A community cornerstone

While the city of Mountain Brook turned 75 this year, another landmark in the community is celebrating a milestone: Canterbury United Methodist Church will celebrate a century and a half this October. 

“It’s the longest running, oldest organization in the city,” said Reverend Warren Nash, executive minister at Canterbury UMC. “I checked it out through the city of Mountain Brook, and sure enough, that’s right.”

Kevin Alexander, who is spearheading the celebrations for the anniversary, has been attending Canterbury UMC since he was born.

“I think we have a great opportunity to celebrate a great heritage at our church and be thankful for the people who made it what it is today,” he said.

‘One great church’

The history of Canterbury UMC, which includes the story of two local congregations, dates back to 1867, shortly after the culmination of the Civil War. 

“It begins with a little church … that grew up out in Irondale,” called the Irondale Methodist Episcopal Church, Nash said. While members of the church didn’t have a building to call home, they met in brush arbors — coverings made of brushwood — in the forest to escape the weather for services. 

About seven years later, the congregation decided to move closer to Shades Valley to accommodate the growing population in that area, and the Union Hill Methodist Episcopal Church opened in 1874.

The Union Hill Methodist Episcopal Church was located where the Hollywood Boulevard overpass is now, and Nash said if U.S. 280 didn’t exist the church would be next to Mexico Lindo. 

“The cemetery that’s on the other side is all that’s left of the church at that location,” he said. 

Not long after Union Hill Methodist Episcopal Church opened, the Crestline Heights Community Church formed in 1911 before becoming the Crestline Heights Methodist Episcopal Church, South a year later.

“Those are the two predecessor churches, the founding origins of what is now Canterbury,” Nash said. The two congregations grew separately for many more years before merging. 

The Union Hill Methodist Episcopal Church opted to move to Mountain Brook when Robert Jemison Jr. began developing the area, becoming the Canterbury Methodist Episcopal Church in 1928. At the same time, they renamed the church after Canterbury Cathedral in England, originally built in 597, which was the mother church of the Church of England, Nash said. In 1939, they opened their doors as the Canterbury Methodist Church. 

On the other side of Canterbury UMC’s history, the Crestline Heights Methodist Episcopal Church, South became the Mountain Brook Methodist Church in 1943. Mountain Brook Methodist Church met in Steeple Arts which is still in use in Crestline today. 

By 1948, both churches had developed plans to help them accommodate their ever-growing congregation — separately — before reaching out to each other. 

“Their elders started talking to each other, and said, ‘Wait a minute,” Nash said, “‘Why not become one great church?’”

‘A unique voice’

During the months following World War II, Nash said, the churches fed on optimism in the community and came together. Rev. Dale Cohen, senior pastor at Canterbury UMC, said that time had exponential growth for Christian churches. Not long after, the two churches had merged for the first service in Canterbury Hall on Oct. 12, 1952 under the name Canterbury United Methodist Church. 

Its name changed a few more times in the following years before landing on Canterbury United Methodist Church. Renovations continued as well, with an additional sanctuary being added in 1962, and Nash recalls four additional major renovations through the 2000s to get the facility to where it is today.

“If you consider yourself a Methodist in Mountain Brook, this has been your home for the last 65 years,” Nash said. Since its very beginning in the 1800s, he estimated that the congregation has grown from around 200-300 families tomore than 5,000 members. 

“We have been a unique voice for Christian understanding now for 150 years,” he said, explaining that Canterbury UMC is not a church of fire and brimstone with a God of fear, guilt and punishment, but rather a God of love.

“To celebrate 150 years is a mark of the enduring impact of this church on this community,” Cohen said. “A lot of businesses and other organizations have come and gone in the last 150 years, but we’re still going strong and striving to be a place that offers hope to families and individuals in Mountain Brook.”

Canterbury UMC’s programs have grown alongside its congregation, Nash said, offering three different types of worship, Sunday School, adult small group programs, Encore respite ministry and service opportunities. 

“If Canterbury has a signature ministry, it is in outreach to the greater Birmingham community,” Nash said. They’ve worked in Habitat for Humanity, hosted a Stop Hunger Now event annually and started the Carpenter’s Hands ministry and the Brown Bag Project, a food assistance program. Youth programs are also a large part of the congregation.

Alexander was a member of them when he was younger and has watched them evolve over the years and remain an integral part of the church.

“[The youth groups] committed me to not just my faith in general, but it committed me to my church,” he said. 

Nash said that by being a part of Mountain Brook for so long and offering so many programs for the community, the church and its members are woven together. Alexander described Canterbury UMC as a “mainstay.”

“It’s nestled right … in the middle of the community,” he said. “It’s been there a long time, and it’s not ever going to go away.” And Cohen believes the congregation of the church have helped make it what it is today.

“There is a synergism between Canterbury and the community where it’s hard to tell whether Canterbury is influencing the community or in some respects or whether the community is influencing Canterbury,” he said. “With all the great people in the church and in the community, it’s probably both.”

Celebration plans

As a way to celebrate the church’s extensive history, Nash said the they have decided to update its logo to reflect the original cross of the Canterbury Cathedral, for which the church is named. 

Nash said in the 600s and 700s, Christianity had capitals around the world, including Rome, Jerusalem and Canterbury, England. “All those churches had their own distinctive cross that represent those christians … the most seen today are Roman crosses,” he said, which look like a lowercase “t.”

The Canterbury cross that Canterbury UMC is adopting has rounded edges to it’s “t”-like structure and dates back to the 800s. 

“In the middle of all this 150th anniversary for us to pull that forward and make that be part of our logo now is just really cool,” he said.

Special services are also planned for two Sundays in October. Both services are combined.

The first, on Oct. 8 in the contemporary worship venue, will recognize the youth and children of the church. “After all, they’re the future of the congregation anyway,” Alexander said. 

Shortly after, the congregation will be invited to volunteer for a day of service at the Avondale Samaritan Place.

One week later on Oct. 15, they will review the church’s history and invite living clergy that previously served with the church to serve communion to the congregation once again.

Alexander said it’s organized to celebrate the legacy of Canterbury UMC’s membership with longstanding members, multigenerational members and those connected to the of the original two churches. This service, which Alexander described as a “homecoming” service, will be held in the traditional worship venue.

To learn more about Canterbury UMC and it's anniversary celebrations, visit canterburyumc.org.

Editor's note: This article was updated on Oct. 1 at 9 a.m. to include the released information regarding the new Canterbury UMC logo.