More than 60 people gathered Sunday, November 22, to celebrate the change in ownership of the venerable North Deer Isle Community of Christ Church. The church had been vacant since 2006 when its congregation combined with its sister congregation in Stonington. St. Brendan-the-Navigator Episcopal Church, the new owner, began holding services there in August of this year. The Episcopalians will be the third faith community to worship in the building since it was built in 1858 by the Second Congregational Society of North Deer Isle.
Cheryl Brown, the last pastor of the North Deer Isle congregation, and Lorraine Knowlton of the Community of Christ handed the deed of sale to St. Brendan’s wardens, Siri Beckman and Martha Dane, a press release reports. St. Brendan’s rector, the Rev. Virginia Peacock, led a Thanksgiving service which incorporated hymns, readings and readers from both congregations. The auspicious occasion was marked by the dramatic appearance of the very first minister to officiate in the church, the Rev. W.A Merrill (also known as Ron Stegall) who engaged the audience with a lively recounting of Island church history.
“Rev. Merrill” surmised that the knoll in North Deer Isle on which the church was built—purchased for $20 from Amos Howard—might well have been a much earlier site for a worshipful encampment of Wabanaki Indians, thus making this a holy site long before its recent Christian history. “Rev. Merrill” spoke of his service at the First Congregational Church of Deer Isle before founding the Second Church which was built to accommodate the residents of North Deer Isle who had difficulty walking to Northwest Harbor, especially in winter. He built a parsonage across the street (still standing) where he could farm in order to support himself. To finance the construction of the church, pews were sold for $22 to $67 to families whose names are still known today: Gray, Haskell, Closson, Scott, Powers, Thompson, Torrey, Lowe, Richardson, Hardy, Howard, Small and more.
Twenty-six ministers and 10 deacons served the Second Congregational Church between 1858 and 1925. The pulpit was often supplied by the First Church although there were resident ministers from time to time. Except for brief periods in the 1920s and late 1940s, services were held regularly. In 1955 the deteriorating building was purchased by the Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints for $500. This sum was combined with the remaining treasury of the Second Congregational Society, $72.24, and used to repair and improve several Island cemeteries. “Rev. Merrill,” who said he had kept an eye on the building for 150 years, gratefully recalled the hard work of the “Saints” who dug a basement, painted, plastered and added to the church under the leadership of Garfield Billings who moved the congregation from Little Deer Isle. Oil chandeliers were wired for electricity, a parking lot was added and improvements were continued over the years.
Cheryl Brown, who served as pastor of the church for five years and is the granddaughter of Garfield Billings, the original RLDS pastor in the building, shared her memories of the RLDS community: basketball games in the parking lot, church suppers, music, and dedicated maintenance by the RLDS members.
The November 22 celebration ended a process which had begun just six months earlier when Lorraine Knowlton told Ginny Peacock that the North Deer Isle Church was for sale. The Episcopalians had been an itinerant congregation which first gathered in private homes in the 1970s. As St. Brendan’s it had worshiped in St. Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church and later in the Stonington Methodist Church whose host congregations generously shared their space. The Community of Christ had hoped that their historic building would go to another faith community and the timing was perfect for St. Brendan’s, the press release reports.
“Rev. Merrill” admitted that because he was 180 years old his memory was not what it used to be. He credited the Deer Isle-Stonington Historical Society and Milton Haskell among others who had helped him to remember the church history. He also spoke of the generosity and cooperative spirit of the three faith communities that worked together to keep the 1858 North Deer Isle building as a place of worship.
Following some construction and updating, the people of St Brendan’s look forward to welcoming friends from all the Island faith communities to the dedication of the latest edition of the North Deer Isle Church.
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