By RICHARD WALKER
Kitsap News Group

BREMERTON — Ebenezer AME Church in downtown Bremerton opened its doors during a tumultuous time. And it was the right time.

It was 1912. The First Balkan War was an early domino to fall on the world’s path to a great war. The RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in the northern Atlantic; 1,517 people died. Former President Theodore Roosevelt was shot in the chest by a saloonkeeper, John Schrank. Vice President James S. Sherman died in office.

Through each upheaval and tragedy and worry, Ebenezer AME Church was a spiritual fortress. The faithful lifted their voices in prayer. They buoyed their neighbors and their nation with song. “Alas! what hourly dangers rise, what snares beset my way,” they sang. “To heav’n I lift mine eyes, and hourly watch and pray.”

So it went in the ensuing years. The Great War. The Great Depression. The Second World War. The Korean War. The Civil Rights Movement. The political and social tumult of the 1960s. Vietnam. Wars in the Middle East. 9/11. And so on.

Through it all, their voices, lifted in song, sweetened the neighborhood air: “O gracious God, in whom I live, my feeble efforts aid; Help me to watch, and pray, and strive, Nor let me be dismayed.”

Grandparents and grandchildren worshipped together here, putting on the armor of God and going forth to do His work. But recently, Beulah Jones said, younger people have moved on to other churches.

Jones hopes younger people return. It’s not a large congregation, so it’s a place where everybody knows your name. It’s historically an African American church, but the congregation is multicultural now.

“It’s a nice place to be,” Jones said. “It’s very welcoming.”

You can check it out yourself this weekend. The church, 904 Park Ave., Bremerton, will present a special musical program at 7 p.m. Oct. 21; there will be light refreshments. Then, at 3 p.m. Oct. 23, a special afternoon service will feature the Rev. Anthony Steele, pastor of Allen AME Church in Tacoma.

You’ll also meet the Rev. Freda Cash, Ebenezer AME’s new pastor. “She’s a very energetic pastor,” Jones said. “She is going to do good things for the church.” (Jones said the church also has “an excellent choir.”)

If you like to lift up your voice in song, or want to share your gifts, Ebenezer AME could be your church home. (With more children, the church could start a youth Sunday school, Jones said. And there’s enough space on the church grounds for a playground.)

You can become a part of the history of this church, carrying on the tradition of showing others how, as another old AME song goes, “to rest secure in His almighty hand.”

ONLINE: Ebenezer AME Church’s Facebook page.

— Richard Walker is managing editor of Sound Publishing’s Kitsap News Group. Contact him at rwalker@soundpublishing.com.