Trinity Christian Methodist Episcopal Church

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Unfinished new building for Trinity Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, October 2018

Trinity Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (originally Trinity Colored Methodist Episcopal Church) is a CME Church, currently meeting at First Baptist Church of Zion City at 1104 Gene Reed Road in Roebuck.

Kenneth W. Smith has served as pastor since 2018. The church is part of the Birmingham-based Fifth Episcopal District of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.

The church was founded in January 1904 in a small frame structure built over "The Dump", a waste pile owned by U.S. Pipe & Foundry. It later constructed a new 400-seat church building at 3013 F. L. Shuttlesworth Drive (then Huntsville Road) in Collegeville. The sanctuary was designed so that it could be rearranged for banquets. The complex, decorated in purple and light gray, included administrative offices and conference facilities.

In June 2014, under pastor Charles Williams Jr, the church agreed to a land swap with the City of Birmingham to allow construction of the Council President Maxine Herring Parker Bridge. As part of the agreement, the church received a $500,000 payment and title to a city-owned parcel at 1129 Carraway Boulevard (26th Street North), just north of I-20/59.

Construction of a new 15,000 square-foot church and daycare building, designed by Dorsey Architects, began on January 6, 2015, with Keystone Development Contractors Inc. as permit holder and a scheduled completion by December of that year. The project stalled before completion, and the structure remained unfinished. In the meantime, the congregation met at the former Bonham's Skate Galaxy at 2501 Commerce Circle in Tarrant before moving to their present location in Roebuck.

In 2016 the church subdivided its parcel and sold the northern portion to the Fifth Episcopal District, which erected an office building there, addressed as 2615 12th Avenue North.

In 2020 the City of Birmingham notified the church that it had defaulted on its redevelopment agreement. The church requested, and was granted, another extension and subsequently presented several alternate redevelopment proposals, none of which were approved. In November 2021 the city formally terminated the agreement and requested the return of the redevelopment funds and deed to the property. Because those had not been returned, in 2024 the City of Birmingham filed a lawsuit against the church and the 5th Episcopal District.

Pastors

References

  • Tomberlin, Michael (July 9, 2014) "Trinity CME Church to build new Birmingham campus off Interstate 20-59." The Birmingham News
  • Garrison, Greg (April 12, 2024) "Empty cathedral: Birmingham fights to reclaim $500,000, land where abandoned church sits." AL.com

External links

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