Cedarville United Presbyterian Church: Centennial of the Sanctuary, 1889-1989

was erected near nassies Creek. two ■ iles fro■ Cedarville. nassies Creek Ce■etery surrounds the site of the church buildin1. In 1828 nr. ncnillan•s brother. the Rev. Hu1h n. ncnillan, on his return fro■ Synod, assisted Gavin in serving the Lord's Supper to the congregation. The congrega– tion liked what they saw, and knowing that Dr. ncNillan wanted to ■ove north, they invited hi ■ to beco■e their first full-ti ■• pastor. Dr . NcNillan accepted the call, and ■any ■embers of his conc regation in South Carolina ■oved to Cedarville with hi ■ in 1829 because of their objection to slavery. In 1833, soon after Dr. ncNillan was installed as pastor, the question as to whether or not Christians should beco■e involved in trying to help fugitive slaves split the congregation. Those vho felt strongly that Christians should not be involved in wpolitica1 issuesw like this were called the Old Lights. Like ■ inded Presbyterians across the country broke away and for ■ed the Synod Refor ■ed Presbyterian deno■ ination. Thirty-eight of the one hundred and sixty-nine ■e■bers of the Cedarville Church at the ti ■e agreed with the Old Light point of view, and spilt off and formed a separate congregation. The ■ajority, referred to as the New Lights, stayed together, and beca■e part of the deno■ ination known as the General Synod Refor■ed Presbyterians. This larger group in Cedarville built a new brick church building <see next page> near the old stone church building and all owed the Old Ll aht congregation to use the stone church. The latter group later ■oved to the building that still stands by the entrance to Norris Bean. - 4 -