Mayfield churches hold Christmas Eve service, say farewell to buildings

Bursts of wind rattled nearby piles of debris as a woman reverently lifted a battered and dented cross from a small table covered with a white linen.

“We found it in there today,” Renie Barger said, looking across the street at the rubble that 15 days ago housed Mayfield First Presbyterian Church, where her husband is pastor.

Earlier in the evening, as the sun set, congregations from the First Presbyterian Church and First Christian Church gathered in an empty lot at the corner of West Broadway and South Ninth Street in downtown Mayfield, between the crumbled remains of the two church buildings.

On Dec. 10, a devastating tornado ripped through the community.

Now two weeks later, on Christmas Eve, the church communities came together to worship and to say goodbye to the buildings that had served as spiritual homes for generations.

“Part of this service is to give you an opportunity to grieve and to say goodbye to a building where you have worshiped for many, many years,” Dr. Milton West, First Christian Church senior pastor, said.

After Scripture readings and communion, West began the liturgy for the closing of a building.

“Not the closing of a ministry,” he told the 100 people gathered in the lot, which was illuminated by generator-powered lights.

As West led the liturgy saying goodbye to the churches’ baptismal fonts, communion tables, pulpits and worship spaces, he said the ministries of both church communities would continue.

“I’ve said all week, your pastor has said all week, you see what’s standing on this parking lot, this is the church right here,” West said. “We will stop and we will shed a tear, but we will also see this as an opportunity. An opportunity to rise from the ashes of the loss of a building, to reclaim our place in this community and to bring our understanding of faith to succeeding generations. What lies ahead for both congregations will be one of the most challenging things you will ever undertake, and if we do it together, it will last.”

And then, amid the ruins wrought by the tornado, the congregations sang “Silent Night.”

“Go in peace, and share the light and love of Christ,” West said.

This story was originally published December 25, 2021 at 10:37 AM.