{"id":326187,"date":"2026-07-01T17:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T17:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/326187\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T17:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T17:27:09","slug":"100-years-of-faith-and-fellowship-resident-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/326187\/","title":{"rendered":"100 Years of Faith and Fellowship \u2013 Resident News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Murray Hill United Methodist Church marked its 100th anniversary on May 17, celebrating a century of faith, fellowship, and community.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The celebration featured a worship service, followed by a fellowship luncheon and a \u201cwalk\u201d through the church\u2019s history, seamlessly connecting the day\u2019s spirit of remembrance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The day also included a special Remembrances and Reunion period, during which Murray Hill United Methodist Church Administrator Ashley Allen said there were indeed several heartfelt reunions as former congregants reunited with friends they hadn\u2019t seen in years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere were lots of happy reunions of people who grew up in the church together and had moved out of the area and hadn\u2019t seen each other since high school,\u201d Allen said.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Unknown-5-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"The 2026 congregation recreates the same snapshot for the church\u2019s centennial celebration.\" class=\"wp-image-61609\"  \/>The 2026 congregation recreates the same snapshot for the church\u2019s centennial celebration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A lifelong member of the church herself, Allen said organizing the history display for the centennial celebration was particularly special for her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI grew up in the church, and the history \u2013 I didn\u2019t know a lot of it, which is interesting when you grow up somewhere, and you still don\u2019t know, so it\u2019s fascinating to see all of the things that had to happen for Murray Hill to stay active and open throughout these last 100 years,\u201d Allen said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Founded in 1926 as the Murray Hill Methodist Church, it joined the United Methodist Church denomination after its formation in 1968. Years later, in the \u201890s, the congregation welcomed members of Wesley UMC, further enriching its membership.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Unknown-3-RET-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Former youth church members with their former youth counselors: (Back Row) Steve and Carolyn Singletary, Annalaura Goodrich Scott and Jann Clark with Ira and Lori Rauch and Don Presley III; (Middle) Christina Hoden and Catherine Davisson; (Front Row) Elizabeth Smith and Ashley Allen with Laura McQuillen and son\" class=\"wp-image-61607\"  \/>Former youth church members with their former youth counselors: (Back Row) Steve and Carolyn Singletary, Annalaura Goodrich Scott and Jann Clark with Ira and Lori Rauch and Don Presley III; (Middle) Christina Hoden and Catherine Davisson; (Front Row) Elizabeth Smith and Ashley Allen with Laura McQuillen and son <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Murray Hill United Methodist Church marked its 100th anniversary on May 17, celebrating a century of faith, fellowship,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-326187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}