Displaced by bridge, African Methodist Episcopal church wants to build bridges in Pointes

For all of her 80 years, Mary Claybourne has attended the St. Paul AME Church in southwest Detroit’s Delray neighborhood. The church is in her blood; two decades before she was born, her grandfather, John Stevenson, was among the founders who established the congregation 100 years ago.

The congregation remained steadfast, although everything around it slowly declined. The church on Rademacher sits in an isolated corner of Detroit, cut off from the rest of the city by I-75. It’s nearly encircled with heavy industry — Zug Island, home to U.S. Steel Corp. mill operations, the Detroit Wastewater Treatment Plant, a freight yard, the Lafarge cement silo — and the Ambassador Bridge.

And now, the southwest Detroit church, which is part of the African Methodist Episcopal denomination founded more than 200 years ago, is moving to Grosse Pointe Park. Its first official church service is Sunday.

The move, its pastor said, is in part because of the continuous decay of the neighborhood, but also because of the planned Gordie Howe International Bridge.

The Rev. Jeffery Baker said though they are moving away from a bridge, they hope to build a bridge in the Pointes.

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“My goal is to make St. Paul AME a multicultural church,” he said. “We have some members who are coming with us of other ethnic persuasions. I’m looking forward to ministering to a multicultural community and I want the community to understand although we are part of the African Methodist Episcopal church, it is not just for African Americans. The AME church ministers to the world.”

Baker wants to impact the community known for highly publicized racial incidents that have made national headlines, including when barriers were erected across Kercheval Avenue in the affluent, predominantly white community, dividing it from Detroit; and when white police officers were caught on tape in 2013 making a mentally disabled black man sing and make animal noises. Other racially charged incidents have occurred in the Pointes, including at its high schools.

Baker said he considered the racial tension before deciding to move to the building, which for more than 30 years was home to a small, predominately black independent Baptist congregation.

The church, at Wayburn near Charlevoix, has been rebranded as the St. Paul AME Church-Grosse Pointe Park. It held a dedication service last Sunday which included a welcome message from Grosse Pointe Park Mayor Robert Denner.

“I want to make sure the reverend and everyone knows that we are very happy you’re here,” he said. “You’re very welcome to be here, and I look forward to your very successful time in the city.”

A shattered neighborhood

At one time, the Delray area where St. Paul used to be was a booming neighborhood dotted with factories, stores, restaurants and jobs. Over time, things began to crumble when factories, stores and bars shuttered. Today, about 10% of the 24,000 population at its peak in the 1930s dwell in the neighborhood, along with vacant houses, blight, and trash-strewn lots.

A disproportionate number of residents are plagued with health issues, especially asthma and other respiratory conditions, according to environmental justice advocates.

The Michigan Department of Transportation purchased St. Paul's building for $210,000, plus agreed to do renovations on the Grosse Pointe Park building for just more than $200,000. The Gordie Howe bridge to Canada also took the site of the First Latin American Baptist Church on Fort Street in Delray, which was erected in 1906.

Baker, who has pastored St. Paul AME for 23 years, believes the relocation signals more than a physical move. It’s a chance for the congregation, with an average age of about 60, to grow and attract new members. It’s also an opportunity for millennial members with children, who stopped coming to Delray because they didn’t want their children exposed to blight, to return.

For some, the drive to church will take about 30 minutes.

“It’s a long way, but it’s a great thing,” said Claybourne, who lived in Delray until moving to Ecorse in 2015. “The bridge was coming through in Delray, so we had to find a place; we had to move. We didn’t really want to, but we had to. I’m really looking forward to seeing what we will do here.”

Claybourne grew up with many members, including Lallie Epps, now 89, who has attended St. Paul since she was 12. Despite the distance, Epps is committed to attending services at the new location, and hopes most of the 100-member congregation will follow suit.

“It’s my church home, and I love it,” she said. “Others will come all in time. If you can make it to your job and if you really have it in your heart you can make it out here.”

AME born from racism

The move reminds Baker of the origins of the African Methodist Episcopal church which was established in 1816 in Philadelphia, and grew out of the Free African Society which was founded in 1787.

When officials at St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church, including Richard Allen, a former slave, were pulled off their knees while praying at the altar in order to make room for white congregants, the black Methodists, led by Allen, formed their own church to avoid racial discrimination and obtain religious autonomy.

In the 1800s, AME congregations formed in the nation’s northeast region, Detroit, Chicago, Cincinnati and other large cities. The denomination eventually spread around the U.S., and to African nations. Today the denomination is in 39 countries on five continents.

The AME church gained worldwide media attention in 2015 when nine people were killed during a prayer service at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C.

Hope for the future

While the incoming Howe bridge was the catalyst for the move, Baker, who has attended NAACP meetings for several months, hopes the congregation on the Grosse Pointe Park-Detroit border can be a bridge for peace, racial harmony and unity.

“We hope we’ll bridge that gap and help individuals realize we are one community and one world,” he said. “If we can come together as one, we can repeat the pattern God has established for us. Divided we will fall. It’s time for us as a people to come together as one to fight for justice and freedom.”

He plans to minister to the surrounding community, including Detroit’s east side, by adopting a nearby school, offering self-defense classes for women and activities for seniors.

If Baker and his congregation expect to meet its goals, Greg Bowens, president of the Grosse Pointe-Harper Woods NAACP branch, said they must become an example.

“The fact they have picked Grosse Pointe Park as their new home to continue a long tradition is a wonderful thing,” he said. “The way to be a bridge toward more peace and racial reconciliation is to open the doors of the church to everybody.

"They will be joining a tradition that has been long established by the Unitarian church, Grace Community Church and several other congregations here," Bowens said.

Although it’s emotionally difficult, Baker said, the congregation is excited about the transition.

“It’s been a little bittersweet for us,” Baker said. “To leave the community after 100 years is a little bitter. Most of my congregation and their parents grew up in Delray, so they have a lot of memories in the Delray area. The sweet thing is this gives us a great potential to grow in the Grosse Pointe area.”