Steeple Raising
St. Mark A.M.E. Zion Church, one of Newtown’s historic sites dating back to 1820 restored one of the things that made the church historic –the steeple. A steeple raising ceremony was held on June 27, 2009 at 11am.
The Steeple Raising Ceremony featured music provided by the Young Adult Choir of St. Mark, Kathy “Sledge” Lightfoot and the Voices of St. Mark. The food was prepared by the Culinary Ministry and we fellowshipped as we awaited the steeple raising.
The Ceremony was attended by approximately 150 people from Newtown and neighboring communities. The Newtown community has generously donated and supported the efforts of St. Mark along this journey. A special group of people “The Friends of St Mark” made the steeple raising possible. This group is a group of community residents along with members of St. Mark who took on the mission to raise money to replace the steeple “like kind” as required by the Historical Society.
Testimony of how great God had been to St. Mark was given by Sis. Nancie Dent, who’s father, Rev. Lewis H. Myers was the Pastor of St. Mark from June 1956 to December 7, 1957 when he died at the age of 35.
The highlight of the ceremony was when Rev. Sandra Reed, Pastor of St. Mark rode in the cherry picker to place a time capsule in the steeple. The time capsule contains a letter from the Pastor, a membership roll list, letters from the Anniversary Committee, a list of the name of the Friends of St. Mark and a memento commerating the event.
Rev. Reed stated that it is her desire “that in one hundred years when the steeple is replaced, the members will know that we thought of them and wanted to leave a historic record of this day” Rev. Reed also shared that the decisions on the construction of the steeple were well thought out so that congregations for generations to come wouldn’t have to worry about replacing the steeple.
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