ANNAPOLIS, Md. — They gained entry through a basement window at the Fowler United Methodist Church in Annapolis, and vandals spent what must have been hours literally tearing it apart.
“I saw some damage in our vestibule, but when he opened the sanctuary door and saw all of that paper and everything torn up, I just fell on the floor,” said the church’s trustee chair, Troy Belt, “I have never seen such devastation.”
The focal point of the sanctuary, a large cross, ripped from its mount.
“We found it on a pew,” said Belt, “They had taken it off the wall. The United Methodist flame was broken off.”
Every page ripped from a nearly century-old bible and hymnals, strewn about the floor like fallen confetti.
A hate crime in the minds of the victims targeting their faith.
“To see the devastation of them tearing up materials that were related to Jesus Christ, that’s something altogether new,” said Belt, “and it talks about it in the End Times and all that kind of stuff and so it’s like a testimony to the Truth of the Bible that all of these things will occur before Jesus comes back again.”
Now, neighbors, total strangers and other churches in the area are rallying behind the church’s modest congregation of about a hundred members.
“This is a Black Methodist Church and our church across the bridge used to be all white,” said Don Ogburn of Calvary Methodist Church, “It’s no longer that way, but we’re all brothers and sisters, not because of Methodism, but because we believe in God.”
For all of the damage, if the vandals’ hope was to break the congregation’s spirit, church leaders say it failed.
The church’s forefathers began meeting on this site after gaining their freedom in the aftermath of the Civil War, and a vile night of vandalism will not darken the days, which lie ahead.
“We will bounce back,” said Belt, “That’s part of us, our heritage that no matter what comes down the pike, we believe in God, we know that God is a Restorer and a Provider and He will make sure that we will be okay."
