Gary church plans to sell building

GARY -- A congregation once drawing hundreds of worshippers from miles around is fighting a proposal by its governing body to sell its building for $5.\nFirst United Presbyterian Church's distinction as a mainly black congregation within the predominantly white denomination could be coming to an end. The 98-year-old Gary church in its heyday boasted up to 1,800 members from across northwestern Indiana, but its membership has dwindled to about 60 members.\nUnlike thriving black denominations, the Presbyterian Church and other white mainline Protestant denominations are shrinking. The Presbytery of Wabash Valley, which covers roughly the northern third of Indiana, lost 8,522 of about 30,000 members -- more than a quarter of its membership -- from 1985 to 2000, according to its Web site.\nThe presbytery has proposed selling First United's church to Hammond First Assembly of God for $5.\n"That's an insult," church elder Fatina McMillan told the Post-Tribune of Merrillville for a story Monday.\nThe presbytery has told the Gary congregation it could use the church for Sunday services free of charge for 10 years, but it would have to pay rent for other events, such as weddings and funerals, McMillan said.\nFirst United's congregation voted against the plan, and no sales agreement has been signed. However, the presbytery plans to ask its member congregations to decide the matter.\nAngela Robinson, moderator for the Rochester-based presbytery, said no date for discussing the sale had been set.\n"We are working to appoint an administrative commission to work with the Gary church," Robinson said. The commission could move forward with the sale.\nRobinson emphasized the Gary church "is not the building." The people would still be there, she said.\n"We're trying to figure out what to do with the Gary church. At some point we will be required to understand what our responsibilities are toward the congregation and its building and assets," she said.\nFormer pastor James Ramsawh, after leading the church for six months without pay, left in March for a paying ministerial job. The presbytery still owes him $18,000, he said.\nLosing its building and ministries would devastate First United's congregation, McMillan said. With all its assets gone, the congregation would have a hard time restarting somewhere else.\n"The building is paid for," she said.\nThe property and other assets are likely worth upward of $250,000, despite the age of the building, built in the early 1900s and recently renovated, she said.\nAn assembly of representatives from all member Presbyterian congregations in Illinois and Indiana is scheduled to meet Tuesday at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Munster, Ind.\nMcMillan said the church members feel powerless since, with Ramsawh's departure, they have no representative in the presbytery.\nA telephone message seeking comment was left Monday for the Rev. Sue Berry, Wabash Valley's general presbyter.