The first Sunday after the storm in Rolling Fork leaves some churches closed, destroyed
Sundays are sacred in Mississippi Delta towns like Rolling Fork, where people hold tightly to their faith and where churches are community pillars whose work goes far beyond spiritual guidance.
And yet, on the first Sunday morning after a devastating tornado swept through, most of the town's congregations were unable to come together.
Some churches suffered devastating damage to their buildings. Others were dark without power. More still were busy organizing aid efforts.
At Chapel of the Cross Episcopal Church, the priest and parishioners were too busy picking up the pieces. Chapel of the Cross is a small community congregation that was first established in Rolling Fork in the late 1860s. The building it occupied until Friday night was built in the mid 1920s, said its rector Greg Proctor. The tornado obliterated its sanctuary, leaving pages of the Book of Common Prayer mixed into the rubble of broken red bricks and glass. The only thing inside the sanctuary left standing was the alter and the candle holders and cross that sat upon it.
Rolling Fork mayor has many roles:Rolling Fork mayor comforts town destroyed by tornado in dual role as funeral director
How to help victims:Mississippi storm victims need your help. Here's what you can do
"It's just a huge shock to lose so much of the building. The parish hall is in fine condition, not great, but fair. We may be able to use it for storage and stuff for the time being. The congregation is a small congregation, but very faithful, and they always stand up when there's a need," Proctor said.
It would have been impossible to meet inside the sanctuary, and there was much work to be done, Proctor said.
"Everybody is just emotionally and physically worn out. We had a crew of parishioners working over here yesterday, carrying stuff out. Now we have a different crew of parishioners working on it today. It's been a challenge to do what they did, and they just didn't feel like they could come back together right now."
He hopes they can meet for a Palm Sunday service next week, potentially in the parish hall of a church in Cary, about 10 minutes down the road. In the parish hall at Chapel of the Cross, Proctor pointed to another sign of grace amid the destruction: a new stained glass window put in two weeks ago was the only one of the church's 17 dedicated windows to survive.
"We have one stained glass window that we were going to dedicate next Sunday. It's a brand new window, dedicated in honor of our eldest member. She's 96 years old and deserves to be honored," Proctor said. "She is a very strong member of the church, even at 96, very active. Here every Sunday and involved in so many things. She was embarrassed to have it dedicated in her honor. She said there's so many other people that deserve it besides me."
The window honors the grandmother of Frances Mitchell, who was helping clean debris at the church on Sunday. She grew emotional as she looked at the surviving window.
"I have no words. We just put it in two weeks ago. We were supposed to dedicate it and bless it on Palm Sunday, and I feel like it has been blessed by God himself," Mitchell said.
"We're very fortunate to save it," Proctor said.
The church will continue without its building for now, and like nearly everyone in Rolling Fork, Proctor is determined to rebuild.
"We don't know what it will look like yet or how big it will be, but we will rebuild. We have insurance. The congregation's not going anywhere," Proctor said.
Blocks away, on the concrete slab of a house that burned down years before Friday's storm, volunteers had set up a donation and collection space. From that slab, First Baptist Church of Flora did what they could to bring a worship option to the people of Rolling Fork. Amid the cases of water and packaged food, Dante Fontenot, a deacon who had only formally become a minister a week earlier, preached as people collected what they needed.
"We're just trying to be the hands and feet of Jesus and doing what we can for these folks," Fontenot said.
Fontenot and the other volunteers from Flora had set up on that slab after helping put tarps on the roof of the house next door. The couple who own the house also own the land that the slab sits on, and they told the church they could use it. Their children were also helping in the area. A son came in from Hattiesburg to grill food, while their daughter, Erica Wilson, flew in Saturday from Maryland to do what she could for her hometown and family.
"Rolling Fork is a great place. I grew up here. I'm who I am because of this place," Wilson said. "There is so much to be thankful for. To be thankful to even sit around and talk about it, for those of us that were blessed to live through the storm. A church house is just a building. The church is in your heart. God is within us, so we should continue to praise because we still have life. We should continue to praise because we have a new chance to start something new."
As members of the community gathered to watch the service on the slab, they said it helped bring some normalcy to their suddenly abnormal days.
Lee Thigpen has lived in Rolling Fork for nearly 60 years. On Friday night he and his wife were returning from church and had only been in the house for a few minutes when they began to hear the sounds of the tornado coming their way. They laid on the floor of a hallway together as it passed.
"Normally I would be in church on Sunday morning. Very, very few Sundays do I miss church. So, this is just normal for me. I go every Sunday to church right up the street," Thigpen said.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Rolling Fork MS pauses for Sunday church services after deadly tornado
