Tearful goodbye, hopeful hello
Calvary Baptist Church's members say farewell to their downtown location and gear up for their new digs.
By EILEEN SCHULTE
Published December 12, 2005
CLEARWATER - On a cool, rain-soaked Sunday morning, Carroll and Barbara Nall were among hundreds of people who climbed the stairs to the sanctuary, crossed its threshold and stepped into history.
After 82 years, Calvary Baptist Church was holding its final service at its downtown location before moving to a $22-million complex at McMullen-Booth Road and Drew Street.
The day had special meaning for the Nalls.
The couple was married in Calvary's Rotunda in 1954.
"It was like family," said Barbara Nall, 72, standing near the spot where she was wed.
Standing nearby was Karen Center-Delk, 37, who has attended church at Calvary since she was a baby.
"I was baptized here when I was 11," she said. "Dr. Anderson was in a red robe. I remember him submerging me in the water."
Now there will be no more weddings, baptisms or services at 331 Cleveland St.
On the site will be a condo tower.
On Sunday, nearly every pew was full with members, some wiping tears away at times, saying goodbye to the past and hello to the future at a new mega church.
After the choir finished singing, the Rev. Willy Rice took his place at the pulpit.
To his left was a countdown clock. In red numbers that kept getting smaller it read 6 days, 23 hours, 38 minutes and 21 seconds to go.
"Father, you are timeless," Rice said. "You are the anchor that holds us through all that changes. As we gather at this special time, anoint this place, saturate this place with your presence."
When the clock winds down to zero, the church's members will have already left for the sanctuary a few miles away.
As the choir sang a song of praise, a series of old grainy photos flashed on the big screen. There were children sitting in a semicircle listening to a Bible story, a father and daughter smiling at a church outing and church workers posing on a staircase.
"How many people were here 17 years ago when this building opened?" asked Rice, referring to the sanctuary.
Hundreds of people stood up.
"How many people were here in 1923 when the Rotunda opened?" he asked.
Several people rose from their pews, if a little unsteadily.
"Eighty years," Rice said, shaking his head in astonishment. "Eighty years."
Rice told them how just days before, he, his wife Cheryl, the Rev. Bill Anderson and his wife Addie, stood on the roof of the new multimillion dollar house of God and held hands and prayed.
"He (Anderson) is here to see faith become reality," Rice said, adding it was Anderson's vision to build the church. "We will always love him. I'll call him my pastor till my dying day."
Then he introduced Anderson, who was Calvary Baptist's pastor from 1975 to 2002, the longest term in church history. It was Anderson who said God told him to leave this site and move to a larger property.
Anderson told the members that Calvary was started just one year after Abraham Lincoln was shot to death at Ford's Theater.
Indeed, the church was founded in 1866 by the Rev. C.S. Reynolds and called the Midway Baptist Church. The name was changed to Clearwater Baptist Church in 1878. But it wasn't until a woman named Elizabeth Whitmire donated $117,000 in 1920 that the church started to grow.
In 2003, the church broke ground at the McMullen-Booth and Drew Street lot.
Calvary members agreed to sell their downtown properties to Opus South Corp. last year for $15-million. In August, Clearwater's Community Development Board approved Opus' plans to build a 271-foot, 25-story condominium tower at Osceola Avenue and Cleveland Street, replacing the church.
Called Water's Edge, the 25-story tower would be the first step in a potential $250-million remake of a waterfront block that includes City Hall.
On Sunday, Anderson spoke of the most poignant times of his ministry, such as the day a 20-year-old woman lay in a hospital bed dying of malaria, and he kissed her arm and said "Honey, it's okay to go home."
And the times he was asked to bury the ashes of congregants on church grounds, including one woman who asked to be buried under a tree facing west so she could see the sunset every evening.
He said he had baptized 2,000 people and preached at least 4,000 times.
"Even if you came to Calvary just once, you are a Calvary graduate," Anderson said. "When we get to heaven, we are going to have a great celebration. God help you if you're not a member because it's going to be fun."
The new church will be open from 6 to 7 p.m. Friday for prayer. An open house will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. The first worship service in the new facility will be at 10 a.m. Sunday.
At the end of Sunday's service, every member was given a stone to remind them that, wherever Calvary's physical home may be, Jesus is the rock they can depend on.
--Eileen Schulte can be reached at 727 445-4153 or schulte@sptimes.com