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- Glory Café
St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and the Evangelical Waldensian Church in the Rio de la Plata Are Building a Relationship
This article was written by the Rev. Spike Coleman, the pastor of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. It was shared with the American Waldensian Society by Dennis Smith, a former Presbyterian Church (USA) regional facilitator for South America and a current American Waldensian Society.
In this article, the author, Spike Coleman, mentions Dario Barolin, the pastor in the Evangelical Waldensian Church in the Rio de la Plata, because it was Dario who invited Spike to share his thoughts about his congregation’s ministry. Spike’s article has been republished in Spanish in the June newsletter of the Presbytery of Colonia Sur of the Evangelical Waldensian Church in the Rio de la Plata.
Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9).
Thank you to my dear brother, the Reverend Doctor Dario Barolin, for the invitation to share about the ways Jesus is teaching us to see ourselves as peacemakers. To illustrate this, I would like to share with you the story of Glory Café, an example of community peacemaking that grew out of the partnership of our congregation with our neighbors. My prayer is that by sharing about Glory Café, we will begin a dialogue with you to develop mutually encouraging and supportive friendships that will enable us to learn from one another to follow Jesus as peacemakers.
Emerging from the pandemic, we sensed God calling us to connect with the neighborhood around our church. (The history of how we lost touch with our neighborhood is a conversation for another day.) Our leadership discerned our guiding question: In what ways is the Holy Spirit leading us to partner with our neighbors to bless our community?
As we connected with community leaders, we were welcomed by people who also longed for connection and to partner with us, particularly the Reverend Christian King, the Founder and Director of the Pink House Neighborhood Resource Center. Initially, we shared opportunities such as conversations, a trust walk, community concerts, and ministries with children. Through these and other experiences, Jesus taught us to see one another not just as partners in mission, but as friends and siblings in God’s Beloved Community. As we have learned to see one another, we have shared our dreams, our joys, and we have supported one another in challenging times.
In 2025, we started the Good Futures course, using a curriculum produced by Rooted Good. Our group is made up of church members and community residents. We each have equal voice and vote in decision making. We practice an important posture: “listen, listen, love, love.”
After a year of monthly meetings, we identified two challenges facing the community: food insecurity and loneliness. Our response has been to offer a monthly community meal: Glory Café. To practice hospitality, instead of paper plates and disposable utensils, we use real plates and cloth tablecloths. For each meal, we come up with a menu and invite people to help prepare the food, as well as to set up, serve, and help clean up. It is a total team effort of neighbors serving neighbors.
Since beginning in January 2026, on the third Saturday of each month, we have enjoyed Glory Café. People of all ages have enjoyed meals prepared with care and love. With our hospitality, we have set the table for people to meet, to share delightful conversations, and to develop friendships. Our prayer is that as we nurture these friendships, we will experience the beauty of Beloved Community: that we have neighbors, now friends, who love one another. May we “taste and see that the LORD is good” (Psalm 34:8).
As in Jesus Christ, God is at work to reconcile us to God’s self and to one another, our Good Futures group has planned a worship service for healing and reconciliation on September 19, 2026. People from our surrounding community will gather for a worship service in which the church will offer an apology to our neighbors. In this apology, we will confess our sin for the ways we violated the dignity of our African-American neighbors throughout the history of Charleston and for the ways we turned our backs on the neighborhood following the Civil Rights Movement and the desegregation of public schools in the 1960s. Our prayer is that God’s Spirit will use the grace of confession and forgiveness to continue to heal and reconcile our community. We long for God to continue to open our eyes to behold God’s glory shining in the hearts of both our friends and our Beloved Community.
This worship service for healing and reconciliation on September 19th will be live-streamed on the St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church’s Facebook page. We invite you to share in our worship and to see that you have siblings in Christ who would be delighted to get to know you. We would be honored to hear of the ways that you are sharing in God’s mission and are learning to follow Jesus as peacemakers.
Again, to my dear brother, the Rev. Dr. Dario Barolin, thank you for this opportunity to share the ways Jesus is teaching us to see ourselves as peacemakers as we grow into God’s gift of Beloved Community.
The Rev. Dr. Spike Coleman has served as the pastor of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Charleston, South Carolina, for 28 years and as a crisis chaplain for 17 years. He is close to completing his studies for a Graduate Certificate in Conflict Transformation at the Center of Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Spike lives with his yellow Labrador retriever, Tito, and enjoys sharing delicious Colombian coffee (or mate!) and meals with neighbors and friends. Readers of this article are invited on Facebook to connect with Spike and to follow St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Charleston, South Carolina.