The Ebenezer-Capitol Hill Cooperative Parish

The Ebenezer Capitol Hill Cooperative Parish Council, on behalf of the Cooperative Parish, has submitted two grants seeking funding for diversity training between the two congregations. These requests were submitted to the General Board of Church and Society's Ethnic Local Church Committee (www.gbcs.org) and the Baltimore Washington Conference's Unified Funding Committee. The following is the grant narrative, and stay tuned in the Fall for notification of the grant requests.

Recognizing that “racism plagues and cripples our growth in Christ, inasmuch as it is antithetical to the gospel itself,” (¶162.A) the Ebenezer Capitol Hill Cooperative Parish seeks to address the challenges of personal and institutional racism and the resulting racial segregation by creating a multi-racial ministry to address these historical and ongoing injustices. We will do this through training church leaders in racial and cultural sensitivity and then, together, envisioning and implementing joint ministries that address community needs in the areas of education and social outreach. Training will be conducted by Rev. Dr. Eric Law and the Kaleidoscope Institute (www.ladiocese.org/ki). An integral part of this vision is an ongoing education and training component that will be offered to other communities who wish to address these issues. The Cooperative Parish seeks to honor, celebrate and learn from the rich experience of Ebenezer UMC as an historic and powerful African American United Methodist Church on Capitol Hill, for we “rejoice in the gifts that particular ethnic histories and cultures bring to our total life.” (¶162.A)

Ebenezer United Methodist Church (Ebenezer) was originally Ebenezer Methodist Episcopal Church and was formed in 1838 when African American congregants of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, weary of disparate treatment, decided to leave that congregation. Trinity MEC was one of the four Methodist congregations that merged in 1961 to become what is now Capitol Hill United Methodist Church (CHUMC). Today, Ebenezer is designated a historical landmark as it housed the first school for African American children in Washington DC after slavery was ended. For 45 years, Ebenezer and CHUMC have occupied two corners of one block on Capitol Hill, and it is this legacy of “separate but equal” United Methodist churches that is our current witness to the Capitol Hill community. Ironically, this community stands in the shadow of the Supreme Court, where “separate but equal” was determined to be neither over fifty years ago. Our current witness is also a testament to the ongoing brokenness of the body of Christ—as Sunday morning continues to be, in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., “the most segregated hour of the week.”

We envision a multicultural United Methodist ministry on Capitol Hill in which Ebenezer and CHUMC are in intentional, shared ministry and are a witness of racial reconciliation to the Capitol Hill community. The reality of racism continues to plague not only the church, but also our society as a whole. The work of the Ebenezer Capitol Hill Cooperative Parish is vital insofar as the issues and realities we seek to address reflect the culture in which we live. Our work of reconciliation through faithful, loving, and culturally sensitive dialogue and relationship-building will serve as a model for both the United Methodist Church and all communities where persons of different race and culture seek to truly share life together in mutual appreciation and respect.