Seaside Treasure Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary by expanding to a 2-day event, Friday & Saturday, November 21-22, 2008. The festival will be held Friday 1pm - 7pm, and Saturday 9am - 4pm.

The festival will feature over 100 arts and crafts vendors, a gourmet lunch in the elegant Seaside Cafe, a fabulous silent auction, entertainment, and much more.

Join the fun at Moody Memorial First United Methodist Church, 53rd and Avenue U, just two blocks off Seawall Boulevard. Festival proceeds support mission and outreach work in the Galveston area. Admission is free.

To request more information, email stf@moody.org or call (409)744-4526, extension 783 and leave a message. For detailed vendor information and applications, please visit the web site at www.moody.org/stf.

For more information, visit www.moody.org/stf or call 409-744-4526.

	Scene from the Seaside Treasure Festival, coming November 21-22 to Moody Memorial First United Methodist Church.

Schedule of Events...

History of Moody Memorial First United Methodist Church...

On Christmas Eve in 1784 a group of Methodist preachers, sent by John Wesley from England, met to better organize the Methodist movement in America. Out of this meeting the Methodist Episcopal Church in America was born. Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke became the first Bishops of this new denomination.

The name 'Methodist' from the movement in England that had been started by John Wesley an Anglican priest. 'Episcopal' because of John Wesley's Anglican background.

At the General Conference of the Methodist church in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1837 it was resolved to send missionaries into the foreign mission field of Texas. A Methodist circuit rider by the name of Abel Stevens was reported to make an occasional stop to preach in a small village by the sea, Galveston Texas.

In 1838 a bible study group began to meet in Galveston.

In 1840 the Rev. Thomas O. Summers was appointed to start an organized Methodist church in Galveston. Meetings were held in a stranded steamer on the bay side of the island. In 1841 Rev. Summers was authorized to visit the states on a mission of fund raising to build a house of worship in this city. This was one of the oldest Methodist churches in Texas and the oldest Protestant Church in Galveston.

While in Washington D.C. a gift of $1,800.00 was given to Rev Summers by the Chaplain of the Senate, the Rev William Ryland. With those funds and others that had been collected Ryland Chapel was build on the northwest corner of 22nd street and Church Street. The first service was held on June 24, 1843. Services continued at this location until 1871.

Due to needing a bigger space for worship, a corner stone was laid at the southeast corner of 25th and Broadway that would become St John’s Methodist Episcopal Church South on February 2, 1869. The new church was dedicated February 12, 1871. The church was brick construction and Gothic in style.

It was 55 feet wide, 100 feet long and two stories high. The rear of the building had an alcove for the pulpit, 9 feet by 19 feet in size. A large bell tower stood at the front. The church had colored art stained glass windows and black walnut pews. They were arranged in semi-circular fashion around the pulpit. They were hand carved and deeply cushioned. The cost of the construction was $75,000, not including the $5,000.00 pipe organ.

In 1872 a mission church was started in Galveston. This church became St James Methodist Episcopal Church South and rapidly grew into a full-fledged church. The congregation merged with St John’s in 1901 and became Central Methodist Episcopal Church South. The St James property passed into the hands of the Spiritualist Society and became know as the Spiritualist Temple.

St John's Methodist Episcopal Church South was destroyed in the great storm of September 1900. Their congregation and the one of St James merged and moved to the northwest corner of 19th street and Avenue I. This was between the two previous locations and became Central Methodist Episcopal Church South.

The approximate cost was $40,000.00. The exterior was of Spanish architecture with small towers, low oval shaped windows and doors. It consisted of a large auditorium, recreation and prayer meeting room, and several smaller rooms used for Sunday School classes and offices.

The auditorium was symmetrical and beautiful in design with plain walls and polished woodwork of curly pine. It was lighted by handsome chandeliers and the first organ was installed through the efforts of the women of the church in 1908. A Chapel was added at a later date. An education building was opened in July 1950 at the cost of $100,000.00.

The name was changed to First Methodist Episcopal Church South, Galveston in 1906. In 1939 the name was changed once again. It then simply became First Methodist Church.

Mrs. Libbie Shearn Moody, a very faithful member of this congregation left provisions for this church in her will. On the vote of the Sr. Pastor it was decided not to renovate the old building but to move to another location. The last service at the old site was held on February 9, 1964.

The groundbreaking ceremony at 53rd street and Avenue U was held on January 22, 1962. Land and building cost a little over $2,500,000.00. The design is international style and is solid masonry. The material follows the international theme as well with marble from Italy, stone from Minnesota and windows from France.

The name was changed to Moody Memorial First Methodist Church at that time.

With the uniting conference of the Methodist Church in 1968, the name changed to Moody Memorial First United Methodist Church to reflect that conference.

In 1999 we moved into an addition that doubled our square footage. The existing building was renovated as well. The cost was around $10,00,000.00. As part of that project a $1,000,000.00 117 rank Shantz organ was added.