- Feb 5, 2002
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Days after an electrical fire caused extensive damage at a historic African American church in Florida, vandals defaced the property with racial slurs and drawings of devil horns.
St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church of Ocala was damaged by a fire last Saturday night. On Monday, additional vandalism was discovered at the property.
The vandalism included racial terms like “Peckerwood Wellick” scratched into the building and added to the marquee sign, along with drawings featuring devil horns.
The Rev. Sha'Leda A. Mirra, senior pastor at St. Paul AME Church, told The Christian Post that the vandalism was “deeply personal for me, our congregation, and our community.”
“Saint Paul is not just a building, it is the communal space where we worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, it is the legacy left to us by our ancestors,” she said.
“It is sacred ground, a place where we have prayed, worshiped, grieved, and grown together as a community. To see it violated in this way, especially in the midst of mourning the fire, is heartbreaking.”
The local fire department responded to the fire Saturday night around 10:30. Authorities say it was an accidental electrical fire, reports WCJB.
Mirra said it's “painful to know that in a moment when we are already vulnerable, someone chose to target us with hate,” calling the crime “an act of evil desecration of our sacred space.”
Continued below.
www.christianpost.com
St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church of Ocala was damaged by a fire last Saturday night. On Monday, additional vandalism was discovered at the property.
The vandalism included racial terms like “Peckerwood Wellick” scratched into the building and added to the marquee sign, along with drawings featuring devil horns.
The Rev. Sha'Leda A. Mirra, senior pastor at St. Paul AME Church, told The Christian Post that the vandalism was “deeply personal for me, our congregation, and our community.”
“Saint Paul is not just a building, it is the communal space where we worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, it is the legacy left to us by our ancestors,” she said.
“It is sacred ground, a place where we have prayed, worshiped, grieved, and grown together as a community. To see it violated in this way, especially in the midst of mourning the fire, is heartbreaking.”
The local fire department responded to the fire Saturday night around 10:30. Authorities say it was an accidental electrical fire, reports WCJB.
Mirra said it's “painful to know that in a moment when we are already vulnerable, someone chose to target us with hate,” calling the crime “an act of evil desecration of our sacred space.”
Continued below.
‘An act of evil desecration’: Florida church vandalized with racial slurs, demonic images
Days after an electrical fire caused extensive damage at a historic African American church in Florida, vandals defaced the property with racial slurs and drawings of devil horns
www.christianpost.com
