Birmingham Churches and their Cornerstones 87

Vestavia Hills Methodist Church is the most monumental Modernist church building I can think of in Birmingham. It has a very tall nave with low passage aisles on the side and a handsome rectangular campanile. There is no cross on top, but rather it is in the side.

The congregation was founded in 1952 and was the first of the new post-war Vestavia Hills congregations to complete a monumental church building. The simple cornerstone gives only the year in a lovely modern font: 1964. Interestingly, the church’s website features a photo of a drawing of plans for the cornerstone where a more traditional serif font is used.

While there is no scripture on the cornerstones, Psalm 100:4, as translated in the King James Version, is inscribed over the door, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.” Interestingly a more traditional font was used here.

Vestavia Hills is one of the congregations that left the United Methodist Church in 2023, taking advantage of the special provisions that were put in place by the 2019 General Conference. It has not joined the Global Methodist Church, but remains independent. Whereas the United Methodist Articles of Religion begin with the Holy Trinity, this congregation’s faith statement begins explaining its “high view of scripture” before proceeding to the Trinity.

In the interior the choir sits in the traditional auditorium arrangement, facing the congregation, but the pulpit and lectern are placed to the sides leaving the altar alone in the central position. In this sort of “compromise” between the auditorium and divided chancel church it follows the local example of Independent Presbyterian Church.

Read this first post for more on this series on Birmingham churches and their cornerstones.

Map of Posts in this Project

Each site in this project is mapped below. Clicking on an icon will bring up a box with a link to the post on the site. Please use it to browse the collection.

The color and shape of the location markers indicate the character of the cornerstones at each site. Stones like this with only the date (and perhaps the church name) are light blue. Ones with multiple names are red. If there is more than one stone at the site a shape is used. Click here for full information on the icons.