The first introduction of Methodism on this island was subsequent to the Revolutionary war. The Baptists then had a flourishing society, chiefly consisting of residents of Tisbury, but numbering some from other towns on the island. The Congregationalists were here from the earliest settlement, and were often spoken of as “the standing order.”
Stars sparkled, pink and gold and orange lanterns bobbed, and a soft wind played among the chimes in the Camp Ground Wednesday night for the 104th annual Illumination Night.
One hundred fifty years ago this year, by an act of the Massachusetts legislature, the Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association was incorporated to manage what had become one of the largest camp meetings in New England.
We call attention to the interesting letter from the Harford Times, which we print to-day. This enterprising Company have already had a further survey of their grounds, and laid out a large number of new lots for cottages. The Company supposed they had enough lots staked out to supply the market for several years, but the demand has been so great, a new supply needed.
On a recent Wednesday evening over 200 people followed the winding paths of the Camp Ground to the Trinity Park Tabernacle for the Community Sing, a tradition for more than 100 years.
The singing 1920’s are happy years I recall as the years of a community-serving Tabernacle.
Singing could be heard almost anywhere, almost anytime in Oak Bluffs because half the members of the choir of the Tabernacle lived together, played together and loved to sing together wherever they were. Mr. and Mrs. Adams, Dad and Mother to everyone who knew them, were the leaders of this group of vocal students on vacation.
The Tabernacle, which celebrates its 125th birthday this season, still feels young. A structure suited to a vast range of human activity, the Tabernacle - which towers above Trinity Park in the heart of the Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association in Oak Bluffs - remains a living landmark.
The word tabernacle refers to a temporary shelter, such as the tent sanctuaries used by the Israelites during the Exodus. But the Camp Ground’s Tabernacle has proved anything but temporary.
