In 1771 John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist reform movement within the church of England, sent Francis Asbury to the American colonies to assist the Methodist societies which had begun to develop in New York and the mid-atlantic region. Asbury, who later became the first bishop in Methodism, visited the home of Gilbert Totten on February 25, 1772, on one of Asbury's frequent journeys between Philadelphia and Manhattan, and he preached to a group of gathered neighbors at Totten's Home. It is to this first visit by Asbury that what we know as Bethel United Methodist Church traces its beginnings. Bethel is one of the three oldest Methodist churches on Staten Island, and one of the oldest in American Methodism (the oldest, John Street Church in Manhattan, dates to 1766). Until the time of the Civil War, our congregation was the only of any kind serving the "South Side."

As one of the preaching points on a larger "circuit" pastored by a "circuit rider" (the name for early Methodist preachers who tended their charges by horseback), this group of neighbors continued to meet for worship, prayer, and fellowship in one another's homes, often led by a lay "exhorter" when the circuit rider was elsewhere on the cicuit. In this early period one of the Totten brothers, Joseph, became a circuit rider and served Methodism with distinction, being a close associate of Francis Asbury during the last twenty years of Asbury's life.

This "South Side" group of Methodists became numerous enough that by 1806 a temporary meeting place simply known as "the Tabernacle" was utilized. On February 12, 1822, our forbears were established enough to become a Methodist "society" in their own right, now separate from the larger circuit. A new Meeting house was needed and in 1825 the new "Richmond Tabernacle," built on the site of the present Richmond Valley S.I.R.T. Station, was dedicated. This structure stood just up the hill from the platform of the Tottenville S.I.R.T. Station, to where it had been moved by barge to eventually become a hotel for ferry travelers when the congregation sold the building in 1841.

At a meeting held in the fall of 1840, it was resolved to build a new structure at a new location, and this building, a 40x 50 frame structure on our present site, was dedicated as "Bethel Methodist Episcopal Church" in the spring of 1841. The surrounding cemetery was opened at or just before this time. The church building of 1841 was destroyed by a fire on the night of January 10,1886. Our present building, built on the same site at a cost of $6,148, was dedicated on May 8, 1887, by Bishop W.L. Harris.