As the nation marks 250 years and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History commemorates 100 years of Black history, Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in Northwest D.C. is adding to the mix with the celebration of a milestone anniversary.
Ephiphany Fields, 28, counts among the Mt. Zion United congregants and event captains touting an agenda of celebration, campaigns, and year-round momentum as the District’s oldest Black church nears 210 years.
“This year is about celebrating our history, but also looking to the future,” Fields told The Informer. “[210] is a big year for a lot of churches, and we’re so blessed to still be standing, and so just making sure that we’re honoring our legacy, but also…how are we moving forward, and doing that in a very good way.”
Reflecting on the legacy that began Oct. 16, 1816, some of the women behind Mt. Zion boosted a spiritual rejoice that was on par with the benchmark theme, “Faith, Family, and Forward-Focus.”
The 210th Anniversary Prayer Breakfast — held at the historic church in Northwest D.C. on March 28 — teed up a yearlong effort to raise funds for enhancements around the church, all the while honoring an institution that holds generational stories of “Chocolate City.”
Plus, it was a morning serving devotion, joy, and chicken and waffles.
“It’s a family church. Everyone knows everyone, everyone has an opportunity to serve,” said longtime Mt. Zion member Pam Carter-Coleman. “It’s that support system and the great rich history and the things that I’m always trying to do for the DMV community that really kept me here.”
As the church gears up for commemorations through the fall, Fields and Carter-Coleman painted an anniversary that aims to emulate the foundation that shaped their own allegiances — and some 200 years of Washington, D.C. history.
Having grown up in Mt. Zion, Carter-Coleman credited the roots of community and resilience as particularly crucial in the mark of 210, for all those who embark in the celebration.
“To continue that on, that this is… a place where you can come see people that look like you, people that don’t look like you but are willing to support you in many ways, [and] give you a big or virtual hug,” she said. “I think that’s what’s needed today.”
Building on Tenacity, Faith, and ‘God-Sized Dreams’
Featuring food, fellowship, and guest speaker, the Rev. Dr. Kesslyn Brade Stennis, March 28 also launched the next phase of Mt. Zion’s fast-forward vision: the 210th Anniversary Capital Campaign.
The yearlong initiative sets a goal to raise $210,000 for renovations and enhancements throughout the sanctuary nestled at 1334 29th Street NW, in addition to boosting other ongoing efforts.
“Our theme this year is really centered around how we have a big God, and we have big, God-sized goals and dreams,” Fields told The Informer, “visions to attain all the things that our small but mighty church wants to be able to accomplish.”
Carrying forth the bicentenary mission is hardly an easy trek, the 28-year-old adds, but it’s the people who make it work — and historically always have.
Mt. Zion was established in the hands of 125 Black parishioners — both free and enslaved — who took a leap of faith to start their own church in the face of prejudice and discrimination at Montgomery Street Church (now Dumbarton United Methodist Church).
Across more than two centuries filled with gentrification, displacement, and even two historic fires, the Black-led sanctuary built seniority in the nation’s capital as a beacon of hope and resistance for Washingtonians.
Backed through a spirit of “tenacity and willpower,” current lead pastor, the Rev. Selena Johnson highlighted stories in tandem with the ancestral strength that precedes it — be it the church grounds that served as a platform to advance literacy for African Americans, to Mt. Zion assisting those traveling via the Underground Railroad, among other examples.
“Sometimes people joke, because our radiator system is very old, and it makes these clanky, clanky noises, and they say, ‘That’s just the ancestors praising with us,’” said Johnson with a laugh. “We always start with the 125 who walked out of Montgomery Street. They didn’t really have a building yet or have anything, but they stepped out on faith and had determination. And we see that continuing throughout [our] history.”
Throughout seven years as lead pastor, Johnson has worked to keep the Mt. Zion ethos afloat.
Local collaborations, such as working with Project Transformation and community organizing group DC Power amplify the deeply-embedded champions of literacy, affordable living and social well-being that thrive throughout the multiunit campus, which includes Mt. Zion United Methodist Church, the Parsonage House (a private residence), and the Community House.
In emulating what the reverend calls compassion and social justice ministry, continued traditions include communal giveaways, such as food and coats in the winter, as well as providing meals for shelter-challenged individuals on Saturdays.
“The church always wants to have an outlook that deals with social justice. A lot of the messages that I bring have to do with God’s justice and God’s care and love for those who are left out, those who are the vulnerable in our community,” Johnson told The Informer. “Mt. Zion has a very long history of … being a place where you can hear that type of liberation in the gospel message.”
Another focal point is expanding the church’s digital reach in an age of “cyber ministry” combined with the realities of a community-turned-commuter institution.
A third-generation member of Mt. Zion, Carter-Coleman’s family was one of the few to survive the displacements of the 1940s through the ’60s – and notably the Old Georgetown Act of 1950 – when urban renewal and gentrification pushed many families and congregants out of their ancestral neighborhood.
Despite opposition from then-pastor, the Rev. James D. Foy, the legislation passed, eventually turning Black Georgetown into a faint memory, and Mt. Zion among only three churches that remain in its stomping grounds.
“To be able to walk two blocks, and we can actually see where the slaves hid, and that’s a part of us. It’s not something in a history book, but it’s something that’s alive, that’s tangible, that you can touch,” Carter-Coleman told The Informer. “As a native Washingtonian, there are so few of us left to maintain the importance of the city and to help to support our people, as well as all citizens of the District of Columbia.”
In the wake of the 210th anniversary, the 69-year-old said the milestone momentum exceeds the month of October or even an anniversary goal. Rather, it aims to represent a deeper realm of what it means to preserve one of the District’s staple institutions.
Coupled with the state of the sociopolitical climate, the D.C. native considers the call to action that much more necessary, not just for Mt. Zion but all Black churches in the region.
“[We] have people that come in to be fed on Saturday, [and] we may never see them again, but the fact that we were able to give them a hot meal, they were able to come inside from the cold or heat, and sit down for a moment,” Carter-Coleman continued. “[It’s] the tenacity and the perseverance to keep…not only the legacy going, but what is here now, and what’s in front of us.”
Continuing a 210-Year Legacy as Women of the Clergy
When asked what it means to carry the weight of a 210-year legacy, Johnson said she considers it a “great honor,” especially as just the second African American woman to fill the seat.
She nodded to her predecessor, the Rev. Johnsie W. Cogman, who led the Northwest institution for eight years, as well as all those defying a structure that still struggles “with women in leadership roles in the church.”
“[What gets me through is] continuing to focus on the higher power of God, and not getting frustrated or feeling defeated,” said Johnson, highlighting her particular role as the immediate past president of the Black Clergy Women of the Baltimore-Washington Conference. “You see that other people are going through the same things, and you see the solutions that they’ve come up with, and we just encourage one another.”
A mission renewed by faith, legacy and perseverance, the lead pastor also noted the importance of investing in the past, present and future of all Black history in the nation’s capital.
Among several examples, she cited Mt. Zion’s support for local scholars such as Howard University’s (HU) Annual Spring Break Initiative, and preserving the legacies of the roughly 12 Black churches tied to Georgetown, including their annual gatherings known as the Seven Last Words service, which took place at Jerusalem Baptist on Good Friday.
“I think that has just sustained through the years – that the richness and the importance of Black history and of us as Black people in the eyes of God, [has] just been very important,” Johnson told The Informer, “that’s a thread that has come throughout the years now.”
Meanwhile, Fields said compassion ministry efforts are what initially drew the Tennessean to the church roughly 10 years ago, as a HU student navigating early college life in a new city, nonetheless.
On the cusp of her own decade-long anniversary, she says she hopes to instill the same values of comfort and stability that Mt. Zion offered her, while also playing a role in building the future of what the church has to offer all of the District.
“These people have truly become my family away from my family. I think that really, truly is our job,” she continued, “and I really want to be that for other young students. To be able to come here and know that this is a place for them, and…there is a home for you. And there’s things for you to do.”
As for the big 210, residents can get involved by supporting the anniversary campaign with donations and engagement, including attending the series of events commemorating the milestone, along with the marquee celebration slated for September.
The community day, to be held on the church campus, promises vendors, food trucks, live music, and a variety of family-friendly activities for people of all ages to bask in the life and breadth of the historic Mt. Zion United Methodist Church, and celebrate being a part of it.
“We are in the business of making disciples, number one, but also growing our congregation,” Fields told The Informer. “This is a space for you, this is a family. And we would love for everybody to be a part of that in any way, whether that is on Saturday or a Sunday morning.”
