Fellowship Church marks five years of 
service in Oak Park

By ERIC LINDEN

Oak Park's most prominent, if not the only, predominantly African
American congregation, Fellowship Christian Church of Oak Park, on
Friday began celebrating its five often struggle-filled years in
existence with many of the features of a typical Sunday service.

In-house and visiting preachers, the church's gospel choir, the Rights
of Passage for youth members of Fellowship and more marked the opening
of the weekend events at the church, 1106 Madison St.

"You broke some barriers in Oak Park," said Rev. Thomas Barclay, pastor
of Progressive Beulah Pentecostal Church on Chicago's South Side.
Present at the start of Fellowship, Barclay Friday was one of the
visiting speakers and/or preachers who offered to mark the Fellowship
anniversary and support the congregation and Rev. Dr. M. Randolph
Thompson, the senior pastor of Fellowship and the founder of the
congregation in 1995.
"I've been watching," said Naomi Law, the director of special services
for Oak Park Elementary School District 97, who recently joined the
Fellowship congregation and who was among the speakers at the March 3
event. "God bless you; God bless you; God bless you, and next year we'll
need a bigger place (for the sixth anniversary)."

That might be easier said than done. According to the church history
related Friday night by Oak Park student Zachary Day, another speaker at
Fellowship's fifth anniversary celebration, much time, effort, money and
resources had to be expended to have Fellowship begin holding services
three years ago in the converted former home of Ahern Funeral Home on
Madison Street.

In response to a stated need by some Oak Park residents to develop an
African American religious presence in the community, the members of the
fledging Fellowship congregation had their initial meeting on Feb. 16,
1995 at Oak Park village hall, which is at Lombard Avenue and Madison
Street . The next month, the congregation held its first church service
in space at the Oak Park YMCA, 255 S. Marion St. Services were held
regularly at the Y.

Fellowship members, led by Rev. Thompson and a congregation of active
members, also worked on programs to aid the Oak, Park community,
especially young people. In 1997, Fellowship and other local
organizations began to offer Friday Night Place, a weekly gathering for
young people at Percy Julian Junior High School, 416 S. Ridgeland Ave.,
and all the while undertook efforts to find a permanent home for the
congregation.

Given Oak Park's land-locked status and a general lack of available
buildings large enough for a church, Fellowship members examined many
properties before the Ahern building became available. The funeral home,
long a fixture in Oak Park and on Chicago's West Side, relocated to a
former funeral home building at 6621 W. North Ave., also in Oak Park.

After looking long and hard for a suitable location, raising enough
money to purchase a property and gaining a village hall zoning
variance--over some community opposition--Fellowship purchased the
former Ahern Funeral Home building on Nov. 29, 1997 and held the first
church service in the new building on Sunday, Dec. 4, 1997.

(Opposition to Fellowship gaining the Madison Street zoning variance
came mainly from members and leaders of the Madison Street Business
Association. The business group had started efforts to revitalize
commercial interests on the street and the central part of the planned
revitalization was--and is--a Tax Increment Financing [TIF] district.
Since a TIF district's success depends on increased property values and
taxes and since Fellowship's ownership of the former Ahern building
would take the property off the tax rolls, the business association
stated publicly its opposition to the zoning change needed for
Fellowship to have its new home at 1106 Madison St.)

Since moving to Madison Street, Fellowship has continued to serve the
community with a variety of programs, still concentrating on youth. "We
have a deep commitment to youth," said Fellowship congregate Donnell
White, who presided over the Friday anniversary events with his wife,
April, "and they're stepping up to the plate and doing it (the right
way)."

Once such program for youth came Friday night with the "Rights of
Passage" ceremonies that recognize the progress young people have made
toward responsible and religious adulthood. The youth members of the
congregation receive guidance from mentors of the congregation, and a
host of young people were recognized Friday. Presiding over that
ceremony were Barbara Thompson, who as the senior pastor's wife is known
as the congregation's First Lady, and church elder Mikal Rasheed, and
they presented the honorees with certificates, flowers and lapel pins.
Among those honored were Zachary Day, who had given the congregation's
history at the five-year celebration, and Gianna Baker, an honor roll
student and senior at Oak Park and River Forest High School.

Baker, who said she will attend Howard University in the fall, has
received notoriety for much of the last six weeks for a stirring essay
about the late civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. That essay
won this year's Martin Luther King Jr. oratorical essay contest at OPRF,
and Baker has delivered the essay during an OPRF student assembly; at a
Martin Luther King celebration held by Project Unity, a citizens group
working to improve race relations in Oak Park; and at the public
diversity celebration breakfast held by the NAACP Oak Park branch on
Feb. 26.

Besides the congregation members, a number of visitors attended the
Friday night ceremonies, and were asked to introduce themselves. All
those attending sang the congregation's song, "Leaning on the
Everlasting Arms"; heard singing from the Fellowship Christian Church
Praise Singers and guest singers from other churches; and were treated
to Fellowship's Statement of Faith, which was adopted on April 30, 1995.

"As restored men and women we accept our responsibility as both
witnesses and perpetuators of the Christian faith," reads a part of the
statement.

"What are we all doing in church on Friday?" Rev. Barclay asked before
he and other speakers on Friday launched into stirring speeches about
the Lord, Fellowship's history and other topics. Barclay said he was
best man at the wedding of Fellowship senior pastor Thompson and the
former Barbara Peeples.

Fellowship's fifth anniversary celebration was to continue on Sunday,
March 5, from 2 to 5 p.m. at the church, where the church history was to
be outlined this time by Baker of OPRF High School; the community
viewpoint was to be represented by Walter Perkins III, the president of
the NAACP Oak Park branch; and senior pastor Thompson was to introduce
the main speaker, the noted Rev. James Meeks.

Meeks, the vice president of Operation PUSH in Chicago, is an
acquaintance of Rev. Thompson's since high school.

The Fellowship Christian Church Praise Singers also were to be on hand
Sunday, were other elements of the church's five-year life in Oak Park.