II. Reverend Meares

In 1953, Reverend Edmond Mares took over the leadership of First Light. The news puzzled the congregation and raised questions about why this man was chosen for the task. Meares had been a member of the chapel since the walls first went up, but that faithful attendance hadn't earned him any friends. He was an unlikeable man with stern leanings, firmly convinced of his own magnitude.

Reverend Meares claimed to hear the voice of God, you see... and that voice was not happy with the state of things.

Under Meares, there came a swift shift in philosophy, and a new church name hinted at his taste for the apocalyptic. First Light Chapel became the Temple of the Seven Trumpets. No time on the podium was given to Divine love and forgiveness. Reverend Meares favored the vengeful God of the Old Testament. Fire and brimstone were His flavor, and wrath His chief commandment.

When challenged on the crueler take, he claimed, "Some might seek to neuter Him, and that will no longer pass muster in our congregation. Our God is a fierce and mighty God, a God of blood and war against His enemies”.

Most of the city, still weary from the high price paid in World War II, was less than keen on this message. In a matter of weeks, almost all members of the former First Light found other places to worship. It should have been the end of Reverend Meares' tenure.

But when the lights go out, the roaches will swarm.

Meares kept spewing hate, and soon, a hankering host of new listeners began to form around him. As the rope-skipping schoolgirls would later rhyme:

"Reverend Meares 

found his ears,

 and woe unto those 

who crossed him."