S.S. Morris Community AME Church Celebrates 36 Years: A Community of Love, Support and Spirit
From left to right: Barb Thomas, Karen Lawson, Camara Stovall, Denise Baring, Carla's Brown, Pastor Karla Garcia, Sharisse Hancock, Jeff Brown
By Jonathan Gramling
The Black church has played a pivotal role in the African American community since slavery times when the church was the only institution that the slave owner would allow to form, thinking that Christianity made the Africans who were slaves obedient and passive. But the Black church was also a shelter against the racism storm that they experienced everywhere else in their lives.
On some levels, the Black church still plays that role today. S.S. Morris Community AME Church does as it celebrates its 36th anniversary.
“This church is a place of solitude,” said Rev. Karla Garcia, the pastor of SS Morris. “It’s a place of peace. It’s a place of love. It’s a place of acceptance. It’s a place of non-judgmental awareness and engagement of those who are different. We have the word community in our name. And so this church is a community place of love where everyone is accepted. Everyone is loved. And we are spreading the love of Jesus Christ.”
“When I think of S.S. Morris, I think of love, kindness, and patience,” Karen Lawson said. “We have a pastor who is patient enough with me to let me grow at my own pace. She is very straightforward about the fact that she wanted me to do more in the church. But she never presses me. She would find ways to inspire me to do better and to do more and develop a closer relationship with God. But there was never any pressure. It was just patience and kindness and love. I just want to thank the church members for also having my back. I’m not a perfect person. But I do believe that people have supported me in spite of whatever. But they have just supported me and showered me with love. And I am just so thankful that I am fellowshipping and worshipping God with this group of people at this specific time.”
With small, sometimes non-existent budgets, Black churches have relied upon their members to fulfill the duties of the church allow them to function. And they have been the proving ground for many of its congregants, allowing them to develop leadership and other skills that many have then used in the world at large.
“I have worn many hats since I’ve been here at S.S. Morris,” said Barbara Thomas, a retired educator and a member since the beginning. “I love this church. My kids grew up in this church, four of them. They have not been in too much trouble because they were brought up in this church. We love coming here. We love the love of the people who are here in God’s house and God’s church. I think I am one of the members who have been here the longest. I came when we were organizing, Charisse and I. But Charisse was five-years-old and I had four kids. Rev. Hart would say, ‘We need someone for the Sunday School.’ And I said, ‘I don’t know anything about Sunday School except my dad was a superintendent.’ He said, ‘But you have the time.’ At that point in time, I wasn’t working. I had the time. He said, ‘We will teach you what you need to do and how you need to do it.’ That’s how I got started wearing all of these hats. I was an usher. I was a steward. I was trustee several times. And so, I’m committed to God first and then I want to support the pastors that God sends here. That’s what I try to do. I don’t try to follow them unless they are following God. And then I will do all that I can to help them in their ministry because that is how they are able to minister to us.”
“When I first came here, I didn’t want to do anything,” Lawson added. “I just wanted to sit in the pew, worship God and be done. She was very patient and she was very understanding. And she never gave up. She never said, ‘Okay, she doesn’t want to do anything. I’m just going to let here do nothing.’ But she was very gentle and kind. She didn’t try to embarrass me or call me out. She was gentle, kind and straightforward.”
And the church works to give that love and support to people in the community as well.
“We’re community-based,” said Charisse Hancock, who has been a member since she was five-years-old. “And we care about the people in the community. We evangelize always trying to bring people here. That is an ongoing process. We love on people. And when I say, ‘Love on people,’ we love you for who you are. We love you for just being here. If you want to do something in the church, wonderful. But if not, we’re here to support you.”
One of the pillars of the church who had performed many roles and functions over the years, Wayne Strong, passed recently. The church is still feeling the void and the pain.
“The last message that I received from Brother Wayne was Sunday June 19th, Garcia said. “It was right after the service at 1:04 p.m. This was the day before he passed. It said, ‘Great sermon today. God bless you. Very uplifting. Very inspirational. Thank you.’ Those are the kind of things that he would always text me about church. I considered him my right-hand person. He did a lot of stuff in the community for me. I could always rely on him to make sure that everything was done around here. Along with Sister Barb, they always made sure that the building maintenance happened and the outside structure of the church was always maintained. Plus he was just a wonderful friend of mine, a confident, someone who I could go to if I was frustrated. He always wanted to make sure that I was okay. He always validated the things that I did. He would always text me with ‘God bless you kind of stuff’ to let me know that he cared about me as his pastor.”
“He was just an inspiration to this church,” Carla’s Brown added. “I remember when he and Terri came here. They brought their kids here and just got involved. They really got involved in the church. They would sit together in one spot. We knew that was their spot. Wayne is missed. He was a protector. I didn’t have to worry when I was ushering about anything because he was there. He had my back.”
Over the past few years, SS Morris has put its corporal church in order.
“She has steered us in the right direction and has gotten so much done,” Thomas said. “We have a new roof on our building. We had a leak. We knew we had to get that done and she spearheaded that. It’s all done. And thank God, our church is all paid for and thank God, as a trustee, we have two new furnaces and a new water heater. So we’re good for another 20-50 years. I’m grateful for her and the work that she is doing here.”
All of the members and the pastor emphasized that the church is much more than the four walls. It’s about the impact that the church has in the community.
“We reach out to the community,” said Denise Baring who chaired the church’s anniversary committee. “And we’re just like one big family. We have a food pantry here that reaches out every first and third Saturday. Some have come to our services and some have joined. We distribute food from Second Harvest. But we also have Cornerstone Ministries that helps with our food pantry as well as with personal needs and clothing for the homeless. I’m the administrator over the Cornerstone Outreach Ministry. I try to reach out as a church Christian education director to bring in members for the Sunday School where we teach our youth and our adults so that our church can continue to grow.”
The church is very much outward looking and seeks to revitalize the love that people have for God and Jesus in the community.
“One of the things that I do along with Karen and Charisse is we are a part of an outreach group Awaken Dane,” Garcia said. “It’s a group of other denominations, other races. We get together and just really share and celebrate differences that we all have and the uniqueness that we all have as individual churches while still recognizing that we are one body. Through that organization, we have learned and built relationships with the local churches and try to get a better understanding of other denominations so that we can find a common ground, which is still Jesus. That’s a learning group that we will been a part of for two years. It’s a two-year cohort where the clergy and the lay of each church come together in different learning activities and learn how to do outreach, how to evangelize, how to speak to people about Christ using the word of God. That is one way that we have learned and equipped ourselves to be prepared to witness the people we come across in the store, at our jobs and in our everyday lives.”
“Our task ahead of us is to work on our faith more and spirituality,” Thomas added. “And I do believe the numbers will grow. We have to have the programs and the activities that when we invite people in that they will want to be here and will want to take part. With our faith and our spirituality, I know that we can grow and be a full church again.”
Next issue: The pastor and rebirth
