LIMESTONE, Maine — For the past 125 years the Limestone United Methodist Church has been a pillar in the Limestone community and beyond.
With the assistance of the Church’s first reverend Everett O. Smith, Limestone witnessed the birth of an Aroostook County institution in July of 1890.
Reverend Smith served the church for the next five years before handing the reins over to reverend I.G. Cheney. Reverend Cheney reached past the doors of the Limestone church and helped establish a sister church in the town of Caswell.
In 1930 the Limestone church welcomed Viola Hass to the “end of the line.” What was meant to be a temporary arrangement as a supply pastor for the Limestone church, Viola spent the next 60-years as an active member along with her husband Roy Robbins.
“Viola broke ground,” current pastor Ellen Cleaves said. “She would come to your house and tell you to go to Sunday school.”
Fast forward to 1986, the Limestone church, having been through a series of church leaders, welcomed their first ordained female minister Patricia Jewett. She was the first minister to be married in the Limestone church. She married her sweetheart Vernon Thompson. Patricia and Vernon moved in 1991 to pastor at the Grant Memorial Church in Presque Isle. Despite the move the Thompsons have remained loyal to the Limestone church.
After Loring Air Force Base closed in the early 1990s the local population shrunk, and came as a blow to Limestone. Church leaders, desperate to keep the church going, toyed with the idea of switching to a part-time pastor. But thanks to hard working church committees the church kept its full-time position and carried on.
“It’s a very strong church,” Cleaves said. “It’s weathered a few storms in turn of the rise and fall of the population. Strong congregations have kept this place going.”
New families arrived to the area with the addition of DFAS and Job Corps to Loring, and gave a small boost in the church population.
Throughout the 1990s the Limestone church was home to various caring church leaders including pastor Carol Wolfe, reverend Gwen Chase and the Church’s first African minister Anthony Brima.
“When [Brima] gave communion he touched your heart,” lay leader, and church member for the past 60 years, Leona Michaud said.
In 1998 the Limestone Church welcomed Pastor Ellen Cleaves of Caribou. Pastor Cleaves decided to enter the ministry after having been a schoolteacher in Caribou for 24 years. Under the love and care of pastor Cleaves and her husband Malcolm, church members have visited other parts of the state to assist in the establishment of new churches, mission groups from outside of Maine have made the trek to the County to perform maintenance projects, and the church has had a hand in relief efforts around the world.
Over the past 15 years, the Limestone Church has developed “Transportation Transformation” to help community members in need of car repairs, and in 2009 pastor Cleaves helped found the volunteer operated clothing store Fully Rely on God or The Closet in Limestone.
The store is an opportunity for Limestone citizenry and others to acquire clothing and other needs, church members said.
The Limestone church’s Youth Ministries has been an integral part in helping the local community and beyond through efforts like the Red Stocking fund, Toys for Tots, UNICEF drives, Thanksgiving baskets for the needy and more. Under the direction of Carol Castle over the past five years the youth group has held Super Bowl Sunday parties, collected and cooked for the local homeless shelter, held blanket drives and has collected for the Heifer Project, which is an international charity fighting to end hunger and poverty.
“You can’t expect change unless you go beyond the doors of the church,” Michaud said.
Pastor Cleaves plans to leave the Limestone church in July to live semi-retired in Little Madawaska Lake and serve as a pastor at the Lidstone Church in Washburn, “It’s been richly rewarding to see people change in their spiritual lives,” Cleaves said.
Following in Pastor Cleave’s footsteps will be pastor Stephen Dale. Fresh out of seminary school, pastor Dale will begin his time at the church on July 1.
The Limestone church is home to multigenerational families with the only full-time pastor in the community. The church teaches its members that when there’s a need it’s time to provide. The church is a family that doesn’t just go to church they are the church.
Please join the Limestone United Methodist Church on Sunday, May 24 for their 125-anniversary celebration. Worship begins at 10:30 a.m. followed by a luncheon, and a play commemorating the event at 1 p.m.
