Weekend Plug-in 🔌

Editor’s note: Every Friday, “Weekend Plug-in” meets readers at the intersection of faith and news. Subscribe now to get this column delivered straight to your inbox. Got feedback or ideas? Email Bobby Ross Jr. at therossnews@gmail.com.

SULPHUR, Okla. — A miracle. That’s what Pam Chitwood calls it.

To her surprise — and delight — the First Christian Church’s century-old stained-glass windows survived a monster tornado that ravaged this southern Oklahoma town this past weekend.

I met Chitwood unexpectedly on Wednesday at the edge of this rural community’s battered downtown.

I was gazing at the pile of crumbled bricks and twisted limbs outside the majestic church — and wondering whom I might call for details on its history — when the 62-year-old elder drove up.

She sported a “Sulphur Strong” sticker on her bright yellow work vest and greeted me with a weary smile.

“Are you a member here?” I asked, curious about the church, which took a beating as the EF3 twister struck Sulphur — about 90 miles south of Oklahoma City — late Saturday night.

She nodded affirmatively.

“I’ve been a member here since I was 4 years old,” she said of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) congregation, her spiritual home for 58 years.

Chitwood can’t help but become emotional when she talks about the church where she has witnessed so many baptisms and attended countless weddings and funerals.

Her story reminds me of the ones I heard after a different tornado destroyed or heavily damaged a half-dozen historic churches in the central core of Mayfield, Kentucky, in December 2021.

Here in Sulphur, the twister ripped through the town of 5,000 during an outbreak of severe weather that killed four people and injured about 300 in Oklahoma. One of the deaths occurred when the roof collapsed at a downtown bar a short walking distance from First Christian.

“I finally lost it this morning,” Chitwood told me four days after the storm.

She described how she broke down in tears as she drove past destroyed businesses and houses on her way to volunteer at the Murray County Expo Center, a hub for distributing food, clothing and emergency supplies to storm victims.

As always after disasters, the “faith-based FEMA” has helped lead the tornado relief effort in Sulphur.

Amid Chitwood’s heartbreak over her hometown’s losses, she finds hope in the stained-glass windows — 11 of them in all — which escaped the tornado with only a few minor cracks.

The colorful windows surround First Christian’s sanctuary and depict scenes from the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

The congregation’s roots date back to the 1800s, and the sanctuary opened in 1928. But church leaders don’t know the exact history of the windows.

“We like to think that they came from Italy or France or someplace from an old church that maybe they were getting rid of,” Chitwood said. “And maybe we got them from them. 

“We don’t know the story,” she explained. “We can’t find the history on the church.”

First Christian’s flock is small in terms of numbers, drawing 39 worshipers a week ago Sunday, according to the April 28 church bulletin (printed before the storm).

But to Chitwood and her fellow Christians, it’s an extremely special place.

“For one thing, look at how it’s built and how old it is, and it’s been standing all this time,” Michael Ranallo, First Christian’s property chair, said of what makes it special. 

“And the members are very proud of this church and do everything they can to take care of it,” added the 73-year-old father and grandfather.

The tornado shredded the church’s roof and punched a hole in its loft, providing an unwelcomed, open-air view of the path of destruction in Sulphur’s business district.

“We were depressed,” Ranallo said of the devastation, “but we thanked God that all these windows were still here and that this building was still here.”

Chitwood cried as she noted that First Christian is one of only three historic downtown buildings left standing. 

The others, she said, are a former Presbyterian church, now a dance center, and the Arbuckle Historical Society, which once housed Sulphur’s city hall.

When Chitwood and I talked, the church was waiting for a structural engineer’s assessment.

The big question: Can the beloved church building be salvaged?

“It looks fine, doesn’t it?” Chitwood asked with a chuckle.

The windows’ survival was one miracle, in her view. 

Now she’s asking God for another one: a positive report from the engineer.

“We’re just praying and praying and praying,” she said.

Inside The Godbeat

The United Methodist Church’s vote to repeal a ban on LGBTQ clergy was big news this week, covered by Religion Unplugged’s own Clemente Lisi.

Among the Godbeat pros who traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina, to report on the UMC’s long-awaited General Conference were The Associated Press’ Peter Smith, Religion News Service’s Yonat Shimron and The Tennessean’s Liam Adams.

The Final Plug

While in Sulphur, I interviewed Christians who mobilized help after the tornado.

Read my story on how one church swung into action.

Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend.

Bobby Ross Jr. writes the Weekend Plug-in column for Religion Unplugged and serves as editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 18 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.