New Life at Calvary
Members of the congregation of New Life at Calvary Church, standing in their parking lot after an EF-1 tornado destroyed part of its Fellowship Hall roof. Roofer estimates for the repair surpass, the pastors said, $4 million.
Antonia Martin, a pastor at New Life at Calvary Church in Cleveland, received an alarming text message while she was traveling in Jamaica last week. Something, the texts read, had happened to the church.
“Every picture I received just got progressively worse,” Martin said. “Half the roof was gone. You could see the sky! And then, when I got back, it was devastating to see in person.”
Martin is detailing what happened when, at 11:59 p.m. on Aug. 24, an EF-1 tornado touched down in the city limits for the first time in 31 years. For three minutes, wind speeds of 110 miles per hour ripped through structures in Midtown, and crested at East 79th and Euclid Avenue, where Calvary’s been since the late 19th century.
Last Friday, after a day of cleanup, media interviews and a general reassessment, Martin and colleague Kellie Sullivan, the church’s lead pastor, discovered even more pummeling news: Calvary’s roof repair would cost, it’s estimated, $4 million.
“I was hoping they were fluffing the number,” Sullivan told Scene, referring to the roofers’ estimate. “‘Lord, please don’t make it that much. Please, don’t let it be…'”
While the city has its own coffers to aid in storm recovery, to clean up cracked tree limbs and blown-out windows, private institutions like Calvary rarely have public assistance to aid in tornado damage.
Shortly after the storm’s wake, Ward 7 Councilwoman Stephanie Howse criticized the city’s meager readiness, arguing that City Hall is not well-equipped to serve residents who, as tens of thousands did, lost power for days, had basements flood, had trees blown into windows and yards.
“Every resident of Ward 7 and in the City of Cleveland deserves to feel safe and protected, especially during times of crisis,” Howse said in a press release, calling for a review of the city’s current response protocol. “The recent events have raised significant concerns about the city’s emergency preparedness, and we must address these concerns promptly and thoroughly to prevent such devastation from happening again.”
Or, in Calvary’s case, repair plans already in progress: Since Monday, the East Side congregation has already been asking for help, via a GoFundMe page, funding $105,000 in necessary repairs. Their boiler needed replacing, as did sundry bricks and mortar. Calvary’s Sanctuary building needed a makeover.
Mark Oprea
Workers begin cleaning up debris surrounding the New Life Calvary Church off East 79th and Euclid Ave., on Friday afternoon.
“And now we have to raise more,” Martin lamented.
Though Calvary’s Fellowship Hall has a temporary roof put in place—”to prevent the wall from falling,” Sullivan said—the surrounding damage from the EF-1 was quite intense. Debris crowding East 79th had to be shoveled up. Century-old decorative stones shifted. Steps were demolished. “We had our whole entrance in the back destroyed,” Martin said.
An offshoot of Public Square’s Old Stone Church, Calvary was built in 1880 as a rotational service for traveling ministers. In 1888, its cornerstone had the longest Roman numeral date in history. The 20th century brought a construction of a gym (a rarity in 1900), and reshaping of Calvary as a center for neighborhood service, offering “prayers for peace” during wartime, handing out lunches, even as a beacon for development in the long-neglected, and barren, Midtown neighborhood.
Both pastors confirmed that last week’s tornado damage is the church’s first. Such an act of God, as the pastors see it, has led to a resounding call of support from the community—what has been a pick-me-up amidst a whopping fundraising goal.
“We had people that don’t even attend here, give us calls, prayers, all kinds asking, ‘How can we help?'” Martin said. “Even the mayor’s called. Everyone’s been very supportive.”
Readers can donate to New Life at Calvary’s GoFundMe page here.