Martha V. Green, the Connecticut pastor who founded St. Mary's Unison Free Will Baptist Church in New Haven more than five decades ago, died on February 14 at the age of 102. She was recognized as the oldest living pastor still serving in the New Haven area.

Gershom Bey, the church's current pastor, announced her passing in a February 16 statement on Facebook:

"Apostle Green completed her earthly assignment and entered into eternal rest on February 14, 2026, when her true Valentine, our Lord, called her name."

Green was still preaching once a month at the time of her death, according to her niece Andrea Singleton, who added that Green remained in good health and "in her right mind." She was the last surviving sibling among her ten brothers and sisters.

A Life Built on Faith and Work

Born on April 5, 1923, in Greenville, North Carolina, Green migrated to New Haven in 1953 with her husband, Willie. She found work at Yale New Haven Hospital and later in the laundry room at the Veterans Administration hospital in West Haven. That same year, she became a member of Pitts Chapel in New Haven.

She preached her first sermon at Pitts Chapel in 1963. A decade later, she founded St. Mary's Unison Free Will Baptist Church. The church moved through several locations over the years, from Grand Avenue to Goffe Street to Kossuth Street to its location on Shelton Avenue. Christian Post reported.

There is something worth pausing over in that timeline. Green arrived in Connecticut, took a hospital job, and then a laundry job. She raised a family. She joined a church. And then she built one. No seminary incubator, no grant money, no institutional pipeline. Just conviction and labor, in that order.

That kind of story used to be the uncontested heart of the American narrative: ordinary people building lasting institutions from nothing because they believed they were called to do it. Green served her church for well over four decades. The institution she created outlived entire governmental programs launched in the same era.

A Legacy Measured in Lives

Danny Bland, now the lead pastor of Revival Church in Hamden, Connecticut, recalled Green's influence in a Facebook post:

"My mother was saved under her ministry. She opened the door for me to preach my very first sermon at just 8 years old. And she never stopped reminding me of the calling on my life. She is a major part of my spiritual formation and journey."

Bland said that whenever Green called him to speak, he dropped everything to be there. He described one of the final times he preached for her church:

"Several months ago, I had the privilege of preaching for her church, and I told my entire congregation to come. I wanted to publicly honor the woman who helped shape the man and the ministry I've become."

That is how real influence works. Not through viral moments or institutional leverage, but through decades of quiet investment in individual lives. Green gave an eight-year-old boy a pulpit. That boy grew up to lead his own church and brought his whole congregation back to honor her.

Singleton called her aunt "a mentor to so many" and "a trailblazer." The word gets overused in modern culture, but when a woman founds a church in 1973 and is still preaching from its pulpit in 2026, the word earns its weight.

Community Roots That Outlast Politics

In November 2019, the city of New Haven officially named the corner of Shelton Avenue and Ivy Street "Pastor Martha V. Green Corner." It was a small civic gesture, but a telling one. The recognition came not from any national platform or media campaign, but from a community that understood what Green had built in their neighborhood over the course of half a century.

Green's story is a reminder that the most durable American institutions are often the smallest ones. The local church, rooted in a specific community, is led by someone who lives there and works there and never leaves. Washington spends billions trying to manufacture the social cohesion that places like St. Mary's Unison Free Will Baptist Church produce organically. The federal government cannot replicate what Martha Green built with faith, persistence, and a willingness to show up every single month for decades on end.

Bey asked for prayers for the Green family and the church community, calling her life "a testament to the power of faith, prayer, and unwavering service to the Kingdom."

Martha Green preached her first sermon sixty-three years ago. She preached her last one sometime in the past few weeks. Every month in between, she showed up. That is not a career. That is a calling.