area.
If you've visited the section on Bethel Church in this website you can see that the work being done to restore and upkeep the building and grounds is an on-going process. One thing that helps is spreading the word as I have been doing with The Robert Mackay Clan website because Bethel is an intregal part of our Sowers & Kerfoot family heritage. Families which are heavily intertwined with the branch of Robert Mackay Sr.'s family that lived in the lower Shenandoah Valley (Frederick, Clarke & Warren Counties).
In order for our projects to keep going and continue, support is always needed in the form of joining in membership, sending in donations and participating in the events held at Bethel.
Bethel holds two primary events a year and is also used for other activities throughout the year like marriages, concerts & recently as a tour stop on the Winchester-Clarke County Garden Club tour.
The two primary events are our annual August meeting and picnic which is held on the fourth Sunday in August and the Christmas Carols and Lessons which is held on the 3rd Sunday in December.
If you are a descendant of the Jacob Sowers family, the William Kerfoot family, or the Rev. William Davis family then likely your ancestors were prominently involved with this church.
Bethel is now a memorial dedicated to the memories of these and other people who once worshipped here.
If you are interested in helping to keep this memorial going and contributing to it's further restoration and upkeep I encourage you to join The Bethel Memorial, Inc.
I know many of you probably do not live in the area anymore but your membership and donations would still be appreciated. If you should happen to come back to Clarke County, Va. I invite you to come and visit the church building. It is always open to the public. You can contact me at my e-mail address if you would like for me to take you on a tour of the building and grounds.
For those of you who do live in the area, please remember that those who we relied on to do these things in the past are gradually passing away and each void they leave behind needs to be filled by someone else.
I encourage all of the younger members of our family to step up and fill those voids. All it takes is a little time and effort to help out in any way you are able to. This is a part of our heritage that should be passed on to our children and grandchildren on into even the 22nd century.
Remember, this isn't someone else's heritage I'm talking about. It's OUR heritage and OUR past. It is OUR people who worshipped here many years ago and it is something I hope to help keep going for many more years to come.
If you want to see more info. about The Bethel Memorial, Inc. click on this link:
http://www.geocities.com/mckyrbnsn/bethel.html
You will find Membership options and a mailing address in which to send your membership and/or donations to.
Bethel relies on the contributions of it's members to keep it's projects going.
(P.S. I intend to put some pictures showing the interior of the church building up soon. I was going to take a few this afternoon but it was overcast and rainy which made for poor picture taking. I'll try and get a few shots in later this week)