3 churches working together on community long-table event

It will be held June 28 on the lawns of Sampson’s Mills Presbyterian and Faith Lutheran.

Sampson’s Mills Presbyterian Church in White Oak plans to co-sponsor a special event with Faith Lutheran Church and Mary Mother of God Parish to bring the community together.

Set for June 28, the Lincoln Way Long-Table Event will be held on the front lawns of the Sampson’s Mills and Faith Lutheran’s churches from 3 to 5 p.m. There will be a crossing guard to ensure visitors get back and forth safely.

Initial plans called for the long-table community dinner to be held on the roadway, but White Oak police Chief Jason Binder said the department couldn’t handle that kind of closure of one of the borough’s busiest roads. Sampson’s Mills Presbyterian Church is located at 1665 Lincoln Way in White Oak. Faith Lutheran Church is located at 1656 Lincoln Way, White Oak.

“We’re averaging 4,800 vehicles between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. at the 1600 block of Lincoln Way, and not to mention where we are going to put truck traffic,” Binder said. “You essentially have to close from Kelly Street to McClure Lane, and there is just nowhere to put that kind of traffic.

“Even if we brought the entire department out, I just don’t know where we would put that traffic,” he added. “Almost 5,000 cars to deal with in those four hours is a lot because even to block that, you have to worry about parking lots, side streets. Even if we had 50 officers, there is nowhere to put the traffic.”

So the event organizers pivoted and agreed to have it on the front lawns.

Faith Lutheran will have the food, and parishioners will be grilling that day, while Sampson’s Mills will host the games and activities, according to Sampson’s Mills Jo VanMeter. VanMeter worked with Pastor Dr. Wendy Farone to come up with the idea of a way to work together.

Since Sampson’s Mills hosts a food-truck event every summer, VanMeter said they wanted to try something different like a community-oriented picnic. She is excited about the event.

“We decided last year we were not going to do Food Truck Friday, and we would come up with something else to do,” VanMeter said. “We talked about doing, some sort of just free community dinner, just something to bring people together. When Pastor Wendy came across the street, she and I got to know each other pretty quickly, and became good friends, and decided, let’s try to do something together with our churches.”

According to VanMeter, long-table events happen in a lot of different areas, and they wanted to show churches working together, collaboration and to build unity. While they couldn’t do the event on Lincoln Way this year, they will try to do the event in the street next year.

Mary Mother of God Parish also wanted to hop on the project since they are located behind Faith Lutheran Church. The borough recreation board also got involved.

Jessica Wurm of Faith Lutheran Church said the event is free and everyone is welcome to gather together to meet neighbors.

“It’s definitely much bigger than it’s ever been, and we’re hoping that if it goes well this year, it will be an annual thing that we do every year for the community,” Wurm said. “And of course, this year, we want to get more businesses involved. We would love to bring more people into it. We’re just kind of dipping our toes in right now.”

Wurm said Farone applied for a grant for the food, which ended up being $1,750. Local restaurants will also be donating food.

Wurm thought the idea was fantastic and believes it’s important for people to come together.

“I think it’s really important for communities to come together and unite,” Wurm said. “There’s a lot of division in society these days especially, and I think that having an event where people come together really shows that we’re still together on a united front, there’s no division here.”

“I am very excited to see it come to fruition,” VanMeter added. “It’s always been my goal to bring churches together to work for the same cause, whatever that cause is, working together despite denominational differences. I think denominations can put up barriers sometimes, and when we kind of let those barriers go and just work together. We’re joining forces for the love of the community, and for the importance of bringing people together in a positive way.”