by | Sep 4, 2013 2:06 pm | Comments (3)
Thou shalt not commit nostalgia or gossip. Thou shalt not compare him to his predecessor or expect things to remain the same. Thou shalt bake cookies for him every week until he begs you to stop.
Those and other “Commandments for Welcoming a New Pastor” were relayed to members of one of New Haven’s leading African-American churches as it heard the first sermon of its charismatic new leader, Rev. Timothy L. Jones.
by | Aug 8, 2013 11:31 am | Comments (1)
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Five-year-old Tashded Uddin not only made his teacher proud with a mellifluous recital of Sura Al Ala, he won free pizza pies for demonstrating his newfound Arabic skills on the last night of Ramadan.
by | Mar 24, 2013 5:25 pm | Comments (4)
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Worship at Varick regularly draws 1,150 people in three separate and consecutive services on Sunday.
If Paul the Apostle asked for financial assistance on his way to preach in Rome. So can Varick Memorial Zion Church ask the state for financial assistance on the way to establishing the Booker T. Washington Academy charter school.
by | Mar 24, 2013 10:30 am | Comments (0)
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Dr. Darden offers praise to those praising her.
Her congregants honored her as a true woman of God, a founder of their church, and a pioneering female pastor for 30 years. Since it was Dr. Mattie Atkinson Darden’s 87th birthday, the City of New Haven put some frosting on her cake: a corner named in honor.
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‘Dixwell Corner Named For
Pioneering Female Pastor’
by | Feb 25, 2013 12:30 pm | Comments (4)
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There is a Greek term for the moment that took place Sunday morning as the Rev. Elder Darlene Garner extended the hand of blessing installing Rev. Brian Hutchison as the new pastor for New Haven’s LGBT-focused Metropolitan Community Church.
by | Feb 19, 2013 2:31 pm | Comments (0)
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James S. Williams received a boutineer for being the oldest congregant; he joined in the early 1950s.
“The Lord allows us to inhale and exhale and all of us in here are alive and that’s enough [reason] to praise God. I only want to add one thing: Everybody that love the devil, be quiet.”
No one was quiet, as more than 50 people heeded Eldress Claudette Mayes’ call.
by | Feb 5, 2013 2:33 pm | Comments (6)
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Rev. Rhonda R. Taylor & Ilene Beaullan-Thong at the revival.
The recent cold snap burst the pipes in Newhallville’s St. Andrews Church parish hall, but it didn’t burst the spirit of the congregation: The congregation simply brought its gospel choir across town to Wooster Square.
There they launched New Haven’s first-ever Episcopal revival meeting.
by | Dec 16, 2012 5:24 pm | Comments (1)
Two scenes appeared on screen from massacres of schoolchildren, one in South Africa 26 years ago, one in Connecticut two days ago.
“God!” thundered the reverend below. “Why did you allow something like this to happen?”
Continue reading ‘Newhallville Pastor Finds Message In Newtown’
by | Dec 14, 2012 12:14 pm | Comments (0)
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Mayer Apfelorf and Lazarre Simckes discuss the finer points of the latke.
“The latkes last night were even better.”
“It maybe tasted better by the light of the menorah,”
That debate, mixing rabbinics with foodiness, unfolded at the third annual Hanukkah party at the rescued Orchard Street Shul Thursday afternoon.
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‘Orchard Street Shul
Repointed For Hanukkah’
by | Nov 12, 2012 12:33 pm | Comments (0)
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The Varick Deaconness sings Sunday.
Amid foot-stomping gospel hymns and a stem-winder sermon on how not to be your own worst enemy at the precipice of the Promised Land, one of New Haven’s oldest black churches announced its newest initiative: creation of a new pre-K‑4 independent school to be called Booker T. Washington Academy.
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‘Varick Readies New School,
New Sanctuary, New Homes’
by | Sep 16, 2012 4:49 pm | Comments (2)
A Muslim clergyman spoke out on the violence in the Middle East from a New Haven pulpit — a Christian pulpit — and called for peace and understanding.
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‘An Imam Preaches Peace
From A Pulpit On The Green’
by | Aug 13, 2012 11:36 am | Comments (3)
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Bishop Clyburn leads his flock from the Winchester substation.
In crisp white clothing and with voices raised in hosannas, a Newhallville congregation that had been praying for two years at a police substation marched two blocks to a former sausage factory renovated as a new spiritual home.
by | Aug 2, 2012 3:10 pm | Comments (6)
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Congregant Eleanor Boyd and Pastor King.
The government can provide potable water, a local minister told his Newhallville congregation, but it can’t make a man love his wife or take care of his children or pull up his pants.
by | Jul 10, 2012 2:03 pm | Comments (3)
When music pioneer Héctor “el Father” Delgado came to town, he didn’t revisit his reggaeton super hits at a nightclub. Instead he rapped in tongues — at a church.
by | Jun 29, 2012 11:37 am | Comments (3)
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Tuning the electric bass guitar before the service.
Pastor Otero.
While Catholics blocks away knelt in silence as the Host was raised, faithful at Fair Haven’s Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal stood up, raising their hands in worship.
“Hallelujah!” they shouted in Spanish over the loud pop quartet. “Blessed be the Lord!”
The Methodists had long ago left the building.
by | Jun 12, 2012 12:15 pm | Comments (1)
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Father Manship with the faithful after mass.
The priest raised the wafer, whispering, “The body of Christ.” The faithful knelt. When they stood up to take communion, they found not the priest — but a 30-year old Guatemalan mother.
by | Apr 2, 2012 7:33 am | Comments (0)
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Theodicy Jazz Collective tubist, gourd player Aleta Staton, and Rev. Alex Dyer process on Palm Sunday.
Parasols joined the traditional palm fronds along with a tuba and a tap dancer as New Haveners marked Palm Sunday with a full-throated New Orleans-style jazz parade.
by | Mar 25, 2012 3:58 pm | Comments (9)
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Spellman classmates Aimee Pierre & Joy DeYounge raised hoods to remember Trayvon Martin at Community Baptist.
The reverend wore a black hoodie. On either side of his cruciform lectern stood a small package of Skittles and a tall can of iced tea.
by | Jan 16, 2012 9:08 am | Comments (19)
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Holder-Winfield (with Wyman): Reclaim men we don’t see.
A hearse traveling through East Rock had no body inside — but 125 shouting bodies accompanying it.
Continue reading ‘MLK “Love March” Reveals The Invisible Man’
by | Oct 11, 2011 12:23 pm | Comments (1)
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Musicians Ricci Harke, Ben Littrell.
The small fellowship warmed up for worship by singing along with a three-guitar Christian folk-rock band playing U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name.” Later the pastor delivered a sermon quoting chapter and verse from the Acts of the Apostles — read from a Jobs-ian tablet.
Continue reading ‘iPad In Hand, Church Goes For The “Goats”’
by | Sep 19, 2011 11:03 am | Comments (2)
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Celia and Giuseppe Agnellino.
Celia Agnellino remembers the nuns whacking her fingers. If she complained later to her mother, her mom finished the job — since the nuns were always right.
Continue reading ‘For A Day, They Returned To St. Michael’s’
by | Aug 15, 2011 8:09 am | Comments (23)
Jackie Branyon, Taira Evans, Marsha Hurt got Trinity rocking.
In the midst of a heated re-election campaign, Mayor John DeStefano asked congregants in Dixwell and Newhallville to join him in a crusade — and he didn’t mention voting.
by | Aug 8, 2011 8:00 am | Comments (6)
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Overflow worshipers at Masjid Al-Islam.
On the fifth day of Ramadan, a capacity crowd at Masjid Al-Islam couldn’t keep the faithful from the afternoon prayer. They simply unrolled their tan and red prayer rugs among the Nissans and Toyotas in the adjacent parking lot.
by | May 23, 2011 12:05 pm | Comments (4)
Sam Teitelman (foreground) and other bar mitzvah “boys” concluding Sunday’s retro event.
Charles Rosenay remembered hearing his mother talking and talking up in the women’s section in the balcony. Charlie Ludwig recalled that after months of practice, on the big day he came down with serious laryngitis and had to squeak his way through his Torah portion and speech. Steve Dickman remembered thinking through the prayers that all he wanted was to get through high school and have a pretty girlfriend. He got both.
by | May 21, 2011 10:22 pm | Comments (4)
Colon & Perez await doomsday on the Green.
Johvanni Colon and Eddie Perez didn’t know that they had staked out a nearly 375-year-old launching pad for the End of Times when they picked the New Haven Green to await the strike of 6 p.m. Saturday.