On Friday, May 16, an EF3 tornado ripped through the north side of St. Louis, damaging than 5,000 structures, injuring 38 and killing 5. Only later that evening did we learn that one of our sister churches in the Presbytery of Giddings–Lovejoy, Cote Brilliante Presbyterian Church, sustained significant damage to their historic building.
At their May session meeting on May 22, the Elders of LoveJoy United discerned how the congregation might respond to the immense need in St. Louis and specifically at Cote Brilliante Church. As a result of that discernment, LoveJoy United will give $5,000 to Cote Brilliante from its Matthew 25 Fund.
Created from part of the proceeds of the sale of the College Avenue Church building in 2019, this fund exists to advance the congregation’s ministries in the direction of the Matthew 25 movement, which focuses on building congregational vitality, dismantling structural racism, and eradicating systemic poverty.
Cote Brilliante Church, one of the predominantly African–American churches in the presbytery, is a church both made, unmade, and remade by structural racism and its dismantling. The church’s website tells its history in two parts, “The Beginning (1885–1956)” and “The Rebirth.”
The Beginning
Beginning as an interdenominational mission school and chapel, the presbytery organized the congregation of Cote Brilliante as a Presbyterian church in 1885. The church experienced significant growth as more people settled in the community. It was a congregation that ministered to the white community around them.
The church began to decline in the 1940s and early 1950s. This was a result of local legislation that denied the validity of restricted covenants, which forbade homeowners from selling their property to minorities such as African–Americans or Jews. This is a notorious example of structural racism that was common across the country. The invalidation of those covenants led to a growing number of African–Americans moving into the area. Despite the decline in membership in the church and the changing demographic in the neighborhood, Cote Brilliante made no effort to minister to their new African–American neighbors.
The Rebirth
As church members began to sell their homes and move away, the Presbytery ultimately envisioned reopening the church as a mission for African–Americans in the community. The remaining church members chose to leave and “The Rebirth” began. Under the visionary leadership of Rev. William G. Gillespie, the congregation grew in life again, not as it had been, but as it was called to be into the future. Cote Brilliante Presbyterian Church continues to be a “loving, caring, sharing, serving congregation,” as their mission statement reads.
While the tornado has done tremendous damage, the session of LoveJoy United takes seriously what St. Paul says, if one part of the body suffers, all parts suffer with it. In our own efforts to eradicate poverty and dismantle structural racism, LoveJoy United wants to support the critical ministry of Cote Brilliante in St. Louis and in our presbytery.
You can read more about Cote Brilliante’s history at https://cbpcstl.org/church/history/.