Ousted pastor at First Presbyterian speaks out
The pastor at the center of a controversy over two community gardens in Wood lawn was abruptly fired on April 18, paving the way for the gardens to reopen this week.
The Rev. Romney A. W. Amariah claims her firing from First Presbyterian Church of Wood lawn was “bogus” and is demanding an apology fromthe Presbytery of Chicago.
She became pastor at the church on Jan. 1, 2017.
“They claimed they didn’t have my credentials, and I’ve forwarded all of the emails and the credentials,” the pastor told me.
The Rev. Susan D. Krummel, Executive Presbyter, Presbytery of Chicago, confirmed that Amariah, the first woman to lead the South Side congregation, was removed.
“In this case, the Presbytery did not approve the contract between Ms. Amariah and the congregation since proof of Ms. Amariah’s ordination was not presented to the appropriate committee,” Krummel said in an email.
“The church board, called the Session, was informed of the decision to end the arrangement on Wednesday, April 18, at their regular meeting,” she said.
Rochelle Haywood, a lifelong parishioner and a member of the Session, said they were “stunned” when the Chicago Presbytery “took over” their meeting and ordered Amariah to leave.
“One of them told her you are not to speak to anyone in the congregation. You are to collect your belongings and exit the premises,” Haywood said the pastor was told.
Haywood said the presbytery didn’t recognize Amariah’s ordainment because it took place in Ghana.
But the newly minted pastor said she faced resistance to change from the very beginning. Three weeks after she took over her pastoral duties, one of the church members wrote a letter to the presbytery demanding her removal.
“She thought they had made a mistake in hiring me because I had a vision for going forward,” Amariah said.
In her defense, the ousted pastor said, “It was a false claim that we are closing the gardens.”
“We said we didn’t want those two particular women organizing in Wood lawn. The church stipulation is whoever runs the gardens; gardeners need to be 50 percent Woodlawn [ residents]. They are not from the community and they are getting grants to use the land without the church being involved,” Amariah said.
Amariah said she never intended to keep the gardens closed but refused to work with Meg Mass and another organizer.
“I was getting a lot of complaints from people living in Woodlawn that they were not able to get a plot because people from outside of the neighborhood were using them,” Amariah said.
Mass, who has managed the gardens since 2013, recently told the Chicago Sun- Times community members weren’t given an explanation as to why the gardens would close, or if the decision was final.
“We haven’t been told what we’ve done wrong. We’ve been told they don’t intend to sell the land, but there hasn’t been much of an explanation beyond that,” Mass said.
The gardens are at 6500 S. Woodlawn and at 6435 S. Kimbark.
During Amariah’s short tenure, she acknowledges making unpopular decisions.
After reviewing all of the contracts between First Presbyterian and outside groups, she discovered the groups were not paying rent even though heating the massive structure and providing security was a huge expense.
Still, there was a huge backlash when she asked The Shrine of Christ the King Sovereign Priest to start paying rent for space it took over in 2015 after the church caught fire.
“It is ludicrous to have all of this space, 24/ 7 access, and they are not paying anything,” she said.
Amariah argues that before the location of the Obama Presidential Center was announced, no one was interested in pastoring the Woodlawn church.
“I was looking to start my own church in Wood lawn, and I went there to find space that I could rent on Sunday, and they were looking for a pastor,” she said about her hiring.
“I think the bottom line is that everyone sees this as a changing community. It hadn’t changed fast enough, but now that the Obama Library is coming and it looks like the neighborhood might become Presbyterian and white, the land is starting to be valuable,” Haywood said.