'It is her legacy': Firestone Park churches honor concert founder with formal partnership
A group of Firestone Park churches that has been collaborating for more than 30 years on an annual Christmas concert is now taking the relationships built over those decades and formalizing them a bit.
The number of churches and community members from within Firestone Park and beyond has ebbed and flowed since the late Lela Brown started the first concert in 1988.
But a core group of four Firestone Park churches and an Akron church have also been meeting to coordinate other events such as an ice cream social, a picnic and a walk against hunger.
“We figured it was time. We’ve been calling ourselves the Firestone Park Community Churches Christmas concert. It was time to start with something,” said Jeanne Bearer, business manager at St. Paul Catholic Church. Bearer has been singing and helping to coordinate the concert since its inception.
The group will now call itself the Firestone Park Church Partners.
First on the agenda is preparing for this year’s Christmas concert, which will be held Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. at St. Paul Catholic Church, 1580 Brown Street.
The Christmas concert has become a staple in the community and a special event at Christmas, said Akron City Councilman Donnie Kamer, whose Ward 7 includes Firestone Park.
“This is something that just touches your heart when you go and sit there and hear those voices and those musicians,” said Kammer, who sang once in the concert in 2010.
Over the years, the concert had rotated among churches, but it is now held at St. Paul — which has the largest sanctuary to accommodate concertgoers.
The first practice for the concert is Friday at 7 p.m.; rehearsals continue weekly through the third Friday in November. The choir features singers from Firestone Park and others interested, orchestra musicians who accompany the choir and the Summit Bells. The choir is directed by Chuck Kobb, founder and director of the Summit Bells. The orchestra is directed by Jin Yu, a member of the Akron Chinese Church.
The concert also features solos, duets and small groups from other churches, too.
A lasting legacy
This will be the first concert without its founder, Lela Brown, dubbed the “ambassador of Firestone Park” by community members. Brown, who lived in North Canton with her husband of 60 years, Leonard, was a longtime member of the Akron First Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Firestone Park and was very involved in the neighborhood, community members said. She died in August.
“It is her legacy,” said Bearer, who is taking over coordinating of the Christmas concert. “She was very community-oriented.” Brown had visited every church in Firestone Park over the years to get them involved, Bearer said.
Leonard Brown will take over the Firestone Park Church Partners to continue his wife’s legacy.
“I’m still planning on stepping in and filling in her work,” he said. “We’ve been working with it for years.”
The concert has been held every year except two: one year in the 1990s, Lela Brown felt people needed a break.
Virtual concert in 2020
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the churches decided to forgo the in-person concert. Leonard Brown and the Browns’ son and his wife with their production company, Beacon Productions, recorded various performances for an hour and a half YouTube concert.
The concert can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZgzcbme17c
Working together
The group over the years has also hosted other events, like a walk against hunger, an ice cream social and a picnic.
Lela Brown had a gift to bring together community and church members in Firestone Park, Kammer said.
“She would actually bring all these churches together. I mean, think about the Christmas concert. She would bring them all together — and she was a person that if some people said 'no,' somehow they said 'yes,'” Kammer said.
During the pandemic, the churches coordinated to help with a summer lunch program, which eventually was handled by the schools, Bearer said.
Leonard Brown said the churches have often shared information about their various programs with each other and he will continue to do that.
Pastor Francie Fischer of Firestone Park Presbyterian Church and Allenside Presbyterian Church in Kenmore took over two meetings of the churches after Lela Brown’s death, but is grateful that Leonard is willing to shepherd the group.
Lela Brown reached out and got Fischer involved quickly six years ago when she arrived at the Firestone Park church.
“What makes us work well together is that we all feel good about our own churches and we each have our own people, and we're all willing to kind of help each other,” Fischer said.
“I think churches more and more are starting to realize we have a lot more in common than we have differences, right? And let's focus on those things we have in common rather than the things that are different,” she said.
Added Bearer: “We’re looking for anything that we can do to help. The churches need to come together to see the future of this community.”
Anyone interested in participating in the concert can reach out to Bearer at St. Paul at 330-724-1263 or Stpaulakr@sbcglobal.net
This article is part of the Akron Beacon Journal’s mobile newsroom currently located at the Firestone Park branch library. Beacon Journal staff reporter Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ. To see her most recent stories and columns, go to www.tinyurl.com/bettylinfisher.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Firestone Park Christmas Concert, collaborations of churches continues
