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In the Book of Exodus, God leads Moses and the Israelites to Mount Sinai. They have been wandering the desert after escaping from slavery at the hands of the Pharaoh, and their mouths are parched with thirst. As they camp at the foot of the mountain, Moses cleaves a rock in two and water bursts forth, quenching their thirst.
For most of its 114 years, the Ebenezer Baptist Church stood as a rock of faith and strength for the community on Poughkeepsie’s Northside. But in the past two years, that rock has been cleft wide open. What poured out was not a tide of nourishing water, but a torrent of accusations and bitter animosity, sending the pastor, the Rev. E. Clayton Wade, and his supporters on an exodus from which they are just now returning, hopeful they are back for good.
In his first public statement on the personal, spiritual and legal battle that has consumed his life and his church for the past two years, Wade sat down with The Beat this week to discuss where the church has been and where he hopes to take it in the future.
“I’m not really seeking to name names or go into detail, but I think the community has a right to know what has happened here,” he said. “As Christians, one thing we have to do is learn forgiveness. We can’t hold onto the past. We’ve been in this rut long enough. God’s people need to move on.”
Wade was named pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in 1996, after serving first as guest preacher and then as interim pastor. It’s rare for an interim pastor to be offered the job permanently, he said – though not as rare as the bitter battle that would follow.
In Wade’s view, the dispute started over “differing ideas with regard to church policy.” His attempts to make structural changes at the church were met with resistance from some of the deacons and trustees, officers elected by the congregation to oversee the church’s spiritual and financial well-being, respectively.
He said he proposed two major changes: the first would bring church practices into compliance with the state law that requires trustees to relinquish their seats for at least one year after serving a three-year term; the other would eliminate the position of church moderator, who runs the church’s business meetings.
The changes would havehad the effect of consolidating management authority in the hands of the pastor – a post he referred to as both “shepherd” and “CEO” at different points in the interview. “I am the one going to be accountable for this flock come Judgment,” he said.
“They had a pastor for 29 years before I came, so they were accustomed to doing things their way,” he added. “People really hate change, in some ways.”
Some of them hated it enough, Wade said, that they tried to oust him as pastor in 2003. Some board members called a meeting that October, without his knowledge, and with less than a quarter of the church’s membership in attendance. Wade contends – and a judge has ruled – that the meeting was illegal, and its vote to remove him null and void.
But he didn’t find out about it until he arrived at the church the following Sunday to lead the congregation. He recalled arriving that morning and seeing a group of people waiting outside the church, an unusual sight. Figuring the person who would normally open the doors on Sunday morning was running late, he unlocked them himself. But the usual code failed to disarm the burglar alarm, which went off, summoning the police. When they arrived, a confrontation broke out among church members. Wade retreated across the street to the church offices, where, he said, one of the church trustees told him he was fired.
“This group, they already had another preacher, hidden, that they’d hired, waiting to preach that service,” Wade said. “Rather than cause complete chaos and get somebody hurt, I decided to just leave.” About 30 people left the church with him that day, and, to his surprise, followed him home, where they prayed together.
In an attempt to get the trustees’ side of the story, The Beat contacted Dennis Winslow, chairman of the trustee ministry. Winslow refused to comment, but referred The Beat to Tempi Hopkins, the church moderator and a fellow trustee. Hopkins could not be reached before press time.
Misuse of funds alleged
In ousting him from the church, Wade’s opponents accused him of misappropriating church funds because of several charge accounts he had opened in the church’s name. He said those accounts were perfectly legal, and necessary because the church was his only source of credit. “Any bill I incurred was paid in full,” he said. “The church never paid for one bill.”
He added that, because the trustees oversee the church’s finances, he has no authority to dispense church money or sign checks. “It’s hard to misappropriate when you don’t have it at your disposal,” he said.
Bitsy Johnson was a trustee in 2003, though she later resigned in protest over Wade’s ouster. “For nine years, I had been on the board of trustees ministry,” she said. “I knew firsthand that he did not do the things they said.”
Johnson said her parents were members of Ebenezer Baptist Church before they were married, and her husband’s grandparents were among the founding members. “It’s devastating to know that our history and our membership goes so far back – and to have a bomb drop like this,” she said.
Wade said at that point, and many times since, he nearly walked away. But Paul’s advice to Timothy in the New Testament stirred him to reconsider: “Fight the good fight.”
Mary Scott, who was the church’s financial secretary and Sunday school superintendent at the time, said she encouraged Wade to stay and clear his name. “Your name is on the line,” she recalled telling him. “You’ll never live that down. People will always look at you and wonder.”
Scott added, “I think it was just a personal vendetta from a few people. And it was a vendetta against the people that believed in him and stood with him.”
So Wade hired a lawyer and sued the church to reinstate him. Meanwhile, he led a congregation-in-exile of approximately 60 people, holding Sunday services in hotel conference rooms. The church hired an interim pastor, the Rev. Rufus Strother, who Wade described as “a fine, upstanding man,” who passed away earlier this year. The divided church saddened Strother, Wade said. “He was trying to get the church back together. He told them they would lose the lawsuit.”
They did lose the lawsuit, in April, 2004, when State Supreme Court Judge Christine Sproat ordered the church to reinstate Wade, pay his back salary, give him keys and alarm codes to all the church facilities and call a corporate meeting of church members as soon as possible to address problems within the church. Wade said he waited until August, 2004, to reclaim his post, hoping the animosity would subside by then.
It didn’t.
A difficult return
The church Wade returned to just over a year ago was a broken institution, and remains one to this day.
“Since back then, when the trustees voted me out, I have not had a salary,” he said. “I have not been paid one penny by the church.”
Furthermore, the church’s trustees have refused members’ requests for a corporate meeting, where members could vote on new officers and policies, as well as their requests for a financial report and an audit. “They know when they call a meeting, they’re going to be voted out,” he said.
“The pastor and the members do not know where they stand with regard to the mortgage of the church and the expenses of the church,” he added. “We’ve had no budget for over two years. We still take a collection, but we have no idea where it goes.”
Wade said his support among church members has allowed him to keep his job, but his opponents have caused him trouble at nearly every turn, sometimes through petty methods.
In October, 2004, he received notice that someone had brought the financial allegations against him to the District Attorney’s office, which was investigating the matter.
Around the same time, the mailbox in his office was sealed up, and all church mail was diverted to a post office box, which he does not have access to.
He said he was locked out of the church again for two weekends in January, largely because of his participation in the World AIDS Day observance the previous month.
Wade’s associate minister, the Rev. Elliot Lewis, is HIV-positive, and was profiled by The Beat last November. Wade said that some church officers were unhappy with his decision to offer refreshments after the World AIDS Day march and host a church service as part of the day’s program. “They did not want to have any outside groups, or anybody, period, to meet at this church,” he said. “They wanted to turn a deaf ear, but we were determined to have that program and we didn’t care what it took.”
Later in the year, when services were being held in the church offices while the church itself underwent renovations, Wade said he arrived on a Sunday morning to find that all the chairs had been removed, circuit breakers had been turned off and all the toilet paper had been removed from the bathroom. “I mean, how mean-spirited can you be?” he said.
But Wade believes things are finally changing for the better. Just last week, he received notice that a grand jury had determined there was insufficient evidence to bring any charges against him for misuse of church funds between 1999 and 2004.
Newly vindicated, he is confident that he will succeed in reforming the church. “We’re seeing where God has brought us,” he said. “I’m hoping people are going to respectfully disagree and work out their differences. The point is not to try and run anybody out of the church. We’re not changing membership, but some offices in this church will change personnel. Slowly, the walls are coming down and we look toward better days.”
“I believe God has a plan for that corner,” said Mary Scott, referring to the corner of Smith Street and the westbound arterial, where the church sits. “That part of town needs that church. I don’t believe God would destroy that.”
