On the Fourth of July, parishioners at the newly formed Our Lady of Africa Parish in Bronzeville celebrated the inaugural Mass uniting five parishes into one.

In January, the archdiocese announced St. Ambrose, St. Anselm, Corpus Christi, St. Elizabeth and Holy Angels parishes would come together to form one parish effective July 1, with Holy Angels being the main worship site where all sacramental records are kept.

Prior to the start of Mass, Divine Word Father Robert Kelly, pastor, blessed a bronze statue of Our Lady of Africa that was moved to the Holy Angels narthex from Corpus Christi church. A parishioner commissioned the statue 25 years ago and gave it to the church. The parish also has an image of Our Lady of Africa inside the church.

Going through the discernment process that resulted in merging five parishes was difficult, said parishioner Tasha McShan, but she sees hope for the future of the parish.

“Being part of it was bittersweet,” said McShan, who is a graduate of Holy Angels School. “We were glad because we would still have a representation of Black Catholic faith in the Bronzeville community. But, of course, tearing apart five parishes was very difficult.”

She praised the assistance of Vicariate VI parish vitality coordinator Valerie Jennings, who helped the churches through the discernment process and beyond.

“She taught us how to unify through our pain, how to heal together as a collective group. Along with Father Kelly. I think we have been able to successfully identify and keep our identities, realizing that we can still maintain that and be one parish and one family,” said McShan, who is a leader in her local council of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Knights of Peter Claver.

“You have to kind of think about your ending results, although yes, we lose our church name, it’s just a name,” she said. “We gain another stronger and bigger parish. And that’s what’s important with our Christian faith.”

Kelly saw joy in the unification Mass.

“It was a wonderful uplifting liturgy,” Kelly said following Mass. “The Holy Spirit is alive and active here at Our Lady of Africa Parish.”

He, too, has hope for the future.

“I’m looking forward to serving God’s people here as a missionary disciple building communities of faith, inspiring witness,” Kelly said. “That’s what it’s about.”

Larry Cope, who was a parishioner at Corpus Christi and now is a parishioner at Our Lady of Africa, takes a historical view of the unification. He was part of a convocation the archdiocese held in 1999 to look at the future of parishes in Black communities.

“It basically covered everything that’s occurring right now,” said Cope, who was also part of the discernment team from Corpus Christi. “It made it plain and clear that with declining numbers of parishioners, with a declining number of men entering the priesthood, aging buildings and lower donations, that something had to be done.”

The delegates were asked to vote if they would be willing to close churches. Most said yes, Cope recalled.

“Then a second question was asked, ‘Would you be willing to close your parish?’ And the overwhelming answer was ‘no.’ So even though people understood that there would have to be church closings, people weren’t willing to see their own church close,” he said.

He said delegates agreed that evangelization had to be a focus, but since Catholics were not used to doing that at the time and instead relied on grammar schools as a source of new members, few strides were made.

“So, here we are today with St. Ambrose, St. Anselm, Corpus Christ, St. Elizabeth and Holy Angels in these dire straits, the question is how do you maintain the Black Catholic presence in the city of Chicago, because that is a more important issue than individual parishes,” Cope said.

He also cited the maintenance needed for large churches, like his former parish Corpus Christi, that “they built to last.”

“What I mean by that is to maintain an older structure costs money,” Cope said. “When you have declining members of your church, when you have declining donations and when you have increased expenses, it’s all going to come to a head sooner or later.”

The need now is to go out and make disciples, as Jesus called all his followers to do, he said, but that is challenging when younger people are eschewing organized religion.

“When you have young people who are, what I say are unchurched, then we have to find a way to bring them into the fold and get them come back to the church,” Cope said. “That’s when you’ll start seeing a growth.”