The Spirit and the Prophetic Church, Part 1, by Antipas L. Harris
The community consisted of an educationally and religiously diverse population. Some of the citizens became college educated; yet the majority of them had affiliations with the military and/or worked in the Naval shipyard. Through the 50s and 60s the workload in the shipyard was heavy enough to sustain good jobs for dwellers in Cradock. For the first fifty years, the community developed into a solid white, working-class, suburban neighborhood. Its religious life was vibrant and denominationally diverse. It was a very religious community, committed to family life and various Christian traditions. Over the first sixty years, the dwellers built five churches of a variety of denominations, Southern Baptist, United Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, and a Catholic church,24 built in planned locations throughout the close-built community. Today those churches have aging membership, all engage in a traditional style of worship, are experiencing a diminishing stream of income and a diminishing pool of human capital. Two of the five churches (Methodist and Episcopal) have closed down. Of the three churches that remain open, two are extremely fragile and face a bleak future.25
Despite its ambitious beginnings and growth over the years, in the early 1970s the community of Cradock experienced a shift. The court ordered desegregation of Portsmouth Public Schools triggered white flight. As folks moved out, absentee landlords bought up the houses, converting many into multi-family rental properties. The children whose families had worked hard to support became upward mobile. Jobs and opportunities created pathways for departure. In 1992, the prominent icon of the community, Cradock High School closed down.26 By 2000, many of the early residents had died or were living with family elsewhere or in assisted living facilities outside of the area. Over time, it became renters, no longer homeowners, that predominantly inhabited Cradock. It is important to note that during this time the churches of Cradock did not change. They continued to cater to their former constituents rather than the current population nearby. By 2005, approximately 90% to 95% of their congregations by now were driving into Cradock for worship services.27
There are at least two important observations in regards to the resistance to change of vision and mission among the congregations in Cradock. First, ecumenist Paul Avis correctly points out that churches, like other historic institutions, tend to guard their historic identity.28 They preserve and propagate narratives that tell of their journey in history and the people who shaped their history—both the local history and the denominational history. A second issue that may at times be connected to the first one is related to the definition and the purpose of the “Church.”29 The report of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches, The Nature and Mission of the Church, points out this issue as an ongoing “unresolved issue” within ecumenical discourse.30 Both of these issues seem to play a role in the disconnection between the churches and the community of Cradock.
Moreover, in the face of the churches’ unyielding isolation from each other and minimal engagement in the community, the Cradock community became dilapidated. The City rarely made significant improvements to the community’s infrastructure (i.e. water, sewer, streets, sidewalks, and streetlights). They opted instead to make minimal repairs, and then only when necessary. Consequently, there has been an increase in crime, drug distribution, and gang presence. There has been an increase in the number of low-income, single parent families, and many residents have become homeless due to joblessness and other economic uncertainties. Cradock has an uncharacteristically high population density: approximately 4,400 residents live in a square mile area. According to the website “Social Explorer,” the median family income (adjusted for inflation) in Cradock was approximately $16,153 below national medium family income, and $25,281 below Virginia’s medium family income.31 By 2010, a once aging population has transformed into a younger one with the average age of 31 years old. These elements of urban blight have converted the historic suburban community into an “urban core community.” One might term situations like Cradock, a “turned urban” region. A locality once a peaceful community to be desired has become the seedbed of gang-violence.32 It has become a ghost town of despair. In addition, Cradock’s demographics are no longer predominately working class Anglo Americans, but young African American and Latin American working poor.
Although during its early years, Cradock’s citizens worked together to develop the community and to sustain a good life, there is little evidence that the churches facilitated a culture of ministry collaboration. According to former pastor of Cradock Baptist Church, Rob Edwards, the current urbanization makes it difficult to facilitate a coalition among the churches to address the community’s increasing blight.33 In the recent past some of the churches have taken on ministry projects in response to the blight at their front door. For example, Cradock Baptist Church became a host site for the Angel Food Ministry, and was a distribution site for USDA/Food Bank. They facilitated winter coat-drives and facilitated home renovations and repairs through World Changers—a program sponsored by the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Category: Ministry, Pneuma Review, Spring 2013
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