[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 69 (Thursday, May 22, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1027]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            HONORING WAKEFIELD GRACE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ELIOT L. ENGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 22, 1997

  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, it is well known that churches are often not 
only the spiritual centers of communities but also the centers of 
gravity which hold them together. For 110 years the Wakefield Grace 
United Methodist Church has been such a center for the Wakefield 
section of the Bronx.
  The church was founded in 1875 when that small community was known as 
Washingtonville. The neighborhood worshippers decided that the only 
Methodist churches in the area were too far away to walk to with 
children and started to meet in the first floor of a dwelling at 241st 
Street and Richardson Avenue. When the Sunday school reached an 
enrollment of 91 it was decided to erect a building for the church.
  The pragmatism of the neighborhood showed itself again when they 
disassembled a church building in Mount Vernon, where that congregation 
was building a new church, and reassembled it on land donated for their 
worship. And in 1887 the cornerstone of the rebuilt church was laid.
  The present parsonage was built in 1911 and 2 years later a 
neighboring building was bought and turned into the social hall. The 
church has also had adversity; one tower was struck by lightning in 
1927, setting it on fire, and in 1989, only 2 days before Christmas, a 
fire destroyed the stained glass windows and the organ. Despite this, 
the church has served as an anchor to the people of the area.
  The church today, under the guidance of Bishop Ernest S. Lyght and 
the Rev. Allen N. Pinckney, Pastor, continues to serve as a beacon to 
the area, allowing the spiritual and temporal values of the 
neighborhood to grow and prosper.




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