Church going down for the count

So another inner city church is having problems keeping afloat. (For previous related story see The Church Is Not So Dead)

How much of this is due to mega churches drawing people away to the suburbs?

The suburban mega churches are like malls, destroying smaller churches. These smaller churches have a sense of community that moves outside the church walls into the neighborhood. Furthermore these suburban churches (Idlewild Baptist Church for example) are building huge complexes on undeveloped land, helping spread urban sprawl. I often wonder what happens when the driving force of that church moves on or gets older. (For a related story for this issue see "Super-Size That Church" in the Tribune on Carpenter's Home Church 10,000 seat Sanutuary being bought up by Without Walls International Church. This occurred because the membership dwindled from 5000 to 1500.)

Beyond this being a church, the Praise Cathedral building is a Seminole Heights landmark. I hope it does not literally fall down, losing another part of our history.


Jun 9, 2005

Battered Church Keeps The Faith
By KATHY STEELEPAT HALL
ksteele@tampatrib.com



SEMINOLE HEIGHTS - Praise Cathedral survived last year's hurricane season with only a small hole punched in the roof.

Rain poured into a storage room. A water mark stained the ceiling near the altar. But repairs set things right again.

In March, a microburst that slashed through Seminole Heights ripped into the church's roof again and flooded the sanctuary.

"I walked down to the altar and my foot went under the water," Pastor Pat Hall said.

Nearly three months later, cash-poor church members have cleaned up the mess from the storm in March but are at a loss on how to pay for more repairs, including the tarp-covered roof.

No one anticipated the past week, with day after day of rain. The sanctuary smells of mold and mildew. Chunks of ceiling lay on the floor and across the sanctuary's seats. More than 30 buckets and pails are scattered in the aisles and on seats to collect the rain.

The damage worsens with every downpour.

"It does not stop water whatsoever," Hall said of the tarps. "Now it's in the middle of the auditorium. Tiles are falling really bad. We need funding. We don't know how to get it."

The stone and stucco structure at 5103 N. Florida Ave. was built in 1923. Praise Cathedral bought the building in 1985.

For more than 30 years, the church's outreach ministry has given away food, clothing, toys and blankets to needy families and the homeless. The church has helped families pay electric bills, Hall said.

Rooms at the church are filled with racks upon racks of clothes that Hall wheels out to the sidewalk to give away. There are boxes of food supplies, so far undamaged by the rain, that the church continues to distribute.

"We helped citizens every way we know how," Hall said.

And until now, she said, the church prided itself on being self-sufficient.

"I say, 'God I trust you,' " she said. "I don't know what to say."

Hall has tried repeatedly to find assistance for a new roof, estimated by various contractors as costing $83,000 to $200,000. She said she has called the White House and Gov. Jeb Bush's office in Tallahassee.

Closer to home, her list includes Tampa city officials, United Way, Outback Steakhouse, Jim Walters Industries, the American Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Trent Perrotto, director of compassion for Somebody Cares Tampa Bay, is among those contacted by Hall. The nonprofit organization supports faith-based initiatives and ministries in the Bay area.

"Their roots are deep in Tampa," Perrotto said of Praise Cathedral. "We're trying to find help for them."

So far, no one has stepped forward, partly, Perrotto fears, because the problem seems overwhelming. He said it doesn't have to be a single savior who accepts the task.

"If you get enough people together and enough resources, all of a sudden it's doable," Perrotto said.

Hall said she hasn't given up hope.

"We do whatever people have suggested," she said. "We don't know how to break through. We pray before we go out and say, 'God, get us to the right person.' "

For information, call (813) 417-4731 or (813) 872-6316.

"It does not stop water whatsoever. Now it's in the middle of the auditorium. Tiles are falling really bad. We need funding. We don't know how to get it."

PAT HALL Pastor at Praise Cathedral on the tarps that drape the church's roof and on the damage the recent storms have caused

This story can be found at: http://centraltampa.tbo.com/centraltampa/MGBH61J0Q9E.html