INTERCESSION CITY

By John Santosuosso

Should you be traveling down Route 17, about seven miles west of Kissimmee, you will come across the settlement known as Intercession City. Today, other than the name, there is little to attract your attention here, and most people will simply continue on their journey giving the place no further thought. This unincorporated town has fewer than a thousand people, and the per capita income is well below the average for the State of Florida. It was not always the case. Intercession City was once a thriving community and a significant center of religious activity in the Sunshine State. It also has the unusual distinction of being founded by a woman, a woman who was a bishop, no less. In fact it might be proper to call Intercession City Bishop Osie England's town.

The roots of Intercession City go back to the Florida land boom of the 1920s. A real estate developer from the North bought five thousand acres for a planned community he intended to build. It was to be called Interocean City and linked to both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean by canals. He managed to sell a few lots to people who wanted to build homes there, and by 1925 completed construction of a rather impressive hotel. Unfortunately in 1926 the Florida land boom began to morph into the Florida land bubble, a bubble that would soon burst. The developer could no longer pay his workers and the land was eventually repossessed. For a while nothing further would happen here, but Osie England had a dream, a dream that would produce dramatic change.

Osie England was born in Ohio in 1877. After attending a revival meeting she eventually had a dramatic conversion experience that changed her life. Having once been a Presbyterian, she became active in the Wesleyan Methodist church, whose members today prefer to be called Wesleyans. Osie founded an orphanage and a mission training school. Over the course of her life she would go on to start schools for poor children, a Bible college, and homes for the elderly as well. As a result of her labors, she was ordained and eventually raised to the rank of bishop. The Wesleyans take pride in the fact that they were ordaining women before most other denominations were even thinking about it. But Osie had a dream.

Osie England wanted to extend her work to a warmer climate. Fortunately she discovered the now defunct Interocean City. In 1934 she managed to buy the five thousand-acre development with its hotel and other buildings for only $50,000. This was a miracle even in the midst of the Great Depression. The name was changed to Intercession City because Osie England intended to make this a city of prayer. From three or possibly four "prayer cabins" intercessory prayer was offered twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Osie was going to make certain her Lord would hear what her ministry needed! Much of the prayer was in support of the missionaries she had helped train. Indeed the whole town would become a prayer meeting. It was said you could drive through it at three in the morning and hear somebody praying by an open window. In addition to unending prayer, in the 1940s Intercession City sponsored one hundred-day revival meetings, which sometimes featured the best known revival leaders of the day.

The former hotel became the focal point for many of the activities in Intercession City. Renamed England Hall, it housed visitors to the community, and in 1939 a Bible college was established here. It probably provided facilities for other projects, including a school for poor children, a mission training school, a radio program, and a publication.

In the midst of a depression, when other towns were dying, Intercession City was thriving! The place was said to be free of crime, beautiful and growing. This was known as the "Golden Rule Town." Businesses came, and people bought homesites, but the rules were strict. No alcohol of any kind was permitted, nor any tobacco products. Women were forbidden to wear shorts or slacks. All businesses had to close on Sunday, and any form of gambling was prohibited. Shows and movies also were banned unless they could be shown to have educational or religious value. The wearing of jewelry was frowned upon, and Osie was known to collect jewelry at meetings and services, have the metal melted down, and sold. Still, for a time, the town thrived.

But there was trouble in Intercession City. Teachers complained of the small salaries they received, although Osie claimed she was paying them as best she could. A society needs rules, but the more rules you have the more disputes over their interpretation and enforcement you are also going to have. Disagreements broke out over what clothing was appropriate and what was not. There was a gun-toting evangelist in town who until he underwent a second conversion terrorized half the community. Probably most serious of all were the doctrinal disputes. Some of these were disagreements over when believers received the gift of the Holy Spirit. There were others as well. So serious was the situation that Osie's congregation split on more than one occasion, and rival Wesleyan and Baptist churches sprung up in town. In some cases these splits were later healed, but too often the damage was already done. People began to leave Intercession City, and the town was starting to die. 

By 1948 Osie England had enough. She left Intercession City in 1948 for Sanford, Florida, and continued her work there. The Bible college managed to survive until 1956, when a fire destroyed England Hall, but the end of the glory days was already certain. Today there is almost nothing of what was once the Golden Rule City. There are some who would like to rebuild it, but without a miracle and Osie England that will probably remain only a dream.

There is little left to see of BIshop Osie England's Intercession City. However, the site of England Hall is easy to find. Now the Miracle Springs Church is located there, and while it sits somewhat back from Route 17, the church has a large brightly-lit sign close to the highway. There is one building that does date from the time of Osie England's ministry. In 1946 the Morrison Memorial Church was built in honor of Henry C. Morrison, who died in 1942. Morrison served as president of Asbury College and was one of the founders of the Asbury Theological Seminary, both in Wilmore, Kentucky. He was very interested in the Intercession City project and visited it a number of times, including coming to speak in the one hundred-day revivals. Today Asbury continues to be a center of revival activity, with a two-week long revival breaking out on the college campus in 2023. The Morrison Memorial Church still houses an active Wesleyan congregation and is located at 1548 Tallahassee Boulevard. What was once Osie England's modest home is located across the street. It is not open to visitors.

Intercession City leaves us with a powerful message.  Even when there is love and genuine ministry in the house of the Lord that is not enough. Without tolerance, a willingness to listen without condemnation, and a good degree of flexibility, that love and ministry may be doomed. Bishop Osie England deserves praise for the tremendous ministry she established. Sadly, its foundation lacked that tolerance and flexibility that would have enabled it to continue at Intercession City. Because it takes what it believes and practices very seriously, the Church of Jesus Christ too often has had trouble remembering such things. It is why there are more than two hundred Christian denominations in the United States alone, and thousands more worldwide. We need to remember the lesson of the Book of Jonah. God loves even those whom we do not.