When a historic Phoenix church closed in May, the congregation donated a brass bell to a new Methodist ministry devoted to Spanish-speaking immigrants.
But last week, someone broke into the new church, Iglesia Aliento, and stole the bell, according to Pastor Flor Granillo.
The bell held symbolic value, Granillo said. It had once hung in a steeple at Central United Methodist Church, which was the second oldest Methodist church in Arizona, dating back to 1870.
Granillo said she was angry the bell was stolen but that the safety of families living at the church, which provides temporary shelter to asylum seekers, was paramount.
“I am more concerned about what people are able to do just” to steal something, she said. “I have families, vulnerable families, living in that church.”
Sometime during the night of Dec. 4, someone broke the lock to a gate at Iglesia Aliento and entered a courtyard, where the bell was stored on a cart with wheels.
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A security camera captured a man entering the courtyard of the church, located just south of downtown Phoenix, and then pushing the bell out of the courtyard. In the footage, the man is wearing a hooded sweatshirt under a jacket.
Granillo said people arriving for a citizenship class Thursday were the first to notice the gate had been broken. But it wasn’t until later that other members of the church noticed the bell was missing. Granillo said she reported the stolen bell to the police Dec. 6.
Granillo said she believed the bell was stolen so it could be sold for scrap metal.
Iglesia Aliento started a year ago as a mission of the Southwest Conference of the United Methodist Church to reach Spanish-speaking immigrants, including families seeking asylum in the U.S. after fleeing persecution, violence and political turmoil in their home countries.
The Iglesia Aliento congregation first met at the campus of Central United Methodist on Central Avenue north of downtown Phoenix. The congregation moved to its current location after Central United Methodist closed.
Granillo said she wove the person who stole the bell into her Advent sermon on Sunday leading up to Christmas. The sermon was built around a Bible passage, Malachi 3:1-4, about God’s ability to purify people.
“I turned my anger into compassion,” Granillo said.
The fledging church has struggled to get on its feet financially, Granillo said. To raise money, the congregation is selling Christmas tamales and hosting a tamale-making class on Friday.
Information about how to order tamales and attend the class was posted on Iglesia Aliento’s social media accounts, which can be found via the church’s website.
Reach the reporter at daniel.gonzalez@arizonarepublic.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Brass bell stolen from new south Phoenix church