AT THE end of April, the small congregation at the St Teath Methodist Church regretfully came to the decision that the work of the church would have to be discontinued as from the end of September.

Maintaining the work of the church has fallen on the shoulders of four members of the community in recent years, with a number of interested persons being housebound or experiencing illness.

The final service at the church is being held on Sunday (September 23), which will be a Harvest Thanksgiving service, as well as giving thanks for the Methodist work in the village over the past 235 years or more.

The service will be led by Rev Bryan and Mrs Sue Ede, and the congregations of the St Teath Parish Church and the Delabole Methodist Church will be sharing in the worship.

It is known that some who have been involved with the work of the church in past years are hoping to make the journey to St Teath for the occasion.

The initial Methodist work in St Teath was started by a group of John Wesley followers in the early 1780s who formed a Wesleyan Society, and subsequently built a chapel on the northern edge of the village. Their chapel was taken over by the Free Methodist movement in the 1830s, who then built the building presently in use in 1869.

The building has been in continuous use since. The Bible Christian movement also had a chapel in St Teath, the original one being built in 1835 and replaced with a new one in 1880, which is now used as a house.

There is some evidence that the two branches of Methodism did work together at times in these days. Over recent years, the Methodist and Anglican churches in St Teath have shared with each other on six Sundays a year for special times of worship. All of this work will be remembered in Sunday’s worship.