ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 15, 1997 TAG: 9703170018
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: MCCOY
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS THE ROANOKE TIMES
After a year's wait, they've entered their own Promised Land, in the form of a new church building that crowns a hill in this northwest Montgomery County community.
It stands on the very spot occupied by the old church, a 98-year-old white frame house of worship that was demolished last year.
The Rev. Gordon Lee, pastor of the church, said it was hard to lose the venerable old building, immersed as it was with historical and emotional significance. Some members cried on the March morning last year when the bulldozers knocked it down.
Challenging, too, was the past year, while the church conducted worship services in Centennial Christian Church's Fellowship Hall, a smaller building just down the hill. Sunday school classes squeezed into hallways, the kitchen and Lee's office.
All that travail faded to a memory last Sunday, when the church held its first service in the new church.
Decked out in their finest, worshipers packed the sanctuary's fresh new pews and witnessed the church's young members perform a special ceremony of deep symbolism. Centennial's communion table, carried out of the old church during the final service's benediction, was brought back from the Fellowship Hall and placed before the pulpit.
"I don't know what to say," said Lee. "This is the most wonderful feeling you could imagine."
Some finishing work remains to be done inside and outside the church. But the congregation is back inside its new home with more space and a renewed sense of mission.
Now, Lee said, Centennial can better accommodate both its young and old members. The new church has a nursery, more classrooms and easier means of access.
"There's all sorts of things that we couldn't do in the old church," he added.
Still, the new building incorporates some emblems from the old structure. The church bell has a new belfry, but it will still be rung the traditional way - by tugging on a rope. Some original wooden beams were installed in the ceiling of the foyer.
Most prominent are the ceiling beams that were fashioned into a large cross and set into the new church's facade.
Deep inside the new church's foundation are the ashes of the old church, gathered and scattered within the masonry by Lee.
The debris from the old frame church's demolition was burned on the property as a cost-saving measure. That, too, was hard for longtime members, Lee said.
Some saved parts of the old building as keepsakes. Tom Gearheart of McCoy fashioned ornamental shelves from old floorboards and gave them to church members.
Centennial Christian Church was built in 1898 and named for the 100-year anniversary of the founding of its denomination, the Disciples of Christ. It was the scene of countless sacraments from birth to death, one of this community's spiritual foundations.
During the original church's era, the community of McCoy changed drastically, from a sparsely populated farming community, to an industrial coal mining center, to today's quiet residential area on hills above the New River. Today, the church has approximately 200 members.
Family ties have endured. Many church members have kinfolk buried in the cemetery behind Centennial Christian Church. A number of old coal miners lie buried there, including several who died in local mining-related accidents.
In the new church's foyer, a picture window looks out upon the hillside cemetery. On a clear day you can see all the way across the county to the white humped roof of Virginia Tech's Cassell Coliseum.
Lee said the church debated the issue of what to do with the old church for more than a decade. The original building's basement often flooded and usually smelled musty.
That's where the church's restrooms were located. But older members couldn't reach them by the narrow, steep staircase, he said. Attendance suffered, too.
A number of renovation options were discussed, including plans that incorporated the old building into a new structure. Lee said none fit, not until Blacksburg architect Bobby Perkins conceived the new, half-million dollar building that came to be.
Members swallowed hard and stood by as the old church disappeared and the new building slowly took shape in its place. Gary McCoy, co-chairman of Centennial's building committee, was already involved in another delicate construction project.
As principal of Blacksburg Middle School, he's been part of the contentious issue of whether to renovate that facility in downtown Blacksburg or build a new school.
Bringing forth a new church has been easier, McCoy said.
"It's going to open a lot of doors," Lee said of the new facility, which will be formally dedicated on Sunday, May 18.
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON/THE ROANOKE TIMES. Former ceiling beams wereby CNBfashioned into a large cross and set into the new church's facade.
color.