GRANVILLE — A tiny, red-brick church by the railroad tracks in Granville was pulsing with the spirit Sunday morning.
The joyful noise went heavenward, with a drummer, keyboardist and bass guitar player happily providing the backup.
Many of the songs offered on this morning at Redeemed Christian Church of God were of the rocking, swaying contemporary Christian variety.
The spirituals harkened back to the old-time churches (black and white) of the American South.
There was a delightful difference, though, on this Sunday morning, at that tiny, red-brick church by the railroad tracks in Granville.
Every musical selection was multilingual.
Verses were sung in English, but the choruses were delivered in one Homeland dialect after the other, representing the countries, villages, townships and cities the worshippers left behind when they lit out across oceans for opportunities and new starts.
The church billed the morning as a celebration of diversity — but that was only half right.
A celebration, it was, but the “diversity” part of the service wasn’t a special occasion.
Redeemed Christian’s pastor, Adeniyi Adebisi, was only too happy to explain.
First, though, was a matter of protocol.
“Welcome, friend,” he said, extending his hand to a visitor with a notebook.
Flags of many nations
“Every Sunday is a celebration of diversity for us,” the pastor said.
He nodded in the direction of congregants, most of whom were wearing ceremonial clothing from back home.
Adebisi is a smiling, compact man who came to Morgantown from his native Nigeria to earn a graduate degree in mining engineering from WVU.
His wife, Oluwatoyin (known as the “First Lady” of the church), is pursuing a doctorate in community development studies.
The couple is just as busy with the church, she said, as they are with parenthood. They have three young sons.
“It’s a quite full day,” she said, “but we wouldn’t change it.”
Change is not necessary, said WVU President Gordon Gee, who had a lot to do with the morning’s redundant billing.
The church invited Gee to the service, and he said yes.
He was joined by David Fryson, an ordained minister who most recently retired from WVU, capping a career that included one milestone appointment.
Fryson served as the university’s first-ever chief diversity officer and helped nurture a small — but vibrant — international community on campus.
Redeemed Christian Church of God has a geographically diverse congregation.
The international flags on the wall behind the pulpit deliver the sermon.
There’s the Union Jack of England, plus the national flags of Jamaica and Japan.
Canada, the United States of America and New Zealand have flags on that wall, as well.
The flags of several African nations also have a place there.
Still yet other countries, too.
Together, the woven fabrics make for a social and spiritual tapestry, which threads back to Granville, Scotts Run and a Mountain State of the early 20th century.
Sojourners infused with faith and hope came here from Russia to Italy to carve their purchase of the American dream in West Virginia’s coal mines.
WVU’s president alluded to that immigrant history as he stood at the pulpit of the international church.
“We have a wonderful state,” Gee said, “because you make it that way. You make it better.”
Taking it on faith
It didn’t take long for Rawlings Akondi to feel
at home in Morgantown. His first home is Cam-eroon, where he was born and raised.
Redeemed Christian is also home, said Akondi, who earned degrees here and taught geology at WVU.
So is the church’s bedrock of faith, which he says runs just as deep as the coal seams under West Virginia’s soil.
“This place is love,” he said.
And a bastion of hope in today’s uncertain times.
The youth of the church charmed the congregation with a series of songs for the service, coming down the aisles and singing through wireless microphones as they took their places on the pulpit.
White faces were present in the young choir.
“You see that, and you feel good,” Akondi said.
“You see that, and you start getting the assurance that maybe things are going to work out after all.”
Follow The Dominion Post on Twitter@DominionPostWV. Email Jim Bissett: jbissett@dominionpost.com.
