By Phil Haslanger
The Collaboration Project Story Team

Two years ago this month, when folks from Lake Edge United Church of Christ and Christ the Solid Rock Baptist Churchmet together to sign the covenant that connected the two congregations in a new kind of alliance, Solid Rock Pastor Everett Mitchell looked to his right and saw black children and white children playing together at the edge of the sanctuary.

“This is the hope of what we’re trying to do,” Mitchell said.

Two years and a couple of pandemics later, that hope is still alive as the two congregations push forward on their vision.

The energy around that vision was on display on Sunday morning, July 18, when about 75 people from the two congregations gathered together in the sunny courtyard at 4200 Buckeye Road for a joyful worship service that marked the anniversary of this adventure. (You can watch the Facebook Live video of that service here.)

A few weeks earlier, Mitchell reminded people at Solid Rock why they were doing this: “We made a commitment to God as our congregations – Lake Edge UCC and Christ the Solid Rock – came together in one place - two different congregations, committed to social justice and living out the commitment that God has called us all to.”

It was at the beginning of October 2019 that Christ the Solid Rock physically moved into the Lake Edge UCC building. They had sold their building on Parkside Drive near East Towne and now helped create something new – a predominantly white congregation and a predominantly Black congregation sharing space while retaining their own distinctive worship styles and congregational identities.

A central idea was for this to be a place that could be a positive model for interracial relationships in Madison.

As Mitchell put it, “We can show our world, show our community that Sunday morning need not be the most segregated hour in America. At least here – at 4200 – we have made a commitment to do something different.”

There were some good steps forward in those first months, but then the country shut down in mid-March of 2020 as COVID-19 spread quickly.

Pastor Lex Liberatore from Lake Edge said that in the year-plus since then, some good relationships have been built between the lay leaders of both congregations working together on a variety of committees, but that those cross-racial relationships have not really reached the average members.

That’s one of the reasons why the two congregations are now seeking to hire someone half time known as a “shepherd” to work as a director of community engagement with both congregations to help build those relationships across racial lines. The combined project – known as the Alliance @4200 – has gotten $36,500 in grants to fund this position over the next few years.

“The enthusiasm is still there,” Liberatore said of the people who are part of Lake Edge UCC – a congregation founded in 1948, now with about 200 members and about 125 or so active in the life of the church. But the effort ahead, he said, is to make this “more than just a pleasant relationship between Black and white Madisonians.”

Mitchell agreed. “The ideal is still in front of people’s minds,” he said of the folks at Christ the Solid Rock. That congregation was founded in 2003 and before the pandemic had 350 to 400 members. But both the pandemic and controversy over a gay preacher giving a sermon last February has cut into regular participation.

“We have a lot to do to build the momentum,” Mitchell said of the Alliance. “All the things we were doing to build community have been taken away from us.” He is focused on strengthen the congregation he serves so they can take the next steps in relationships with the folks from Lake Edge UCC.

“Racism plays a different part for black folks,” he said as they try to build relationships. “It’s about trust. For some, it’s not easy to trust white people.”

Liberatore recognizes some of that challenge. Lake Edge, he said, “wants to treat the Rock as owners of the building,” even though technically, they are renting space there. “Not everyone gets that,” he said.

Still, the two congregations have taken a number of steps together.

Once Christ the Solid Rock moved into the building, the old pews in the sanctuary were removed and replaced with chairs, much like they had at their previous church building. There is new carpeting, giving that space a fresh look.

Together, they are adding a tech center in the choir loft, using the technical expertise and experience of people from Solid Rock.

Lake Edge had taken down all of its art work with the idea of replacing it with images that reflected both congregations, but that has been on hold during the pandemic.

There was a project shared by the two congregations to provide food and mentors and after-school tutoring for the children at Frank Allis Elementary School across Buckeye Road from the church building, but that also was put on hold. There is now a garden growing behind the church that members of both congregations can work in, something that Mitchell calls “a symbol of rebirth, of starting again.”

There are lots of things in the works focused on the youth in the church and in the surrounding neighborhood. Jeannine Kameeta told the two congregations on Sunday about the Youth Education and Enrichment program that includes lots of reading opportunities, the prospect of a step team to learn percussive dance, a program with Dr. Jasmine Zapata to work with a couple of young people each semester to write a book and a forthcoming youth social justice and action program.

As the anniversary celebration came to an end on July 18, there was cake and ice cream and lots of conversation in the courtyard.

“This is why this alliance means so much to me,” Mitchell said as he wrapped up the sermon that day. “In these moments of thinking differently, of doing differently, I can see Jesus…We celebrate because we have created agreements and in those agreements, God shows up.”

Barbara Boustead cuts the cake for the celebration.

Black and white together in an alliance for the future

#soallmayflourish