Saturday, July 31, 2010
Faith in the future
Mount Moriah Baptist Church is marking 152 years.
JORGE VALENCIA The Roanoke Times
James Wise, 58, leads the First Baptist Church of Vinton's men's choir at a celebration marking Mount Moriah Baptist Church's 152nd anniversary Sunday.
Click the button above to see all of our community coverage, or go straight to your community's homepage with the menu below.
More religion stories
- Day of prayer to focus on unity
- Slovak professors bring insight into Communism
- Religion calendar
- Church works hard to achieve simplicity
- Religion calendar
Archive
The members of Roanoke's oldest black church sat in a sanctuary packed with guests, praying to God -- and for the future of their ever-shrinking congregation.
Mount Moriah Baptist Church celebrated its 152nd anniversary on Sunday, even though in the past year there have been sadness and challenges.
Three members of the small congregation died, including Silas Witt Jr., an 83-year-old who spent most of his adult life keeping his congregation alive. Also, the Rev. Thomas Pleasant announced that he would retire in September.
Yet, there was an air of optimism that blew through the air-conditioning units into the room of squeaky wooden floors that were built by freed slaves and their children. As a guest preacher explained through the parable of the prodigal son, the anniversary was a day to be happy that the church family was together.
After Witt died in September, his wife Louise, with whom he kept the church open, retreated to spending most of her time in Greensboro, N.C., where one of her sons could help with her care.
Since then, the other members have kept on worshiping and picked up more weight in the maintenance of Mount Moriah, located on a hill above U.S. 460. Juanita Berger and Deacon Travis Curtis, two retired Roanoke sheriff's deputies, spent the two weeks before the homecoming cleaning and polishing the sanctuary, bathrooms and fellowship halls.
On Sunday, members of Mount Moriah's sister congregation helped fill the pews. About a dozen members of First Baptist Church of Vinton were there, along with the Rev. R. E. Coles, who gave the guest sermon, and its choir.
As two ushers passed around an offering plate, Pleasant talked about how blessed his small congregation was to be surrounded by its brothers and sisters. A man had recently donated $500 to Mount Moriah, he said, but under the condition that his name not be revealed.
After the nearly two-hour service, people filed out of the room, making the floors creak and wishing Pleasant farewell.
"I don't know who will replace me," said Pleasant, 86. "But the church called me, and it will call another minister."
Later, Louise Witt, 75, expressed her gratitude that Pleasant had come out of his retirement from General Electric to lead the congregation for 18 years: "We are so thankful and blessed that God sent us a pastor like him."
And Berger said Mount Moriah would start planning for Pleasant's retirement. "We'll just start looking for guest preachers," she said.
