Homemade church turns 175 ABERDEEN In 1776, Christian Hoopmen, a 25-year-old brick molder, came to America and settled in Harford County near the present site of Wesleyan Chapel UMC. He was a devout churchman and at the age of 75, in 1826, decided to build a church on his property. The members of that church celebrated their 175th anniversary at the end of October. It is believed that Hoopmen personally molded the bricks from clay in the area, and then laid them himself to build the sturdy little chapel that continues to welcome people, said Janice Hash, chairperson of communications. Six previous ministers attended the celebration of the historical church. If each member from the beginning of our church touched one heart, we would have reached 175 million people, said the Rev. Tim Dowell in his anniversary sermon. Pastor-policeman committed to community SANDY SPRING The Rev. George E. Hackey Jr. is the pastor of Sharp Street UMC. Hes also a Montgomery County policeman. Both are full time jobs; you deal with everybodys problems, he told a Washington Post reporter. Hackey who pastors the oldest African-American church in Montgomery County, was one of only 12 black police officers when he joined the force 27 years ago. He has spent the majority of his police career with the community services division in Gaithersburg. He has been a pastor for five years. When he retires from law enforcement next October, perhaps hell be most remembered for a volunteer suspension-assisted program he co-founded in 1998. The program is called SHARP Sharp Street Hosts an Academic Resource Program. It provides students who are suspended from public school with supervised study time. It operates in six locations including Liberty Grove, Marvin Memorial and Sharp Street UMCs. Igniting Ministry float in parade HAGERSTOWN One of the floats in this years annual Alsatia Mummers parade was from Emmanuel UMC. Church members paraded down the street with their float as a way of declaring the Igniting Ministries theme of Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Open Doors. It was the second time the church had entered the parade of approximately 100 floats, sponsored by the Alsatia club, a service organization. Making the float brought members and friends together for many hours of hard work, fellowship and good singing, said Diane Mitchell, a church member who coordinates the activity. Were looking for ways to be more welcoming, she said. The parade is approximately three hours long and thousands line the street to watch and celebrate the season, Mitchell said. Church plays Santa to 850 prison inmates ELLICOTT CITY For a dozen years, a prison ministry work group at Bethany UMC has been actively involved with the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in Jessup. On Dec. 1, the group ran an assembly-line operation to pack and wrap packages for each of the 850 women in the institution. Regulations require that contents of all packages be identical and each item must be approved in advance by the prison warden, said Shirley Merkle who chairs the group. Each gift package included a word search book and pencil, colorful headscarf, bar of soap, Whitmans Sampler mini-box of chocolates, hard candies and an inspirational card. Each package costs Bethany about $3. Financially contributing to the project were two nearby Catholic churches and two United Methodist churches, Mt. Olive and Emmarts. The prison ministry is also providing postage for the Christmas cards the inmates send. | 
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