Church history
Reformed church history
The Reformed community in Bethulie originally fell under the Reddingsburg community that was founded in 1859. Rev Beijer recorded in 1862 that the Bethulie community requested to form an independent community in Bethulie - at this time there were already 14 homes in Heidelberg ( Bethulie was known as Heidelberg at that time)
Bethulie was the second Reformed community in the Orange Freestate.
Rev SD Venter was the first minister, he was the brother of JJ Venter , the acting president.
When the land around Bethulie was bought in 1862 to establish the town - 4 stands were donated to the Reformed Church with the proviso that a Church would be build and that it would be "ten eeuwige dage alleen voor dat doel gebruik worden"
Mr P Waugh got the tender to build the church . The building contract was signed on 30 December 1876 and the initial cost was £1973.
The corner stone was laid on 23 March 1877 and inaugurated on 13 July 1878.
Men and woman sat apart and the seats were hired.
During the Boer war the church was used as a school for the concentration camp children and they were taught in English.
The church services continued during the war. One Sunday Flip Snyman was ringing the church bell when 6 "Tommies" arrived, stopped him, and dug the complete bell tower out with picks to re-erect it in the camp at the guard house. After the war the bell tower was returned to the church.
The church quickly became to small for the community and numerous plans were made to enlarge it. None of these materialised.
The decision was made to build a new church and it was inaugurated on 25 October 1924.
In 1928 it was recommended that the church and the 3 adjacent stands be sold but no concensus could be reached.
In 1935 the Methodists requested the use of the church for their services on the 3rd Sunday of every month. This request was granted and a fee of 3/6 was charged for each occasion that it was used. The Methodists used the church till 1938.
The church served as a church hall until it was sold to the Methodists in 1950.
Because the ground was donated with a proviza that it may not be sold, it needed to be overturned by the High court.
Methodist church history
The Methodists made an offer of £800 and it was accepted with the condition that the steel gate that was of historic value was transferred to the new Reformed church. When the new church was build the bell was donated to the Zastron community.
In 2006 the decision was made to sell the church as the community could not maintain it.
The Methodists conducted services there untill July 2010 when it was sold to the "2 old broads" who intend renovating it and developing a mystical garden.
