LR church seals up its 2nd time capsule

LITTLE ROCK — After a year of drawing from the past, a Little Rock church is reaching out to the future.

In an early Sunday ceremony, a group of 20 church members met outside the Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church to read Scripture and give prayers as they committed a time capsule to the foundation of the church.

The event was the official end of the church’s celebration of its 100th anniversary, one that included the opening of a time capsule over the summer that was entombed in the building’s cornerstone in 1950.

JoAnn Knight said she was just a teenager on a Christmas Eve 62 years ago when the first capsule was wedged between the Hillcrest church’s bricks.

She was there in July when church members removed the stone from the church to find a trove of old Sunday School brochures, old programs and a book on the Methodist discipline.

For the next capsule, Knight helped cobble together a cache of church programs, bulletins, Christmas ornaments, a membership dictionary and a list of all of the 2012 baptisms at the church.

Also is a list of the 300families who have made the commitment to the “100 + 1” service initiative, a nod to late Lt. Gov. Win Rockefeller, a former church member. The initiative challenges families to complete 101 hours of public service by the end of 2013.

“I hope [future church members] see we didn’t just serve ourselves, we went out into the community,” Knight said.

During a brief set of remarks at the event, Skip Rutherford, co-chairman of the church’s centennial committee and dean of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, said he hopes future generations of the church will share the same appreciation for the past and hope for the future shown by the church’s current flock.

“When you think about the impact a church has, not only on a religious perspective, but on a community perspective... [a legacy of service is] very important part of the fiber and fabric of the city. We try to reach beyond the walls of the church. I’d ask [future members]: ‘What are you doing for others ?’”