For decades, Evangel Church International was at the center of life for Annette Kidd and many others in the congregation. Today, half-built condominiums rise where their church stood not long ago.
On a recent Sunday, Kidd and several former members visited the site in North Miami to talk about what they lost — not just a church building but programs for their children, services in Haitian Creole, weddings and baptisms, all the rituals big and small that tie a community together.
“It’s decimating … a congregation that was so vibrant,” Kidd said. “At one time we had 700 people.”
A 103-year-old predominantly Black congregation with deep Caribbean roots and Pentecostal traditions, ECI now exists only in their memories. Its end came after years of internal dispute. Despite a lawsuit filed by some members, the property was sold to a developer, the site rezoned and the church razed. In the process, ECI formally merged with a modernized, social media-savvy church, called COLLAB.CHURCH that holds its Sunday services in a rented school auditorium. Even the Evangel name wound up erased.