10 minute read
Religion
Men Honoring Men for Enduring Faith, Commitment to Worship at Allen Chapel AME Church
DR Barnes WI Staff Member
Church doors are slowly reopening following a more than two-year pandemic that required social distancing, mask-wearing, and places where people gather – even for worship –to close indefinitely.
It is still a tough decision for congregations to gather again to fellowship, worship, and celebrate religious and secular occasions while keeping members and guests safe from COVID-19 and the flu.
In September, a Men’s Day Committee of Allen Chapel AME Church in Southeast began planning an elaborate celebration for their Men’s Day season but not without carefully considering how to do so safely. Lifting the theme: Men of Passion, Power & Promise –taken from Joshua 1:3 -- they planned an outdoor fish fry, a fashion show with guests socially distanced, a guest preacher for their Sunday, November 21 service, as well as a brunch honoring elders and ancestors of the church on November 12, both where masks were required.
Many churches worldwide celebrate International Men’s Day, which falls annually on November 19. The day is set aside to recognize and honor men’s cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements. For churchgoers, it is also a day, and a season, for men to acknowledge their faith and its contributions to their accomplishments.
At Allen Chapel, often called the “Cathedral of Southeast,” the minimum age for the Men’s Day Brunch honorees was 80. There were 21 men aged 80 and above who were recognized, and 11 of them attended the midday affair.
5 A program honoring the elders of Allen Chapel AME Church included long-standing members(l-r standing) Harrison Murphy, Allen Jefferson, Charles Young, Reverend John Thompson, Milton White, Leroy Cowan, Malcolm Peter Drewery, (seated l-r) Otha Lewis, Jesse Hamilton, and Earle Gumbs.
WHAT ALLEN CHAPEL MEANS TO COMMUNITY
Charles Young, 82, a senior licensed funeral director at Pope Funeral Home, said he joined Allen as a child in 1946. He was raised in Southeast and shared fond memories of attending youth activities on Friday nights, including movies. He not only recalled the small building on Alabama Avenue that housed Allen, but he accurately listed every pastor who led the church since it was established as Allen Garfield AME in 1850.
Leroy Cowan, 95, said he joined Allen because of its outreach programs. “My life has been about outreach,” he said. He organized a senior ministry in 1992, and he and his wife worked together supporting other ministries for 28 years before her death. “It’s [Allen] a place where people in need can come for worship and seek comfort,” he responded when asked what made him most proud to be a member of the church.
Lafayette Barnes, Sr., and 18-yearold Donyell Harris, a student at Montgomery College, co-hosted the program. Harris’s great-grandmother and great-grandfather were considered pillars of Allen, and he looks forward to following in their footsteps.
A room filled with about 150 people sang “Oh Happy Day,” a musical selection performed by Brian Glover, and later enjoyed a buffet spread including salmon, grits, potatoes, eggs, turkey bacon and sausage, and more. “This is too much food,” one guest commented.
CONTINUING ALLEN CHAPEL’S LEGACY OF SERVICE
A video showing the new church’s groundbreaking in the 1980s was filmed by Allen Jackson and produced by Jose E. “Go Ye” Maldonado included many notables. Among them were the late Pastor Leon G. Lipscomb, leaders of the AME church, the late D.C. Mayor Marion S. Barry, former Ward 8 Councilmember Wilhelmina J. Rolark, and Attorney Dovey Roundtree.
Allen Trustee Paul Trantham performed the Calling of the Ancestors with the Tolling of the Bells as he announced the deceased men of the church who died over the past two years.
Later, Malcolm Peter Drewery, 93, delivered the keynote addressing the theme: Know Our Past to Lead Allen Forward.”
“This is not a popcorn church,” Drewery said. “It was built from the hearts of good men, and women, and children who love the Lord.”
“Can you imagine a church with no indoor toilet or air-conditioning? Envision how difficult it was to build the church using brick and mortar. Going from Allen Garfield to Allen Chapel shows we’ve gone through a lot of changes, and we’ve come a long way,” he concluded, “Our work has just begun. For some of us, this is our finish line, but the work is not done. There are people on the streets who need our help. It is time for the men of Allen to take the baton and bring our young people with us.”
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MUTULU from Page 17
mored car robbery that resulted in the death of two police officers.
In 2020, Judge Charles Haight Jr., the same judge who sentenced Shakur to prison, denied Shakur’s motion for compassionate release on the grounds that he wasn’t sick enough. However, reports that surfaced earlier this year said Shakur had less than six months to live. Comrades also said he weighed less than 130 pounds, making him unable to continue chemotherapy treatment.
A cadre of supporters that included Attorney Nkechi Taifa, the Rev. Graylan Hagler, and members of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement coalesced around efforts to secure Shakur’s early release. In July, dozens converged on the U.S. Department of Justice to make their case.
In the eyes of many people, like Hirano, Shakur proved more than deserving of an early release.
Hirano said Shakur was a great inspiration to those who used the Lincoln Protocol to free the minds of those suffering from racial oppression. By the time Hirano, a Japanese-American acupuncturist, met Shakur in the early 1970s, he had been heavily involved in detoxifying Asian prison inmates.
Hirano and Shakur would later work together at the Lincoln Hospital Detoxification Center. That’s where he recounted seeing much of the effect Shakur had on the Bronx community.
“It was liberation medicine,” said Hirano.
“It wasn’t just to get you clean, but to empower you and do political education to understand your transformation [through the prism] of what your people had to go through to liberate themselves,” Hirano added.
“When you go beyond your own misery and turn your individual question into a mass question, it changes everything. Beyond getting clean, we had to understand what led us to drugs.”
NEXT STEPS: REBUILDING AND SUSTAINING INSTITUTIONS
Trinidad noted that Shakur’s early release could be an opportunity to educate people of all ages about his pioneering of acupuncture as a drug detoxification method.
Decades ago, when the government shut down BAAANA, Trinidad and a colleague launched the First World Acupuncture Association of North America School and Clinic. She said that, in the absence of medical institutions owned by people of color, acupuncture as a method of drug detoxification was co-opted by medical professionals like Dr. Michael Smith, the late founder of the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association.
That’s why Trinidad stressed that practitioners take action to build long-lasting, culturally aligned programs and schools where people of color can learn about what she described as a simple community medicine approach.
“We need to see how we finance our institutions and what kind of models we use so we don’t replicate the capitalistic model, but we don’t go bankrupt giving away our resources,” Trinidad said.
“We have a completely different way of looking at the human body. How do we incorporate that into an institution?” she asked. “It’s not easy. It’s something that the BAAANA team is willing to grapple with. And other people who are into institution building will do the same thing.” WI @SamPKCollins
the religion corner
WITH LYNDIA GRANT
Now that the holiday season of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s is upon us, let each of us take some time to make some life-changing moves that matter.
If you listen to Steve Harvey tell his story of how he slept in his car for two years, determined to make it in this world, you will be blessed. He sought the help of God to change his life. Pay close attention to what it may take to achieve success. Steve Harvey, a man who loves God, got his opportunity. Why?
Harvey trusted and believed; he did without because he was walking by faith and not by sight. He tells the story of how in 1991, he was sleeping in his car. Steve said, “I had $35 to my name. Everything I had could fit into two bags. I started talking to God about my dreams.
Fast forward, out of nowhere, he said, “I got a call from the Apollo Theater asking me to come on the show.” Steve Harvey was not walking alone!
Today, Harvey has a life of prosperity, filled with friends, family and others; yet for this same man, years ago, life was something to be desired. This can be true for you too, but like Harvey, you cannot give up on your dreams. What seemed like trash to others was a man going through a metamorphosis, like a butterfly. Be willing to suffer, and crawl on your belly. It will only make you stronger, and then you will be able to make it through the storms of life easier than others who have not gone through those tough times.
Did money make Steve better? No, he is still Steve Harvey, a man with dreams and goals. Some women did not want Steve during his hard times. You’ve heard the saying, “One Man’s Trash Is Another Man’s Treasure!” Too bad, we cannot simply look at someone and make the right decision because looks can be deceiving. Remember, God changed Saul, and he became Paul. Pick up your bible and read the story for yourself.
True prosperity has nothing to do with material possessions, personal ability, or accomplishments. The only way we can be truly prosperous is not based on anything of this world, but instead, on things of God and your commitment to Him and His ways.
To God, nothing about you is trash; you are a treasure to Him. He only desires the treasures that come from knowing Him and His ways; His provision, His caring, His discipline, and His teaching. To be prosperous is to be filled with God.
Scripture also says, “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” This scripture reminds us to shape the world and not allow the world to make us. We came to earth for a reason, and we must be about our Father’s business! Continue to transform the world by being who you were destined to become, even when they thought you were only trash!
With your hand in God’s hand, you will always get the last laugh! In the words of one of my favorite songs, my high school alma mater, McKinley Tech choir, sang goes like this… “When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high, and don’t be afraid of the dark. At the end of the storm is a golden sky and the sweet silver song of a lark. Walk on through the wind; walk on through the rain, though your dreams be tossed and blown. Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart, and you’ll never walk alone.” This song says it all.
WI
Adams Inspirational A.M.E. Church
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