Historic Chesapeake Church Celebrating Groundbreaking and Community This Weekend

Posted: Aug 16, 2021 / 07:03 PM EDT / Updated: Aug 17, 2021 / 09:29 AM EDT. 

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — Nearly a year after a historic Chesapeake church went up in flames, the congregation is getting ready to celebrate breaking ground on their new building.

Last August, Gabriel Chapel AME Zion Church off Long Ridge Road caught on fire after it was struck by lightning.

While many churches were trying to find ways how to hold services virtually, Pastor Sandi Hutchinson says they were just trying to find spaces to have a service when many locations like libraries weren’t open yet.

“It’s been tough,” she said. “It hasn’t been just about the building the physical church back. It’s about building the morale of the people both physically and spiritually, whose families have been there for generations. We have people at our church who are 100 years old whose parents and grandparents attended in 1866 or donated land for it to be built.”


Read the article on wavytv.com.