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The Heptinstall House, also named Bamboo, near Littleton, is emblematic of the history of Methodism in the Rocky Mount District. Built in 1825, it was the home of the Reverend John Wesley Heptinstall, president of the General Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church. His son, Philmer Bangs Heptinstall, lived in the house as well. An officer of the Confederate Army, P. B. Heptinstall died in the War Between the States. The Rocky Mount district includes churches such as Halifax, dating from 1753, as an Anglican Chapel, and Whitaker's Chapel, dating from 1740. The first annual conference of Methodism was held in nearby Louisburg at the Green Hill House. The early circuit riders of Methodism who established societies came out of Virginia in the late 1700's. Clearly, the Rocky Mount District deserves the title, "Cradle of North Carolina Methodism!"
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| Dr. William C. Simpson, Jr., district superintendent, is a United Methodist minister who received his first appointment when he was eighteen years old while still in college. His education has been at Huntingdon College, Emory University, Duke University and Lutheran Theological Seminary at Columbia. He is married to Betsy Johnston Simpson. Their three children are Rebecca Simpson Meacham, David A. H. Simpson, and William C. Simpson, III. They also have two granddaughters, Sophia and Faith Meacham. He is the author of numerous articles and two books. He has contributed to numerous publications including the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and The Living Pulpit, a journal on preaching where he serves as a trustee and one of the editors. He has been the featured preacher for numerous occasions including the Three Hundredth Anniversary celebration of First Presbyterian Church, Norfolk, Virginia, the liturgist and preacher for the annual service in French at the Huguenot Church of Charleston, South Carolina, and lecturer for the Staley Lectures at Campbell University in 2000, at which time he was awarded the Presidential Medallion of Campbell University. A summary of these lectures was recently published in an article entitled, "Richard Niebuhr and the Reign of God," in The Living Pulpit. He was a delegate to the World Methodist Conference in Seoul, Korea in 2007. Dr. Simpson began his ministry as a pastor in Selma, Alabama. He was senior pastor of Aldersgate UMC, Durham, Kitty Hawk UMC, First Church Hamlet, Wesley Memorial, Wilmington, Edenton Street, Raleigh and Front Street, Burlington.
He served on the faculty of Duke Divinity School as Director of Field Education. In the North Carolina Annual Conference he has chaired the Council on Finance and was president of the Board of Trustees for eight years. He serves on the Educational Affairs Committee of North Carolina Wesleyan College and also serves as a trustee of the college. He is in his fifth year as superintendent of the Rocky Mount District. |
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