I was surprised that Kent’s Chapel in Brave was not listed when I searched online for United Methodist Churches in Greene County for this month’s story. Had pandemic lockdown closed the doors of yet another small church?
On this worrisome note, I called Spraggs UMC early on a Sunday morning when I knew someone would be there. Kent’s Chapel is part of the charge that includes Spraggs and Valley Chapel in Brock. These little country sanctuaries survive in forgotten villages with small congregations happy to do the good work of neighbors helping neighbors as they have since the first settlers came to build a nation, one village at a time.
Yes, it’s still open, I was happy to hear. And yes, Pastor Monica Calvert still comes from Morgantown to conduct services starting at Valley Chapel, then Spraggs and finishing up at Kent’s Chapel at 11 a.m. What luck! I had time to take the half hour drive from Holbrook to Brave along wild wonderful Dunkard Creek that is a sermon in itself on a wildflower studded spring morning. I would soon see what this beautiful little brick chapel looks like on the inside.
In one word: Awesome! And the congregation? The same.
In the moment it took to adjust my eyes to the chapel’s geometry of violet and yellow light shining through the stained glass windows, I realized I was no stranger here – someone was calling my name. Robin Ammons, my volunteering buddy from countless Mason Dixon Historical Park meetings was there at the organ, laughing, waving and ready to warm us up with a song or two while waiting for Pastor Calvert and her family to arrive.
Parishioners were relaxed and happily Covid distanced in the pews, ready for their weekly dose of Christian commiseration, ready to share their stories of living and loving it here for a lifetime of Sundays.
“I’ve been playing the organ here since I was in fourth grade,“ Robin said. “I live in Blacksville but around here we’re like one big family.” Kids in Brave used to be able to go school in West Virginia, she told me; family ties run deep, folks shop Morgantown for what they can’t find in Blacksville and everybody knows everybody.
“I started going here when we first moved to Brave, that was, let’s see I was pregnant with my first.” Mary Miller thought about it. “That was sixty years ago. Time flies. Things were different then. We all used to sit on the front porch and watch the ball games and my kids would go to the concession stand. Our house was in that stretch of houses just above the field.”
When John Wesley’s Methodists arrived with the first settlers, they met in private homes, then later in an old schoolhouse near Kent’s Mill. By 1873, the congregation had a church near Shamrock, a mile west of the mill. By 1911, the economy was booming and the land around Kent’s Mill was now the town of Brave. Ingram Kent donated a lot at the edge of town and traded more of his acreage to People’s Natural Gas Company for bricks to build a chapel. Brave Compressor Station employees donated the bell, everyone pitched in to dig the foundation and the Methodists returned to town.
Pastor Calvert brought some loving of her own to the sermon, straight from her horse’s mouth. When a horse won’t eat, you can’t force it, even though you could, she pointed out after describing her own picky horse at home. It takes patience or they’ll buck and run when they see you coming. It takes love.
It was an end of the Easter Season sermon, with Jesus telling Peter to feed his sheep. Here in a country church full of farmers, families and old friends, it made perfect sense.
And then we sang. And sang again. Kent’s Chapel, with its arching walls and sloped wooden ceiling, has perfect acoustics.
After services we lingered, taking photos inside with Robin holding the framed photograph of the hefty congregation that used to fill the chapel to overflowing and cause chairs to be set outside.
We talked on the front steps and no one was eager to rush home.
So how did the pandemic affect attendance at a church without a big screen TV above the altar and not a trace of modern accessories that go with it?
After the lockdown “We went to Spraggs. They had the best parking,” Pastor Calvert said. The three charges gathered outside and engaged their secret weapon – retired disc jockey Darrell Headlee – who brought his equipment and speakers for sermons in the parking lot. As the weather warmed into summer, tents were set up for socializing and bottled water was served. The combined congregations found projects to do in conjunction with other churches. “We assembled 150 shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child and took them to the Nazarene Church in Waynesburg.”
Spraggs UMC set up a donation box that is ongoing and Kent’s Chapel parishioner Denzel Watts did the same in his own backyard in Brave. Watts owns the old brick schoolhouse that the Assembly of God used before relocating to East View to build its church and campus. Pastor Calvert told me that a gathering is being planned for summer at the old school house across the road to bring Methodists – and the community at large, together in the great outdoors. I’ll be there.