Charlotte church is known for shout music, soul food and now, fatal COVID-19 outbreak

Sharp spires lance toward the heavens at the Charlotte “mother house” of the United House of Prayer for All People on Beatties Ford Road, lion statues guarding the front steps.

But nothing about the Pentecostal-style church known for its exuberant brass bands and soul food cafeterias says “imminent hazard” — not, at least, until Mecklenburg County health officials used that term Saturday in shutting the place down.

The health department links six deaths, 10 hospitalizations and 181 coronavirus infections to an Oct. 4-11 convocation at the church that up to 1,000 people attended. The church had refused to take precautions to prevent the spread of the virus, the county said.

For only the third time in her 30-year career, public health director Gibbie Harris invoked her authority to order all House of Prayer buildings in the county closed for 14 days. Her order came a day before the African-American church was set to kick off a week-long revival.

On Friday, county officials said they had modified the order to allow nearly a dozen House of Prayer locations to reopen with capacity limits. Those included the Beatties Ford Road church, although Harris said public health staff have heard church leaders will keep the site closed through Nov. 5.

The United House of Prayer traces its roots in Charlotte to a summer-long tent revival in 1926 led by founder Bishop C.M. “Sweet Daddy” Grace. It has long been known for welcoming all comers.

But it’s also followed a unique path. Elders are “apostles” and “saints,” and below-the-knee dress hems are required. Mass baptisms have been held in swimming pools and sometimes under the spray of fire hoses. And church services come in a torrent, starting at 6 a.m. daily with five on Sundays.

“They’re not a mainstream organization,” said the Rev. Kenneth Robinson, who leads a newly formed group of Black churches focused on social justice, Concerned Clergy of Charlotte. “They’re a very tight, closed organization.”

The House of Prayer is not among the group’s 100 member churches. Its leaders are older, Robinson said, and also haven’t embraced technology such as the virtual services many churches have turned to during the COVID outbreak.

Still, Robinson said, county officials could have been more diplomatic in closing the church. In his view, regulators have given breweries more leeway during the pandemic than houses of worship.

“When one church is affected, we’re all affected, but it just made us tighten our protocols,” Robinson said. “It breaks our heart” to see the House of Prayer closed.

At least 1,180 cases of COVID-19 and 88 clusters of coronavirus infections have been traced to religious events across the state, the Department of Health and Human Services said Monday. At least 18 people linked to those clusters have died, the state said.

Phone calls to the Beatties Ford Road church went unanswered this week. The national headquarters, based in Washington, D.C., did not respond to Observer emails.

“We are following the medical guidelines of social distancing and maintaining adherence to restrictions; however, it is faith by which we are living in these times with a greater hope and understanding that by grace, God Is Never Closed,” the national church’s website says in an undated post.

Mansions and shout bands

The church was organized by “Sweet Daddy” Grace, who had been born in the Cape Verde Islands off West Africa as Marcelino Manuel da Graca and immigrated in 1903 to New Bedford, Mass.

Grace built the first United House of Prayer in Massachusetts in 1919 and traveled the country in the 1920s and 1930s, preaching to integrated congregations in the segregated South. The Charlotte revival drew thousands.

By the time he died in 1960, Grace’s $25 million estate included a coffee plantation in Brazil, an egg hatchery in Cuba, an 85-room mansion in Los Angeles and a 25-room mansion in Montclair, N.J., the New York Times reported in 1995.

In 2008, more than 5,000 church members lined up in Charlotte to mourn the death of Bishop S.C. “Precious Daddy” Madison, the third of the denomination’s four leaders, who had lived in the city as a teenager. The church claimed at the time 1.5 million members and 150 branches in 25 states, mostly in the East but as far as California.

“It’s a religion that very much welcomes folks in,” said Charlotte community historian Tom Hanchett. “It’s not called the United House of Prayer for All People for no reason. For members and people affiliated with it, it’s something that touches all parts of their lives.”

The church has built housing for seniors and poor families, encourages education with college scholarship funds and runs cafeterias that offer well-regarded fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, and pie for just a few dollars. The United House of Prayer cafeteria on Mint Street, near Bank of America Stadium, once made Gourmet magazine.

Hanchett believes the face-paced mix of gospel and jazz known as “shout music” evolved in the church in the 1940s.

A band is mostly trombones, with a tuba or two, a bass drum, a snare drum and other percussion instruments around them. Young members could learn to blow a single note on a trombone, Hanchett said, and soon would find themselves part of a band.

“The music, like the cafeterias, is an involvement thing,” he said. “It’s about joy.”

‘Stepping over their bodies’

Vilma Leake, the District 2 Mecklenburg County commissioner, isn’t a member but has visited the Beatties Ford Road church and other locations many times. She normally attends the annual convocations but didn’t go this year, when the outbreak began.

“The experience is wonderful if you’re a true believer in the Christian faith,” she said, describing the music and open-armed welcomes she’s received. Leake, who taught at Charlotte’s Independence High for nearly 30 years, said she never had trouble with the “very mannerly” students from House of Prayer families.

Leake said she has called a representative of Bishop C.M. Bailey, the church’s current leader, nearly nightly in recent days. She said she was told that the church, as precautions in advance of the convocation, had limited bus trips to bring attendees from out of town and had set up a tent for overflow seating to increase social distancing.

“They felt like that would be safe,” she said.

She said the church official has been “receptive” to her pleas to have members tested at the health department but didn’t explain why, according to health officials, the church has not allowed it onsite.

But two unidentified members said church leadership didn’t take the pandemic seriously and pushed ahead with the convocation despite some members’ concerns, WCNC reported Monday. The resulting outbreak has been Mecklenburg County’s largest from a single gathering or location.

“There have been other outbreaks and there have been a lot of deaths in the church already,” one member told the station. “You’re just stepping over their bodies and going on.”

This story was originally published October 29, 2020 at 1:52 PM.