The New Bethel AME congregation moved from their Germantown Ave church to a new building nearby and continued active worship. Daniel Kontz
Relocation Without Disappearance Similar to other Weinstein purchases, the New Bethel African Methodist Episcopal( AME) Church building is part of a larger redevelopment strategy. Weinstein purchased the mid-century church in 2024, along with adjacent commercial properties. Within the church walls, he is creating bi-level affordable apartments— a benefit to the neighborhood in keeping with the mission of the congregation.
At first glance, this could be read as a story of sacred displacement. The building— reportedly the only pre – Civil War African American church in Germantown— will no longer function as a house of worship. But the congregation has not disappeared.
The profits from the sale enabled the congregation to relocate nearby, to a spacious, attractive building where they worship in the traditional Black church liturgical form. The congregation identifies itself as“ New Bethel Germantown,” maintaining geographic identity even in relocation.
Worshippers dress in African garments. Gospel singing fills the sanctuary:“ In that great getting up morning … no man can hinder me.” Recently, a service opened with a resonant theme:“ Welcome Home.”
New Bethel complicates narratives of decline or closures. Architecturally, a historically significant Black church will become housing on Germantown Avenue. Institutionally, a historically significant Black congregation continues in culturally-rooted worship. Here, sacred continuity is not tied to a single building, but the community that carries it forward.
Germantown Avenue reveals a shifting sacred landscape, where some congregations may close but their buildings can bring new life to communities. Other communities of faith find innovative ways to adapt their buildings to better serve their neighborhoods. Despite transitions and transformations, the Avenue still holds faith, living it out in new ways.
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