Pastor Lisa Hammonds addresses the crowd at St. John's AME
Minutes after a service to deconsecrate St. John’s AME — the oldest African Methodist Episcopalian congregation in the state — Pastor Lisa Hammonds collapsed sobbing into the arms of one of her congregation's members. The full impact of four months of upheaval caused by a tornado and a pandemic had come crashing down on her.
Signs of the Super Tuesday storm were still visible: Bricks were missing along the facade; a pile of rubble made the front entrance impassable; flashing from the roof was either bent up or sheared off by the force of the winds; new roofs adorned many of the neighboring homes. Hammonds grew up in this church, which moved to this location on Formosa Street from Capitol Hill in 1959. She was baptized, married and received her calling here. When she returned as its pastor a few years ago, it was a full-circle moment.
“It’s not just that it’s the mother church for African Methodist Episcopals in Tennessee — it’s personal,” Hammonds says. “These are family members. They taught me in Sunday school. I was in the church choir and they taught me ‘Jesus Loves Me, This I Know,’ and made me sing it until I got it right. There’s a lot of emotion in saying goodbye to a physical edifice.”
The service, which featured area AME pastors and Bishop Jeffrey Leath as well as Mayor John Cooper, was the first time St. John’s congregants had gathered at the site since the tornado. After meeting in alternate locations for two weeks in March, St. John’s has been forced to online services by the coronavirus.
Hammonds emphasized continuity in her opening remarks. “We are the church — we are the living sanctuary that lives on,” she said to a group of about 75. Fenced off from the church property, the congregation met in the street, socially distanced under tents and with markers on the ground encouraging worshipers to stand apart. Between each speaker, a young girl wiped down the podium and microphones.
“Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy Faithfulness! Morning by morning, new mercies I see,” sang Dr. Roderick Belin in a gorgeous tenor solo. He was followed by Bishop Leath, who read a proclamation formally deconsecrating the church, declaring, “This building has been a useful tool for showing people just how faithful God has been to us.”
The coming months will bring a raft of decisions for the congregation. After asbestos abatement next week, demolition crews will come in and scrape the site. Bricks from the original Capitol Hill church, which were used to build the current structure in 1959, will be preserved. Insurance will cover the cost of the contents and the church building on a depreciated basis, meaning that St. John’s will likely need to raise funds in order to finish rebuilding.
“We had to mourn a loss," Hammonds says. "Grief is about something that is significant to us, whether it’s a person, a place or a thing. We haven’t been able to come together collectively as a congregation or as a community to be able to say ‘we recognize this loss.' That’s happening because of COVID-19 all over the country right now. This is a visible sign that this is real. This was important for us to begin the grieving process.”
See photos from today's event below.
From left: Hammonds, Mayor John Cooper, Rep. Harold Love Jr.
From left: Bishop Jeffrey Leath, Pastor Lisa Hammonds and Mayor John Cooper
Rev. Antoni Sinkfield addresses the crowd
Rev. Troy Merritt Jr. addresses the crowd
Mayor John Cooper addresses the crowd
Rev. Roderick Belin leads the group in song
Bishop Jeffrey Leath addresses the crowd
