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Our Sunday Worship Service is held at Please join us. |
The
history of the Town of The second
Methodist presence came a decade later. In Port Ewen, a small group of
worshippers formed a congregation in 1855. Initially the pastor of the Esopus
Methodist church made weekly trips to Port Ewen to hold services. A small
building was put up in 1856, and was later replaced by a larger structure on
the current site. A third
Methodist church in the parish was established in Rifton in 1864. This church
was initially independent of the other two churches, being supported by a
relatively large population brought to Rifton by local mills, but as the
mills closed, new demographics forged a closer relationship with Port Ewen
and Esopus. Through the
years, connections between these churches varied. At times they were yoked
together in various combinations and at other times, they had independent
pastors. However, from 1923 and until 1994 they were a three point charge
served by one pastor. Two significant
events have occurred in the last twenty five years. The first is that the
church in Port Ewen was destroyed by arsonists in 1976. The damage was so bad
that even the bell came loose from the belfry and broke when it hit the
ground. Ground-breaking for the present church occurred in 1978 and a new,
larger church was rebuilt on the same site. The building was completed
quickly, but funds ran out before the steeple could be added. A second major
event happened in 1994 when the three point charge was re-incorporated in
merged form as the Town of Esopus United Methodist Church -- a single point
charge consisting of the membership of all three churches and meeting solely
at the rebuilt church facility in Port Ewen. The church buildings in Esopus
and Rifton were closed and have since been sold. The latest activity (1998) has been the final completion of the building in Port Ewen with the addition of a 50 foot steeple and an elevator system to provide full handicap accessibility to all three floors of the main building. |
Town of Esopus United
Methodist Church | West Main & Green Street, Port