The congregation of the First Presbyterian Church of Lansdowne, Pennsylvania
LOUISVILLE — During worship on the final Sunday in Advent, First Presbyterian Church of Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, formally surrendered 15% of the proceeds from the recent sale of its church manse to descendants of the Lenape people, the Indigenous stewards of the land on which the church now stands. The 74-minute worship service can be viewed here.
“It is important for us to frame this act as a surrender — an acknowledgement that these funds are not ours to hold,” said the Rev. Jonathan Britt, the church’s pastor. “We cannot separate the resources we have from the colonial history that displaced the Lenape people, whose stewardship of this land was sacred and enduring. Surrendering these funds is a small but tangible step in repairing a fractured relationship and honoring the humanity and dignity of the Lenape people.”
Britt said the approximately $27,000 that was surrendered during the service on Dec. 22 was determined in conversation with Restorative Actions, an economic equity initiative born from the intersection of theology, justice and economics. The 15% of the manse’s sale proceeds represents not only a financial acknowledgement but a spiritual and moral response to the harm done to Indigenous communities, Britt noted.
During his Dec. 22 sermon, Britt drew from a devotion by the Rev. Dr. William Yoo of Columbia Theological Seminary published in “Boundless,” an anti-colonial Advent devotional published by Unbound. In his devotional, Yoo points out that abolitionists including William Lloyd Garrison lifted up Jesus’ ministry as an important reason for their advocacy. “When other Christians criticized him as an instigator of disorder whose activism imperiled the union of the Northern and Southern states, Garrison invited them to open their Bibles and read texts such as
