The Sunday after a tornado devastated much of the historic city of Selma, church congregations raised up prayers of gratitude for lives spared and prayers of comfort for lives lost elsewhere to the storm that tore across the South.
Kerry Fulford, right, embraces Shana Latham, offering words of comfort at Crosspoint Christian Church following a tornado several days earlier in Selma, Ala., Sunday, Jan. 15, 2023. Latham was one of the teachers who acted quickly to move children into safe interior rooms as the tornado caused heavy damage at the church's preschool building. – Leading Sunday services on the lawn outside his tornado-damaged Crosspoint Christian Church, the Rev.
Churches anchor the community for many in this historic city. Black congregations also played an integral role in the civil rights movement. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday is celebrated Monday, led the 1965 voting rights march from Brown Chapel AME Church. “The walls started shaking and I told my class, ‘Lie down and close your eyes’ .... and I laid down on top of them until it was over," Stockman said.“I was praying and I kept telling them, ‘It’s OK. I got you. You’re OK. I love y’all,’ ” Shana Lathan told her class as they huddled inside the bathroom.
His sermon for the day was titled “A Storm-Tested Faith.” Strong said the community’s faith is being tested because “this is an environment that we have to rely upon that relationship with God and put into practice the faith that we have developed."
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