Enlarge The stained glass window at St. Francis United Methodist Church.

Posted: April 20th, 2010 Ken Garfield

Crossroads Charlotte's Xchange Sermons is built on the belief that one great way to bring about reconciliation tomorrow is for preachers of different colors and faiths to swap pulpits today.

But it’s not just about the future. Some of these 31 pulpit swaps are built on a beautiful heritage, a proud acknowledgment by pastors that they walk a righteous path blazed by others.

On Sunday, April 25, the Revs. Ben Devoid of Dilworth United Methodist and Greg Busby Sr. of First United Presbyterian churches will preach to the other’s congregation. What rich histories bring them to this moment.

Today, First United Presbyterian at Seventh and College streets sits in the heart of Charlotte’s uptown renaissance, an African American congregation of 250 surrounded by restaurants, bars and banks. It’s a perfect location, Busby (right) says, from which to offer a spiritual alternative.

But more than its missionary work uptown, the church will forever be defined by its history, as its website explains: “At the approach of the Civil War, about 30 Negroes were worshiping from the balcony in the congregation of First Presbyterian Church. After the Civil War, the congregation experienced racial unrest due to the worship situation. During the same period, the Northern Presbyterian Church had begun to send missionaries down south to assist in the education, evangelization and Christianization of the recently emancipated slaves. The Negroes of First Presbyterian Church, being dissatisfied, left the congregation and established the Colored Presbyterian Church on Charlotte of Charlotte in 1866.”

Now known as First United Presbyterian, the congregation of 250 today shares fellowship and friendship with neighboring First Presbyterian Church. And on April 25, Busby, who has led the church for more than 15 years, will preach at Dilworth United Methodist. It is living proof that First United Presbyterian has learned from the past but will not repeat it.

“You can’t allow yourself to hate,” Busby says, declaring a creed to live by: “Reconciling with your neighbor.”  

Devoid (right), spiritual leader of the largely white congregation of 670 at Dilworth United Methodist, would love to see his church develop a partnership with First United Presbyterian or some other church that’s not like them.

“It’s a good time to open up our world,” says Devoid, whose landmark church on East Boulevard just completed a $1 million sanctuary renovation.

His passion for opening up the world was kindled when he served at St. Francis United Methodist Church on McKee Road in south Charlotte. His congregation enjoyed a rich partnership with nearby Jonesville A.M.E. Zion Church, an African American congregation located then on Providence Road West. When vandals in 1996 shattered stained glass and wreaked other havoc at Jonesville, the congregation at St. Francis United Methodist supported the restoration with money and volunteers. The white congregation also made a gesture that speaks louder than any sermon: Some of the shattered glass from Jonesville was incorporated into the stained glass window over the altar at St. Francis. The stained glass celebrates St. Francis of Assisi for what the church calls his “radical obedience to the Gospel in his time.”

Jonesville has since relocated to Idlewild Road in Matthews. But just as all these pulpit swaps will surely resonate into tomorrow, so does this single act of reconciliation reflected in shattered glass becoming whole again, and of two congregations becoming one in spirit.

“The window,” says Devoid, “has been a reminder… of how easy it is to fall onto old habits (the vandalism of an African American church), but also of the friendship that developed.”  

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Ken Garfield, former religion editor of The Observer, is director of communications at Myers Park United Methodist Church. He often writes on faith and values for Charlotte Magazine and other forums, and has been profiling clergy participating in the Xchange Sermons.

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