AMHERST — On Sunday afternoon, for the first time in well over 100 years, Amherst’s two African American churches will join in a Service of Worship and Fellowship.

Starting at 4 p.m. at Hope Community Church, 16 Gaylord St., the congregations of Goodwin Memorial A.M.E. Church and Hope Church are coming together for the 90-minute service, to be led by Goodwin Pastor the Rev. Mary Smith-Gomes and Hope Pastor the Rev. Carlos Anderson.

Not since the early 1900s, when the split originated at the two original Black churches over a difference in ideology, have their congregations come together for a unified service.

”I’m so optimistic to reach people,” says Smith-Gomes, who is in her fifth year as Goodwin’s pastor, beginning in the midst of virtual services during COVID. “People are struggling, and if we get together, it open doors for fellowship.”

Smith-Gomes said she wants to increase hope, wholeness and strength through fellowships with Hope and other churches.

“We want to be part of the solution — we all need to help each other,” Smith-Gomes said.

Anderson sent a message to the Hope congregation explaining the reasoning for working with Goodwin on the service.

“There is clearly an overwhelming display of division and separate agendas occurring in our country and in the world at large,” Anderson wrote. “Countless numbers are divided by differences in political, religious and other ideologies. And their numbers appear to be multiplying.

“Uniting in Unity, in honor of our Essential Oneness, is the Answer,” Anderson continued. “In the Mind of Christ (Conscious Awareness of Oneness with the Creator and All of Creation) all shadows of division and separateness are shined away by the Light of Our One-Self-ness. It is this Great Awakening that will usher us, one by one and name by name, into the fully realized manifestation of the Heaven on Earth Experience. The joining together of these two churches, is part of the Great Awakening.”

During the service, Smith-Gomes said she intends to reflect on Scripture from Chapter 29, Verse 13 of the Book of Jeremiah, which states, “When you seek me with whole heart you will find me.”

Following the service, those in attendance will enjoy refreshments.

Both churches have a history that began in 1869, when a number of Black families departed a predominantly white Congregational church so they could have Black leadership.

Amherst historian Robert H. Romer, a member of Hope Church, has written about and traced that history.

Hope Community Church started as Zion Chapel, a small building at the corner of Woodside Avenue and Northampton Road provided by the trustees of Amherst College “so that the colored people of the town can have a place to worship.”

That is now the site of a former college fraternity, currently known as Newport House and taking its name from two founding members of Hope Church and college employees, E. Dwight Newport and his son Edward Foster Newport.

The congregation eventually got out from under Amherst College control at about the same time a split was forming in the congregation. Hope Congregational Church was established as an independent entity, moving into its current building, dedicated on June 11, 1912, constructed with support from a fundraising drive that included a lecture by sociologist and activist W.E.B. DuBois.

During that dedication ceremony 112 years ago, one of the dignitaries on hand was Mary McLeod Bethune, a civil rights leader who later served as special adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

For its part, the breakaway Goodwin congregation moved down Woodside in the first decade of the 20th century and in 1910 opened the building it continues to occupy, making it the oldest African-American congregation in the northern Pioneer Valley. The congregation spent $117 to buy the land and $601 to acquire the property, and got more financial assistance from educator and author Booker T. Washington to build the church.

Being an African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Goodwin’s members have taken pride in being affiliated with the “freedom church,” so named due to its support for abolition and assisting Harriet Tubman with the Underground Railroad and bringing slaves to freedom.

Its choir, the Goodwin Memorial Choir, forms the base of the Amherst Area Gospel Choir, perhaps the best-known ministry of the church, which regularly performs at community events, and will be participating in Sunday’s full fellowship.

While a historic occasion, the churches are looking to join together more often. In November, the two ministries will partner on another fellowship that will be hosted by Goodwin in their sanctuary, and a third fellowship is likely next spring.

Smith-Gomes said Goodwin has 22 members, 14 who come to the church each week and eight who have health and other concerns and are limited to participating via Zoom.

Smith-Gomes said she would love to bring on more religions, too, envisioning that perhaps the Jewish Community of Amherst could be present at future fellowships.

“We need to have fellowship with other churches,” Smith-Gomes said, adding that her philosophy is to pray for everyone. “If you need prayer, Pastor Mary Smith-Gomes will pray for you.”