THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 24, 1996 TAG: 9602240309
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Charlise Lyles
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
As Black History Month closes, Bank Street Memorial Baptist Church looks to the future.
At this Sunday's service, amid good gospel singing, preaching and praying, the Rev. Cedric Kirkland-Harris will seal a time capsule commemorating the church's 155th anniversary.
``This is important because this is one of the older churches in the city,'' said Elaine Gregory, former church historian. ``This will be something our descendants can look at and see what we have done. Then they can keep on carrying on.''
The capsule is nothing like what you see in bad science fiction flicks or on ``The Jetsons.'' It's just a small safe. Inside are sermons, photographs, a choir collar, and a brief church history compiled by archivist Mary Lou Henderson, a member since 1923.
Amen. They're including cassettes of the choir - and a tape player. You know technology, here today, gone tomorrow.
Nothing too fancy. But very informative. For example, there is mention of Bank Street's three female assistant ministers. ``That's worth making note of because in the past, no female has been a minister at Bank Street,'' said Gregory.
At first, Harris considered burying it under the pulpit in the red-carpeted, wood-vaulted sanctuary, then in an enclosed prayer garden. He decided on a glass encasement inside the church.
It is to be opened in 50 years. I'll be 86 years old, but I'm marking my calendar. I plan on being around.
The practice of preserving pieces of the present for posterity dates to ancient Egypt and has never lost its intrigue.
Twenty years ago, folks planted capsules to honor the nation's bicentennial. One capsule in Seward, Neb., contains a motorcycle and a car. I wonder if it's a Honda or a Ford?
When the congregation gathers on that Sunday morning 50 years from now, they will find a church history that is the story of the black church in the South from slavery to liberation and prosperity.
It begins in the early 1800s with owners who brought their slaves to the church on the corner of Charlotte and Catherine streets in Norfolk.
``Religion would serve as a restraining influence upon slaves,'' the history states. A law was passed outlawing ``the assembly of Negroes without the presence of a white person.''
As the free black population grew, whites separated from the church, leaving blacks with a white pastor. But by the end of the Civil War, the First Negro Baptist Church of Norfolk had its first black pastor, the Rev. Thomas Henson.
When Catherine Street was renamed Bank Street, the church took that name.
Sixteen ministers have preached from its pulpit, saving souls, fighting for civil rights and cultivating community.
Rev. William Morris Moss, pastor from 1901 to 1907, was an intellect who wrote two books, ``The Ideal Pulpit'' and ``The Value of Scientific Influence.''
Rev. C.S. Morris preached through 1916. He served as a missionary in Africa and civil rights activist. Portraits of Booker T. Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass glowed from the stained glass windows of his sanctuary.
After 129 years on Bank Street, the church migrated north to Johnstons Road and Chesapeake Boulevard to erect a new building. The 1968 move prompted quite a church battle. Loyalty to an old community or defection to a new?
The Bank Street Baptist history goes on. The black church goes on. But what kind of church will open that capsule?
One that plays a major role in the lives of 21st century families and communities?
One that offers computer access as a charity for the poor?
Or singing and sanctuary in cyberspace?
An integrated church? ILLUSTRATION: RICHARD L. DUNSTON
The Virginian-Pilot
Elaine Gregory and the Rev. Cedric Kirkland-Harris of Bank Street
Memorial Baptist Church prepare the time capsule. It will be sealed
Sunday, and will remain closed for 50 years.
by CNB