When many St. Louisans mention Centennial Christian Church, they are often discussing its ministries that serve the Fountain Park neighborhood and other north St. Louis communities.
“The church has had historic ministries in health and housing,” said the Rev. Dietra Wise Baker, Centennial’s transitional pastor. “We have three affordable housing units in the community that the church did years ago, and also have a thriving hunger ministry that is still going on.”
It is the care that members provide to the community that has helped the 102-year-old church become the neighborhood’s cornerstone. Church leaders and previous pastors reminded members on Sunday afternoon that Centennial has always been there in the midst of triumph and tragedy and that it will continue on, even though the physical building suffered severe damage during the May tornado and will be demolished.
“Centennial members rise to every occasion, so this is not the first time we have experienced a tragedy,” said the Rev. Derrick L. Perkins Sr., a former pastor of Centennial.
“We have seen so much from this building, from people looking for food, looking for rent assistance, looking for utility assistance, bus tickets,” Perkins said. “We've shown up here to respond to drive-by shootings. We've hosted funerals of individuals who either participated in those shootings or were affected by those shootings, but yet, out of crisis, Centennial rose to the occasion.”
Perkins and other pastors, along with city leaders and church friends, offered words of encouragement and prayers in the church’s parking lot to memorialize the building and provide comfort to those grieving the loss of the church and tornado victims, including Patricia Penelton, the member who was trapped inside the church on May 16 and later died.
Smiles were sprinkled throughout the crowd, but most members were somber. During the tribute ceremony, they swayed and clapped to gospel songs as the makeshift choir sang familiar ones a cappella. Some shed tears as people spoke about fond memories of the decades-old church building.
“If you look to the north, that building will be demolished … but that building has a cornerstone, so I'm hoping after the building is demolished, we can literally, figuratively, allegorically, find that cornerstone and build something that will give God the glory,” Samuel Hylton III said emotionally to members.
Hylton came to the church in 1961 at the age of 4. His father, Samuel Hylton Jr., was one of the church's highly praised visionaries who led the congregation for nearly 36 years and started several of the church’s neighborhood programs.
Although his father is deceased, Hylton III still remembers spending many days in the sanctuary with him and his mother, who played music for the church. He said the destruction is devastating for him, but he is looking forward to a new beginning.
“I'm hoping that after this church is demolished, something will be built, maybe a church, maybe a school, maybe some type of help center, something,” Hylton III said. “I don't want to see this building just like an open, vacant ground.”
Centennial Christian Church was founded in 1904 by five women. They met in homes and tents before holding services inside the YMCA on Lucas Avenue. It was later relocated to Morgan Street and became Morgan Street Christian Church, before moving again to Kennerly Avenue in 1910. Fourteen years later, the church received a $10,000 centennial gift from the Christian Women’s Board of Missions and purchased land on Aldine Avenue. In honor of the monetary gift, the church changed its name to Centennial Christian Church. Over the years, it continued to grow, and in 1945, it found a new home in Fountain Park.
Although the edifice at 4950 Fountain Ave. is boarded up and fenced off, some ministries that were housed inside the church, such as the food and health ministry, have relocated to the church parking lot and partnered with other community organizations, including 314Oasis – a mobile healing organization.
Longtime member Harry Penelton III said he is grateful for 314Oasis because it is carrying on the legacy of his wife, Patricia.
“My wife and I started in 2020 to serve food, because we knew kids were going to be out when COVID hit, and they weren't going to have anything to eat, so we started serving lunches right from our back gate,” he said. “We were just serving sandwiches, and my wife said, ‘We have a tin burner stove in there, we can cook hot meals,’ so after that, we start(ed) cooking hot meals from 2020 even until May 16, we just served meals that day.”
Harry has been working with 314Oasis since then, because he said even in the midst of tragedy, people still need to eat.
“He put us here to help people, and that’s all we’ve been doing, so that hasn’t changed me. … I am here five days a week with Dr. Punch,” he said.
Another longtime member, Sherrill Jackson, agrees. She was also inside the church with Patricia Penelton and DeMarco Davidson, a friend of the church, when the floor collapsed and the roof caved in, trapping her in a hole for three hours. Although the nurse practitioner sustained injuries that have caused lingering pain, she said it will not stop her from trying to keep the health and wellness ministry going. She also comes out to support 314Oasis during the church’s transition period.
“We are going to try to put something in the community that the neighborhood really wants,” she said. “A lot of the people are medically underserved and uninsured, and we're going to try to put something in to either connect them to federally qualified health centers or do some screenings there.”
The health and well-being of the community are important to Centennial members. Just weeks after the storm, the church announced its plans for a large-scale redevelopment project that will center on hunger, housing and healing. Wise Baker expects demolition to start within the next few weeks; however, a new building may not return in its place for another few years. In the meantime, members are worshipping at Florissant Valley Christian Church.
“We have a lot to rebuild,” Wise Baker said. “This is an opportunity for not just our church, but the community to understand who we are and to own what we should own … and not give it away, not sell it away, not let people come in and take it, but to fight for what's ours, for our legacy, for our community, for our history, for what we've built and what we can build for our generations in the future.”
