Decatur United Methodist Church

Decatur United Methodist Church. Southeast Tennessee Religious Heritage Trail. , The Methodist Church became active in this area after 1820 when the Tennessee Conference authorized activity among the Cherokees of the Hiwassee District and established the Hiwassee Circuit with Thomas Paine as pastor. Á church located to the southwest of the present day Town of Decatur was established by 1827. Another early congregation was the Union Grove Methodist Church located about 1.5 miles west of the present location of the courthouse., About the time Decatur was established in 1837 the Union Grove congregation relocated to the new town and reorganízed as the Decatur Methodist Church. The core of the current structure was built twenty years later in 1857. Originally, the entrance was on the east side where the large windows are now, and the pulpit was on the west side. In 1930 five classrooms were added to the west side of the building. The earliest written records of the congregation date from 1858., In the beginning the church was a member of the Tennessee Methodist Conference which was organized in 1812. After 1824 the church became a member of the newly-organized Holston Methodist Conference. In 1845 the Methodist Episcopal Church South was formed in opposition to the growing abolitionary position of the national Methodist body. Decatur church was a member of this group until the union of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Methodist Protestant Church in 1939 which became The Methodist Church. In 1968 during another reorganization the church became a member of The United Methodist Church., From the time of its incorporation the church was a part of the multi-church Decatur Circuit. In 1952 the church became a station church. In the 1970s the church became a member of the Decatur-Concord Charge. The church is now a member of the Meigs County United Methodist Parish which includes nine United Methodist Churches in the county.