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After Years of Neglect, Mt. Zion CME Opens Its Doors This Sunday

By Sarah Ledbetter

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkno/local-wkno-638720.mp3

Union City, TN – Up highway 51, just ten miles from the Kentucky border, lies the town of Union City, tucked into Tennessee's northwest corner. And in that city, in a neighborhood once known as Baptistville, sits Mount Zion Christian Methodist Episcopal church. Though listed in the National Registry of Historic Places, and now also in this year's Ten Endangered Places in Tennessee, Mount Zion was abandoned two years ago and now faces destruction by neglect.

One of the church's native sons has recently been named the next pastor, but to survive, Mt. Zion CME Church will have to be re-inhabited by a whole new congregation as soon as possible. Sarah Ledbetter takes a ride with Pastor Darrel Turner down the streets of his childhood, to the place where he found his calling as a pastor, and where the rebirth of a church has just begun.