DATE: Sunday, October 26, 1997              TAG: 9710260035

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL

                                            LENGTH:   45 lines

BOOK OFFERS TESTIMONY OF RELIGION

If you yearn for old-time religion, try ``Beacon of the Soul,'' celebrating the 100th birthday of Swain Memorial United Methodist Church on Tangier Island.

The Virginian-Pilot's John Pruitt of Suffolk wrote the honey of a book as a gift to Swain Memorial. Having read it, a person feels ready to take on the day - as one might after a moving service.

On Tangier, if the oyster harvest was good, children selected attire from mail-order catalogs. Walking to church on Easter, boys had to pass the ``inspectors,'' mothers waiting at gates to see them. John's brother was so good at jumping ditches he'd take the back marshy path to church. His mother's nose twitched at the marsh odor as he sang ``Christ the Lord is risen today!''

Easter also brought licorice ``gum eggs'' with which, when the sugar coating was sucked away, boys blackened their brows or upper lips. Girls adorned lips and cheeks with the red eggs.

He recalls a hurricane that swept the 5-square-mile island in the Chesapeake Bay with such fury that two chimneys fell on the roof and the concussion blew out the oil lamp at which the family huddled.

His mother, who'd never cursed, shouted, ``Jesus Christ! Let's get out of here!'' He didn't know which scared him worse, her shout or the wind. They stepped into chest-deep water. His aunt said, without a smile, ``I wish it was so calm Miss Martha Haynie could hear me belch.'' She lived a mile away.

When the bay froze solid, the boys cut chunks of saltwater ice with which to churn ice cream flavored with strawberry or peach preserves, summer stored in jars.

For 100 years, life has revolved around the sun of Swain Memorial, with a moon, a daughter church, New Testament Congregation, born 50 years ago.

In 1995, a turning point, 217 committed to Christ during six weeks of joint revivals. A third of the residents made life-changing vows. In Sunday School classes today, members give spontaneous testimonies. ``It is not uncommon for people to give tearful accounts of blessings and share burdens and beseech others to lift them up in prayer.''

Testimonies help make Swain Memorial unique in the United Methodist Church, he writes.

When he dips into his well of recollection, his book is a moving testimony. To buy one, send $10 by check or money order to the church, care of Eugenia Pruitt, P.O. Box 145, Tangier Island, Va. 23440.

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