Reverend Julius W. Groomes knows a sanctuary. He began preaching at age 11 in a Baptist church in Lackawanna where his uncle was pastor. By age 15, he was leading Bible studies and teaching Sunday school classes.
“I’ve been in ministry my whole life, so I felt equipped and ready to lead spiritually,” he said.
But nothing could prepare Groomes, 30, for his current challenge as the new pastor of a congregation that worships a few blocks from the Tops supermarket where a white supremacist killed 10 people and wounded three others with a semi-automatic rifle on May 14
“Dealing with a shooting, on top of a pandemic, as if shepherding in a pandemic wasn’t hard enough,” Groomes said.
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Pastor Julius Groomes preaches at White Rock Missionary Baptist Church in Buffalo on August 14, 2022.
Libby March
The attack on Tops, which closed the supermarket for two months after the killings, highlighted the lack of options for neighborhood residents to get groceries and fresh produce.
But residents have plenty of houses of worship to choose from: at least 15 within a six-block radius of Tops.
Most congregations are small and operate with limited resources. They all face similar challenges in trying to help a community heal from an act of unspeakable violence.
“What has come out of this horrible, horrible situation is God’s people coming together from many different places and sharing their love,” said the Rev. Mark Hamilton, pastor of Faithful Stones Church on the street East Utica, nearby. the corner of Tops.
Groomes had been in his first job as senior pastor for six months and hadn’t even been formally installed as pastor of White Rock Baptist Church on East Utica Street when the massacre took place at the store where he and many of the church members bought.
Like most churches, White Rock was still reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic when Groomes took over in January, with some members only comfortable returning to the pews for in-person worship.
Pastor Julius Groomes preaches at White Rock Missionary Baptist Church in Buffalo on August 14, 2022.
Libby March
The Tops shooting, in which the white gunman is accused of targeting black people because of their race, raised an entirely different set of concerns about church safety. The shooter mentioned in some of his racist writings that he had considered joining a black church before deciding on Tops.
The church will not be intimidated by fear and “we trust God to protect us,” Groomes said.
But Groomes said he feels a duty as a pastor to ensure everyone in the building is safe. He is hosting active shooter seminars. The church will soon host a pistol permit class for interested members.
“As long as we gather in this building, as long as people come here, I’m going to do everything I can to ensure that everybody stays safe,” he said.
Groomes wants White Rock, which has 75 to 100 members, to be more of a community resource. Imagine an outreach ministry that gives book bags to school children and possibly sets up a food pantry.
Groomes struggled with whether the church should go ahead with its May 29 installation service, which had been planned for months, so soon after the shooting.
“I wondered how I could celebrate in a time of people’s pain,” he said.
Ultimately, he and other church leaders decided it was best to go ahead with the installation, which marks a marriage of sorts between pastor and congregation and is an important historical milestone for churches.
It has given him the opportunity to deliver an important message to the neighborhood and the church community.
In his booming voice as he preached and sang during Sunday’s powerful two-and-a-half-hour service, Groomes spoke of the “disruptor” and “enemy” who wants to destroy their way of life, but told his parishioners: “it won’t be like that”.
As he stood on the church stage at the podium with the words “peace, cross and hope” lit up behind him, Groomes delivered an impassioned sermon in which he said even the Tops shooter deserves forgiveness .
“God has been gracious to all of you,” Groomes told his congregation. “We have a duty to tell people, no matter how bad they are, that they still qualify for God’s mercy.”
That message in this time of grief has given strength to the community, said Quintella “Queenie” Cottrell, 63, a member of the church for 58 years.
On Sunday, he said it was also important that the church not close during the difficult times after the shooting so that they don’t show fear and show that evil and hatred will not take over the neighborhood.
“As he preached this morning, we want God to forgive us and even though it was a tragic and terrible thing that happened to those 10 people whose lives were needlessly taken, we forgive that boy, however painful and tough as it is,” said Cottrell, who was at the church on East Utica Street when the shooting occurred. “We will not let him and others like him destroy our community and our neighborhood and destroy the unity and love that we have.”
A policeman preaches
The Rev. Curtis Hamilton spread out on the floor of the Pedra Fidel Church fellowship hall earlier this month, carefully putting a new coat of paint on the wall over the plinths. The church was preparing the hall for a conference that would feature guest preachers from Ohio and Florida. Hamilton was excited by a full house, 500 or 600 people.
While Groomes was just starting at White Rock, Hamilton was ending his long-standing ministry.
Pastor Julius Groomes moonlights on percussion, playing the regular drummer for the church band, at White Rock Missionary Baptist Church in Buffalo on August 14, 2022.
Libby March
He stepped down as senior pastor of Faithful Stones in 2019 after leading the congregation he founded for decades. He turned the fireplace over to his son, Mark, a Buffalo police detective who serves as a minister.
Hamilton, 78, hasn’t gone away, though.
“We’re dealing with pain and heartbreak trying to serve the community,” he said.
Faithful Stones joined with more than a dozen congregations, including some in the suburbs, to host a community barbecue and giveaway of fresh vegetables and toiletries on occasional Saturdays in the church parking lot at Jefferson Avenue and East Utica St. Includes bounce houses and popcorn and cotton candy stations for kids.
The events draw 700 to 800 neighborhood residents and help bring “something of healing” to people, Hamilton said. The next one is scheduled for August 27. On Mondays, the church holds a gospel outreach in the parking lot.
The Rev. Mark Hamilton said the Faithful Stones will continue their focused outreach efforts long after everyone else has “pulled the plug and closed their tents.”
“We wanted to say very clearly, very resoundingly, that Christ loves this community,” he said.
This November will mark 53 years since Curtis Hamilton quit drinking, became a Christian and began preaching at his sister’s house on Laurel Street, just a few blocks from the current Faithful Stones location.
He says he feels physically better now than he did in his 20s, when alcohol and drugs ravaged his body. But he also knew it was time to step aside and let his son do the lion’s share of the preaching.
Church members still refer to him as “Pastor” and he continues to preside over occasional funerals and other church services.
“This is what I’m going to do until God calls me home,” he said.
Hamilton has seen the impact of evil and violence up close many times, but nothing like what happened on May 14, just around the corner from the church.
Still, he said, it’s no cause for fear.
“We strictly believe the Scriptures, when the Bible says: ‘Perfect love casts out fear.’ So we are not afraid of what may happen. The Bible says don’t be afraid of what man can do to the body. Fear God, who can kill body and soul, cursed in hell. Therefore, we fear God, we do not fear man”, he said. “Otherwise, it would paralyze us from serving. We’d go home and be of no use.”
Both Hamilton and Groomes were friends of Pearl Young, the 77-year-old evangelical missionary who was killed in Tops. Groomes attended a prayer breakfast with Young the morning before the murders. Her mother-in-law and her 12-year-old daughter were inside the Tops just 15 minutes before the shooter arrived.
Both pastors said they are sickened by the shooter’s racist animus, but also insist the only way to respond to such evil is to act more like Christ.
Therefore, their congregations have prayed not only for the victims of the shooting, but also for the shooter.
If Jesus can forgive those who nailed him to the cross, that same love “is in all Christians,” Hamilton said.
“That’s why we can forgive people. That’s why we pray for the person who killed,” he said. “We pray for his salvation. This is the way of a Christian”.
The shooter must receive his earthly punishment, Groomes said, but he still has a chance to repent and is “qualified for forgiveness” like anyone else.
“Our prayer is that his heart will be touched,” she said.
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