Tully United Community Church - Tully, NY
Posted by: 
ripraff
N 42° 47.467 W 076° 06.832
18T E 408903 N 4738220
Two churches in Tully, Baptist and Methodist, merged into one community church. It appears to be currently affiliated with the Methodists and there is another Baptist church in town.
Waymark Code: WMW8GP
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 07/24/2017
Views: 1
This church is a modern replacement for two old churches built in the 1800s. The old churches were taken over by the Tully Historical Society. The Methodists and the Baptist had churches side by side. They joined and created a community church. Much discussion and evaluation resulted in 77% deciding to merge. There are no creeds and doctrines for the new church. This is a small village and they are all neighbors and decided they could work together and didn't need a denomination. The pastors helped them merge but a new pastor was found to lead the joint church.
UMC site reference (
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Tully United Community Church is in the Crossroads District (
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"We are an ecumenical fellowship of Christians who believe in God and who seek to follow Jesus in discipleship. Our history includes two specific denominational families: the American Baptists and the United Methodists. While we affirm and maintain our ties to these expressions of Christian witness, we seek to be open to all people who seek to love God and live out their life of faith among us. Our unity celebrates a diversity of gifts and thinking which leads us to open our hearts and minds and doors to all who enter. We have no creeds or doctrinal formula to which our members must ascribe, but rather believe in a God given freedom of conscience in regard to matters of religious faith."
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"In 1969 the two churches stood side by side, two small congregations, about the same size, neither really in financial trouble.In August 1969 The Rev. Herman Murdock, pastor of the Tully Methodist Church, wrote a letter to Fay Cummings, the chairman of the Baptist Church Board of Trustees. In this letter Rev. Murdock suggested: “That our peoples have conversations about the pros and cons of a community church.”...What an explosive idea! It came forth from this mild-mannered man-of-God at just the right moment in time. Caught by surprise, both churches hesitant, approved the “Investigation of a Possible Merger.”...Legally, we needed only a simple majority to merge. But both churches had agreed, that unless the final vote showed a 2/3 majority in favor of merger…they would not merge. When the votes were counted over 77% of the people said “Yes.” We were merged...We have learned more than just survival. We have learned that we can argue, disagree, feel fear, anxiety and frustration, and still accept our differences and truly love one another as Christ has loved us."