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South Pond Chapel Summer Hymn Sings
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Summer hymn sings at the South Pond Chapel are sponsored by the First Baptist Church of Plymouth. The Chapel is located on Long Pond Road, off exit 5 in Plymouth. Each Sunday in July and August a different local minister leads the service, which begins at 7:00pm.
South Pond Chapel was built in 1870 as a Union Evangelical church for residents of the village at South Pond in Plymouth; it offered them a place to worship close to their homes what at the time was a remote part of town.
The Chapel is a mission of the First Baptist Church of Plymouth, offering a place for people of all denominations to gather to sing their favorite old-time hymns and gospel songs together, and to hear special music.
This year's season is dedicated to the memory of the Reverend Professor Peter J. Gomes, who passed away earlier this year. Peter, a lifelong member of the First Baptist Church of Plymouth, preached the "Old Home Day" service for 50 years at South Pond Chapel, and yearly reminded those in attendance of those "saints who have gone on before us"; he has now joined their ranks.
The schedule for the 2011 season is as follows:
July 10 Rev. Bob Stott, Plymouth Zion Lutheran Church
July 17 Rev. Irving Beveridge, retired
July 24 Rev. Robert Merrit, retired
July 31 Rev. Frederickson, Christ Church
August 7 Rev. Jeff Jones, First Baptist Church of Plymouth
August 14 Ray Tompkins, First Baptist Church of Plymouth
August 21 Rev. Gary Marks, retired
August 28, "Old Home Day"; Rev. William Fillebrown, Chiltonville Congregational Church
Jane Costa is the accompanist for the summer.
Directions to the South Pond Chapel are as follows:
- Route 3 to exit 5 (Long Pond Road exit)
- Turn west towards Home Depot and the Shops at 5
- Drive approximately 2 miles on Long Pond Road
- South Pond Chapel will be on the right, at the intersection with Cemetery Hill Road
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"Sharing a joyful noise" excerpt from Yankee Magazine, July, 2003:
South Pond Chapel in Plymouth, Massachusetts, looks like so many others that dot the New England landscape -- locked doors, peeling white clapboards, overgrown grass. But on summer Sunday nights the tiny church comes alive as people of all ages and faiths congregate for old-fashioned hymn sings that leave their throats parched but their spirits refreshed. The highlight of the season usually comes on the last Sunday in August, Old Home Day, when the Rev. Professor Peter J. Gomes (Bates College, '65) takes the pulpit, as he has every year since the hymn sings began in 1961. "It's my absolutely indisputable hypothesis that singing the old hymns reminds us of our youth," says Gomes, who supported himself as an organist while attending Bates College and Harvard Divinity School.
| Yankee Magazine July, 2003 Article |
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