Laura Glesby Photo
Over the past 47 years, the church that Bishop James Perkins and Pastor Tanzella Perkins founded has grown from three parishioners to over 400.
The Perkins’ legacy is evident not only in the community they started, but also on a Hill streetcorner that now bears their names.
Around 40 congregants gathered outside the Mount Calvary Holy Revival Center on Saturday morning, feet from the corner of Legion Avenue and Greenwood Street that the Board of Alders named in the Perkins’ honor. They convened for a ceremony to unveil the new street sign naming the corner after the church’s founders.
Bishop and Pastor Perkins started Mount Calvary Holy Revival Center down the street in 1972. Seven years later, their community migrated to the gray ridged building near the corner of Greenwood and Legion.
In that building, Bishop Perkins led the congregation until his death in 1993, after which Pastor Perkins took over his role.
Tancella and Trent Perkins (pictured), the children of the bishop and pastor, said their parents would have been elated to see the streetcorner’s new name.
“Even though they’re sleeping now, I believe they know,” Tancella said.
Tancella recalled that her father’s shortest-ever sermon inside the Legion Avenue church was an hour and a half long. When he got particularly passionate, she said, his talks could last the whole night.
Trent said the Bishop devoted himself to mentorship. “My father opened the doors to other young preachers,” he said.
Meanwhile, Pastor Tanzella Perkins was known as a “radio pastor” to her family; she kept her sermons to an average of 15 minutes, short and sweet.
She would come into the church building every day at noon to pray, Trent recalled.
The siblings were joined by dozens of congregants and friends.
Theresa Morant, a congregant who joined the church after both founders’ deaths, said she felt their presence despite not having met them. “They worked tirelessly for this building,” she said.
Vicky Mariconde, a friend of the family, sang “How Great is Our God” as a part of the ceremony. She had never met Bishop Perkins, but she recalled that the pastor was always “outgoing, energetic.”
“Their hard work was not in vain,” Mariconde added.
In her speech, Tancella noted that the name of the street — Legion Avenue — evokes a massive group of people. The small church that Pastor and Bishop Perkins founded has grown into a legion, she said.
Ron Hurt (pictured), another Hill pastor and the ward’s alder, helped make the corner naming happen. He cast Mount Calvary Holy Revival Center as one of the faith communities that have helped the Hill neighborhood come together in tough times. The church recently held a community food and voter registration drive. “I feel so much safer with the Calvary,” Hurt said.
Overseer Daniel Bland, the church’s current leader, said that the ceremony brought joy amid the difficulties of the coronavirus: “During this time, what people need is hope.”
The street sign was finally revealed …
… identifying the intersection as “Bishop James & Pastor Tanzella Perkins Corner” from then onwards.
Afterwards, Tancella distributed 38 balloons — 19 green in honor of her father, and 19 white in honor of her mother — for those gathered to release.
As the congregants let go, the balloons floated skyward from the street.
This is a lovely tribute, and it is not my intention to undermine it in any way, but please! Please! PLEASE! Stop! Releasing! Balloons!
All released balloons, including those falsely marketed as "biodegradable latex," return to Earth as ugly litter. They kill countless animals and cause dangerous power outages. Balloons are also a waste of Helium, a finite resource. Balloons can travel thousands of miles and pollute the most remote and pristine places.