Building Hope: The Final Chapel Service of the AME Publishing House/Sunday School Union on 500 Eighth Avenue South, Nashville
By Carlene L. Douglas
For over four decades, on the corner of Eighth Avenue South and Lea Avenue—a thriving part of downtown Nashville—the AME Church Publishing House (Sunday School Union) stands in prominence. This iconic Sunday School Union building is revered as an AME mecca. A staple in the area, locals and visitors would frequent the building for bookstore purchases, chapel services, and interaction with AM leadership.
In 1972, under the foresighted leadership of the Rev.—now Bishop—Henry Allen Belin, Jr., this building was constructed. Forty- seven years later, on October 16, 2019, the final chapel service at this location was held, inspiring hope and inscribing a historic chapter in the annals of the Sunday School Union.
History converged during this final chapel service where Bishop Belin and his son, incumbent publisher, the Rev. Dr. Roderick Belin, and his predecessor, retired general officer, the Rev. Dr. Johnny Barbour, Jr., were present. The commemorative booklet included decades-old photographs of persons who were in attendance at this service. They came to give thanks to God, reminisce, close this chapter in this building’s history, and stand in solidarity with the AME Publishing House’s future.
The presageful sermon entitled, “Building Hope,” delivered by Dr. Belin bridged this historic moment with the past and the future. Based on Haggai 1:15-2:9, the sermon was a fillip to embracing the foresight of a new Sunday School Union facility, to serve the present and future AME Church. This moment in time was the intersection of reminiscence and prescience and a reminder that rather than being trapped and hardened in the remembrance of the good old days, we should build on them.
In highlighting verse 3 of the scripture, “Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now,” Dr. Belin cautioned that the prophet Haggai’s words were meant to encourage and admonish the people to rebuild the temple which had been destroyed when they were forced into exile. He prefaced this point by quoting W.E.B. DuBois’ words in Souls of Black Folk, “surely, memory always seems to glorify events of the past and even people in the past. But there is this deep and abiding sense that there is something more… A demonstrative, expressive yearning for a reality we believe ourselves due.”
From the sermon, we gathered that being trapped in the remembrance of the good old days, without the foresight of possibilities for laying out a concrete way to pass traditions to future generations, is futile. The community Haggai addressed was “teetering on the brink of extinction,” according to one scholar.
Like the temple and the life of the temple, the Sunday School Union is the center of the community. It is the cultural heart of the people of God. Dr. Belin stressed that this was an example of “how powerful, life-giving traditions are preserved and passed down to our children and children’s children. To neglect the temple while building up and enriching the self is an act of hubristic pride…This AME Sunday School Union building is a site of hope. It is a sign that something is happening. From here resources travel to all the places where African Methodists exist.”
There were many faces in the gathering reflective of AME Church leadership as well as members and friends of the Nashville AME community. Among the leaders were Bishop Jeffrey N. Leath; Bishop Stafford J. Wicker and Supervisor Dr. Constance Wicker; Retired Supervisor Mrs. Lucinda Crawford Belin; Dr. Henry Allen Belin, III; Mrs. Clara Barbour; Mrs. Delores Lewis; and the Rev. Dr. Joanne Cooper. General Officers present were the Rev. Garland F. Pierce; Dr. Jeffery B. Cooper; Dr. Paulette Coleman; and Dr. Kenneth H. Hill (retired) and spouse, Dr. Roberta Hill. Sunday School Union staff included Sheila Collier, Orlando Dotson, Tiffany Gregory, Mary Gunn, Michael Kinzer, Michael Russell, Andy Stanfield, and André Wright. Sister Billie D. Irving, who worked in the building in the Office of the General Secretary for many years, was in attendance.
Program participants included Bishop Henry A. Belin, Jr. (invocation), the Rev. Dr. Johnny Barbour (Scripture), the Rev. Dr. Henry A. Belin, III (benediction and blessing of the food), the Rev. Garrett Copeland (worship leader), the Rev. Corwin Davis (altar prayer), Sister Carlene L. Douglas (call to worship), Brother Konson Patton (minister of music), and Brother Samuel Robinson (solo). The all-round mood was ambivalent, for within the Sunday School Union walls were inerasable memories. Yet, in the present, those memories gave way to an abiding trust in God that God would continue to bless the AME Church through the Sunday School Union.
The AME Publishing House/Sunday School Union is one of the symbols of hope for the future of the AME Church. According to Dr. Belin, “we cannot become so enamored of the past that we are not intentional about building the future.” To repeat his sermon title, it is about “Building Hope.”
