The Strange Afterlife of Christ Church

 

When Christ Church closed in 1986, the Diocese of Maryland, Baltimore City, and Mount Vernon stakeholders had no real plan for what came next. The closure and sale of a large church in the area was not unprecedented; Franklin Street Presbyterian had merged with First Presbyterian a decade earlier and sold its building to New Unity Church Ministries. An altar-centered "high church" building with a high bell tower proved to be a bit tougher of a sale, though. With no congregational offers, perennial Democratic candidate and millionaire contractor George P. Mahoney, a Roman Catholic who lived across the street in the Belvedere Hotel, bought the property. 

   The bell tower is both    
historic, and a safety
hazard

Mahoney was the first in a line of eccentric characters to be involved with the the old church. He had run for governor and the U.S. Senate half a dozen times, most (in)famously losing to Spiro Agnew in the 1966 gubernatorial race. Reporters of the time described his supporters as blue collar workers and "fox hunting socialites," and his willingness to engage in race-baiting was well learned from other southern politicians. He eventually became the first chairman of the Maryland Lottery. According to Mahoney, he didn't want the bells of the church to fall silent, and kept the church up until his death in 1989. A month before his death, he sold the parish house to an architecture firm, but it would be two years before the church would find a buyer.

The church bells had a long history going back two centuries. Christ Church's bells had rung during the British invasion in 1815. They had been dispersed from the second Christ Church building and recast; some are now at the Church of the Messiah on Harford Road; others were moved to the new church in 1870. They were occasionally silenced by neighbors' complaints during the 20th century, 

When the building reopened in 1991, it was greeted with the front page of the B section of the Sun, proclaiming that the bells would ring again. Christ Church had been purchased by the fledgling New Refuge Deliverance Church. A predominantly African American Pentecostal Holiness congregation, the building was renamed New Refuge Deliverance Cathedral, under the leadership of Bishop (later Archbishop) Naomi DuRant and her husband, Deacon Albert Durant. 

Albert died when his fishing boat sank in the Chesapeake Bay in 1995 near Deal Island, while Naomi continued as a visible figure. She maintained an active radio ministry, in addition to the church. Walking through Mount Vernon on a Sunday afternoon, the drums and shouts of Gospel music could ring for blocks around the building, where the DuRant's Cadillac was prominently parked outside. The City renamed the block in her honor. 

      Interior as it appears today. Credit: RE/MAX    
Commercial Logic

It was during this period that I ventured in for what is, so far, the only time-before services. The experience was jarring. The tile mosaic floors and ornate columns led to the chancel, which was still glorious even in its reconfigured state. The pulpit was, naturally, still sitting high above the congregation. The organ was gone, replaced by a baptismal pool. The Episcopal and Maryland flags still hung in the rear gallery, untouched after two decades.

By the early 2010's, the church was showing more obvious signs of disrepair, and because of its place in an historic district, more drastic measures began to be taken. In 2013, Baltimore City erected the scaffold. By 2015, it had placed a lien on the property for the cost of protecting the public, and in 2016, made some emergency repairs. With slate and stone falling from the building, it had little choice.

In 2019, the City agreed not to put the property up in part of its tax sale, on the condition that the building would be sold. The first auction had no bidders, with the church wanting $1.35 million for the property. A second sale attempt was successful, with St. Louis-based Olivet Assembly purchasing the church for $550,000. They promised to remove the scaffolding by the end of 2021.

As of this writing, it is still there. Olivet Assembly North America (OANA) is an evangelical, historically Presbyterian group, which has come under scrutiny for its relationship with Olivet University. While OANA denies formal ties to the University and its now closed campus in Dover, NY, they share a founder in Korean pastor David Jang.

When I set about writing this, I was curious about a building. At the end, I think I may have written the most Baltimore of Baltimore stories, one that mingles high society, urban decay, politics, and hints of corruption. The only thing missing is Old Bay.

It's easy to look back a century ago and say that churches in Baltimore overbuilt. This is not the only decaying church. The lucky neighborhoods, and buildings, have been converted to other uses. On the east side, St. Michael the Archangel is now Ministry of Brewing; while on the west side, St. Martin of Tours has been repurposed by Bon Secours Hospital. Yet for each of these successes, there is the near ruin of St. James the Less by City Hall Architect George A. Frederick, its sister, Fourteen Holy Martyrs near St. Martin's, or the slow decay of Christ Church.

At the same time, there was a real need for these churches a century ago. These were full places. The decline of Baltimore's population and changes in religious observance brought us to this point. Ideally, the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, which is not without resources, would have found another use for Christ Church short of sale back in 1986. As part of an historic district, razing it is nearly out of the question. Due to its size, it is not easily converted to apartments, as has been done in smaller buildings. We are stuck with it.

It is easy to blame cities for their problems, and the failures of organized religion for the decline in observance. To be sure, no one, and no organization is beyond criticism. But abandonment of institutions out of cynicism has its consequences. Baltimore-and so many other cities and churches-suffer from that in an acute way. 

Ultimately, as a churchman who spent nearly twenty years in Baltimore before work took me away, the solution seems easy. Build the church, build the city. But even if that is not -the- solution to every problem like this, urban decay and its consequences are all of our responsibility. We may point the finger at those left behind, but really, we are just looking in a mirror.