Brown Memorial Baptist Church’s Weekend Rededication

.

More than 500 patient parishioners attended Saturday’s rededication of the fabled Brown Memorial Baptist Church, whose crumbling sanctuary reopened after two years of renovations.

The multi-million-dollar renovation means that the faithful at the 172-year-old church will no longer have to sit under scaffolding or risk plaster falling into their prayerbooks.

“It’s a blessing they were able to [renovate] the sanctuary, especially in this economy,” said Rashida George, who came to the church on Saturday to be baptized.

“It was hard to concentrate with the construction going on before,” added Tom Griffin, another parishioner. “Scaffolding was over people’s heads as they listened to the service.”

Saturday’s rededication was led by guest pastor, Rev. David Kelly III, who preached under gorgeously restored arches.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the ceiling,” he said.

Architect Roz Li remembered the ruined ceiling all too well.

“When we started, there were structural problems and water leakage,” she said. “Our first priority was to stabilize the roof so it wouldn’t collapse.”

Ms. Li’s firm, Li-Saltzman, got involved six years ago, first examining all the damage, which included deteriorated plaster and missing turrets on the exterior. Naturally, she was on hand for the weekend’s ceremonies.

“It’s rewarding to see how the building is being used,” she said.

The church is planning phase two of the renovation, this time to install air conditioning.

The congregation has been inside the Washington Avenue edifice since purchasing it in 1958. Since 2000, the flock has been led by the Rev. Clinton Miller, who has stepped up the church’s activism, most notably by opposing the Atlantic Yards project, which promised basketball and jobs for local residents in the new Barclays Center.

“Brooklyn needs to make sure that [Barclays] invests in the community if they want to benefit from the American market,” he once told The Brooklyn Paper.

Brown Memorial Baptist Church, 484 Washington Avenue at Gates Avenue, (718)-638-6121. Sunday services at 8 a.m. and 11 a.m.

Here is the original post:
Brown Memorial Baptist Church’s Weekend Rededication