From Across Town, a Church-to-Church Ministry Connects

This article was first published in The Pilot on Sep. 7, 2022.

On the cusp of its 100th birthday, the Trinity A.M.E. Zion Church congregation on West Pennsylvania Avenue has been unable to hold services in its sanctuary for the past four months.

A cornerstone of the West Southern Pines community, the church has been around since at least 1923, though the congregation dates further back. The sanctuary was built the same year West Southern Pines was incorporated and a year before the Southern Pines Rosenwald school that would go on to become several iterations of schools.

“I'm thinking that probably the same momentum of all those who got together to get Trinity in place in 1923 (established the school),” said the Rev. Dr. Paul Murphy, the church’s pastor and a Southern Pines Town Council member.

The church has been experiencing structural issues for years, issues that led to a partial collapse of the sanctuary ceiling on May 1 of this year. The damage will cost at least $100,000 to repair, said Murphy, who first discovered the damages when he was preparing for a service on May 1.

“I was getting ready for that 10 o'clock service and the guy came in and said, ‘Have you been upstairs?’ He said, ‘You might want to check it out.’ I went up, and the whole side as I was walking in from the back was down on the floor.”

The false ceiling that was put in about 25 years ago could no longer support the pressure coming in from the roof due to underlying structural problems with the roof.

“Everything just came down to the floor,” Murphy said.

Despite not having a sanctuary, Murphy has continued to make do, holding outdoor services, as well as using the church’s other building, the Trinity Community Outreach Center.

However, thanks to a collaborative effort between Trinity and the Brownson Memorial Presbyterian Church across town, the necessary repairs — covering at least $100,000 in damages — may come sooner than anticipated.

The Bold Initiative Fund of Brownson has gifted $15,000 to Trinity to go toward the repairs, funds that come from a $100,000 gift of an anonymous donor to the church. The goal of the Bold Initiative Fund is to address systemic racism and economic disparity in the community, said Ellie Collins, co-chair of the Bold Initiative Team that oversees the funds.

“We feel like this is a church that has benefited the entire community,” Collins said, “and we would like to see the entire community give back the support to Trinity that Trinity has given to the community.”

In recent years under the leadership of Murphy, Trinity has expanded the scope of its community outreach efforts. At the center of that expansion has been the Trinity Community Outreach Center, which serves Southern Pines in a variety of capacities: it operates a clothing closet for the homeless, has hosted after-school and meal programs for the Boys and Girls Club and provided meeting space for community organizations like Carolina Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. It annually hosts the Martin Luther King, Jr. Prayer Breakfast.

Since the start of the pandemic, the outreach center has also been used to enhance the educational experience of children during remote learning, Murphy said. The church installed wifi across the building for people to come in and use, along with offering free tutoring to supplement remote learning.

Murphy said the damages have not impacted Trinity’s ability to operate its other community outreach programs at the center.

“We hope to have a lot of local support, since this church has supported the local community to such a great extent,” Collins said.

Much of the church’s recent outreach efforts have been in collaboration with Brownson, as well as Jordan A.M.E. Zion Church. Together, the three churches make up the Bold Initiative Team, which manages the Brownson’s Bold Initiative Team.

The team was created after an anonymous donor gifted Brownson with $50,000 in 2018. The same donor made a second contribution of $100,000 last year.

The Bold Initiative Team has helped secure grants for a variety of community support projects and organizations since its inception, with a focus on addressing the impacts of racial and economic disparity. The first round of grants helped to support such initiatives as a new Habitat for Humanity program to rehabilitate homes in West Southern Pines, the purchase of the former Southern Pines Primary School, support for a faith-based drug abuse and misuse program and for Males of Distinction, a mentoring program for at-risk youth.

In addition to supporting repair work at Trinity, the second round of grants is going towards a community garden at Love Grove Baptist Church, free music production workshops and summer education programs for students, a Juneteenth Celebration at Cardinal Park, Dreams 4 All foundation and Tambra Place, transitional housing for 18-24 homeless women.

The Bold Initiative Team is also using its funds to support other restoration projects for structures that have historic importance to the Black community, such as funding repairs for the Jordan Chapel and rehabilitation grants for the Addor Community Center, an original Rosenwald School.

Collins and Murphy are now working hard to get the repairs done in time for Trinity’s 100th anniversary, though the current climate of construction may pose some challenges.

“It’s a goal,” Murphy said.

In addition to launching the fundraising campaign, the Bold Initiative Team has applied for a grant from Marion Stedman Covington Foundation of Greensboro to aid in the repairs. They are also in the process of applying for a National Park Service grant, Collins said. Murphy said the church is also considering launching an internal funding campaign within its denomination.

Collins said the town of Southern Pines has taken steps to apply for the National Register of Historic Places for Trinity, along with other buildings of historic significance to the Black community in Southern Pines. The town’s efforts came after it was asked by the National Park Service to look into buildings of historic significance to the Black community to put on the Register. Other sites being considered are the Douglass Community Center and Amos Broadway's building, Collins said.

Donations for the repairs can be sent in the mail to Trinity A.M.E. Zion Church, 972 West Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines, NC 28387; online donations can be sent via Cash App to $TrinityAMEZSP, indicating the gift is for Trinity’s restoration and repair.

“When you think of how much it took for people in 1923, to put their pennies and nickels and dimes together to build that church, for historic reasons it needs to be restored,” Collins said. “And it needs to continue to be a beacon of hope at the top of Pennsylvania Avenue in Southern Pines.”

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