THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 4, 1996 TAG: 9602030094
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Long : 131 lines
WHEN JEAN FLY enters her new church building, the Chesapeake Virginia Stake Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she is filled with such intense reverence that her voice lowers and her heart gives thanks for a chance to be part of the church's growth.
``I never thought I would live to see the day when we would have a church building out here in Suffolk,'' she said, her voice choking with emotion.
Fly and her husband, Aulsa, who live on Wilroy Road, have been members of the denomination for more than 50 years.
The new center they helped create - and care for so deeply - is a $2.5 million, 25,000-square-foot brick structure that was recently completed on Bennetts Pasture Road.
The facility is the regional center for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as home church for the Bennett's Creek congregation of the denomination popularly known as Mormons.
In the LDS church, several wards (congregations) are combined to organize a stake (diocese). The Chesapeake stake served by the new building covers the area south of the James River to Ahoskie, N.C. - including Isle of Wight County, Franklin, Suffolk, Portsmouth and most of Chesapeake.
The new church center testifies to the growth of the LDS church in South Hampton Roads. The Chesapeake stake has grown from 2,200 members when it was formed six years ago to more than 3,000. There are two more stakes in Hampton Roads, for a total of about 10,000 LDS church members.
Prior to formation of the Bennetts Creek ward just over three years ago, Suffolk LDS members attended meetings in Portsmouth, Churchland or Franklin.
When the new ward was created by combining the Churchland ward with parts of the Franklin and Portsmouth wards, members met temporarily at John Yeates School.
``We were glad to have a place to meet, but it is hard to have a spiritual meeting in a room with pink pig posters all around the ceiling,'' Fly said. ``We felt like pioneers plowing through the in-con-ven-iences.''
Inconveniences are a thing of the past at the stake center. The 200-seat sanctuary has a shallow, wide floor plan that creates an intimate setting. A worshiper in even the very last pew feels close to the speaker's podium.
``Music is an extremely important part of our worship service,'' Dr. J. Craig Merrell, stake president, said as he pointed out a choir loft that will seat 50.
Across the hall from the chapel, a mothers' room provides rocking chairs and changing facilities for mothers with infants. Enough meeting rooms to accomodate 15 Sunday school classes line the corridors.
A full-size gym with an electronic scoreboard will accommodate the church basketball leagues and youth dances, as well as larger meetings and special productions sponsored by the stake.
The building is also equipped wtih a satellite dish and projection TV that can receive direct broadcasts from Salt Lake City.
Virginia H. Rollings, public affairs director for the LDS church in Hampton Roads, noted that the new center will also be a valuable resource for local genealogists.
The Mormon Church, well known for its family orientation and its interest in genealogy, houses the world's largest genealogical collection in its Family History Library in Utah. At the new stake center, anyone interested in tapping into that library's resources can do so via a bank of computers.
There is no charge for use of the family history center, and beginners will be assisted by the staff.
The new stake center has no mortgage. ``The building was completely paid for before the first shovelful of soil was turned over,'' Merrell said. There is no paid clergy or staff, except custodial workers.
In addition to Sunday church services, called sacrament meetings, and Sunday school classes, the center hosts the Women's Relief Society, which, according to Rollings, was founded in 1844, and is the oldest, continuous women's organization in the United States.
The center is also the meeting place for Boy Scouts and a church-based young women's organization. Besides a heavy roster of basketball, softball and volleyball, the church hosts social events like ice cream socials and sit-down dinners.
``The building will not be in use on Monday nights, however,'' explained James Roger Holland, bishop of the Bennetts Creek ward. ``Monday is our designated family home evening, a time set aside by the church for members to spend with their families, to gather together to have fun, share a spiritual message, plan future activities, or do any number of things together as a family.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
James Roger Holland, left, and J. Craig Merrell check out the
full-size gym, which will accommodate church basketball leagues and
youth dances.
Aulsa Fly, left, and Garland Fly ready wastebaskets that will go in
the new meeting rooms.
Photo courtesy of BACKUS AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY
An aerial view of the Stake Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints on Bennetts Pasture Road.
Graphic
ON THE COVER
Mormon leaders James Roger Holland, left, and Craig Merrell stand
outside the Ches-a-peake Virginia Stake Center of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Photo by staff photographer John
H. Sheally II.
THE MORMONS
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized in
1830 by Joseph Smith Jr. in Fayette County, N.Y.
Smith, at age 14, had prayed for divine guidance in choosing
which church to join. Members believe that Smith's prayer was
answered by a series of visitations from heavenly messengers,
including the Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and the Lord's call
to establish a church that would be a restoration of the original
church that the Lord had established in Jerusalem.
The doctrines and lost scriptures of the original church were to
be restored in The Book of Mormon and two other books that, with the
King James version of the Bible, make up the scriptures of the LDS
church. ``The Book of Mormon, Another Testament for Jesus Christ,''
named after the ancient prophet Mormon, gave rise to the nickname
``Mormon'' for the church.
While Smith is revered as a prophet by the LDS church, members
emphasize, Jesus Christ is worshiped as the Savior.
Nineteenth century persecution of Mormons was fierce and drove
members to the frontier areas of Ohio, then Missouri, then Illinois,
and finally, in 1847, to the Utah desert.
A small branch of the LDS church was formed in Norfolk in the
1920s. Membership was suddenly boosted, around 1940, by the influx
of longtime western Mormons stationed at military bases in Norfolk,
Portsmouth and Newport News.
by CNB