Churches: Men Disrupted Services: Police Hoping to Identify the 3 People Involved
By Sharif Durhams, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.
Feb. 2–Police in Kannapolis called incidents Sunday at several Kannapolis area churches “disruptions.”
They say people in some of the churches’ congregations are still trying to figure out how to describe what happened.
Police investigators said Thursday they were trying to learn the identities of three men who entered seven churches in the Kannapolis area Sunday and interrupted services.
At least four clergymen said the men spoke in Hebrew and English, police said. At one of the churches, one of the men said he was there to deliver a message from God and that he came in peace.
“They haven’t participated in anything that would indicate they were a threat to anything,” Kannapolis police Maj. Woody Chavis said.
Pastor Walt Lyman of the Mount Zion Freewill Baptist Church said the men walked to the front of his church and started speaking in Hebrew in the middle of his sermon.
A former church pastor answered the men with a few words in Hebrew, Lyman said. The men fell to their knees, then left, he said. He didn’t know exactly what the men said, Lyman said.
Lyman said the men didn’t do anything threatening, but congregation members were frightened.
“It was weird. I don’t know what their purpose was,” Lyman said. “It would scare anybody because you didn’t know what they were doing.”
Chavis said N.C. law prohibits disrupting a church service, but the activity Sunday didn’t rise to that level.
The churches haven’t asked the men not to return, he said. Chavis said he just wants to know who the visitors were.
“We just want to verify they’re on the up-and-up,” he said.
Chavis asked anyone who knows the men or who they’re affiliated with to call the Kannapolis Police Department at 704-920-4000.
Churches Affected
The following churches told police their services were disrupted:
–Mount Zion Freewill Baptist.
–Memorial Baptist.
–Kimball Memorial Lutheran.
–New Hope Lutheran.
–Ben Avenue Freewill Baptist.
–Franklin Heights Baptist.
–Bethpage United Methodist.
SOURCE: Kannapolis Police Dept.
Sharif Durhams: 704-786-2185
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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