(RNS) — A predominantly white church that sought to learn about its racial history has now dedicated a memorial to the enslaved people who once worked on the building’s land in downtown Washington, D.C.
First Congregational United Church of Christ, which dates to 1865, dedicated six recently installed stained-glass panels, titled “Forever in the Path,” on Sunday (Sept. 14).
A decade ago, the congregation began carefully studying its roots. Some members knew that the church’s founders were abolitionists and helped support the creation of Howard University, a historically Black institution in Washington. But when congregants marked the church’s 150th anniversary in 2015, Howard University School of Divinity professor Renee K. Harrison, the preacher for that occasion, challenged them to look deeper into its history, including into the former slave owners from whom the land was purchased…