Sunday, June 18, 2006

Sedalia Community Church story...

This is a feature I wrote on the Sedalia Community Church and how it transitioned from a college party site to a weekly center for worship once again. Pretty interesting if you have never heard the story...



Bell Raisers

While it is not uncommon for Greek organizations to give back to the community, in 1964 the K-State Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity did so in a rather round-about fashion. It was through an act of vandalism that an old stone church gained vital repairs, a community regained a center of worship, and a strong bond was formed between one institution focused on the fraternizing of young men and another focused on the faith and fellowship of people young and old.
The Sedalia Community Church, as it is now known, was not an impressive site in 1964. While the limestone foundation that was originally constructed in 1899 remained fairly solid, the interior had come to more closely resemble a junkyard than a sanctuary. The church had become an increasingly popular site for college parties since closing in 1948, which left windows broken and beer cans littering the property.
The one symbol of continuity for the church was the church bell. Although the retrieval of the bell had become the obsession of many fraternities at K-State, the fact remained that none had been able to get the huge bell down from the belfry.
That all changed, late one April night.
After hearing many accounts of failed attempts at getting the church bell out of the belfry, 15 members of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity decided that they were up to the task, according to a letter written by one fraternity member to the members of the church years after the incident.
The young men had “found their courage” at Kites Bar and Grill earlier in the evening and drove out to the small church seven miles northwest of Manhattan.
After arriving at the church and climbing up an electrical cord into the belfry, the letter writer had his first up-close look at the bell, which weighed around 1,000 pounds.
“The bell was big! I mean it looked really big,” the author said.
After recovering from the initial shock of the daunting size of the bell, the letter writer and a fraternity brother had to approach the problem that had terminated so many previous attempts: getting the bell to the ground without toppling the entire steeple.
“I was almost ready to give up, until I noticed that the wagon-type wheel used to rock the bell was still attached,” he said.
The two young men used the wheel to their benefit and rocked the bell right out of the belfry and to the ground 30 feet below. On its plunge to the ground, the bell took with it a two foot section from the corner of the roof and “hit the ground with a thud that shook the whole church,” he said.
Thinking they were home free, the two fraternity members admired their work from above, until noticing a car with red flashing lights on top coming down the road towards the church. While their fraternity brothers were free to take off running, the two in the steeple had nowhere to go but down. Choosing health over humility, they chose to lie on the belfry floor, as opposed to leaping out of the steeple.
“We laid down on the belfry floor, which consisted of about four inches of a forty or so year accumulation of wet pigeon droppings,” the letter writer said.
As it turned out, the stealth displayed in lying in pigeon filth was all for naught. The approaching vehicle had not been the police, but fellow fraternity members out to play a prank on their brothers.
The Sigma Phi Epsilon brothers returned to their fraternity in the wee hours of the morning, with the bell in tow. Feeling great pride and accomplishment in completing this arduous task that so many others had failed at, they proceeded to “ring the ‘hell’ out of the bell” in victory, the letter author said.
Unfortunately that triumphant feeling did not last long. The following day they received a call from their fraternity advisor, detailing the dire situation they had gotten themselves into. Some members of the Sedalia Community had noticed the bell missing and contacted the police. The bell had been located at the fraternity house and potential felony charges, including possible jail time, awaited the 15 young men.
After a period of negotiations between the fraternity and the church board, it was decided that instead of serving time in prison the fraternity brothers would dedicate their time and effort to restoring the church.
For four weeks, long hours in the afternoons and on weekends were spent cleaning the church and its grounds, repairing walls, windows and floors, and returning the half-ton bell to the belfry.
The restoration project culminated in a service held at the church sponsored by the fraternity. Many community members, as well as other attendees from as far away as Topeka, found the transformation to be nothing short of miraculous.
The young men had “taken an ugly plant and turned it into a beautiful bud,” said community member Viola Dodge.
The bud proceeded to bloom in following weeks.
With necessary repairs finally complete and a large altar bible donated to the church by the members of Sigma Phi Epsilon, regular weekly services started anew and have continued to this day.
Currently, Sedalia Community Church holds two services each Sunday with an average weekly attendance around 120. Lay minister Kevin Larson currently fills the pulpit, and has for the past 17 years.
Larson, as well as many members of the church, holds the act of vandalism committed on the spring night in faithful reverence. The event is even briefly recounted on the back of the weekly church bulletin.
“The fact that an initially negative act could have positive repercussions on so many people is truly an act of God,” Larson said.
The infamous bell still hangs in the belfry of the old stone church and rings out at the beginning of each church service.
While the ringing of a bell can signify many events; the beginning of a boxing match, the ending of a school day, the pealing of the bell at Sedalia holds a truly symbolic meaning. With each toll, the bell reminds all around that dire situations can turn quickly, and sometimes in mysterious ways.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I've never heard this story. I knew those greeks were trouble.
-Jaclyn