A Race Divided

The Establishment of the first African-American religious community trailed the settlement of the first African-American families by more than a decade. It is almost impossible to fix the exact date when the first house of worship was opened by an African-American pastor. It is accepted without question that the Reverend Davis, pastor and founder of Saints Memorial Community Church, was the first pastor to locate in Willingboro, sometime in the early seventies. However, there was a break in continuity of worship, although there is some uncertainty as to how long the break lasted. He had worship services in different places before actually building the facility where the congregation worships today. By the time that facility was built, Alpha Baptist Church of Christ Nurturing Center had already located in its permanent place of worship.

The first service of the Alpha Church was on June 5, 1977. I was and still am the pastor. It has several distinctions as a minority fellowship. The church was chartered by twelve members: four Burmese, four Koreans, and four African-Americans. The second distinction is that except for the first service of public worship, it has worshiped as a community with its own facility throughout its existence.

The third black pastor in town was the Reverend Ernest Light of the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church. That facility was first built for a white congregation, but when the new St. Paul United Methodist church was built, the white members slowly withdrew from the Good Shepherd church and most of them went to the new St. Paul church. Over the years, there have been a number of smaller African-American religious communities in Willingboro that met in other churches or in homes and schools, a practice that still prevails today.

The fourth African-American church was founded by the Reverend Morris K. Baxter and took the name Cathedral of Love.  For many years, that fellowship worshiped in different places, utilizing the Saints Memorial Church for the last few years before moving into its own new structure.

The fifth African-American pastor to lead a congregation was the Reverend Spencer Rogers who took over Delaware Valley Baptist Church when the congregation was rapidly changing from mostly white to almost all black. Today there are a number of African-Americans who are members of churches that have white pastors. As a matter of fact, all of the Willingboro churches pastured by white ministers, with the exception of three, have an African-American membership of 30 percent or more. The exceptions are the Reformed Church, Calvary Baptist Church, and maybe Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church.

There has never been a very strong bonding among the African- American churches, although they have never been at war either.  There is more bonding among some of the white churches because of similarities of rituals of worship. Even that has been limited.

The strongest bond that exists among all the churches is provided through the Willingboro Clergy Association. This group has always been a place where all the participants were equal players, and the lines of communication open and honest.