From left: John Boak, John Tutton, Ava Keene, Louise Nicolosi, and Donna Finneran sing Albert Brumley’s “I’ll Fly Away” as part of the Bremen Union Church choir on Sunday, Sept. 29. (Nolan Wilkinson photo)
A congregation of around 40 people passed through the balloon and bunting bedecked entrance to the Bremen Union Church for its 200th anniversary service Sunday, Sept. 29.
The real celebration was of the memories and community the building allowed them to create, however.
“I have to say that early in COVID, when work was out and there was little to do but walk up and down the roads every day, repeatedly I found myself walking up and sitting on the front steps of the church, and so thank you for keeping this alive for so long,” said attendee Doug McNair.
Joan Cutler remembered when former Pastor Susan Winter came to check on her after sickness forced Cutler to miss a church service. Others remembered when they got married or baptized in the church.
After the service, attendees were welcomed to eat lunch, learn more about the church’s history, and listen to the Round Pond Players.
“Many pastors have preached from this pulpit – both men and women who have dedicated their lives to the Lord and in shepherding his people,” said Pastor Marilyn Nichols. “This church has seen many changes over the years, and it has held several denominations: Presbyterians, the Methodists, the old congregational church, just to name a few.”
Nichols is the latest in a long line of religious leaders at the church, as her tenure started in May.
“Around the time of the Revolutionary War – I won’t go through the Revolutionary War with you, promise – but there were three meeting houses in the Pemaquid peninsula,” Nichols said. “There was the Walpole, there was the Harrington Meeting House, and the Greenland Cove Meeting House, and the genesis of this church comes from the Greenland Cove Meeting House, which was originally constructed on what is now Old Shore Road.”
The Greenland Cove building was later taken down and reconstructed at its current site on Waldoboro Road in 1824, Nichols said. However, it wouldn’t have its first meeting for another five years after the move, when it became known as the First Congregational Church of Bremen, according to Nichols.
According an article in the Sept. 3, 2009 edition of The Lincoln County News, in the years after its relocation, the church acted as a joint effort of Congregationalists and Methodists, although it also played host to Quakers, Adventists, and other denominations, After the death of 34-year Pastor John Bullfinch in 1912, the church moved from year-round to mostly seasonal services, though it played host to one of Maine’s first female ministers in 1924, Mabel Whitney, according to the article.
Use of the church became more and more sporadic over the succeeding decades, and it was mostly used for events like the Bremen School graduation and Sunday school services, according to the article. In 1964, the church was condemned by the state due to issues with its foundation and roof.
“When the church was closed in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Joyce Kaler, Jane Simmons and myself, opened it for Sunday school,” said church member Ruth Poland. “We had a bunch of kids that had no pastor, but we did well.”
In 1991, church members like Poland spearheaded an effort to revitalize the church, which once again opened its doors as a year-round place of worship.
“Today, this church is a non denominational church with parishioners from a wide variety of church disciplines and denominations who come together every Sunday for one single purpose, and that is to love the Lord,” Nichols said.
Nichols said the Bremen Union Church was filled with some of the kindest and gentlest people she’s ever met.
“If heaven is like this, I’m going to be very happy,” Nichols said.
