| BELLEVUE
- Emmanuel Presbyterian Church, which started out in people's houses
and then moved to a couple of trailers, will soon have a new permanent
home.
The church is building a 3,600-square-foot facility on Highway 96 and
hopes to be ready to move in the first or second week of April. The
church's sanctuary will seat up to 120 people and will have a wooden
cross suspended from the ceiling. The cross is being made from a walnut
tree donated by members Fred and Carolyn Medwedeff. The sanctuary also will include a "parament," or Presbyterian symbol, that is being designed from
tapestry donated by a friend of church pastor Carol Tate. Bette Bryant, mother of church member Lissa Lamb, gave a copy of the tapestry to her friend, needlepoint
designer Liz Wilson. Wilson, who is from San Antonio, has created paraments in needlepoint for cathedrals in Europe and throughout
the United States, including the Washington Cathedral in Washington.
The church's youth are hand-painting another tapestry that will feature
five paraments.
The $500,000 facility also will include a galley/kitchen,
office space for the pastor and casual meeting space that can be used
for a nursery and/or Sunday school. The floors will be hardwood and
tile. Claude Smith, the church's building and grounds chairman, said
The Parent Co., which is the builder, has done quality work. The architect
for the project is the firm Street Dixon Rick.
The church campus will have a playground and a
30-foot-by-50-foot pavilion for weddings, sunrise services, etc. "They
want to do a walking trail, badminton, volleyball," said Linda
Smith, wife of Claude Smith. Plans are to also have a soccer field on
the property.
Church member Lissa Lamb said her father, the Rev. Dr. Bill Bryant, who is
the former pastor at First Presbyterian Church on Franklin Pike, negotiated
the land deal with former property owner Robert Stamps on behalf of
the Presbytery of Middle Tennessee because of demand for a Presbyterian
church in that part of the county. The closest Presbyterian churches
are Bellevue Presbyterian Church on Cross Timbers Drive, Harpeth Presbyterian on Hillsboro Road in Brentwood and First Presbyterian in Franklin.
Tate said the church's members, who number about
55, have faithfully come, even when there wasn't much of a building
to come to. "We had this low ceiling and cramped quarters,"
she said. But now that the church has a permanent building, she's hoping
the new facility will be more visually inviting to the community at
large.
Eight-year-old Bennett Lamb, son of Lissa Lamb, said he's excited abut the new church building. "It
feels good," he said. "It feels like a family."
Now, he said, he's hoping there will be a chance to meet new people
so that family can grow. "It's just a little church right now,
but it's a little church with a big heart," Lissa Lamb said.
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