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<\/a>I left Utah on Thursday, July 2nd at 3:15 p.m. and flew to Denver, planning to board a connecting flight to Columbus, Indiana, where I was needed by my nieces. I found the right gate quickly. It said Columbus. I sat down and worked on my screenplay about Len and Mary Hope, a Black couple who attended an LDS Church<\/a> in Cincinnati, Ohio (1936-ish) until the branch presidency let them know that they should no longer come to church.<\/div>\nAt the time, the LDS Church maintained a \u201cpriesthood restriction\u201d which did not allow Blacks to participate in the most important rituals of the Church. The restriction was supported by common folklore that Blacks were descendants of Cain or that God was discriminating against them because of something they had done or not done in a pre-mortal world. The restriction was reversed without commentary in 1978. The undergirding ideas behind the restriction were \u201cdisavowed<\/a>\u201d in 2013. \u00a0Not surprisingly, they still resurface. There are still many (particularly in the older generation) convinced that the priesthood restriction was God\u2019s idea and we simply don\u2019t know why He decided to exclude his Black children from full church participation.<\/div>\n
Darius Gray and I wrote about Len and Mary Hope in our book, The Last Mile of the Way<\/a>\u00a0.<\/div>\n
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In mid-June, 2021, I had a sense that we needed to return to Len\u2019s story. We knew about the chapel in Cincinnati where Len and his family tried to worship before they were excluded. We had interviewed Marion D. Hanks multiple times about his efforts as a young missionary to transform the synagogue which the LDS Church had purchased into a suitable chapel, and then about his ministry to the Hopes, and their ministry to him.<\/div>\n
As I began my trip on Thursday, July 1, my husband was aware that I would be working on the screenplay during my flights. My co-author, Darius Gray, was also aware of the project, as was Marion D. Hanks\u2019s son, Rich, and Elder Jeffrey Holland, whom Bruce and I had talked to the Thursday before my trip.<\/div>\n
I was heading to Columbus to be with my brother\u2019s daughters. My brother and sister-in-law were in England, and there were circumstances which invited my presence at their Ohio home.<\/div>\n
As I was talking to my brother (in England), I mentioned that the sign at my gate had changed. It no longer said Columbus but Charlotte. The person next to me said, \u201cAre you going to Columbus? The gate changed. It\u2019s A-40.\u201d I got off the phone and dashed to the new gate. There was the plane. But the door was closed. I asked the women at the counter if I could board. One of them said, \u201cWe\u2019re flight attendants. There\u2019s nothing we can do.\u201d The plane began its slow taxi towards the runway and I made my way to a long line of dissatisfied Frontier customers. Two hours later, I was at the counter. I asked when the next flight to Columbus was. \u201cSunday,\u201d the attendant said.<\/div>\n
Sunday was my return day.<\/div>\n
I then had a series of little brain flickers. How about Indianapolis? I could get there and then drive to Columbus. How about Cincinnati?<\/div>\n
I could get to Cincinnati if I flew to Orlando at midnight and transferred to another plane. I would arrive in Cincinnati around noon.<\/div>\n
I put a notice on Faceboook:<\/div>\n
\u201cIf you are in Cincinnati, give me some ideas on the best way to get to Columbus. Seriously. I need a ride or a bus route or train route. \u201c<\/div>\n
I then sent this email to Jana Riess:<\/div>\n
\u201cHi Jana! Are you still in Cincinnati? I will be there (completely unexpected) tomorrow. I would love to see you. My flight arrives around noon. I won\u2019t be there for long.\u201d<\/div>\n
Jana wrote back:<\/div>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s wonderful! Yes, I\u2019d love to see you too. I have no scheduled plans this afternoon other than work, which is flexible. Let me know what you want to do\/see.\u201d<\/div>\n
She offered to pick me up at the airport, and I gratefully accepted.<\/div>\n
Meanwhile, I was in communication with people who had participated in the luncheons at the Hopes\u2019 place. They thought that the church no longer existed. I accessed the internet while waiting for the flight to Orlando and saw that the church did indeed exist. It had been purchased in 1954 by a Maronite (Lebanese Catholic) congregation.<\/div>\n
The church was near Jana\u2019s house, though she didn\u2019t know the history and hadn\u2019t been there.<\/div>\n
We rang the bell. Nobody came for a minute, and then a youngish (thirty-something) man answered the door. He asked if we wanted to worship. We told him that we were Latter-day Saints and knew that the building had once belonged to the Mormons<\/a>. We simply wanted to see it.<\/div>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re Latter-day Saints?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWe know that your church was here, but I don\u2019t know the story. I have wanted to learn the story.\u201d<\/div>\n
I told him that I knew the story and had written about it. I could send it to him as soon as I got on my computer.<\/div>\n
He said that they were in process of remodeling the church, so we couldn\u2019t go into the sanctuary, then added, \u201cThere are films. Photos. As we were excavating, we found these films from when the Mormons were here. Someone went through the whole building and filmed it. It was on\u2014the round kind of\u2013. He gestured.<\/div>\n
\u201cFilm,\u201d I said. I am old enough to remember those metal canisters.<\/div>\n
He opened his phone to show me the things he had digitized from the trove of archival material. \u201cI\u2019m an archaeologist by trade, so these findings have been fascinating to me,\u201d he said. \u201cI am grateful to your church for what it has done with genealogy. I know that you gather names to do baptisms, but the names themselves and the histories are the treasure for us.\u201d<\/div>\n
I replied that the story of each person is sacred scripture.<\/div>\n
He had wanted to invite the Latter-day Saints to their re-dedication reception on August 17th, 2021, but didn\u2019t know who to call. I told him I would connect him to church leaders in Salt Lake City and in Cincinnati. More importantly, Jana let him know that she lived in Cincinnati and that she would attend. (Jana is an important writer<\/a> for Religion News and does columns which my daughter and I read whenever they\u2019re published. Her words have often been an inspiration for me.)<\/div>\n
We took some literature about his congregation\u2014the Maronites\u2014and took his card, which I photographed and texted to Darius. When I was finally able to talk to him, I said, \u201cThere\u2019s film.\u201d I described what the priest had told us about.<\/div>\n