City Leaders Help Celebrate Grand Historic Church’s 150 Years

Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church is one of Portsmouth’s grand historic sites.

This month the congregation is celebrating 150 years in the sanctuary built on North Street by slaves in 1857. Last Sunday, more than 100 people celebrated at an anniversary banquet at the Holiday Inn Portsmouth.

The main speaker was City Manager Kenneth Chandler, introduced by Beverly Edmonds as “the new kid on the block.” But Chandler, who hails from Isle of Wight County, has ties to Emanuel.

Evelyn Scott, a church member whose rendition of “The Impossible Dream” highlighted the program, was part of his youth, Chandler said. It seems she and his mother, Evelyn D. Chandler, were friends when he was a boy. He recalled the times when Scott “chauffeured him” when his mother was working.

“And she gave that boy $10 thirty years ago to wash a car,” he said, adding that it’s important for people to be their neighbors’ keepers if they’re going to grow city managers.

Chandler called on audience members to rededicate themselves to the future and be rooted in faith and individual commitment

“Today is the first day of the rest of our lives,” he said. “We must consider what the next 150 years will be.”

Mayor James Holley, who was introduced by Edmonds as the best- dressed mayor in America, has old ties with Emanuel, too.

“It was 81 years ago that they sprinkled water on me at Emanuel,” said Holley, whose childhood home is across the street from the church. “I remember my mama taking me across the street and telling me to be quiet.”

The mayor also has a connection with the Rev. William A. Dyson, pastor of Emanuel since last May.

“Billy Dyson’s mother put money in my first election in 1962,” Holley said.

The pastor’s mother, Leola Dyson, was doing a popular morning broadcast with Daddy Jack Holmes on WRAP radio back in those days.

Holley read a proclamation from City Council marking November as Emanuel month; however, he removed the time limit.

“As long as you are here on North Street, it’s your day,” the mayor proclaimed.

The church on North Street, known for its pews hand-carved by slaves, functioned in the mid-19th century as a terminus for the Underground Railroad.

In fact, the Emanuel congregation dates to 1772, three years before the American Revolution. At one point members worshipped with the white Methodists in a church on Glasgow Street. When the whites built a new structure on the present site of Monumental United Methodist Church, the blacks remained in the Glasgow Street building. It burned in 1856.

The church remained in the Virginia conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South until 1871, when the then 99-year-old congregation was given permission to join the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

A lot has changed in the 235 years since the first black Methodists lived in Portsmouth. But, as Holley noted, Emanuel has always been important to the city.

The congregation will continue its celebration today with a visit by the Rt. Rev. Adam Jefferson Richardson, bishop of the Second District of the A.M.E. church. A reception for the bishop will follow the service at 4 p.m.

A day for children is scheduled Nov. 30. Activities will begin at 6:30 p.m. The event is free to the public.

Ida Kay Jordan, 399-3845

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