THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 21, 1996 TAG: 9604190231
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 25 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
Minutes from the bustle of Chesapeake Square Mall and the speeding traffic of Interstate 664, church bells daily chime a noon concert of old, familiar hymns.
Strains of ``Holy, Holy, Holy'' float over construction clatter from new housing developments and remind anyone within earshot of the abiding presence of Jolliff United Methodist Church.
Jolliff Church, as it is known locally, has drawn members from Portsmouth, Suffolk and Chesapeake since it began as the Jolliff Society in April 1773. And the church celebrated its 223rd anniversary with a homecoming Saturday.
Pastor Won Un currently leads the church's membership of about 230 people.
The simple architecture of the white-sided church, designated a historical landmark of Chesapeake, has been altered only slightly since it was built around 1850. Church histories indicate that there was a Jolliff Meeting House on the same site as early as 1827 and also refer to a log cabin church on the same site as early as 1798.
One of the oldest churches in Virginia, Jolliff was founded by Robert Williams and Joseph Pilmore, two early Methodist missionaries to whom local landowner James Jolliff opened his home less than a year after the itinerant preachers had formed Methodist societies in Portsmouth and Norfolk.
Those congregations were to become Monumental United Methodist Church and First United Methodist Church of Norfolk.
Ruby Baker, one of the Homecoming committee members, is a fifth-generation member of Jolliff Church. Her great-great-grandfather, Samuel Peek, was a lay preacher at Jolliff in the early 1800s, when the church was part of a circuit that at various times included Magnolia, Indiana, Beech Grove, Olive Branch, Deep Creek and Ebenezer Methodist churches.
Back then, the parsonage was located at Alexander's Corner in Portsmouth, and the pastor made his circuit rounds by horse and buggy, visiting each church twice a month. Baker has preserved much of the church's history in scrapbooks filled with old news clippings, photos and programs.
She also can elaborate on many of the events, like the time four youngsters, impressed with the story of Jesus' baptism, requested an outdoor immersion in the Western Branch of the Elizabeth River.
``That was probably the only time one of the baptized (Baker's nephew) was immersed and swam underwater for the opposite shore,'' Baker said with a laugh.
Jolliff's once rural setting, amid horse pastures and farms, is rapidly taking on a suburban flavor with upscale housing developments and shopping centers springing up all around. The church, however, retains the peaceful simplicity of an earlier time, something even wildlife seem to appreciate.
Finding a stray horse or wild turkey wandering the parking lot is not unusual, but last year choir members were startled to find a black bear meeting them at the church twice a day for several weeks.
The church has attracted worshipers from the area's housing boom.
``We are an old church, and people are dying out, but new members from the new sections keep it on an even keel,'' Baker said.
Jolliff Church has changed somewhat with the times. The church ceiling caught fire during a worship service one Sunday in the early 1920s. Chimney sparks from the santuary's wood stove burned a hole in the ceiling.
Faced with repairs, the congregation gave the church its first major renovation and also altered an attitude. A balcony originally used to seat slaves and free blacks was removed, allowing all members to sit together for worship.
In 1940, contributions from Portsmouth merchants allowed the church to replace its oil lamps with electric lights and the hand-pumped organ with an electric instrument. It was not until the early 1950s, however, that the wood stoves were replaced by a more modern heating system.
In more recent years, Sunday school rooms have been added to the church building and a separate Sunday school building and fellowship hall has been erected. The bell tower, from which a carillon plays each noon, was added in 1981.
This year's homecoming committee sent more than 250 invitations to former members and pastors hoped more friends of the church would come to Jolliff Church on Saturday. With scrapbooks and artifacts on display, it was a day to become reacquainted and to remember countless Sunday services, friends, socials and homecoming suppers held under the churchyard trees.
The reception also was to feature what committee member Baker called ``the best food in the world - and plenty of it.'' by CNB