O'Kelly's Chapel
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O'Kelly's Chapel
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| Location | NC 751, near Farrington, North Carolina |
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| Coordinates | 35°51′56″N 78°56′41″W / 35.86556°N 78.94472°WCoordinates: 35°51′56″N 78°56′41″W / 35.86556°N 78.94472°W |
| Area | 2 acres (0.81 ha) |
| Built | c. 1900 |
| Architectural style | Gothic Revival |
| MPS | Chatham County MRA |
| NRHP reference # | 85001457 |
| Added to NRHP | July 5, 1985 |
O'Kelly's Chapel is a historic chapel located near Farrington, Chatham County, North Carolina. Named after Reverend James O'Kelly and was built about 1900. It is a modest one-room rural chapel with Gothic Revival features including a steeply pitched roof and lancet windows.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
O’Kelly Chapel was the home church of James O’Kelly, founder of the Christian Church. O’Kelly entered the ministry as a circuit-riding Methodist preacher in the 1780s. At that time, the Methodist Church was not an organized “denomination,” but a movement within the Church of England. After the American Revolution, these Methodist societies sought to break from England and form a church patterned after the hierarchical structure of the Church of England.
O’Kelly and others protested at the organizational conference that the church should not concentrate so much power in the bishop but be structured more democratically, with self-government for ministers and churches. O’Kelly envisioned “a republican [meaning ‘free’], no-slavery [O’Kelly’s 1789 “Essay on Negro Slavery” posited that all Methodist ministers should manumit their slaves.], glorious church” that would be congregationally based. The church was to reflect the democratic principles of the newly formed United States, organized into conferences with each pastor having equal authority and laymen having a voice, too.
Eventually, due to their deep convictions, O’Kelly, 36 other ministers, and 10,000 lay people pulled out of the Methodist church to form a church association called “Republican Methodists.” In 1794 these dissenters formally took the name “Christian” and agreed to be governed by five fundamental principles:
1. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only head of the Church.
2. “Christian” is a sufficient name for the Church.
3. The Holy Bible is a sufficient rule of faith and practice.
4. Christian character is a sufficient test of fellowship and membership.
5. The right of private judgment and liberty of conscience is a right of privilege of all.
O’Kelly, leader of the movement, moved in 1794 to Chatham County, North Carolina, and gathered a congregation which eventually took the name O’Kelly Chapel. In 1797, he began a congregation in Orange County known as the Damascus Christian Church. He also began Martha’s Chapel in Apex in 1803. O’Kelly served these three congregations as a circuit-riding preacher for a number of years.
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Wikipedia