Longtime community church forced to cancel Sunday service due to continued vandalism

PORTLAND, Ore. (KPTV/Gray News) - A church in Oregon has been dealing with an increased amount of vandalism over the past couple of months.

The team at Bethel Baptist Church in the north Portland area said the most recent damage was so bad they had to cancel their Sunday service and are unsure of when they’ll be able to reopen the doors.

They found out about the damage Saturday morning when they walked into the church to find the entire place covered in chemicals from their own fire extinguishers.

“There’s no spot that they didn’t desecrate,” Sheldon Hall, whose son was baptized at the church, said. “We love this place. We really do.”

Deacon Mary Brown added, “I don’t know who we’ve irritated. It’s baffling.”

According to Brown, the congregation is made up of about 25 people, many of them who are well into their 80s, and a group that has been very close for decades.

Brown said the culprits seemed to have broken a downstairs window and then crawled through it either late Friday night or early Saturday morning.

Hall said this isn’t the first time the small congregation has dealt with vandalism either as a couple of weeks ago several windows were broken in a single day.

Brown also said this isn’t anything new.

“About once a week we get a rock thrown through the window,” she said.

When it comes to the chemicals covering the building, Hall, who is a contractor, said it’s not going to be a quick cleanup.

“This is going to take a major company and a lot of work to fix,” he said. “Nobody’s place of worship should be treated like this.”

Brown said insurance will help put them at another location for the time being, but it won’t be the place Hall said the congregation has grown to love for the past 40 years.

“I’m sure we could find some other church to do it, but it’s not their church,” Hall said. “It’s not their community.”

Hall said the church sees so many broken windows that they don’t always bother to call police, and claimed that when they do, they’re not much help.

However, Brown remains optimistic about the future of their church and is keen on “moving forward” and is hopeful they’ll find someone to help with the cleanup.

Hall’s son has started a GoFundMe on behalf of the church to help their small congregation clean up the mess.