This is the abandoned and fenced off Baptist Church of the Evangel. Evangel means good news. Isn't that a great name for any church: The Church of Good News. I stop by this place every morning as I walk about 300 steps to my volunteer weeding job in a pollinator garden.
The church, which seated 200 people, was built with hand-quarried gray stone and on high ground, rather like the great temple of Jerusalem, which seemed to rise up out of the ground atop Mount Zion. The cornerstone reads 1891 and had a good run of about 125 years before the congregation, as in many places, declined and eventually disappeared.
The first services were held on the site in 1890. Within a year the fledgling community was recognized as a mission of a larger parish; by 1893 they were independent. Over the years Evangel Baptist was known for its "activity and benevolence." In other words, they were a parish known for being busy in doing good.
In 1929 the community built an attached Church School with feel-at-home classrooms, a great fireplace, potted plants and windows offering a southern exposure. On the other side of the church building, a gymnasium was built with a stage for theatre performances, indoor sports (volleyball, junior basketball and two bowling alleys).
There was morning and evening worship each Sunday, a Wednesday night worship service, young people's organizations and mens and womens groups to respond to local needs. Now, all that remains is the decaying buildings and arguments about whether the place should be torn down for an apartment complex or turned into office space. The biggest stumbling block is, "Where would everyone park their cars?"
About ten years ago, a gardening club planted a dozen or so young trees along the Evangel Baptist road hoping to restore some shade to the area. I noticed today that all of the trees have died (because no one watered them), except for the five trees which run along the front property of the vacant church.
Well, what do you make of that? I wouldn't call it a miracle, because that word is usually associated with an authority having to issue a stamp of approval. But I would say, perhaps the church remains surrounded by or is still exuding divine energies (grace). After all, the place was called, Good news! A wonder perhaps! In that sense, the parish is still active and benevolent.
So, in my project-loving, priest imagination, I envision being approached by a God-sent benefactor who wants to buy the property, supportive of the idea of reviving the little church. I would restore the porch, the roof, the windows and even the bell which disappeared long ago. Then I would enshrine the Icon of the Mother of God ~ Life-giving Spring and surround the whole place, not with cement, blacktop and high maintenance chem-lawn, but with wide, heady perennial gardens, gravel paths, benches, shade trees and a fountain. People would come from everywhere, even great distances, to The Evangel Shrine of the Mother of God, Life-Giving Spring.
Here's the prayer I'd invite folks to pray — a prayer for the healing and wholeness of our weary, sick world and nation.
But first — approach the Mother of God and her Divine Child in silence. Notice, the setting is a desert-y place, arid and dry. There is a deep cave, like Bethlehem and the Easter tomb. The cave, like the Descent of Christ into Hades — the depth of our depravity, the dark hole of human alienation and foolish schemes, the gaping horror of the evil we create.
Notice the Holy Mother is suspended in a basin. She assumes the posture of the priest at Mass, "Lift up your hearts." Those arms frame her Son who says to the Woman at Samaria:
"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:13,14
This Christ-Spring (the life-gift of divine energies) is not a drip or drizzle, but a triple fountain, steadily overflowing into the cross-shaped pool.
The icon further reveals humankind on pilgrimage to this place of spiritual reality — the mother desperate for her sick child, the old man bending with his pitcher (perhaps he is bent over with inner pain and emotional struggle), the young woman who has crawled on hand crutches (we feel her desperate loneliness), the woman who pours water over the head of the skin-diseased fellow, the blind boy who symbolizes our inner condition — bumping around in our shadow and unknowing. And now, from that interior, silent place...
Rejoice, O Mother of God, Life-Giving Spring,
Gabriel enters with the good news
of God's human face —
cure the racial animus,
the faces made ugly by hatred.
Rejoice, O Mother of God, Life-Giving Spring,
hurrying through the hill country
of human history's
barriers,
twists and turns —
invigorate justice in the
systems which keep people poor.
Rejoice, O Mother of God, Life-Giving Spring,
singing Magnificat,
recounting the wonders,
God's lifting up and casting down —
refresh the broken hearts,
the disappointed,
mournful hearts.
Rejoice, O Mother of God, Life-Giving Spring,
as at Bethlehem
in the echo of angel-song,
welcoming the
littlest and the least —
be medicine for the despoiled nation
which counts more guns than people.
Rejoice, O Mother of God, Life-Giving Spring,
whereupon traveler-seekers arrived
star-gazing,
gift-laden wonderers,
your bemused hospitality —
remedy the nation which can't stop warring.
Rejoice, O Mother of God, Life-Giving Spring,
as would any mother
lifting the blanket to show the baby,
then suddenly the mood-shift,
the frightful news of
soul piercing
swords of sorrow —
bring to wellness,
the nation, addiction-claimed.
Rejoice, O Mother of God, Life-Giving Spring,
pointing us,
fellow disciples in the right direction,
"Do what he tells you" —
make healthy the world of greed,
consuming,
extinctions,
exploitation,
trash and waste.
Rejoice, O Mother of God, Life-Giving Spring,
you must have laughed
at the ridiculous amount of Cana's high-end wine,
its revelation of God's
wedding-like love for us —
enliven the nation which wasn't discovered,
but invaded,
tricking,
stealing from,
lying to,
infecting,
enslaving
the natives they met.
Rejoice, O Mother of God, Life-Giving Spring,
who no doubt walked among the crowd
the Calvary way,
heaven's interface with us
on our own tear-stained way —
restore the nation's politic,
sick with obstruction,
collusion,
deception,
fearful weakness,
bitterness.
Rejoice, O Mother of God, Life-Giving Spring,
the devout soul imagines
your Son visited you first on
Easter Morning —
and why not,
love does such things,
heart speaking to heart —
Make us whole,
make us life-giving springs too!
Rejoice, O Mother of God, Life-Giving Spring,
who in your going up
was welcomed into the inner
communal life
of the divine —
bring to light the indifferent mind,
the selfish mind,
the witless, invincible mind,
that doesn't care enough to mask-up
for the sake of the susceptible ones.
