DIXIANA, S.C. — It stands in a glen, resplendent in red bricks, its roof and windows trimmed in white. It stands dauntless and defiant, against all odds.
A new St. John Baptist Church has risen from charred masonry blocks, twisted metal and ashes. Its tiny black congregation, 40 strong, and a sanctuary full of visitors gathered Sunday to celebrate and give thanks.
Since colonial times, four St. John churches have been devastated in this patch of countryside near Columbia, S.C.: by war, a tornado, desecration and arson. But now, it seemed, these trials were over; a promise from God had been fulfilled. The people of St. John prayed and sang and honored Ammie Murray, the diminutive 65-year-old white woman who made it happen.
"Thank you! Thank you!" shouted the Rev. Isaac Heyward, a visiting pastor. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" He chanted and stomped and danced in a circle behind the pulpit, his black robe flying. "This little powerhouse of a woman! This is God's spiritual and special servant." He stood with his arms outstretched. "You are an angel. You are the expression of God. Everywhere you go, a light will shine."
King George's Revenge
St. John was founded in 1765 by a Calvinist from Switzerland who ministered to Swiss and German colonists near the fork of the Broad and Congaree rivers. He became a colonial patriot. In 1781, King George got even. The British destroyed St. John the first time. They burned it down.
White members of the congregation scattered to other churches. But their slaves, who worshiped in the St. John gallery, had nowhere to go. Near the ashes of the old church, they tied together tree branches and created a brush arbor, where they sang and prayed until the Civil War freed them and they could construct a proper church of their own.
They cut pine boards and built a new St. John Church nearby, in a secluded glen. The church was destroyed the second time on April 30, 1924, when a tornado splintered it and blew it away. All that was left was a single pine board lying in the dirt.
The St. John congregation cut more pine boards and built a second new church. It had a tin roof, a brick chimney and a pot-bellied stove. Somewhere among the new planks, the church members nailed into place the single pine board that God had spared.
