First Congregational Church of Detroit

Here is the story about First Congregational Church in Detroit.

First Congregational Church, Detroit

When we arrived about 15 minutes before the 11am service, the sanctuary was empty except for a small choir (about 5 people) who were rehearsing. Gradually about 20-25 people showed up, in a sanctuary that could hold maybe 600 or more. There were a few white folks like ourselves, but mostly black folks. One of the white men came over and introduced himself and welcomed us. His name was William Lange and it turned out that he was a retired minister who had worked at the church years before. He knew the church in Old Bennington, Vt and also knew my friend Arvel M. Steece. He brought the news that Arvel had recently died, which I did not know. (Arvel and I used to serve on a board together that met in Boston and I would pick him up in Greenfield and we would go into Boston and back together. I hadn't seen him for years.) To add to the coincidence, Arvel served First Church Detroit as an interim pastor back in 1983-4, and there was his picture on the "wall of ministers" in the back parlor!

Arvel M. Steece

The pastor at FCC is the Rev. Dr. Cindy Rice, who is a ball of fire. During the passing of the peace, she came to greet us, and when I mentioned Betsey, she immediately took our hands and said a prayer for Betsey. Then when she got back up to the pulpit, she interrupted the service and asked the entire congregation to pray for Betsey! Then she invited me to offer the Benediction. Everyone was extraordinarily welcoming and came up to us after the service to tell us they would be praying for Betsey. We were very moved by this. After the service, there was a full lunch served in the church parlor. In addition to that, they gave us a bag of food to take with us for our trip! Everyone said, "Don't forget us and please come back."

Ellen and Rev. Cindy

This church is striking architecturally. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Marker for the church

It was built at the end of the 19th Century when Congregationalists were sort of "feeling their oats." It is a blend of Romanesque and Byzantine architectural styles. The architect, John Lyman Faxon, also designed the First Baptist Church in Newton, MA. It reminds me of Central Congregational Church in Providence which was modeled on Hagia Sophia in Istanbul!

The Chancel. I'm sorry that they use a screen on which to project hymn texts

The Casavant Organ at the rear of the sanctuary

Part of the ceiling of the sanctuary

I should explain that First Congregational is not a UCC church. It is a member of the NACCC - the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches, which was formed back in the 1950's when there were a number of Congregational Churches which refused to join in the merger with the Evangelical and Reformed denomination to form the United Church of Christ. The is not a lot of love lost between the UCC and the NACCC. Back in the 1950's the feelings were very bitter. The reasons for the refusal of some churches to join the UCC were complicated, but one important one was that those churches felt that the UCC was going to compromise the autonomy of the local Congregational Church. It was going to be too "Presbyterian." I.e., the national meeting was going to be called the "General Synod," rather than the "General Council." A quibble, but with symbolic significance. Arvel M. Steece was an advocate for the NACCC. He and I served together on the board of the Congregational-Christian Historical Society, which no longer exists, but when it did, it was one of the few places where UCC folks, NACCC folks and even CCCC folks (The Conservative Congregational-Christian Conference, which was formed back in the 1940's - for theological reasons) all met together and talked to each other. I liked that.

We learned at FCC that the NACCC annual meeting is going to take place in Detroit at the end of June. And I learned today in an email that there will be a memorial service for Arvel M. Steece at the FCC during that meeting. I would like to be there, but I will be in Boulder.