First Community Congregational Church

Overwhelming feelings against the teachings of the United Church of Christ (UCC) have caused the congregation of what was the First Community Congregational United Church of Christ Church at 200 Leeland Heights Blvd. to vote to disassociate itself from the hierarchy church.

Ada Thompson, a moderator and part of the leadership of the local church, said the congregation met after conflicting feelings about the United Church of Christ association and overwhelmingly voted to disassociate itself.

Thompson said there has been a growing unrest with what she called “the liberal doctrines” that she said are promoted by the United Church of Christ and passed on by the Florida Conference of the church.

“They favor such things as same-sex marriage and push liberal political issues such as their support of the health plan now in Congress. Their plan is to preach those liberal ways from the pulpit to promote support.

“We do not want politics preached from the pulpit,” Thompson continued. “We welcome all people to our church, liberal and conservative, gay and straight, but we do not want the pulpit used to push a political agenda,” she said.

The Lehigh church is the oldest church in Lehigh and was founded in 1956. It has a membership is close to 100 people of the community.

Many people will recognize the church along Leeland Heights Blvd., because of its “Pumpkin Patch,” effort which is put on by the youth of the church in the fall. For the past two years, pumpkins have been brought to grounds of the church from a farm in the Southwest and are sold to residents for decoration and/or pumpkin pies and other foods.

Pastor Deborah Frysinger is the church’s pastor and she agreed with the decision.

“This was the vote of the members of the congregation. It is a new beginning,” Frysinger said.

She will continue to serve Christ and continue to try to bring others to Christ and the church will be blessed ten-fold,” Thompson said.

Widening the rift, according to one member, was the lack of oversight and cooperation of the Florida Conference in internal affairs. Although the individual churches have full autonomy in the running of their affairs, the churches tend to look to the leadership of the Florida Conference for recommendations and advice.

There are other churches affiliated with the United Church of Christ in Lee County but this is the only church in Lehigh with such the UCC affiliation,” Thompson said. She also said a church in the Naples area pulled away from the United Church of Christ about a year ago for similar reasons.

Its pastor, Tom Louis plans to meet with the Lehigh church and discuss the transition.

When asked if the vote could cause a split in the church’s congregation, Thompson said she didn’t expect that to happen because of the high percentage of worshipers who opted to remove the church from the United Church of Christ affiliation.

Thompson said the membership of the church will change its name officially and although that vote has not yet taken place, the feelings are that it will simply be known as the First Community Congregational Church, removing the UCC from its name.

Thompson said such matters as serious as leaving the UCC must go through the church’s boards before brought to the congregation.

“We did all those things before the congregational vote,” Thompson said.

The change makes the church independent now, with no association with any hierarchy.

Thompson said that the church had to send a nominal amount of $14.50 per member per year to the United Church of Christ.

The church, like some other houses of worship in Lehigh, provides a food pantry. Thompson said the church serves about 100 families in Lehigh a week with donated food.

She said the church also has a bus that takes volunteers over to Immokalee to help in the soup kitchen there. A chapter of Alcoholic Anonymous meets there as do other groups and there is an active youth group, Thompson said.

The First Community Congregational Church was built in 1956 on land believed to have been donated by the old Lehigh Corporation, which provided real estate to other churches without cost.

The church added the UCC to its name about 10 or so years ago when it became affiliated with the United Church of Christ, according to Doug Thompson, a member of the church and the husband of Ada Thompson, the church’s moderator.

“We welcome new members to our church each Sunday,” Ada Thompson said. “We are saying to the people that our church will not be a political church, but a church that reflects the teachings of Christ,” Thompson said.

She said there had been no reply from the UCC over the Lehigh church’s vote of disassociation.