THE LETTER published below should make all Emporians sad.
The Mount Olive A.M.E. Church at Sixth Avenue and Congress Street will mark its 139th anniversary this year. If it closes, a long and shining chapter of Emporia history will come to an end.
The church was founded in 1870. Many of its early members were former slaves who left the South during and after the Civil War and came to Emporia to start new lives in freedom. The church began in a small frame building at Second Avenue and State Street. In 1883, a new brick church building was erected at Sixth and Congress. That building burned on Christmas Eve 1923. It was replaced with the current building.
That’s the history of the church building, but not the church.
Ministers say that a church is people, not a building. The building is just a convenient spot for the church to gather. That is true, but over the years, a building becomes a home to the church family. Every brick and beam, every worn place on the steps or spot on the floor has a place in the family memories and a connection to family members long gone. The longer the building stands, the deeper those memories go.
Mount Olive began as a black church at a time when the line between black and white churches and black and white communities was clearly drawn. Over the years, those lines have faded and many people who have never — or only rarely — set foot in the building have warm feelings for Mount Olive, remembering friends and neighbors who were members there. They also remember all the good done in the community by the people of Mount Olive.
Can Mount Olive be saved? If the money is found, the doors will stay open and the church’s mission will continue, at least for now. But the long-term survival of the church in its old home depends as much on numbers in the pews as on dollars in the bank.
Nearly 140 years of worship and learning, shared joy and sorrow should count for something. So should decades of Women’s Days and Brotherhood Dinners, picnics and projects.
It seems wrong that those things — that shared history — should count for less than dollars and cents, bills and balances. But that is how it is for Mount Olive right now. A building is a commodity, built for money and sold for money. The only value for church within the building is that placed upon it in people’s hearts.
Read Moris and Josephine Dell’s letter below and ponder the value of Mount Olive to its members and to Emporia.
Patrick S. Kelley
Editorial Page Editor
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