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‘A God story:’ Payne Chapel AME Church in Canonsburg reopens

7 min read
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Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter

In this photo from May, the Rev. Marilynn Fisher stands in the nave of Payne Chapel AME Church in Canonsburg.

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Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter

A sermon has not sounded from the pulpit of Payne Chapel AME Church in Canonsburg for four years. That changes May 7, when the church is rededicated and reopened, a celebration that includes a ribbon cutting at 3:45 p.m. followed by a worship service and picnic at 4.

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Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter

Located just off Payne Place, behind St. Patrick’s in Canonsburg, is the Payne Chapel AME Church building, completed in 1902. Extensive renovations to the church were recently finished, and Payne Chapel reopens May 7, led by the Rev. Marilynn Fisher.

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Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter

The cornerstone on Payne Chapel AME Church in Canonsburg tells the church’s history, from its founding in 1824 to the groundbreaking of the current sanctuary in 1898. Renovations to Payne Chapel are complete, and the church is set to reopen this weekend.

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Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter

The original alms box and mailbox still greet guests inside the foyer of Payne Chapel in Canonsburg. Much of the original woodwork and all the original stained glass have been preserved inside the building completed in 1902.

Nestled just off Payne Place, behind St. Patrick’s Church in Canonsburg, the building sat, waiting for a miracle.

Payne Chapel AME Church Canonsburg was established in or around 1824 (no charter can be found, perhaps because of race relations at the time) and, though the nave was filled every Sunday through the 1990s, when the church was highly regarded for its three choirs, the Hallelujah Praise mime group, Tuesday Bible studies, the Inner City African Ministry and Behind Closed Walls prison ministry, no service had been held there since 2019.

“It seemed to have fallen to the wayside,” said the Rev. Marilyn Fisher, who was assigned the congregation of two in 2020 and officially reopens Payne AME Sunday, May 7, during a ribbon-cutting ceremony and 4 p.m. worship service. “When I came in – the roof was just, I can’t even tell you how bad this roof was, really. The toilet wasn’t running, the furnace didn’t work. There was mold all through the church; it was coming down the walls. We could’ve had a haunted house in here, it was that scary.”

When Fisher stepped inside her third church – she also pastors Allen Chapel AME in Elizabeth and St. Stephen’s AME in Latrobe – she realized it needed rebuilding, both literally and metaphorically.

“I had so many people that came to my rescue here,” Fisher said, taking a seat in a beautiful pew on a recent weekday. “It’s been just an adventure.”

Rebuilding the church

Renovations to Payne Chapel were quoted at over budget; the generous community made them possible, Fisher said.

Mold removal costs were lowered when Fisher, family and friends did their own demolition work, and the Third Episcopal District and Bishop E. Earl McCloud made a new roof possible.

With the help of crews from Washington County Jail’s Furlough Into Service (FITS) Program, which allows adults to work off fines, court costs and court-ordered hours through jobs with area nonprofits or with the Community Service Work Crew, the chapel was spackled, repainted, and cleaned head to toe.

“That FITS program came in here and you would’ve thought it was their own house, the way they were working. It’s a wonderful program. I can’t even talk enough about that. We couldn’t do it without them,” she said.

“It’s been a Cinderella story. You can’t tell me this place wasn’t supposed to exist. This has been a true miracle of God,” Fisher said. “Sometimes we think God’s not around, that he’s not doing miracles today. But he is. It might not be … the stories of the Bible, but it’s there. When people say, ‘You should be proud of yourself,’ don’t look at me. Look at what’s going on. This wasn’t my money that did this.”

The church renovations are nearly complete, with only minor cosmetic issues to resolve, and the entire basement to redo, but that’s a project for next year, Fisher said.

The pews are polished, the cross at the front of the church shines, and Fisher is eager to welcome guests into the sanctuary for a different kind of ministry.

Fisher of men

When Payne Chapel AME Church reopens Sunday, it will be a hybrid of the church established in 1824, when the Rev. David Smith of Baltimore ministered at meetings in private homes, and the flourishing Payne of the 1980s and ’90s.

“The vision is that we will become instrumental to the needs of the community, not so much that people walk in for Sunday service, but that it’s instrumental in going out the doors to the community,” said Fisher. “(God) didn’t say, sit here and wait for them. He said, ‘Go out and make disciples.’ What I see is becoming relevant to the community. I also want to see relationship building. You tell me what you feel is important to you, and if we can work something out and use these walls for that, then we’re going to do that. This is a little piece of Canonsburg that’s open to everyone. Everyone can be part of the ministry that goes on here.”

Payne AME currently has three members, but Fisher isn’t concerned about numbers. She’s eager to start a community garden, offer seniors technology workshops, and be a space for the lonely, the curious, the community at large.

“I see an outreach that can occur here. You don’t have to be anything here. Just be,” she said. “If you want to join a church, you’ll tell me you want to join. And if you don’t join the church, but you’re coming here and you’re getting your soul fed, that’s all I care about, because God will do the rest.”

Fisher goes about ministry nontraditionally. Already she’s started monthly $1 spaghetti dinners, a food ministry that’s met great success at her church in Elizabeth, and is excited to start a pet ministry when Payne Chapel AME opens. Folks can register for the spaghetti dinners, which truly cost only $1 and come with meatballs, salad and a dinner roll, by dialing the reverend’s number.

“It’s my phone number that goes on the flyer, so I get to talk to them personally,” said Fisher with a smile. “That’s the ministry style. This is a community thing and I’m very much a community pastor.”

Like her ministry style, Fisher’s path to ordination is also rather nontraditional. She didn’t grow up in the church, and was Methodist for nearly a decade before joining an AME church in the Mon Valley.

“I heard this gospel music coming out of this church: Bethel AME Monongahela. I said to my son, ‘I’m going in this church.’ He said, ‘Mom, I think that’s a Black church. You will be the only white person in that church,'” Fisher recalled. “I said, ‘No I won’t, because you’re coming with me.'”

The congregation was welcoming, and Fisher found a home there. She never questioned joining, but she did question her calling to ministry within that denomination.

“As you can see, I’m white, but you know this is a Black church, a Black-based denomination, basically. But it’s open to everyone,” said Fisher, adding her congregation was supportive but told her that based on color, age and gender, ordination might be a rocky road. “I was a little scared, a little apprehensive. I struggled through those next four years, kind of just making sense of things – up until the day when I was ordained.”

Fisher never expected to have her own church, but the day after her ordination, “they sent me out, to Allen Chapel in Elizabeth. I haven’t looked back since.”

’A good journey'

When Payne Chapel AME Church Canonsburg reopens with a rededication service this Sunday, May 7, at 3:45 p.m. outside the sanctuary at 31 Payne Place, Fisher will be, she believes, the first white pastor to lead its congregation.

The rededication ceremony falls 199 years after Payne Chapel AME Church was first founded, and includes a 4 p.m. worship service followed by a picnic.

The greater Canonsburg community is welcome to attend.

“This is a God story for real. It’s been a journey, a good journey,” Fisher said. “There’s something about this church when I walked in here. I love this little church.”

For more on Payne Chapel, visit https://www.facebook.com/paynechapelcanonsburg.

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