Mt. Moriah Community AME Church Dedication
By Florence G. Farrington, 5th Episcopal District
The New Church Dedication for Mt. Moriah Community AME Church in Maricopa, Arizona, was held on Saturday, January 25, 2020. It was an iconic celebration. The celebrants not only filled the sanctuary but also spilled into the foyer and outside. There were clergy, members, family, friends, and city officials present. The Rev. Arnold L. Jackson, the pastor, presided.
Bishop Clement W. Fugh, the presiding prelate of the 5th Episcopal District, officiated the ceremony. Hepresented the keys at the front door and the doors to the new church were opened. Bishop Fugh led the processionclergy.
The Dedication Worship Service began with prayer and hymns as Bishop Fugh and other clergy led the congregation in responsive scriptural readings. Scripture was read by Presiding Elder E. Teresa Nelson, Arizona/New Mexico District; the Rev. Sheriolyn Curry, Mt. Moriah’s founder and pastor; other presiding elders and the Rev. Jonathan Rhone, the retired presiding elder from the Rocky Mountain District. Other honored presenters on the worship program included the Rev. Dr. D. Charles Wharry and the Rev. Dr. H. Charles Farris, retired presiding elders and the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Thomas, Sr., the dean of the Desert Mountain Annual Conference and the senior pastor of Historic Tanner Chapel AME Church in Phoenix, Arizona.
Bishop Fugh’s sermon used 1 Peter 2:5. He pointed out that the church is a spiritual entity. We should not focus on form, like the building; but rather, we should direct our attention to function as priests, ridding ourselves of evil behavior, giving ourselves to God, and doing something for someone else.
“A long time coming,” was the descriptive tag that had been applied to Mt. Moriah’s formal groundbreaking held on June 1, 2019. The history of Mt. Moriah began when the church was recognized in the AME Church in 2007. The Rev. Curry was appointed its first pastor. Following her relocation as the pastor of a church in Phoenix, Arizona,the Rev. Arnold L. Jackson was appointed the new pastor. He and the first lady, Marilyn Jackson, arrived in November 2012.
Pastor Jackson described his first few months at Mt. Moriah as challenging, precipitated by receiving an almost immediate “Notice to Vacate” its rental site, with no place else to go for worship. However, as God closed one window, He opened a door to the Maricopa Veterans Center. This site housed Mt. Moriah almost right up to the date of the New Church Dedication Ceremony.
Those seven years at the Veterans Center were well-spent. One and a quarter acre of undeveloped land, located at 19275 N. Gunsmoke Road in Maricopa, became the focus. Unquestionably, it was a dirt and rock-filled morass of overgrown weeds. Nevertheless, it was land!
Mt. Moriah’s prayerful deliberation over the next several years allowed for the eventual purchase of this land. Anchored by tithes, offerings, fundraisers, and financial gifting, the congregation was ready to begin. They had come thus far by faith, strengthened by Pastor Jackson’s uncompromised and persistent avowal, “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain, (Psalm 127:1).
“It’s not easy building a church from the ground up,” was an observation heard at the June 2019 Groundbreaking Ceremony. Mount Moriah watched the steady progress with excitement as the church was built. When construction reached a point where it enabled them to do so, church members enjoyed one Saturday morning writing scriptures on the interior concrete floor and framing, to spiritually underlay the finishes.
Bishop Fugh concluded the worship with the Collect for Dedication. The new edifice for Mt. Moriah Community AME Church was now formally consecrated.
Foundational bricks, purchased by individuals and engraved with their names and scripture, are inlaid on the ground outside of the church doors. They give echo to the pronouncement that Mt. Moriah’s Dedication opens the gates for who shall pass by the Word of God for generations to come in the Arizona/New Mexico District.
Bishop Fugh’s sermon resounds within our realization that Mt. Moriah’s edifice illuminates what God has done through us as a spiritual temple. The building is a manifestation of our responsiveness to God as we worship and serve Him. Amen.
