Tulsa Church Building Weathers Storm, Opens Doors To Parishioners Once Again

A church building damaged when last summer's severe storms rolled through Green Country is open again.

The Vernon AME Church held a rededication ceremony on Sunday afternoon as the members finally made their way back into the sanctuary.

The sanctuary in the century-old building was full of song and praise once again. Just 14 months ago it was filled with water when a wind storm blew through the area and ripped off roofs and knocked down trees.

It destroyed the sanctuary Willie Waugh has been praying in for most of his life.

"My mother and father joined in '55 and I joined in '56 and this church has been here,” Waugh said. “It's been a big part of the north Tulsa community

It is a big part of the north Tulsa community that had once survived the 1921 Race Riot, but some weren't sure it would survive the storm.

"So when it came, it hit that side of the roof and folded it back and then whipped around and hit the other side and hit the roof and folded it back,” Pastor Michelle K.T. Moulden said. “Which caused a lot of water to go into the sanctuary down through the balcony and into the sanctuary and down on the lower level floors, and the classrooms so 90 percent of our church was affected."

But now, a little more than a year later, the 100-year-old church is back to life.

Church members and leaders made their way into the sanctuary on Sunday afternoon to rededicate the newly renovated space.

It is something Moulden and the congregation is grateful for.

“It was the longest 14 months that I have ever been through, but the Lord brought us through," she said.

Waugh added, "It makes me feel real good, you know? We have been going here, like I said since 1956, and you know, didn't want to go nowhere else …we as church people felt real good about getting the sanctuary back together. It was a labor of love I guess you call it."

It was a labor of love, that the church it cherishes and has survived through yet another storm.

In addition to a newly renovated sanctuary, the church also remodeled some of the classrooms downstairs and has a new dedicated children's center.