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ANNAPOLIS - Lay members of United Methodist churches are instrumental in founding and maintaining the Banneker-Douglass Museum, housed in the old Mt. Moriah AME church building on Franklin Street in Annapolis.

St. Mark UMC's Betty Mack is one of them. The museum, she says, 'springs from the voices, land records, recollections, artifacts and memorabilia shared by churches, communities, families, individuals and schools. These amazing stories are told through varied media.'

The museum''s library reopened Oct. 27, as the Sylvia Gaither Garrison Library. Garrison, a member of Metropolitan UMC in Severn, is the widow of a United Methodist clergy who pastored John Wesley UMC.

'Any person over 60 years of age who happens to be of color suffered more than most to achieve and we need to give thanks for these persons and their achievements,' said the Rev. Mamie A. Williams, pastor of Fowler UMC.

To learn more about the museum go to http://www.marylandhistoricaltrust.net/bdm.html.