Pastor Liz Leaves a Lasting Impact on EL and Edgewood Church

“It feels like Mary Poppins,” Melissa Fore said. “I want the wind to shift back and blow her back to us.”

Fore is a member of East Lansing’s Edgewood United Church of Christ at 469 N. Hagadorn Road., and spoke to ELi about Pastor Liz Miller, Edgewood’s pastor since spring 2016. Miller ended her tenure at the church in July after accepting a new position in Connecticut.

“We had this pastor [before Miller] that kind of tore us up a bit, divided us,” Fore said. “But when [Miller] came, she somehow, she was able to show us what we loved and valued about each other. Even though she was the pastor, she showed us that your church is more than your pastor. Because she was such a good listener and because she was always so in tune with what people cared about, what their ideas were, she just made us feel valued. She made our congregation seem whole. I know that sounds cheesy maybe, but it felt like a healing. She’s leaving the church stronger than it was.”

When Miller began her time at Edgewood, she couldn’t have known the challenges that would lie ahead, both nationally and locally.

Just two weeks after her arrival, a gunman opened fire in an Orlando gay nightclub, killing 49 and wounding more than 50. Edgewood had been an “open and affirming church” for many years by that time and was the spiritual home for several members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Miller hosted a time for “prayer, reflection, silence, and communal mourning,” and was overwhelmed with the turnout, needing to bring more chairs to the Edgewood chapel.

“People need a space to feel what they’re feeling,” Miller said in a June interview with ELi. “And oftentimes, people need to feel what they’re feeling around others. The space to feel pain, grief and the space to speak with God.”

Earlier this year, Miller did the same after a shooting at Michigan State University rocked the community.

Another major hurdle was the COVID-19 pandemic that hit in March 2020. She and other faith community leaders were left to make tough decisions.

“She probably literally saved lives the way that she locked down our church,” Fore said. “She wasn’t messing around. She never took risks. She was always really thoughtful about people who couldn’t make it to church. So our whole church got rewired for online services. She was always really in tune with folks with disabilities or looking at what the barriers of keeping people from church and how we could eliminate those.”

During the pandemic, Miller pivoted church worship services to Facebook, reaching upwards of 1.6 thousand participants on a Sunday.

“We learned that we can worship together even when we’re not together,” Miller said.

Miller’s most lasting legacy at the church, however, might be its recent $100,000 contribution to the Justice League of Greater Lansing, aiming to make reparations for the nation’s long history of racism.

“We were always committed to racial justice,” Fore said. “We were always that church that had that as part of our core. But because she was also so committed to that and did a lot of work with anti-racism, it reinvigorated that. Liz was really instrumental in making sure the process that we went through included everyone and making sure there was a lot of education around it.

“Like she really just did it right because she cared about it,” Fore said. “She wanted everyone to be as excited about that idea, of making that commitment to begin to repair the breach that centuries of racism has done. So because she has that as one of her core values, I think that kind of spread to the church and we all felt that that was part of our calling when she was at the helm.”

Miller worked to serve the wider East Lansing community, as well.

“I felt like she was young when she came here,” Fore said. “But whenever she was needed in city government or if there was a board of ed meeting, and it mattered for people to show up, she was there. And I think that says a lot about her character. She doesn’t just clock out.”

Miller served on both the East Lansing and Okemos Sex Education Advisory Boards.

“There’s a state law,” Miller said with a chuckle, “that requires each district’s sex education group to have a clergyperson on it. And we were able to make the [East Lansing] district curriculum more inclusive and realistic.”

Miller served as a longtime member of the East Lansing Human Rights Commission (HRC), ending her time on the body as its chairperson. Karen Hoene served with her and has assumed the position of chairperson with Miller’s resignation.

“Honestly, from the very beginning, I was in the Liz fan club,” Hoene said. “She brought commitment, a really fresh and unique perspective and authenticity. She’s a calming presence. I will say, she has a very calming, thoughtful way to approach things. She’s very steady.”

During her time with the HRC, the body passed a resolution calling on East Lansing to become a sanctuary city — which the City Council adopted — and supported the creation of the East Lansing Independent Police Oversight Committee, coming just before the murder of George Floyd and the summer 2020 racial justice protests throughout the country.

Miller is leaving East Lansing to become the first pastor of a Connecticut church being formed from the merger of two smaller churches.

“I’m excited by this opportunity,” Miller said. “It’s a historic community and the churches have both existed with wonderful parishes. This is the kind of work that thrills me.”

Miller had served as an associate minister in Connecticut before being called to Edgewood and she and her wife are looking forward to being closer to family.

“East Lansing is such a phenomenal community,” Miller said. “It’s not too big and not too small. It’s great for families and has this big university in its backyard. The people really care for each other. It’s not the easiest decision to leave, but it’s what’s best for my family.”

Miller leaves behind a community that has grown very fond of her.

“I want to thank her for her steady and thoughtful leadership,” Hoene said. “I want to thank her for her dedication and commitment to justice, her sense of humor, and for making everyone on the HRC feel welcome and respected and that all of our voices are important.

“I’ve never been friends with a pastor before. She is funny as hell. She surprises me all the time. She is the kind of person that when I show up to a protest, she is almost always there, too.”

Fore, who served as Moderator of the parish, reflected on what she learned from Miller.

“I think we learned to trust each other a little bit more,” she said. “I think we learned what it looks like to do social justice work in a church where you really listen to the people you’re trying to serve.

“She’s probably one of the most selfless people I’ve ever met,” Fore said. “She’s kind to the core and I think everyone is just going to miss her terribly.  I know that wherever she goes, she’s just going to grow congregations and put that mirror up to people just so they can see just how amazing they are. That’s a gift when someone can do that.”

Note: This story has been updated at 11:30 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 6, to reflect that in the United Church of Christ the proper title of the leader of the congregation is “pastor.”