Halfway through a recent outdoor Sunday service, a small Christian congregation on Madison’s East Side welcomed a bright, late summer sun as it peeked through a cluster of gray clouds.
“Every Sunday, we’ve had good weather, literally every Sunday,” said Camara Stovall, a longtime member of the S.S. Morris Community African Methodist Episcopal Church. “It will rain from, like, Monday to Saturday, and then it just stops.”
Stovall called it a “blessing in disguise” because for months now, this church has had to rely on the weather to cooperate in order to meet safely as a congregation amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Like most all organizations, the church shuttered its doors earlier this year to comply with local public health guidelines.