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By MARY ALICE BEATTY CARMICHAEL | Special to the Selma Times-Journal

FOREST HOME – Mt. Moriah Fellowship Church invites you to the Annual Homecoming and Memorial Service at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 12, the only scheduled service of the year.

The speaker for the historic service will be Rev. WM Gary Yeldell of Melrose, Florida, a frequent participant at the church, a Christian attorney, a mediator and founder of Wise Counsel Legal Services. His father, Rev. Bill Yeldell, preached at Mt. Moriah in 2004.

Gary was awarded a vocal scholarship, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in music theory. He then earned his Juris Doctorate and the highly respected Order of the Coif at the University of Florida law school in the Jacksonville area.

He practiced Complex Commercial and Labor & Employment litigation for a number of years until he felt the clear call of God to shift his practice to represent exclusively faith-based clients.

In 2009, he founded Wise Counsel Legal Services.  He and his firm serve as outside general counsel for the Florida Baptist Convention, and represent churches and other faith-based entities throughout Florida, from Pensacola to Key West.

In addition, Beatty P. Carmichael, Sr. of Vestavia Hills, will preside.

Music on the lawn will take place before and after the church service, with The Yeldell Yellers performing. During the service, music from the Mt. Moriah Choir will be led by Jennifer Stuckey Ellis of Baton Rouge.

Following the service will be “dinner on the ground.”  Following that in the sanctuary are the 1:15 Steering Committee, and at 1:45 the J.G.D.

It has been 197 years since the little “Church That Would Not Die” was founded. The church is located on the line of Wilcox and Butler Counties, in two townships, two sections and four different sections of land.

It also had a spring on the hillside behind the church where Baptisms could be held.

This church has had no pastor since Rev. Wm. H. Kamplain served as the last pastor from 1940 to 1941, where he preached his last sermon. It has not had a single enrolled living member for 54 years, when the last enrolled member, Rose Fitzgerald Luckie, passed away in 1971.

The church was founded in 1828 by 12 individuals.