ALLEN Temple AME Church has been celebrating its 133rd anniversary. The milestone has been highlighted by a series of spiritual, cultural and social events with its pastor, the Rev. Betty L. Furbert-Woolridge, the central personality.

Launching the observances, the pastor led her congregation in a spirited morning song-and-worship service giving praise for how the church had moved on from those earliest times in 1873 when its founding fathers and mothers first met in the open air on a cliff at Ely's Harbour before graduating four years later to a wooden edifice that was destroyed by a hurricane. That morning service culminated in celebration of Holy Communion.

Later in the church hall the congregation decided to render a musical tribute to Pastor Furbert herself as the church's celebration also coincided with the anniversary of her 30 years in the ministry and the 20th year in pastoral service.

The combined choirs of Allen Temple were joined by the combined choirs of Richard Allen AME Church of St. George's, and the Gospel Choir of St. John AME from Bailey's Bay. Rev. Furbert pastored the latter two churches before moving to Somerset in 1993.

On Saturday last at a celebration banquet at the Wyndham Resort, Rev. Betty was lauded for what was termed her trail-blazing leadership since she becoming the first Bermudian-born female ordained by the Bermuda Conference of the AME Church.

Proceeds from the $80-a-plate event that drew nearly 200 people from all over the island will go towards Allen Temple's Building and Restoration Fund.

Mention was made of how Rev. Furbert, while being a dutiful wife and mother, had gained ascendancy in the ministry despite the male chauvinist environment prevailing in Bermuda three decades ago when she started at Richard Allen Church.

The present Allen Temple edifice on Sound View Road was dedicated in 1907. It was built to replace the wooden church in Ely's Harbour that was destroyed by a hurricane in 1899. Prime movers for starting the congregation in the first instance were the family of Charles Roach Ratteray.

According to Dr. Kenneth Robinson in his book Heritage, 'Roach' was a celebrated black boat builder, trader and substantial landowner who featured heavily in the religious and commercial life of Bermuda during the years leading up to the Emancipation of Slavery in 1834, and for the next quarter century.

It was Nathaniel Ratteray, a kin of 'Roach', who along with George Lambert in 1877 purchased the land for erection of the wooden building that the hurricane completely destroyed.

According to church records, 'Roach's' daughter Mary Hamilton Ratteray was instrumental in the voluntary conveyance in 1904 of the family property on which the present edifice stands. Mary became the wife of William Horatio Trott who was the second black man to be elected to the Bermuda House of Assembly. The present edifice was dedicated on July 8, 1907.

Throughout its long history, descendants of the Ratteray family have been intimately connected with Allen Temple in particular and the AME Church in general. Most prominent among them is the current Presiding Elder of AME Churches in Bermuda, the Rev. Malcolm Eve.

He and his cousin Bishop Vinton Anderson were brought up in the home of Charles Lawson Ratteray and his wife Fanny. Lawson inherited the land that was the homestead of 'Roach' Ratteray, which Lawson bequeathed to Allen Temple.

It is the restoration and development of the present edifice as well as the extensive 'Roach' Ratteray property that Rev. Betty and her Restoration Committee have in focus.

Rev. Eve and his wife shared the head table with Rev. Betty and her family at the celebration banquet on Saturday night..