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Black pastors seek to rebuild in-person worship with Easter

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WASHINGTON (AP) — At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, when many churches moved their services online, the Rev. William H. Lamar IV initially balked on the considered having to transform right into a “video personality” to stay engaged with his parishioners.

“I resisted kicking and screaming because I’m a child of the 70s.” said Lamar, senior pastor of the historic Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington. “I’m not a digital native.”

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Four years later, Lamar, a gifted preacher, began offering each virtual and in-person services. After a noticeable decline in attendance, increasingly more congregants in metropolitan areas are selecting in-person services over virtual ones, at the same time as they mourn members who’ve died from Covid-19.

The Rev. William H. Lamar IV, top, and the Rev. Cozette Thomas, right, pray with a parishioner during Palm Sunday services on the Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, Sunday, March 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)

This Easter, Lamar is grateful to be reunited with his flock, believing it’s a fitting way to have a good time the vacation’s message of hope and resurrection.

This Easter can also be a possibility for Black churches to welcome more visitors to their pews and take a look at to reverse attendance trends. More than a dozen Black clergy said their churches proceed to feel the impact of the pandemic on already declining attendance, at the same time as they’ve implemented robust online options to reach latest people.

Monthly black Protestant church attendance dropped 15% between 2019 and 2023, a greater decline than for every other major religious group, according to the study. 2023 Pew Research. They are also more likely than other groups to attend religious services online or on television, with greater than half (54%) saying they attend religious services virtually.

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This dynamic could be felt at Calvary Baptist Church in Queens, New York. Its senior pastor, the Rev. Victor T. Hall Sr., hopes that this Easter, if just for one Sunday, he’ll get a glimpse of what it was like back then, when his church was “full and full of excitement.”

Before the pandemic, Calvary’s attendance was already declining as many members moved to cheaper locations in states corresponding to Maryland, North Carolina and Georgia, forcing the Hall to offer one service on Sunday morning as a substitute of two.

“Churches were already in decline, but the pandemic was a coup,” Hall said. “And don’t let anyone deceive you. It’s hard to see empty benches.”

Easter is generally a homecoming of sorts for black Protestants, who traditionally wear latest outfits decorated with pastels and elaborate hats – a sartorial expression of Christian celebration and an ode to spring renewal.

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But among the vibrance and pageantry of Black church culture has been overshadowed by the shortcoming to gather, said KB Dennis Meade, an assistant professor of spiritual studies at Northwestern University who curates a digital archive showing how Black religious traditions have adapted throughout the pandemic. She said Easter and other major holidays provide a possibility to further evaluate the problem, including comparing this 12 months’s turnout with pre-pandemic Easter Sunday numbers.

“If you are a cultural Christian, but perhaps not a practicing Christian, you will definitely want to go to church on Easter,” she said.

Second-floor pews are empty while a projection of a sermon is projected onto the wall during Palm Sunday services on the Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, Sunday, March 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)

Reverend Kia Conerway founded The Church on the Well in Memphis, Tennessee in 2018. The congregation had just moved right into a latest constructing when the Covid-19 epidemic broke out.

Thanks to revolutionary marketing and online worship, the church has steadily grown from 160 members in 2019 to well over 400 today, according to Conerway. Currently, every other Sunday is a very virtual service, with over a 3rd of worshipers joining from outside the local area.

“Easter is the Super Bowl of Christianity,” she said. “When we realized that 37% of our employees did not live in Memphis, we had a challenge: figuring out how to serve them now that we were back in the building.”

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To higher serve virtual believers, the Church has redoubled efforts to attract them to small groups and initiated monthly telephone calls.

Before Easter, church members got here together and sent care packages to those that attend virtually. These included gift cards to give to strangers, safety glasses for the upcoming solar eclipse, and handwritten notes thanking them for being a part of the church family and searching forward to seeing one another again soon.

For those that have a good time Easter in person, snow cones can be served on the church and youngsters will take part in an Easter egg hunt. “We want kids to feel at home and feel connected,” Conerway said.

During the pandemic at Saints Memorial Community Church in Willingboro, New Jersey, the Rev. Cassius L. Rudolph has made every effort to provide opportunities for his senior members to meet. On the primary Sunday that the church doors closed, Rudolph, who began as interim pastor in 2019, led the service by phone.

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The cacophony of voices on the conference call “was just unbearable, but they wanted to be able to interact with each other,” he said.

This Easter, Saints Memorial members look forward to gathering within the renovated church sanctuary with a brand new roof.

“They want to go home for Easter,” Rudolph said.

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At Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, the Rev. Otis Moss III said there’s a collective gratitude that the church can safely gather in person this Easter Sunday. But we’re also saddened by the lives Trinity has lost to Covid-19 and the human suffering in places like Haiti, Darfur, Congo and Gaza.

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This turn of events inspired his Easter message, “It’s Still Dark,” which explores the space between Christ’s crucifixion on Friday and his resurrection on Sunday.

“As a nation and a community, we are caught between these two moments,” Moss said.

“We can never remove our spiritual pursuits from our existential dilemmas, nor what is happening in the world from our spiritual and theological framework,” Moss said. “Those two things go hand in hand. Right now, marginalized people are suffering. There should be a voice of the community of faith that will speak to those who cry.”

On Palm Sunday at Metropolitan AME, every week before Easter, Lamar asked his flock to reflect on Jesus’ mindset as he marched to Jerusalem to be crucified.

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“Was Jesus joyful? Was he lost in thought? Was he afraid?” he asked.

Beyond the lectern surrounded by kente cloth, Lamar saw a promising sign: people filled greater than two-thirds of the cavernous sanctuary.

His parishioners hummed, shouted, stood and clapped as his preaching reached a crescendo.

During this sacred season, it was a welcome reminder of the facility of Black preaching, especially when experienced live and in person.

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At the tip of the service, he left the pulpit to give a blessing, an unusual move for a pastor. But it gave him the chance to say a more personal farewell to the influx of Palm Sunday worshipers – each old and latest.


This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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“Oshun and me” is the oda to the braids and history of afro

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At a time when black and marginalized groups are attacked, Adiba Nelson drops a book for youngsters, which strengthens black aesthetics and identity. The creator of Afro-Latin does it through the eyes of Yadyra, a young girl who invites young readers during a natural hair journey :. It starts with the ritual that her hair is intertwined and spare on Sunday. Yadira defines this process and is concerned with the Cowrie shell, which her mother uses as decorations. What is developing is a cultural and historical dialogue between mother and daughter. The conversation beautifully reproduces the mythology of the African traditional religion practiced in Black Latin culture – against the background of equally beautiful illustrations created by Alleanna Harris.

History continues when Yadira goes to school. The young girl is beautifully intertwined and with beads, but she wonders if she’s going to fit and make friends.

You cannot ignore care and integration displayed on this text.

The muffled but visual topic in the book is the disability of Yadira – he sits in a wheelchair when he wraps his hair and uses an infantry when he arrives in school.

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According to research conducted by the Children’s Book Center, only 3.4% of kid’s books presents a disabled child as the foremost character. This number it contrasts sharply from thE 29.2% of kid’s books with animals as the foremost characters.

In weaving on this often ignored reality, in such a way, he shows young readers who move the disabled that they’re seen, that they matter, they are literally normal. He actually causes a conversation amongst disabled children and in the surroundings, and children are concerned with disability.

Yadira fights with school and makes a couple of discoveries. She is full of confidence that her mother gave her and armed with an Afro-Latina pride that runs through her heritage.

It ends with the creator’s letter and a scheme of woven hairstyles.

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This story is an excellent reading for youngsters three and older. It was published on January 25 and will be found on the shelves of your favorite black bookstores and online from black bookstores.

(Tagstotransate) braids

This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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From aunt to mummy, associated with Matster Metster Men about motherhood

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The journey of each woman to motherhood is different. While the eyes of some women are illuminated on the considered the name “mommy”, for others, the concept of ​​getting pregnant could appear overwhelming – and even terrifying. Recently, Meagan Good has opened on how she was certainly one of these women.

In an interview with Scott Evans, Okay revealed that it took her summer to reach the purpose where she was ready to be a mother. So much that when her sister, Good-Bellinger La’myia, told her that she was pregnant with her first child, the star “Harlem” admitted that her response was not the perfect. By playing the conversation she had with her 35-year-old sister, the actress reminds her of her 33-year-old self, saying: “Wow … you are pregnant … Why?”

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“At first I thought:” Wait, huh? “Because it is such a huge commitment. I mean that all your life will change, it will never be the same … as if you really were an adult, “he continued, remembering her conversation with his sister.

Her response, although not a typical response to the announcement of pregnancy, is hilarious. The idea of ​​motherhood could be intimidating, introducing drastic changes – from physical changes to health challenges, adaptation of mental health and a very latest lifestyle. The considered moving around this could be discouraging.

For good hesitation got here for fear of losing freedom.

“I think there was fear that life will change during the world day and I like to travel so much and I just like to jump so much, be free and do my job,” she said, explaining how her eager for freedom is concentrated by being a toddler and it was said them, what to achieve this long. “Then, when you finally get your freedom, by that time you are almost adult by (who) with all these adults, so (when it comes to making some of these adults, I thought” let me wait, because simply because I just wait I had the chance to be a toddler and an adult. ”

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The good perspective about motherhood began to change before she met her fiance, actor Jonathan Majors, but their relationship strengthened her readiness.

“I am ready now because I have fun with him and because I know that this will not happen to the Earth Day,” she said. “I know that I and he will be here (or) … in Africa (or) wherever it is. I just know that even if we don’t move much … really, I really love the way we live (together). ”

Meagan good conversations about the relationship with Jonathan Majors:

Now, excited by the transition from “Aunt” to “Mummy”, the nice predicts the longer term wherein she is married, raising two children (her seemingly independent negotiations), traveling all over the world and still makes a big contribution to the entertainment industry.

“I want women in their forties to the late 1940s. Only because we are aging, it does not mean that we cannot do all things and we should, if we want and (we should) be completely entitled. And also do not try to be 20 or 30 years old, or exactly who we are in this space. ”

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(Tagstranslat) black motherhood

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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Did you know that the first black textile mill stands in NC?

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Warren Clay Coleman


In 1900, Warren Clay Coleman was recognized as “the richest black man in America” ​​after opening the first black and operated textile factory in the United States, which He remains to be standing todayAccording to reports

Coleman loved textiles and opened the store in 1897 at Concord, North Carolina, just before Charlotte. Born in slavery in 1849, Coleman used his skills to create a chance for many who looked like him, because at that time black people couldn’t work in mills belonging to white people, reminiscent of John Odell, James Cannon and others ” With the exception of very work, in line with the creator of Norman McCullough, Sr. Who wrote“Warren Clay Coleman: Leader of the first black textile mill in America.

The mill has grow to be popular amongst other black dignitaries, reminiscent of a historian and activist for civil rights of Web Dubois. He included photos of the mill at an exhibition emphasizing black progress in the USA at the exhibition in Paris 1900.

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In addition to the 196,000 square foot mill, he provided the essential resources for its 300 employees by constructing Price Temple Church, currently referred to as Price Memorial Ame Zion. He also built 100 houses for the team and a 17-hectare cemetery.

However, some successes were short -lived as a consequence of high cotton prices causing Coleman’s financial difficulties. The white cotton merchant took over the management for a relief, later employing white employees. After the death of Coleman in 1904, the white philanthropist Washington Duke bought a mill during the sale of a sheriff for less than USD 10,000. However, the century and a number of years later Coleman’s heritage lives when the mill stands nowadays in the Logan district, a historically black community.

In 2022, the property was transformed into inexpensive apartments as a consequence of the partnership with the developer based in Winston-Salem Sari and an organization called Coleman Mill Apartments. Immediately a breakthrough received a whole lot of holiday makers who stopped and took pictures of a board honored with Coleman in the essential constructing. Many years earlier, in 2015, Coleman and Młyn received national recognition, listed in the National Register of Historical Places, in accordance with.

The descendant of Coleman, his great -great -grandfather, Rodney Smith, says that there may be at all times a way of pride when he goes on a landmark. “Every time I go to the Coleman toilet, I feel proud of what he achieved and gave in the area of ​​Concord,” said Smith.

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“My children saw his photos, and Karolina Mall has a picture of his hanging. Every time my children pass, especially my son, says: “It’s my uncle.”

Part of the US 601 was named Warren C. Coleman Boulevard in 2001. Smith’s brother, Michael, hoped that when mentioning the property in the national register, it might be released from tear in the future.

(Tagstranslate) Concord

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This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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