Spirit of Peace Church of the Brethren

The Spirit of Peace congregation is similar to an extended family. Within our community, senior members are cherished, children are nurtured, youth are involved, parents are supported, and adults are nourished.

Our worship at 10 AM on Sundays is informal, participatory, and varied. Since March 2020, we have been meeting entirely on Zoom. As we return to in-person worship, we also will resume Sunday School classes and child care, as needed.

We are known in the community for our commitments to peace and justice.

• In the 70’s the congregation settled refugees from Southeast Asia and was active in the movement for nuclear disarmament.
• In the 80’s we provided sanctuary for a large family from El Salvador.
• In the 90’s when Rich Buckwalter, our co-pastor, was diagnosed with ALS, the congregation changed parsonages and put an elevator in the church building to make it accessible for wheel-chair users and others. During that decade we also joined the Supportive Communities Network as publicly accepting and affirming of LBGTQ persons in all aspects of our congregational life.
• In the 2000’s, many of our members worked with a local shelter for the homeless. Several were active in Disaster Childcare both locally and nationally. One member was in New York City doing childcare for three weeks after the September 11 attack. We frequently sponsored disadvantaged children for a week at Camp Brethren Heights.
• In the 1990s and 2000s, the Lansing congregation shared our sanctuary with three other congregations who rented the space for their own worship. For some of that time there were 3 congregations worshiping at different times on Sundays.
• Over our history several of our families have participated in international and interracial adoption and foster care.

The Lansing First Church of the Brethren first met as an independent entity on October 7, 1928, following several years as a part of the Sunfield congregation. The congregation’s first church building was located at 1229 E. Prospect St. and was purchased from the German Baptists. The building on the corner of S. Washington and Loa Streets was constructed in 1952, and sold in 2019. Since September 1, 2019, the congregation has been meeting in the Chapel of the Apostles at the University United Methodist Church in East Lansing.  We changed our name to Spirit of Peace Church of the Brethren following that move.