Friends help Winterport church Volunteers offer skills to expand, renovate facility

WINTERPORT – “Willing hands make light the work” could easily be the motto for the members and friends of the Ellingwoods Corner United Methodist Church on Route 69 in the back part of town. Some of those hands belong to people who are church members, some not. On average, church attendance is about 40 people who come from as far away as Bradley and as near as the corner itself.

In 2004, numerous renovations were completed, many of them by volunteers who gave time and skill to complete the work. The church building and the social hall beside it were moved back from the road to provide parking space. The back of the church was extended to expand the altar area.

And the church was connected to the old social hall by an addition that houses the kitchen, restrooms, church office and ample space for church functions, such as the public suppers and rummage sales held monthly from April through December. The addition also created a cellar.

The interior of the church retains much of its original charm. Tin ceilings are painted white. A double row of antique deacon’s benches and pressed-back oak chairs padded with bright red cushions create a homey, welcoming atmosphere that evokes the slower pace of a previous century.

“Lots of people come here and serve faithfully, bringing their gifts,” said Chuck Langbein of Levant, pastor, who also serves Dixmont United Methodist Church. He has been with the church for four years and describes those who serve it as “the hands and feet of God.”

One of those people is James Leonard of Hampden, a mason and stoneworker who donated his time to face the new chimney with granite, to build a granite bench in the garden area enclosed by the “arms” created by the church building and the old social hall. He also constructed the kitchen wall facing the dining area, a wall built of large fieldstones and featuring a serving window with granite lintel, outlined with smaller pieces of granite.

“See that black stone there,” Leonard said. “That’s a fossil rock.” It is impressed with hundreds of tiny seashells from prehistoric times. Leonard was dressing the stone, tapping at it with a hammer, when it split to reveal the fossils.

Maxine Jernigan and Myra Bowley, who live at Ellingwoods Corner, have been associated with the church since childhood. They are two of the mainstays at church suppers. It is Bowley who faithfully sends out hand-written announcements of church activities to local newspapers. She also makes brown bread the old-fashioned way for the suppers, steaming it in 27 tin cans.

Both women recalled that relatives attended school in the church building in its former incarnation as a one-room schoolhouse.

“It was a school until 1905 when a religious society bought it for $50 and it became a church,” said Debbie Calderwood of Newburgh, who serves as lay speaker when Langbein must be absent. Calderwood, a 15-year member of the church, remembers when the social hall had no running water. “We had to bring water to boil to do the dishes,” she said.

Those affiliated with the church, no matter the number at any given time – sometimes as few as a dozen – always looked to the future, Langbein said. Years ago, they purchased additional land thinking that new members would come someday and expansion might be possible. Gradually, changes were made – drilling a well for water, adding a septic system, and finally, major renovations.

Young people also find ways to contribute skills to the church, Leonard said. Hampden Academy student Matt Albert of Winterport landscaped and built a bench for the church’s prayer garden as his Eagle Scout project.

The funds the church raises at suppers and rummage sales, Calderwood said, go toward paying bills and reaching out to the community to aid the needy and to do other good works.

“Part of being a good Methodist,” she said, “is keeping the bills paid” as well as connecting with the community.

Typically, 75 to 100 people attend the church’s suppers.

Langbein described the church’s approach to worship as experiential. Once, when he was hospitalized for several weeks, church members called his room and sang to him over the phone in order to include him in the worship service they were conducting.

“I got better faster,” he quipped.

The church has come a long way, Calderwood said, since it was known as the “church of the widows.” New faces frequently appear at church services now.

A Christmas fair will be held 3-6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17; and 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 18, at Ellingwoods Corner United Methodist Church. The baked bean suppers will resume in April. For more information, call 234-2762.