By DAVID NAHAN
Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY — Tabernacle Baptist Church is deeply embedded in the lives of its members. Some are the third generation of their families to worship in Ocean City’s oldest church, which was built in 1890.
They are grateful for the church and for the community that has helped support it through good times and bad.
“I was raised in this church. I grew up in this church. I’m an Ocean City native. This was my mother’s church and my grandmother’s church, so we have lots of history here,” said Loretta Harris, the church’s historian.
“We take it one step at a time and do a lot of praying and a little crying every now and then,” Harris said, talking about the ups and downs the church has experienced in the past two decades, “but I think we have reached out to the community and the community has really responded, so we are just basically overwhelmed by the support that we are getting.”
On Saturday, she was helping out at the barbecue and yard sale fundraiser that capped the effort to pay off overdue property taxes owed by the church because of an improper deed transfer the year before that temporarily put the church in private hands.
“Now that people know our dilemma, know what this church means to the entire city, and they want to see this church stay here and continue,” Harris said. “We’re really hoping to bring it back to the days I remember as a young kid. We had visiting choirs come in, and you didn’t mind coming to church because church was good. You learned, but you also enjoyed. So that’s our vision.”
Harris said people in the community “have been very receptive.”
“This has always been a Baptist church in the westside community, which is an African-American community, but we’re trying to reach out to the entire city,” she said. “That was one thing that Mr. Murray wanted. He wanted the entire city to use this building and know this building because it was the first church built here in Ocean City. So we need to open it up to everyone. We’re hoping to do conferences, meetings, weddings, whatever, as long as it’s in a Christian spirit.”
She was referring to Dan Murray, who led a four-year, $400,000 effort that finished renovating the church in 2003. Murray died this past summer. His widow, Wilma, came to the fundraiser Saturday where she was warmly embraced by the members.
“I’m really hoping that everyone will get the word and come out in support and make sure this church stays here just as long as we can possibly keep it going,” Harris said.
Genoria Gerald said Tabernacle Baptist has been “part of my life since I’ve been here, ever since 1968 or 1969 … I raised my family here, really. I’ve seen people come and go, elderly people that lived in this town when I got here. They passed on and now there is a new generation coming up. It’s just marvelous to see one generation (to) the other generation.
“When they had things over at St. Peter’s, Macedonia, all the churches in Ocean City have worked together and that is how I know so many people. Some of them I know by face and a little by name. Through the years St. Peter’s has come over and helped us and we’ve tried to go over and help them whenever we could down through the years, especially in the ’80s when the Rev. Walter was pastor of this church, we got to go over and help a lot of churches in the vicinity, even in Atlantic City,” Gerald said.
The Rev. Tyrone Thompson, brother to Shari Thompson, president of the church’s board of trustees, was working the barbecue Saturday with their brother, Wayne, and was the guest preacher the following day at the church.
He said it is important to support the church because of its history in the community. It was the original St. Peter’s United Methodist Church, then when St. Peter’s built a new church, it became Tabernacle Baptist.
“Some of the principles that Ocean City was founded on are represented by what is going on here,” Thompson said. “This is something for the community. It’s an attempt to outreach and bring people together. That’s really the reason why I’m excited to be part of it and help out while I can.”
He was helping spiritually with the guest preaching and physically with the barbecue, which was so popular it was mostly sold out before the event began Saturday morning with two big grill/smokers going.
“The way we have it set up, there is chicken in one and ribs on the other, just to get the things done,” he explained. “My father-in-law put himself through college working at a barbecue joint and he taught me, and my brother and I have always had the little rivalry going on and we just enjoy doing it anyway and it’s great to be doing it for a good cause.”
Asked which brother is better at barbecuing, Wayne, who was sitting quietly across the table from his brother, immediately shot up his hand, drawing a laugh from Tyrone.
“All of the proof is in the eating. If you get a chance to try the brisket, there will be no questions,” he said, laughing.
Overflowing
Church member Alva Thompson talked about the importance of the church and the community support, and what it means to her and other members of the congregation.
Tabernacle Baptist Church, she said, “means everything to me.”
“I’ve been here in this church all of my life … I grew up in this church. I remember the choirs here, my mother being here and Sunday school. It means everything to me. My roots are here. My spiritual roots are here. And my family roots are here at Tabernacle Baptist.
“My mother and my mother’s mother were members here,” Alva Thompson said. “For so many years I wasn’t able to be here and it saddened me, but to be back, it’s like those years (away) never mattered, the past never mattered because I’m back and I always wanted to be here.”
Her heart was more than filled Saturday as she saw the community coming out to help the church.
“It’s overflowing,” she said. “It’s not overwhelming. It’s just overflowing. My heart, sometimes at night I can’t sleep just thinking about the goodness of the people and how they care.”