THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 18, 1994 TAG: 9409160259
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JUDY PARKER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 164 lines
PASTOR IRA MOORE'S fingers hopped up and down, bouncing, rousing and tickling the piano's keyboard.
Before the end of the first chorus, most in the congregation at Port Norfolk Pentecostal Assembly were visibly moved by the spirit of the music and the rhythm of the hymn ``We Have Come Into This House.''
Moore, her chin tucked against her chest and her shoulders drawn high and tense, was in her element at the 10 a.m. Sunday service.
``I'd rather praise the Lord and play the piano than eat,'' the great-grandmother had said in an interview a few days earlier.
Blue eyes twinkling and speaking through a broad smile, Moore is unabashedly candid when discussing her religious faith and her call to theO ministry.
Raised an Episcopalian in Saint Paul, Va., in the heart of the Appalachian plateau, Moore was a shy 18-year-old, the youngest of 10 in a tightly knit family, when she arrived in Portsmouth in 1947, the recent bride of her childhood sweetheart.
``The first people I met in Portsmouth who showed me friendship were three ladies from a tiny Pentecostal church on Washington Street, near to where the Downtown Tunnel is located,'' Moore said.
``My husband was the only person I knew in town. But these ladies took this little country girl in, and for the first time in a long time I didn't feel so alone. I had visited other churches, but I hadn't felt the warmth I experienced in that tiny church. That's why I tell my people that if they see a stranger, reach out to that person, and make them feel at home.''
Although her religious roots were nurtured in the formal liturgical style of the Episcopal church, Moore recollects childhood visits to Pentecostal churches.
With their loosely structured services, these congregations trace their fundamentalist origins to turn-of-the-century mid-American church revivals that emphasized early Christian practices such as speaking in tongues, physical healings and prophesying.
``I wasn't entirely unfamiliar with Pentecostals,'' Moore said.
``At the time I came to Portsmouth, I was starved to death for a deeper faith walk and an in-filling of the Holy Ghost. I had been taught about Christ and had received a good moral upbringing, but I wanted and needed more in my life.''
Soon after she began attending the Washington Street church, Moore experienced a personal, spiritual baptism.
``I've been told by people who were at the service that when the Holy Ghost came into me, I got up from the altar and turned toward an invalid lady.
``I began to pray for her.
``Something happened, not by my power, but by God's. After that day, she was able to take care of herself into a very old age.''
Moore talks candidly about other healings she has witnessed, like the elderly man who had been told by a doctor that his toe, discolored by infection, would need amputation. To Moore, such a drastic medical remedy could be avoided through prayer, the sprinkling of oil on the toe and faith that a miracle would happen.
``And it did. Three days later, that toe was as pink as the day it first came into this world,'' she said.
``It's not me that did the healing, but God. I don't take credit, except for my obedience.''
Moore began attending Port Norfolk Pentecostal Assembly in October, 1991, and became an adult teacher in 1993. When the church's pastor resigned last summer, Moore was asked to fill in on a temporary basis.
``It's not uncommon to have women pastor Pentecostal churches,'' she said, explaining she was licensed to preach 15 years ago in another Portsmouth church.
``I like to say I went to the schools of `kneeology' and hard knocks,'' Moore said.
``When I was called last year to pastor, the congregation anointed me and prayed over me. I've been ordained in the Fundamental Pentecostal Assemblies since March.''
Widowed in 1974, the 67-year-old Moore worked a variety of jobs while raising five children.
Clerking at F. W. Woolworth's and W.T. Grant's on High Street, a stint in a Portsmouth pillow factory, and a quarter-century in the dietary department at Manning Convalescent Home in West Park View, were bits and pieces of life's experiences, Moore believes, that lead her to pastor the Port Norfolk congregation.
Even a long-ago street ministry as a Salvation Army volunteer, shaking a tambourine to attract donations from passengers riding the ferries between downtown and Norfolk, was part of her ministerial preparation, she said.
``Thirty years ago, a minister told me that all things work together. That all I have to do is wait on the Lord and get his directive. He'll direct my path.''
Moore doesn't just preach blind faith, she tries to act it out when presented a demanding task.
``Whenever I see a need, I ask myself, `What would my mother do?' She was a beautiful Christian woman, and I believe I learned a lot about compassion from her.
``Just recently, a woman with two small children came knocking on my door. She came asking for some food. I gave her everything out of my kitchen refrigerator except for one meal.
``The very next day, a man came driving up to my house, without any kind of notice, giving me packages of sausage, fish and chicken, and cheese,'' Moore said. ``I just welled up with tears. It was a lesson to me that no one can outgive God.''
A recent Sunday morning service, typical according to Moore, attracted about 25 children and adults to the white clapboard church at the corner of Mount Vernon Avenue and Detroit Street. The interior of the building seems to have worn well since it was built in 1904 as St. Stephen's Episcopal Mission, a joint venture of Trinity and St. John's Episcopal churches in Downtown. The Pentecostal Assembly took ownership of the building in the mid-1950s.
Recently, the congregation raised $3,000 for repairs to a large stained-glass window.
``I'm proud that we have not been in debt for anything,'' Moore said. ``Our next project is to have the pews redone. Some of them pinch if you sit just the wrong way.''
With hands clapping, some with their eyes shut, heads tilted upward, and voices singing as strong as their volume could take them, the congregation, although scattered sparsely about the dark-stained, hard, wooden pews, had come to share their faith, ask for spiritual, emotional and physical healings, and listen to Moore's preaching on 1 Thessalonians.
``Just as today, some believed the message Paul preached, and some were indifferent,'' Moore said.
Her voice rising as she spoke about Jesus' crucifixion, Moore's speech pattern took on the phrasing common to many preachers.
``Such a force-ah . . . such a faith-ah . . .
``What is our hope-a this morning? Is it that we know-ah where we'll spend eternity,'' she exhorted.
Multiple shouts of `Amen' and `Thank you, Jesus,' and the steady hum of the air conditioner, resulted in some pieces of Moore's sermon being lost.
Her breath now shortened by the energy of her preaching, Moore, in a hushed voice, closed the Sunday sermon, saying, ``Paul just wanted to exalt the Lord, and for others to exhalt the Lord with him.''
Then she sat again at the piano, playing and singing in harmony with the congregation, ``Turn It All Over to Jesus, And Let Him Handle It All.''
During the next ten minutes, Moore gently prodded anyone who was willing, to come to the altar and accept Jesus into their life.
Slowly, one by one, five women approached Moore. Taking a small piece of cloth doused with olive oil, Moore, with arms raised, prayed for each individually and blessed their foreheads.
One woman, who only moments earlier had been nearly prone in front of the altar rail, and crying through some silent despair, was now smiling and praising her God. Moore embraced the woman, then walked her back to her pew.
``God is in our midst this morning,'' Moore said, closing the service. ``Surely, he has been in this place today.'' ILLUSTRATION: On the Cover
PENTACOSTAL PASTOR
[Color Photo]
Pastor Ira Moore at Port Norfolk Pentecostal Assembly photographed
by L. Todd Spencer.
``Hear my voice, raised in petition, as I cry to you for help, as I
raise my hands, Lord, toward your holy sanctuary.'' Psalm 28.
Photo by L. TODD SPENCER
While Pastor Ira Moore, far right, plays the piano, Hazel Thompson,
left, Thomas Henderson and Florence Gibson lead the congregation of
Port Norfolk Pentecostal Assembly in song.
Photos by L. TODD SPENCER
While Pastor Ira Moore hugs her 8-year-old great-granddaughter,
Felicia Rose, a group of women prays for the healing of another
member of the congregation at Port Norfolk Pentecostal Assembly. At
left, Helen Fields prays during the Sunday morning service.
by CNB