OLD MCKENDREE CHAPEL HAS ANNUAL MEETING

Bishop Monk Bryan will be the featured speaker this year at Old McKendree Day today at 3 p.m. at Old McKendree Chapel in Jackson. This annual service honors the pioneer founders of Methodism west of the Mississippi River.

All visitors are welcome, and are asked to bring lawn chairs For this outdoor service held on the chapel grounds. Quintet from the Perryville United Methodist Church will provide pre-service music, and the Perryville United Methodist Church Choir will provide music and anthems for ~t~he service.

Bishop Monk Bryan will be the featured speaker. He was born and reared in Methodist parsonages in Texas, his father being a minister in the Central Texas Conference for 66 years.

Bishop Bryan served churches in Texas, and then pastored churches in Missouri for 36 years, including churches in St. Louis, Bonne Terre, Maryville and Columbia.

In 1976 he was consecreated Bishop and served in Nebraska from 1976 until 1984. Today he is active at Lake Junaluska and the First United Methodist Church in Waynesville, North Carolina.

Old McKendree Chapel is the oldest Protestant church building still standing west of the Mississippi River. The log structure was completed in 1819 on two acres of land given by William Williams and his wife, who settled on a Spanish Land Grant before 1801. Camp meetings were held there annually until the log church was built.

Today a metal canopy protects the log building, and a caretaker and his family live in a residence on the grounds. A Board of Trustees, with Jack Byrd as president, oversees the historic chapel and tree-shaded grounds.