Ambassadors Visit Trinity, Manoa/Havertown
Three Redeemer Ambassadors visited this active church on West Chester Pike near City Line Avenue this morning. The congregation has been of interest to us for some time since one of our members, a retired Lutheran minister, remembers serving his internship year with this congregation 60 years ago. Unfortunately, he wasn’t with us this morning, but we took photos to share with him!
The 10:45 service had about 60 in attendance, including a nine-member choir and piano accompanist for all worship. A lovely solo, Panis Angelicus, began the service. The sermon was about keeping the first commandment — giving your all for Lord. The message rang clear to our Ambassadors as our people have sacrificed greatly for our church, laying much on the line as individuals. Our devotion has been ridiculed and taken advantage of by denominational leaders. But the pastor, Dr. Dolores Littleton, admitted in her sermon that it is a difficult commandment to honor.
Members were quite friendly. Several went out of their way to talk with us and we had several good conversations.
The congregation seemed to be pulling together on many projects including an upcoming mission trip to West Virginia. It was older adults bragging to us about their youth’s activities. Their youth had just participated in a youth retreat in New Jersey and slides from that event were on display in the fellowship room.
One member talked to us about a ministry meeting in their building called Oromo. We had seen this listed in directories but could learn nothing about it. He described it as a ministry exclusive to those from an area of Ethiopia. We discussed our East African outreach with him and how we had grown into a multicultural congregation.
The pastor expressed a sentiment that she wished Redeemer members could move on and forget all the anger. Anger is a rightful byproduct of injustice.
No one suggesting we should move on — including our bishop — ever presents any realistic options. Law suits filed against our church and individual church members left no choice but to defend.
Which church near us (all which voted to take our property) would be willing to welcome us? We’ve visited almost all of them. They are very much like Redeemer in size and joining one of them is likely to find us being treated the same way all over again in a few years, just as our nearest neighbors — Grace and Epiphany, Roxborough, were before us. We care about our church and neighborhoods and are bound by faith to minister in our own community.
Redeemer is dedicated to finding answers to urban ministry challenges — not shuffling people, their faith and properties like playing cards.