Wellington Avenue church sells building, donates partial profit to local non-profits by Suzanne Hanney
The congregation of the Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ (WAUCC) has sold its centuryold church building in Lakeview and donated about 10 percent of the net proceeds -- $270,000 -- to 19 non-profit social justice organizations. The church building at 615 W. Wellington Ave., just west of Broadway, was sold in September for $2.85 million to Chabad of East Lakeview, a local non-profit Jewish community. "Like many congregations, WAUCC's membership has dwindled over the last few years, and we no longer need so much space," said Pastor Ann-Louise Haak. "As a community of faith with a deep commitment to social justice, the members voted to use their resources to help build up their community rather than continue to maintain a building," she added. The congregation continues to meet via Zoom and will plan its physical space after the pandemic; more information is at waucc.org
FROM THE STREETS
"The Coronavirus pandemic and the economic recession have made their work more difficult and stressed their shrinking budgets," Pastor Haak said of the grantees. “Several of the recipient agencies, we were happy to learn, [would] use the Wellington funds as matching grants in their year-end fundraising campaigns."
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Recipients include: ● North Side Housing and Supportive Services (NSHSS), which operates a shelter, under COVID-19 conditions, for 40 homeless men in Uptown and provides case management services, and clothing, meals and supplies for many more. NSHSS also provides apartments for 194 formerly homeless persons. Other homeless programs that received grants were Deborah's Place, Sarah's Circle, the Night Ministry, and the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. ● Lakeview Pantry, which was on track to provide 4 million meals to more than 100,000 clients in 2020, as well as mental health and social services. A Just Harvest, CROP Walk, and Bread for the World are other grantees that feed the hungry. ● Faith In Place runs five environmental programs with 359 faith partners throughout Illinois, and by the end of 2020 they will have planted tens of thousands of trees in the state, engaged in energy conservation, water preservation, sustainable agriculture.
WAUCC also made grants to Christian Peacemaker Teams, ONE Northside, Circles & Ciphers, Equal Justice Initiative, READI Chicago, Greater Chicago Broadcast Ministries, EcoJustice Collaborative, Immigrant Justice Task Force, and HelloBaby. WAUCC was formed in 1909 with the merger of the Lincoln Park Congregational Church and the Evanston Avenue Congregational Church. The first worship service in its newly constructed building was on Jan. 1, 1911. In 1910, a woman, Lily McDaniel Merill, became an associate pastor. The senior pastor, Dr. Edward Williams, ministered to an AfricanAmerican regiment during the Civil War. In the 1920s, its Women’s Guild sewed and sent clothing to the needy. During World War II, women made bandages for the Red Cross, the first woman was elected to the Board of Trustees, and its youth sent gifts and cards to Japanese Americans detained in U.S. prison camps. In the 1960s, Students for a Democratic Society, protesting at the Democratic Convention, slept in the basement. A draft counseling center was established in 1968 and lasted until the end of the Vietnam War. In the 70s the congregation marched for peace, worked on police surveillance and to repeal the draft, and welcomed Good Shepherd Parish and its LGBTQ ministry. The church ordained the second openly gay U.C.C. minister in the U.S. and advocated in the anti-apartheid movement to stop all investments in South Africa. In the 80s, Wellington became officially “Open and Affirming” to all LGBT people and the second U.S. congregation to provide sanctuary for people who were fleeing war and violence in South America. Its issues in the 90s were opposition to the School of the Americas, to the death penalty and police brutality, support for environmental justice and universal health care. Since 1999, the award-winning TimeLine Theatre has presented its plays there. Early in the 20th century, the congregation concerned itself with debt cancellation for impoverished nations, opposition to sanctions on Iraq and to the Iraq War. Today’s focus includes the environment, racism and immigrant justice, including deportation, family separation and border atrocities.
ABOVE: The interior of Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ; exterior. (Both photos by Eric Allix Rogers / Chicago Arcitecture Center.) RIGHT: From top: Alds. Maria Hadden (49th ward), Byron Sigcho-Lopex (25th ward), and Matt Martin (47th ward). (City of Chicago photos.)
