wfn.org | Church bells raise victims' spirits following tornado

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

April 27, 1998     Contact: Tim Tanton*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
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NOTE: Photographs are available with this story.

By Cathy Farmer*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) -- Night fell with a vengeance April 16 on
storm-wrecked East Nashville. No lights dispelled the gloom, no sounds
except the sirens covered the creaking of stressed timbers.

"Even though it was 9 o'clock and pitch black outside, we had to get out
and walk around," said Betty Adams, a victim of one of the tornadoes
that struck that day. "Our house had been damaged, and we were so full
of nervous energy we couldn't sit still. We put our two Llaso Apsos on
their leashes and went for a walk."

Betty and her husband, Ron Greene, discovered they weren't the only ones
walking around in the dark. Dozens of stunned and shocked neighbors were
walking up and down the street, numbly looking at the destruction.

"All of a sudden, the bells at Tulip Street United Methodist Church
started playing Amazing Grace," Betty said. The hymn rang through the
night, pushing back the heavy silence.

"The feeling!" Betty said. "If you could have seen the looks on the
faces of the people gathered there by the church. . . . We stopped and
listened, and then we started hugging each other. There must have been
30 or 40 people out there in the streets, and there wasn't a dry eye."

Trey Lewis, Tulip Street's organist, was playing the carillon. He and
friend John Gibson had climbed the church tower to investigate damage.
The 10 bells of the carillon were originally cast for Tennessee's
Centennial and purchased by the church. Tulip Street's pastor, the Rev.
Bill Miles, said the tower had to be reinforced several times over the
years just to keep the heavy bells in place.

"John told Trey to play something for the neighborhood when they saw the
bells were OK," Miles said. "When Betty Adams told me about it the next
day, she was still teary-eyed."

The church, built in 1891, sustained considerable damage during the
tornado. One wall and its beautiful stained-glass windows were blown
out. 

"Amy Pruitt, one of our young neighbors, called me about it," Miles
said. "I was at home, watching the coverage of the destruction downtown,
when she called. She told me she was sitting in her living room looking
right in the sanctuary. I thought she was just joking."

" 'No,' she told me. 'There's a hole big enough to put my house in.' 

"I said, 'Lord have mercy!' "

Pruitt, a member of Christ United Methodist Church in Memphis, plans to
transfer her membership to Tulip Street. She and her husband are two of
the newcomers who have given the church its first membership increase in
40 years.

"We have 188 on the roll now," Miles said. "Last year, we had only 175."

Terry Dorsey-Fannin, another member of the church, expressed the
thoughts of many at the Sunday morning worship service, a few days after
the storm. 

She said the missing stained glass windows were magnificent, but you
couldn't see the world outside. She hoped that when they were replaced,
part of the new design would include clear glass, "so we can look out at
the world we need to serve."

# # #

*Farmer is communications director for the Memphis Conference of the
United Methodist Church. 

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
Releases and photos also available at
http://www.umc.org/umns/