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The congregations in the city's common life
The record, briefly: Fort Wayne's churches have never been only Sunday institutions. The wealthiest man's wife gave the land for the Black congregation's first real home (Turner Chapel, above); the German parishes built the school system the city still uses (Schools section); a Mennonite-heritage denomination headquartered here wrote, in Paul Erdel's account, an ethic of peacemaking into its mission work; the congregations together built and still staff the family homeless shelter (Just Neighbors, above); and the refugee resettlements of 1975–2010 were executed, on the ground, by Catholic Charities and the sponsoring congregations. In February 2026 the pattern reached the national stage when the city's own bishop, Kevin Rhoades — secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops — delivered a widely reported lecture making a biblical and natural-law case on the treatment of immigrants, in a city whose newest congregations are immigrant ones. Two famous episodes often claimed for Fort Wayne could not be documented: no Billy Graham crusade in Fort Wayne appears in the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association's own list of crusades, and no Fort Wayne congregation's declaration in the 1980s sanctuary movement was found in the sources reached. The record prints what it can prove.
Sources:
- National Catholic Reporter, "Bishop Rhoades makes biblical case on migration" (24 February 2026) — the USCCB secretary's lecture.
- Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, crusades and events list (billygraham.org) — no Fort Wayne crusade appears in it.
- The entries above, and their sources, for the Hamilton gift, the parish schools, Just Neighbors and Catholic Charities.