Sunday remains the most segregated day of the week in much of America, but a trio of local churches have proven that social divisions can be overcome with heavenly grace.
That’s the premise of the new one-hour documentary “Finding Fellowship,” which streams nationally on PBS and airs locally on Maryland Public Television (MPT), WHUT-TV and WETA throughout the entire month of February for Black History Month.
“‘Finding Fellowship’ is what I like to call a story of the possible,” Filmmaker Jason Green told WTOP. “It explores how three racially-segregated churches in once rural Quince Orchard, Maryland … happened to come together and merge in the wake of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968 [and] stayed together for the better part of 53 years.”
They include the Black congregation of Pleasant View Methodist Episcopal Church and the white congregations of Hunting Hill Methodist Episcopal Church and McDonald Chapel.
“[Hunting Hill] was northern and [McDonald Chapel] was southern … split over the issue of slavery,” Green said. “Maryland’s history on the dividing line of Union and Confederate plays out in this story. The merger is between descendants of former slaves and former slave owners. It adds to the dynamism and shows how we can overcome division.”
Green produced the hour-long film with older sister Kisha Davis, both inspired by their grandmother Ida Pearl Green, a longtime member of Pleasant View United Methodist.
“I learned this story from my then 95-year-old grandmother,” Green said. “She was telling me how her church had fallen on hard financial times. All three churches were struggling because this community of Maryland was transitioning from a rural to a suburban community. People were moving off the farms, so churches were losing membership.”
One evening, Pleasant View members gathered to discuss their uncertain future.
“Were they going to merge with another Black congregation? Were they going to merge with white congregations?” Green said. “As those discussions were bouncing around the room, news was delivered into that small room that Martin Luther King had been assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. That meeting was taking place on April 4, 1968.”
Rocked by the news, they decided to be a healing force in their community.
“What would Dr. King want in a situation like this? What should our response be to this moment?” Green said. “Ultimately, the decision of all three congregations was to merge together. … These pioneers wisely decided that they were going to buy new land, build a new church and also take on a new name. … It allowed them to create something new.”
Thus, Fairhaven United Methodist Church was born near North Potomac and Darnestown.
“The name Fairhaven is actually taken from Scripture,” Green said. “There is a story where the Apostle Paul is being taken to Rome and the ship that they’re sailing on meets rough waters, hard seas, and they actually take refuge in the port of Fairhaven. I like to think that it’s actually a really appropriate name because this whole merger was facing rough seas.”
What were some of those early challenges?
“As soon as these three congregations merged together, members of every original church left and decided this social experiment wasn’t for them,” Green said. “But there was a dedicated group of individuals who wanted to make this work. … How do you integrate the physical sanctuary? The church choir? What’s the preaching style? The singing style?”
He hopes other churches might follow this merger model.
“We are creatures of habit and comfort and worship in spaces that have familial or generational ties,” Green said. “This is the pew my mother or grandmother sat in. …. The thing I would challenge us to think about is: when are we going to be uncomfortable? If truly we want to grow … we have to find opportunities to be approximate with one another.”
Green himself worked on the 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama and served as economic counsel to help the nation climb out of the Great Recession. Today, he serves as the Chair of Montgomery County’s Remembrance and Reconciliation Commission, but even he found pleasant discoveries about his own family history through making the film.
“We learned that our father desegregated his elementary school [at Travilah Elementary],” Green said. “We learned about desegregating elementary schools in Little Rock, but I never learned about desecrating elementary schools in Montgomery County.”
You’ll also be glad to know that his grandmother is still alive and well.
“She’s now 103,” Green said. “Grandma Pearl is bringing it!”
Listen to our full conversation here.
