THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 14, 1996 TAG: 9607120216
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY MARY ELLEN RIDDLE, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: HATTERAS ISLAND LENGTH: 194 lines
ANDY BAXTER arms himself with patience every Sunday.
Down Hatteras way, you need an extra dose if you're in the church business.
As a Methodist divinity student and intern visiting the Outer Banks, Andy attends three services in a row on the seventh day.
Shortly before 8:30 a.m. Sunday mornings, he shows up at Little Grove United Methodist Church in Frisco. Then, just after Communion, in between the first and second hymn, he's on his way to Buxton United Methodist Church for service No. 2. Finally, he rounds out his day by attending a midmorning service in Hatteras Village.
By the time he gets there at 11 o'clock, he's a little tired, definitely hungry and probably forcing a bit of a grin when the Rev. Jim Huskins tells the Hatteras congregation a joke that Andy's already heard two times that day.
``Jim likes corny jokes,'' explains Andy, smiling. ``After you've heard the sermon for the third time, it kind of wears on you.''
In a few weeks, Andy will head back to Duke University to continue working on his master's degree. But Huskins will stay to ride the ministerial circuit year-round.
It's not unusual in the Methodist faith for a preacher to serve multiple pulpits. In fact, there's a new clergyman in town who's taken over northern Hatteras Island's remaining Methodist churches. The Rev. Ray Warren preaches every Sunday morning and evening in Avon, Salvo and Rodanthe.
All of the congregations are small. And it would be impossible to support one pastor per church. So why not consolidate three churches into one? After all, the island townships are only 10 to 20 miles apart.
Huskins says distance has little to do with having so many small churches on Hatteras.
``It's `My grandmother went here. I'm going here,' '' said Huskins, quoting his parishioners. Folks just want to attend Sunday service where their kin attended before them. Since the congregations only average 80 to 110 at Little Grove in Frisco to about 360 in Hatteras - with only about 30 percent of those numbers attending every Sunday - sometimes Huskins is only preaching to 30 people.
At Little Grove last week, just that many folks occupied the wooden pews. They were casually dressed in shorts and sandals. The atmosphere was quite laid back.
The first service starts at 8:30 a.m. But there's hardly a soul inside until 8:25 when about three people drift in. Four minutes later, the sanctuary starts filling up.
Solemnity is replaced by casual conversation throughout the hour. It's not unusual to see Huskins grinning, telling jokes and reading current events during all three services. His sermons are simple and down to earth.
But every worship service has its own stamp of individuality.
``I'd get bored myself if I didn't change it a little bit,'' the minister said of the services. ``I don't have that kind of energy myself. I worship when the choir sings. After you've read Scriptures three times, it feeds you.''
After leaving Little Grove - only 45 minutes into the service - Huskins heads north to Buxton in time to make the 9:30 a.m. service. With his black satchel beside him and Communion stole draped across the back seat, he backs out of the gravel driveway. The Buxton folks are as happy to see him as the Frisco ones were.
The minister shakes hands and listens, laughs and then walks down the red carpet to the altar.
Lay speakers at each church give him a breather during the services. But they also can be a mixed blessing. Sometimes lay folk add their own slant to the word of God, said the ordained minister. And Huskins finds himself having to improvise at the last minute in order to rectify a possible error in religious history made by a well-meaning speaker.
Having lay persons speak, however, also gives the preacher time to reflect. Worshipers watch him sitting deep in thought behind the pulpit - recharging. Hand on forehead, he rests quietly. Looking up from time to time, he grins as a speaker stumbles over a passage from Romans. ``If I do not want what I do not want,'' - surely a tongue twister for even an accomplished speaker - rolls off the tongues of each lay minister at the three churches in very different fashions.
At Little Grove, the lay speaker had a tough time with the word of Paul. In Buxton, the speaker sailed through it. And in Hatteras, she found out quickly that this passage needed to be read very slowly.
Huskins guides them and talks openly. ``Stay up there,'' he'll say. ``You're not finished yet. No one minds the interruptions.''
The look of each congregation also changes as Jim moves north then backtracks south to reach Hatteras in time for the 11:15 service. In contrast to Little Grove, the Buxton congregation is more dressed up. There is a full-fledged choir present, attired in fancy robes. The lay speaker wears a nice suit. And here, more high heels and fewer sandals are tucked under the pews.
Folks come to worship at the small Hatteras churches from all over the world. Visitors last Sunday included a young girl from Germany, a lady from South Miami, and last week there were Russian children attending the service at Little Grove.
Summers find some faithful locals sitting in the red cushioned seats. But not in as many numbers as the winters do. Most locals work seven-day weeks during the tourist seasons, preventing many year-round residents from attending.
Whether Huskins is preaching to visitors including a church full of Korean ministers and their families - he always invites visiting ministers up to share in the service - local fishermen wearing their Topsiders or business men in three-piece suits, his delivery is marked by simplicity, free from overt condemnation and funny.
There is little fanfare to this tall, bespectacled 54-year-old man. Ask him about funeral services and he'll likely say, ``We pray over the dead. And we stick 'em in the ground.''
He'll be the first to admit that he's thinking about eating lunch during the Hatteras service - and that it's a difficult job to stand up and tell people how to behave properly.
``If you presume to go into a pulpit in a church and suggest how people should live, that's a pretty awesome thing to do,'' he said. ``That's the tough part of it.''
Living on an island helps bring people closer to God, believes Huskins. And he works hard to keep the three churches united despite the distance and history that separates them. The prayer list helps link them together.
Worshipers pray for Sam who's recovering in a hospital in Virginia beginning at the Little Grove service. And Sam will be mentioned again in Buxton and Hatteras. So by the end of the day, every Methodist church-goer on the island knows that Sam needs prayers.
``You couldn't exist on this charge without making them think of each other,'' Jim said. ``It wouldn't work.''
A practical man, Huskins readily admits that he'd prefer to have one church instead of three.
It would be easier instead of having to pay bills in triplicate, order supplies in triplicate and sermonize three times each Sunday.
After all, the Hatteras folks want to see that spark of enthusiasm and humorous twinkle shining just as bright as the Little Grove folks did three hours earlier.
Huskins manages. He says God helps. Just opening up and letting the Word pour through is key, he says, even if his stomach is growling a bit and his wife Barbara is rolling her eyes as he tells a family joke for the third time.
That's life as a Methodist circuit rider down Hatteras way.
And, some Sundays, it's definitely a test in patience. ILLUSTRATION: With his satchel and Communion stole packed in the
vehicle, Jim Huskins departs from the Frisco church for 9:30 a.m.
services in Buxton.
Staff photos by
DREW C. WILSON
Jim Huskins is the first to admit he's thinking about eating lunch
during the Hatteras service - his third on Sundays.
Photo by MARY ELLEN RIDDLE
The Rev. Jim Huskins approaches the Hatteras United Methodist Church
at Hatteras for his third service of the day. He's already been to
Little Grove UMC in Frisco and Buxton UMC.
Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
Jim Huskins is the first to admit he's thinking about eating lunch
during the Hatteras service - his third on Sundays.
Jim Huskins, 54, a circuit-riding Methodist minister shakes hands,
listens and shares a laugh with members of the congregation in the
back pew at Buxton United Methodist Church. It's his second stop on
a Sunday filled with services at three Outer Banks churches.
Photos by
MARY ELLEN RIDDLE
THE CIRCUIT
Little Grove United Methodist Church
Church Service: 8:30 a.m.
Sunday School: 9:30 a.m.
Buxton United Methodist Church
Church Service: 9:30 a.m.
Sunday School: 10:45 a.m.
Hatteras United Methodist Church
Church Service: 11:15 a.m.
Sunday School: 10:00 a.m.
Contact Rev. Jim Huskins at:
Hatteras United Methodist Church
P.O. Box 310
Hatteras, N.C. 27943
Parsonage: 986-2254
St. John's United Methodist Church
Avon Church Service: 11:15 a.m.
Sunday School: 10:00 a.m.
Clarks Bethel United Methodist Church
Salvo Church Service: 10:00 a.m.
Sunday School 11:00 a.m.
Fairhaven United Methodist Church
Rodanthe Church Service: 9:00 a.m.
Sunday School: 10:00 a.m.
Contact the Rev. Ray Warren at:
Kinnakeet Charge United Methodist Church
40222 United Methodist Church Road
Avon, N.C. 27915
995-5383 by CNB