On a Mission

By Robert C. Johnston Photographs Allison Shelley

Pittsburgh

Can a church save a community? Perhaps not alone, but the congregation of Grace Memorial Presbyterian Church believes it can help lead the way. The members of this city's oldest black Presbyterian church, in fact, see no alternative.

Seven years ago, they challenged their ministers to do something about the crime and drug problems that were encroaching on their schools, and in the church's scenic, tree-lined neighborhood, which has been the home to thousands of professional and middle-class black families over the years.

Grace Memorial's story—and its hope in the power of the mind, the spirit, and local activism—symbolizes a national discussion over the role religious groups...