Medina United Church of Christ, Congregational celebrates history of the church with America 250 event

MEDINA — The Rev. Luke Lindon connected pulpits to patriots by sharing the history of how the early Congregationalists shaped the United States of America and the city of Medina as part of an America 250 event Sunday. The presentation took place on the Medina United Church of Christ, Congregational's Founder's Day, which is the congregation's 207th anniversary in Medina. Lindon said it is the second congregation in Medina. "St. Paul's is the first," he said. "They incorporated faster than we did, but we helped them build a log cabin where we would worship together. Sometimes they would take the afternoon, and we would lunch together, and then the afternoon services would be held by the congregational ministers." Lindon described the story of the Congregationalists as "uniquely American." He said they are not perfect people, but they have contributed to many American values. "Congregationalists taught America how to argue and to stay together and how to buy freedom and responsibility," he said. "Their churches became schools for democracy, long before democracy had a name." For instance, Congregationalists wrote the Mayflower Compact, which inspired the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, Lindon said. "I think the Mayflower Compact echoes through American culture like a bell that's never quite stopped ringing," he said, "with its town meetings, local government, majority rule, bound by shared responsibility, authority rising from the people, not descending from the throne." The Congregationalists were also largely involved in the Salem witch trials, Lindon said. Judge Samuel Sewall sat on many of the trials and later publicly repented. He also wrote "The Selling of Joseph," which was an anti-slavery pamphlet. "It inspired our own H.G. Blake, who was a Congregationalist member of this church and was a conductor of the Underground Railroad," he said. "He worked in helping end the Black Laws, the sort of Jim Crow of the north here in Ohio, with his work here as a representative." Congregationalists believe that the country is at its best when neighbors agree to work together, Lindon said. "I hear it in our own (former) Mayor Dennis Hanwell, even though he's a Methodist," he said. "He would talk about shared responsibility. If you want to make Medina a great place to live and work, you are not above picking up litter and placing it in the trashcan." America 250 commemorates the semiquincentennial of the founding of the United States with programming and events taking place in communities all over the country. To see a list of upcoming programs in Medina, visit tinyurl.com/3yyxcx9a. "We came here from Toledo and in Medina, you all talk like your history is living," Lindon said. "When I first got here, they're like, 'H.G. Blake is over there in the Phoenix building.' I'm like 'When do I get to meet H.G.?' He died a long time ago, but you talk as if they're still here because in so many ways they are. You honor that history." Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.