Rev. Dr. Deborah Phelps is pictured with Midway University President John Marsden, Sam Hatfield, a student minister and senior at Transylvania University, and President Brien Lewis of Transylvania University. (Photo submitted)
A full house gathered last Sunday to worship and celebrate New Union Christian Church’s 192nd Anniversary Worship and Homecoming.
The church was founded in 1834 in the South Elkhorn Creek area east of Pisgah Pike and Mt Vernon Baptist Church, along Old Frankfort Pike at Browns Mill Road. The first church building was built on its current site of Old Frankfort Road and Browns Mill Road in 1839.
Church records from 1840 tell of New Union Minister L.L. Pinkerton baptizing James Ware Parrish. By 1844, Pinkerton, Parrish and 19 members of the Union church were among those sent to found Midway Christian Church in the new and growing railroad town.
In 1847, Pinkerton, Parrish and John T. Johnson worked with members of the Midway and New Union congregations to help Pinkerton realize his vision of a Kentucky Female Orphan’s School to provide a home, quality education and a future of leadership to orphans in Kentucky. That school has continued to evolve into the thriving Midway University.
In addition to its Midway ties, New Union recognized its ties to Transylvania and the College of the Bible (now Lexington Theological Seminary), and from those ties a procession of well-known professor-preachers from Transylvania and Midway universities and the College of the Bible, usually filled the church pulpit.
During last Sunday’s worship and gathering, the church also recognized descendants of the church’s original charter members, including Ben Chandler, whose great-great-great-great grandparents, Tavner and Anne Hicks Branham, helped pave the way for the new church with a land donation, along with descendants of the Branham, Harris, Dunlap, Field and Gay families who are still living in the area.
Also joining the New Union congregation were: President Dr. John Marsden of Midway University, President Brien Lewis of Transylvania University, Rev. Dr. Katherine Alexander from Lexington Theological Seminary, Marsha Thornton Jr. from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Kentucky, Mary Lynn Spaulding and Alice Alt of Christian Care Communities, operating Homeplace at Midway, and New Union Minister Emerita Rev. Nancy Jo Kemper, who served New Union for 22 years until 2017.