ARCHITECTURAL STYLE AND SYMBOLIC MEANING OF OUR CHURCH BUILDING

Our church, built in 1904, is a perfect style of Western Gothic architecture.  It was used by our pioneer fathers to copy the Gothic Cathedrals in Europe, built of wood instead of stone, in the 1830′s and early 1920′s.  They had no flying buttress and some had three square towers, some two, and some one.

The three tower churches are TRINITY WESTERN GOTHIC (which is what ours is).  Each tower symbolizes the trinity, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  Atop the towers are crosses, with four symbols which are symbolic of the four gospels.  The towers are square with each side standing for a gospel.  The bell tower, which is over ninety feet high holds a pyramid with the four triangles pointing to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as revealed in the four gospels.  The columns on the three porches are wooden and Western Corinthian in keeping with Gothic tradition.  The sanctuary with the petition up, takes on the form of a cross, with the nave (central division of the church in which the congregation is seated) running east and west, with the chancel at the east end. which is true to Gothic tradition as well.

The priceless arched stained glass windows fit in with the Gothic form of architecture.  The two sacred art glass reproductions are Bernard Plockhorst’s “The Good Shepherd” and Rembrandt’s “The Resurrection”.  The arched stained glass windows symbolize the praying hands uplifted to Christ.  The Western Gothic churches had a lot of art glass work, whereas the Pure Gothic had more rose windows and arched windows on the side and little art. This Trinity Western Gothic style lends grace and beauty to our church which we are proud of.

Our stained glass windows were given as memorials by loved ones in memory of family, friends, members, pastors, etc.  Our two large windows are in memory of former pastors – Rev. J. Marvin McKee, pastor when the first church was built, the other in memory of Rev. Dudley T. Brown, given by his wife.  At the time of installation these windows cost $150.00. The smaller ones have the names of persons they were given in memory of. To this day, memorial gifts given in the name of a loved one are used for the maintenance of these priceless windows in our church.

Rev. J. Marvin McKee, pastor when the first Methodist church was built in Royse City in 1890.

Rev. D. H. Aston, under whose pastorage our present church was built in 1904.

Mattie and Alex Terrell

Rev. James McDugald, the first minister to serve the church after it was organized in 1877.

J.R. (Bob) Terrell

First silver communion set bought in 1905.

In 1978 our church was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark with the Texas Historical Commission.