Month: June 2007

An old pulpit stored in the fellowhip hall, smoke-stained, a table and cross, charred, metal folding chairs – but Bethany Christian Church Disciples of Christ are ready to worship, Sunday morning, July 1, at 10:00 am.

Lea Banks drove from his Virginia Beach home Saturday morning to visit his boyhood church home, Bethany Christian Church. Annette Hardison Aldridge embraced him shortly after his arrival.

Lea Banks, born in 1923, grew up in the depression. He recalled walking the mile or so from his home north of the crossroads in Arapahoe (Bethany Crossing) to see the electric lights inside the church at night. His home had not yet connected with electric power and was still lighted by lamps.

He said, “Every time I come across that passage in the bible, ‘I am the truth and the light,’ I think about walking from the house to the church just to see the lights in the church. A church represents the worthwhileness of life.”

He wiped away the sadness of the moment with a humorous recollection of communion being prepared using Nugrape soda back in those days. He said that it took two bottles of Nugrape to prepare communion. “I would slip into the church and drink those one or two swallows left over in those bottles after the communion was prepared.”

Recalling the turbulent times of being on a ship in World War II, and then coming home, he said, “For soldiers, church represented some stability in life.”

Members of Bethany Christian Church, after a long week, will maintain the stable tradition of Sunday worship on July 1. Worship will be under the pavilion an hour earlier than usual, but worship will carry on.

A note from Gary Edge

This afternoon Richard Stevens came by the Church and presented a Love offering from the youth at the CYF (Christian Youth Fellowship) Summer Camp at Camp Caroline in the amount of $283.18. The youth also prayed with us while at camp this past Tuesday at the same hour we had our Prayer Meeting under the Pavilion.

God’s love comes to us in countless ways . . . His wonders to behold!

Camp Seafarer Directors,Sally Ransome, left, and Sarah Kronour, brought a contingent of Seafarer counselors to Bethany on Friday, June 29, to use Charlie Beard’s power washer to clean folding chairs from the fellowship hall for Sunday’s worship service under the pavilion.

Young people from all over the nation, in Arapahoe for a summer at camp, reaching out to help Bethany Christian Church recover.

Roger Surprenant captured a poignant moment.

Firemen, not members of Bethany Christian Church, at significant risk, taking non-paid leave from regular jobs, during the demolition of the remaining walls of the sanctuary, saved the stained glass window over the front door of Bethany Christian Church.

There is a lesson here about many values. Rebuilding of this historic structure – this historic church home to so many people – this part of the heritage of Bethany Crossing, now called Arapahoe – this rebuilding begins. It is more than a rebuilding of a church sanctuary; it is a rebuilding of the life of Bethany Christian Church.

Broad Street Christian Church and Highland Park Christian Church in New Bern are co-sponsoring an ice cream social Sunday, July 1, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at
Broad Street Christian Church, 802 Broad Street, New Bern.

The event is a fundraiser to help the rebuilding effort at Bethany Christian Church. Bethany Disciples are grateful to the outpouring of support from Disciples everywhere.

The congregational meeting held Wednesday, 7:00 PM, in the cafeteria of the Arapahoe Charter School exposed the enormity of the task that lies ahead in the rebuilding of Bethany Christian Church. The group learned the sobering news of the facility being under insured, the condemnation of the John M. Waters Fellowship Hall by the Pamlico County Building Inspector, the necessity of shoring up roof beams in the fellowship hall to make it safe before retrieval of cherished items from that structure can begin, and most desperately, the need for clear communication and coordination of this multi-faceted effort to clean up and begin the rebuilding process.

Good news was in the form of a few donations already received and the offer of help from area churches and the regional office of the Christain Church (Disciples of Christ) in North Carolina.

Reverend Gary Edge opened the meeting reminding the 77 present that while rebuilding would require a major commitment, it would above all else require a “commitment to God.”

Regional Minister, John Richardson, displaying a photo of a fire at a church he once served, using I Kings 19:11-14 as a text, said, “The circumstances were very different for Elijah, but there is also a common point in his story and the story of Bethany Christian Church. After a tragic moment in time, it was not in the raging wind; it was not in the earthquake; it was not in the fire that Elijah discovered God’s presence. Elijah discovered God’s presence in the silence that followed.

“You too, Bethany Christian Church have the same opportunity – to discover anew the presence of God in these days following the fire of June 25, 2007.”

Sara Spaulding, Music Director of Bethany, reported that her husband, Simon, is organizing a benefit music festival for the church that they hope will become an annual event. This was one of several initiatives discussed to rebuild the sanctuary and the life of this congregation.

The need to thank firemen who took time off from work without pay, the need to organize thank-you acknowledgements to all offers and gifts of help, and above all else, the need for clear communication and coordination of rebuilding efforts were discussed. John Beeman, Jr. plans to coordinate a shoring up of the beams in the fellowship hall before people enter to retrieve cherished items. Roger Bennett will coordinate the cleaning of the hand bells, Thursday, June 28, 7:00 PM in the church nursery.

All were reminded to contact Mac Harris, 252-249-9811, Communications Director, for information to distribute to the membership. The communications committee met prior to the congregational meeting and made plans to move forward with all deliberate speed to achieve the goals of the faithful planning process.

Services on Sunday, July 1, the first Sunday after the tragic fire that destroyed the sanctuary and fellowship hall of Bethany Christian Church will be held under the pavilion on the church grounds. If there are thunderstorms, services will be moved to Camp Caroline.

Bell choir members are asked to be at the church library, Thursday evening, June 28, 7:00 PM, to clean the bells. Stored in the fellowship hall, the bells appear to be wet and dirty, but with no apparent damage.

Seventy-seven people filled the cafeteria of the Arapahoe Charter School on Wednesday night, June 27, to begin the re-building effort. A detailed account of the proceedings will be posted on Thursday, June 28. Special guest was John Richardson, from Wilson, Regional Minister for the Disciples of Christ of North Carolina.

When Stephanie and I came home from our trip to Alabama where I performed a wedding we could hardly believe our eyes as we came around the curve in Arapahoe. It really breaks your heart to come to the crossroads at Arapahoe and see what’s left of Bethany Christian Church.

It saddens your heart to think that this building is now in ruins. It makes your heart sink to think that those charred pews are where our grandparents, parents, family and friends of yesteryear sat. Our hearts skip a beat when we think of all the sermons and prayers that came from the burned pulpit.

But we know that though our hearts are broken we serve a God who puts the broken pieces back together. God says to us in Isaiah 43:19: “Behold I am doing a new thing, now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” And in Isaiah 40:1:” Comfort, comfort, my people, says your God.”

It is the fire of God’s love that will lead us to the doorsteps of His new church at the crossroads at Bethany. To God be the glory!

Mac Harris, left, and John Beeman, Jr. look at the site of the origin of the Bethany Christian Church fire, a hole burned all the way through the floor joists where a receptacle was located in Sunday School room #1.

Pamlico County Fire Marshall Ben Barnett said that he and investigators from the SBI Arson Investigation unit traced the source of the fire to an outside wall outlet in the rear Sunday School classroom in the Sanctuary building. They have ruled out arson or negligence as a cause of the fire. “That outlet could have been getting hot for days, and just got hot enough to set the paneling on fire, or it could have been a short circuit,” Barnette stated.

Below is a closer look at the origin of the fire.