AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – For nearly two centuries, one church in Augusta has stood as both a spiritual home and a cornerstone of Black history.

Trinity Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, known as Mother Trinity, helped shape not only a denomination but generations of faith, leadership and culture. As the historic structure undergoes renovation, its story continues to inspire a new chapter.

Early beginnings under brush arbor

In 1840, before brick walls stood, faith did. That marked the beginning of Trinity CME Church, when 125 enslaved and free African Americans made a bold move to form their own place of worship, breaking away from St. John Methodist Church, a white church.

“They wanted to start their own congregation, so they marched to the new location and began worshipping under a brush arbor,” said Erik Montgomery, a local historian with Historic Augusta.

What started as a simple roof held up by tent poles became one of the earliest and most influential churches in the Christian Methodist Episcopal denomination.

“Trinity was the very first one, the mother church in the C.M.E. denomination, certainly in Georgia,” Montgomery said.

Place of refuge and dignity

Founded decades before the Emancipation Proclamation, Mother Trinity was viewed as a place of refuge and dignity.

“If you can imagine, where can I go to worship God and not sit in the balcony or be considered a second-class citizen? A church would allow that,” Montgomery said. Trinity was that place, and that same legacy lives inside Trinity’s current location on Glenn Hills Drive. The history of the original church is mounted along the walls there, with pictures telling the story of perseverance spread across generations. “Saving and preserving this historical and sacred treasure honors what matters most in our history. It honors our heritage and even our identity as African Americans,” said the Rev. Dr. Tommie Benjamin, current pastor of Trinity CME Church.

Connection to higher education

Local historian Joyce Law explained the connection of the C.M.E. church to colleges. she said the genesis of higher education sponsored by the C.M.E. church began with the incomparable interracial collaborative efforts with the local M.E. Church, South in 1882 to establish Paine College.

According to Law, the successful concept led to the organization and sustainment of Lane College in Nashville, Tennessee; Miles College in Birmingham, Alabama; and Texas College in Tyler, Texas, all before the end of the 19th century. Each of these institutions has produced a long list of regional and national leaders.

Environmental contamination forces move

Preserving that heritage came with a fight, beginning with where the church was built. The structure originally stood across the street from a gas plant where decades of coal burning contaminated the soil.

“They determined that this was unhealthy. It was getting to the point where it might reach the water table,” Montgomery said.

Montgomery said these gas plants weren’t just in Augusta but were in every community in the country. In Georgia, they were owned by Atlanta Gas Light, which started buying out property owners affected by contamination.

“Chief of which was Mother Trinity right across the street. They held on for a long time. Finally, they sold the property to Atlanta Gas Light,” Montgomery said.

Atlanta Gas Light tried to save the church. In 2003, the company performed a decontamination project on the church’s foundation. It forced members to vacate the building, but the project failed and the church has sat empty since then, moving worshippers to their current location on Glenn Hills Drive.

“So, I got involved and the director at that time of the Augusta Canal Authority got involved and in the end we basically prevailed. The building had to be moved,” Montgomery said.

Remarkable relocation saves sacred space

It was a remarkable move that captured headlines, saving a sacred space that many feared would be lost forever. Today the Augusta Canal Authority owns the building.

Leaders there are working to restore it, asking the community for ideas for what’s next while ensuring the history lives on. The current pastor of Trinity, the Rev. Dr. Tommie Benjamin, has sat in on those meetings.

“There were a lot of ideas thrown out but the thing that struck me the most, was making it some kind of tourism. Where people can come in and see the actual physical structure, see some historical artifacts and even bring the families in and just see the story of Trinity or hear the story of Trinity how it was established back in 1840 and how its rich heritage that still stands with us very strongly today,” Benjamin said.

Personal mission for current pastor

For Benjamin, carrying that story forward is deeply personal.

“As the 40th pastor here at Trinity, I stand on the shoulders of giants. Carrying the baton in this season is both a sacred honor and a deep blessing,” Benjamin said.

It’s a legacy leaders hope will continue to inspire the next generation.

“When young people learn about Mother Trinity, I hope they’ll discover what our ancestors knew — that faith in God makes the impossible possible,” Benjamin said.

Copyright 2026 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – The YMCA of Greater Augusta will launch its 2026 Annual Fundraising Campaign next week with a luncheon.

The kickoff and prayer luncheon will be on Feb. 10, starting at 11:30 a.m. at the Columbia County Exhibition Hall, 212 Partnership Drive.

The event aims to bring together faith leaders, community partners and supporters to raise $1.7 million in support of financial assistance and outreach programs in the CSRA.

Ten pastors from across the CSRA will each lead a focused prayer over specific areas of the YMCA’s mission.

“This campaign is about far more than meeting a financial goal, it’s about showing up for our community and shining a light where it’s needed most” said Catie McCauley, President and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Augusta.

“Every dollar raised helps ensure that we can meet families where they are, ensuring children sleep in safe beds, families have access to nutritious meals, kids learn life-saving water safety skills, and individuals of all abilities and backgrounds have the opportunity to thrive.”

The 2026 annual campaign will also feature a Game Show–themed celebration.

Each year, the Family YMCA provides more than $2 million in financial assistance to children, families, seniors and individuals across the CSRA.

Funds raised through the Annual Campaign support the YMCA’s financial assistance program and essential outreach initiatives, including:

• A Place to Dream 
• Cheryl’s Kitchen Food Program
• Safety Around Water
• Camp I.V.E.Y. 
• LIVESTRONG® at the YMCA

In 2025, the YMCA of Greater Augusta raised $1,643,954 through its annual campaign.

Community members who wish to support the 2026 Annual Campaign can make a donation online at thefamilyy.org/donate or by calling 706-922-9130.

Copyright 2026 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Augusta Commission members got an update Tuesday on the audit of the Parks and Recreation Department.

They didn’t get the full audit report, but it was an executive summary that’s still in draft mode. Still, that tells us a lot about the audit, including that there were no criminal findings.

Housing and Community Development Audit

Augusta officials say a preliminary response related to an audit of the Housing and Community Development Department was received from Cherry Bekaert.

After initial review, the city has requested additional information to “ensure clarity and accuracy before the process moves forward.”

“The Augusta government remains committed to transparency and will provide further updates once the requested information is received and the audit is finalized,” the city said in the news release.

In November, Augusta Commission members held a budget workshop session with much discussion about the Housing and Community Development Department.

That’s the department that left the city on the hook to pay back millions in federal grant money. The city received more than $6 million in grant money during the COVID-19 pandemic, supposedly to help people who were in danger of eviction. The city never spent the money for that purpose, so the government demanded it back.

The scandal led to the exit of Housing and Community Director Hawthorne Welcher and sparked an audit of the department.

Audit findings

The findings reveal no criminal activity, but uncovered systemic issues rooted in outdated policies and weak internal controls.

UHY confirmed there were no criminal findings in the audit. However, officials say the problems uncovered are serious and years in the making.

Outdated policies

Many of the department’s rules haven’t been updated in more than a decade, and that’s what led to inconsistent bookkeeping, confusing ledger codes, and gaps in how spending was tracked.

The problems identified include:

• Outdated policies
• Inconsistent bookkeeping
• Gaps in oversight
• Weak internal controls
• Need for better integration with finance and IT systems

Scope of the audit

UHY’s team reviewed more than 20,000 transactions and examined:

• Lake Olmstead: Details on expenditures and ledger codes
• Community Centers: List of user groups and dollar amounts taken in with each group
• River Walk: Expenditures from all areas, including the additional $150,000 for 8th Street bulkhead
• Vendor Expenditures: All vendor payments and the jobs they performed, including consultants and lawn services
• Park Expenditures: All park spending broken down by park with ledger codes, including Fleming Park
• Employee Travel: All hotel stays with locations by all employees in the department
• Candlelight Jazz: Money totals for each date and how the money was collected and used
• IT Review: Any deleted files for the department that are personnel or financial
• Contracts: All contracts of $25,000 or less to verify the department head’s signature on documents, plus recommendations on automating vs. paper processes

What was uncovered?

• At Lake Olmstead, $91,000 in charges were spread across seven different ledger codes — including a $5,000 speaker fee logged as “advertising.”
• Community centers had no master list of who used the buildings. UHY had to piece it together themselves — identifying 43 user groups and more than $6.6 million in revenue over three years.
• On the Riverwalk, $1.4 million was spent — but the city doesn’t have a specific ledger code for bulkhead repairs, making it impossible to track some of that work separately.
• Among 36,000 vendor payments, they found missing invoices, wrong dates, and inconsistent documentation — but again, no fraud.
• When they looked at park-specific spending, 21 parks had no ledger code at all, and 30 codes existed with no park attached to them.
• For travel, some staff stayed in standard hotels — others, including the former director, stayed at more expensive ones. They also found travel costs buried in unrelated expense categories.
• For Candlelight Jazz, the deposits didn’t match the revenue the city reported — three years in a row.
• And IT confirmed that the former director’s email account was deleted, meaning auditors couldn’t review any of that communication.

Next steps

UHY says the next step is writing a formal response, and commissioners say they want that response before they dig into the audit line-by-line.

Parks and Recreation Director Tameka Williams emphasized the department’s commitment to moving forward.

“As a department, we know how to move forward. We understand the gaps that we need to fill and information for policy and procedures that we need to get in place.”

Williams noted that the department has already begun reviewing and updating its policies, particularly around monitoring and financial controls.

“We’ve looked at our policies with a fine-tooth comb, seeing what we need to update as far as monitoring and controls of our finances, how transactions come in, making sure that we are maintaining accountability,” she said.

Williams also highlighted plans for staff training improvements and the department’s focus on following proper procedures.

“We’re doing better. We’re trying to improve, and this is how we improve. We hear what has happened and then we change so we can move forward,” Williams said.

According to UHY’s assessment, updating policies represents “the best oversight you can provide,” with the consultant team concluding that many of the department’s foundational issues stemmed from procedures that hadn’t been modernized in over a decade.

Copyright 2025 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.