A Divided Congregation Unites in Silver Spring

Church of Immigrants Together After Discord

This is the first of an occasional series on religious institutions in Montgomery County.

The congregation of the Ewe Church of America in Silver Spring is united at last.

In October, Trinity Congregational Church and the Ewe Church of Silver Spring merged to become the Ewe Church of America and held its first service at Colesville Presbyterian Church on New Hampshire Avenue.

But it wasn't until a few weeks ago that the congregation of immigrants from Ghana, Togo and Benin in West Africa gathered to celebrate the church's inauguration and officially install its pastor.

A sense of hope buzzed through the air as more than 300 people filled the pews and lined the aisles of the Presbyterian church that Sunday afternoon for a three-hour celebration of singing and prayer that heralded one theme: unity.

As the congregation sang joyfully with the maroon-and-white-robed choir and the sound of percussion filled the air, the disagreement and division that had led the two smaller congregations to break with their original church in Washington seemed to melt away.

"The centrality of unity is to forgive and forget," the Rev. Kennedy K. Odzafi told the crowd. "Make this church a homeland of unity. Let the past be bygones, and let us look forward."

The service centered around the theme "That they all may be one," with speakers focusing on the desire for reconciliation and a hopeful future for the church. Speakers often spoke in English and repeated their words in Ewe, the common language of the West African immigrants.

"Remember you are laying the foundation," said the Rev. John Yao Akoto, who had established a similar congregation in Atlanta. "As immigrants, we have problems all along the way. Oh, how we long for home. Oh, how we long to sing the songs of our motherland."

For participants, the healing words seemed to hold the promise of a bright future for the church. In Ghanaian tradition, many of those in attendance wore outfits, in both traditional and Western styles, that were sewn of a cloth designed especially for the occasion by a textile company in Ghana.

The yellow material was dotted with tiny blue starbursts and the church's emblem of an open book with a red cross lying between the pages and circled by the words, "Ewe Church of America USA."

"It's exciting. There was a schism, and people went various ways," said Loreen Wutoh, 41, of Mitchellville. "In the end, we are all one people. Divisions are being healed, and families are coming back together."

The tumultuous history of the Ewe Church of America began when a handful of people started the congregation in Lanham in 1982. Two years later, the growing congregation adopted the name Ewe Church of Washington and moved to the city. The next decade was fraught with challenges, including "identity crises, and pastoral, financial and leadership issues," according to the official church history.

The growing problems led to a split in the congregation in 1995, and many members decided to start their own congregation, Trinity Congregational Church in Washington.