Red Bank Cumberland Presbyterian opens time capsule

James LaMance and Autum Bonner raised their hands and said they’d be there, and they were.

Nineteen years earlier, the Rev. Forest Prosser had asked who would be present when the time capsule Red Bank Cumberland Presbyterian Church was preparing to bury was unearthed.

Last Sunday, LaMance was the emcee and Bonner his assistant as the church unsealed the box that had been filled for a church Homecoming celebration in 1988 and put in the ground in 1991.

“There was a wonderful spirit,” the Rev. Phillip Sumrall, the congregation’s present pastor, said. “The church was pretty much packed as it is on Easter. It was a lively service. People were in a celebratory mood.”

The heavy aluminum box, opened as part of the service, contained a commemorative plate, hymnal, United States flag, paper banner proclaiming the church’s 110th anniversary, church directory, church cookbook, Sunday service bulletin, vacation Bible school newspaper clipping, church budget, session meeting minutes, certificate of oldest and youngest members in the church, and a VHS tape.

“It was exciting to know what’s in there,” said Jane Wade, secretary at the church for 53 years and a member for even longer. “You could feel the excitement in the air.”

Prosser, who served as pastor for more than 23 years, said the contents of the time capsule were a mystery to most people in attendance, including him.

“I have a clear memory of that day” the box was sealed, he said, “but what went in and some details” about the ceremony “have gone past. It’s surprising how fast the time goes and what you can forget in 20 years.”

Among the items that were pulled out, the American flag had people puzzled.

That was “one of the big surprises,” Sumrall said. “Maybe it was an afterthought. We don’t know why” it was there.

The VHS in the box was played at the luncheon that followed the ceremony. The tape, members learned, contained footage of the Homecoming service in which the box was filled and subsequently sealed.

Plans had originally called for the time capsule to be buried at the side of a new bell shrine in 1988, according to Prosser, but the widening of Morrison Springs Road delayed the construction and placement of the shrine.

He said a period of 40 years was considered for burial of the capsule, but some historians members of the congregation consulted said a shorter period of time was better. Eventually, 20 years was chosen.

In 2008, 20 years after the box was sealed, Sumrall had just arrived as pastor. Congregation officials eventually decided to open it this year, which was a year short of 20 years after it was buried but which marked the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination.

He said three church members, Barney Hixson, Anthony Malone and Seth Gammon, broke the mortar that held the commemorative stone over the capsule in place late last week, leaving only the unearthing to do on Sunday morning.

Church members who were able gathered at the bell shrine — which holds the bell that survived a fire that consumed Red Bank Cumberland’s former building in 1945 — and sang “Amazing Grace.”

Once the box was unearthed, the crowd moved inside, where the well-sealed time capsule was opened and its contents revealed, according to Sumrall.

Wade, one of 50 or so members present who attended the 1991 ceremony — said the first song, “Majesty,” set the tone for the proceedings.

“You thought you were in heaven,” she said. “It was a great service.”