Chapel celebrates 100th year
Published 9:17 am Thursday, October 19, 2017
Wanda Yancey Payne, left, smiles with fellow Oak Grove Chapel attendant Marilyn Snoddy.
People packed the inside of the Oak Grove Chapel.
Teresa Stinson, left, Linda Dail and Gerald Stinson share a meal and a smile.
Robert and Annie Bryant pause for a photo.
Lewis Brandt delivers a message during the celebration.
Members and descendants of members of Oak Grove Chapel, established in 1917 for families in New Canton to have a church closer to home, celebrated the 100th year of the chapel on Sunday.
Participants filled the pews inside of the chapel and spilled out onto the steps and lawn. Several people who had attended the chapel’s Sunday schools as children shared memories.
The one-room chapel has no plumbing but has a wheelchair ramp outside of it and electricity.
Sisters Brenda Yancey McAllister and Wanda Yancey Payne sang a song they learned as kids at the chapel, and participants sang hymns such as “Amazing Grace” and “Bringing in the Sheaves.”
The chapel, according to history compiled by former members, was built in 1917 to give families in New Canton a place of worship that was closer than Mt. Zion Baptist Church, which was approximately five miles away from the location where Oak Grove Chapel was eventually built.
Sunday school took place at the chapel every Sunday, and a pastor spoke at the chapel once a month. Many of the families, due to the close proximity to their farms and homes, would walk to the chapel.
The last recorded meeting at the chapel was in 1964.
Since then, the chapel has been the site of several weddings and two funerals.
Some of the memories evoked laughter from the audience. Others remembered forming close friendships and being inspired by different pastors and members at the time.
“That’s one of the points why we gather like this, to be able to think about that, because that’s what church is supposed to be,” Mt. Zion Baptist Church Pastor Woody Moore said during the celebration. “Each generation mentoring the other generation, teaching each other how we carry on.”
Lisa Flippen, who married Ted Flippen at the chapel in 1987 and attended several Easter and Christmas events at the chapel, said the site had been a source of both joyful and somber memories.
“There are a lot of people that used to be here (that) aren’t here anymore” Flippen said. “So it’s kind of bittersweet. But if they were to come up and see all of these kids and everything … they would have the best time.”
“It’s sad in one way, but I’m glad in another way, because it means we have to keep the memories going so that other families can have those special memories,” Flippen said.
The Rev. Lewis Brandt, who delivered a message during the anniversary, wondered if Chapel Road, the aptly-named road on which the chapel is located, was named after Oak Grove.
“There were experiences here, I can guarantee, that live in the hearts and minds of the people,” Brandt said.
Doris Roberts, who had attended the church in her youth, has fond memories of taking part in Christmas pageants and Easter egg hunts. She also said she remembers when adults and children would have Sunday school classes, each class being in different corners of the sanctuary.
She said coming back to the church has helped her return to happier moments.
“When you come back, you feel like you’ve been to preaching and Sunday school,” Roberts said.
Donald Yancey, of Fluvanna, said his father, Edward Yancey, built the chapel’s outdoor fireplace. He said he remembers attending the chapel until he was a teenager.
“It was church to us,” Yancey said.
He said that Mt. Zion has continued to support the upkeep of the chapel. An offering during the celebration was taken to continue to maintain the building.
“It’s great that the community and county has this much interest in preserving it,” Yancey said.
Mt. Zion will be hosting a live Nativity at the chapel Sunday, Dec. 17 at 5 p.m. with a Candlelight Service at 6 p.m.
