By the Rev. Jonathan Bennett, Associate Rector & Daniel Island Campus Pastor, The Church of the Holy Cross
You may have heard that there was a flood at Holy Cross’ Daniel Island location on evening of Saturday, June 6th. Not one of biblical proportions, but certainly significant! And while it certainly caused some challenges, there were good outcomes in the end.
It all began when a rubber gasket in our sprinkler system dry rotted and failed. This caused a highly pressurized stream of water to puncture through a closet wall and quickly begin to flood the Parish Hall building.
By God’s grace there’s an AA group that meets at the church on Saturday night. As they arrived they found water streaming out of the building, and one or two inches on the floor inside. Immediately they contacted the fire department, who came and shut off the water. While some AA members began sweeping out the water that was inside the building, our Rector, Chris Warner, and our Facilities Manager, Hal Rose, were contacted. They were joined at the church by Leslie Rose, Robert Boyles and his sons Robert and Andrew, who collectively were able to clear out most of the water lying on the floor before Disaster Plus arrived. Their clean up efforts required us to move the Sunday 9am Contemporary Service. Therefore, we held it outside, setting the altar and band on the porch, and putting about 100 chairs on the lawn. Despite a little humidity to deal with, the service was a hit, and attracted a good deal of attention from passers by!
What a great image of what it means to be the church! That in the midst of adversity we pull together, we continue to worship God, and in fact, we begin to worship beyond our walls, in the heart of our community. This is the kind of church body that attracts attention from passers by. A people that loves each other, serves each other, and seeks to love their neighbors as an act of worship to God.
A huge thank you to all those who helped in the clean up and in making Sunday morning such a success, but particular thanks to the AA group who modeled to us what it means to love our neighbor.
View a video
View photos of the flood.
