Pentecost Sunday was extra special for 23 members of Lake Edge UCC in Madison who were welcomed as new members of Common Grace, a federated congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Moravian Church.
The Lake Edge members had been looking for a new place to worship even before selling their former church building in 2025. Common Grace was a natural fit. “Our congregations have worked together for years in our adjacent east side neighborhoods for ecumenical worship and shared community impact ministries,” the Rev. Staci Marrese-Wheeler, a minister of the Moravian Church in America and pastor of Common Grace, said in an email.
At first, she said, the Lake Edge contingent was looking for a “nesting place” where they could worship as the congregation discerned its future path. Common Grace offered “a place of respite for that discernment process.” After conversations among congregational and denominational leaders, Lake Edge members began worshiping at Common Grace in early 2025.
The new members arrive at an exciting time for Common Grace. The church, which also houses the Eastmorland Community Center, will move into a new building in the fall.
The new additions to Common Grace will strengthen the church’s ministry. “Common Grace has a vision to offer a witness of Christian faith centered on unity and common service toward a Gospel ethic of Christ-like love,” Staci said. “This new partnership shows Common Grace’s commitment to the understanding of Jesus’ teaching that ‘they all may be one.’”
That teaching, of course, is embedded in the DNA of the United Church of Christ.
“The joining of Lake Edge UCC with Common Grace illustrates the expanding dynamic of ecumenical partnering,” said Conference Minister Franz Rigert. “The movement of progressive Christianity in the way of shared pastorates, federated congregations and mergers serves to unify and strengthen our values of inclusion, wide welcome, justice and advocacy.”
The new members of Common Grace should feel right at home.
“While Common Grace is a federated congregation of the ELCA and the Moravian Church, our normal worship service does not look very typical for either of those traditions,” she said, adding that she served a small UCC church in southern Wisconsin earlier in her ministry. She has “incorporated much of the UCC liturgical practices into the worship of Common Grace. I think that is part of what the Lake Edge folks found that helped them feel at home.”