Religion

Deep Freeze Puts New Center To Test

by | Jan 22, 2019 8:48 am | Comments (5)

Signs of winter Monday outside the warming center; by day’s end the town opened a second temporary center for families losing heat.

Sam Gurwitt Photos

Eunice Temple-Adams: “They make you feel comfortable.”

(Updated) If it weren’t for the warming center in the basement of Grace and St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Evelyn doesn’t know where she would have been Monday. Except out in the deadly cold.

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“Gospel Shabbat” Choir Sings Hallelujah For King

by | Jan 21, 2019 2:01 am | Comments (1)

On Friday afternoon, the 51-member choir on the bima of Congregation B’nai Jacob had just torn through the gospel song Hallelujah, You’re Worthy” and was now tackling an uptempo version of We Shall Overcome.” Choir members started with singing and clapping.

Something wasn’t quite working. Angela Clemmons, directing the choir, stopped them.

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Legend Laid To Rest, In Style

by | Jan 14, 2019 8:44 am | Comments (0)

Allan Appel Photo

A hearse, manufactured in 1888, carries Bishop Stalllings’ body Sunday from Beers Street to Dixwell.

Bishop Robert Henry Stallings Jr.

He was a young pitcher in the Negro Leagues when the New York Yankees came to his door to recruit him.

No way, his father, Bishop Enoch Stallings, of the Church of God and Saints of Christ in the Dwight neighborhood, told the scouts. This boy is going to sing in the choir.”

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3 Kings Bring Joys and Toys To Casa Otonal

by | Jan 7, 2019 8:30 am | Comments (1)

Allan Appel Photo

King Balthazar on the job.

Mayor Toni Harp officially Friday afternoon greeted King Melchior (aka Joey Rodriguez), one of the Three Kings who arrived at Casa Otonal on Sylvan Street in the Hill to get a jump start on celebrating Three Kings Day.

The holiday marks the arrival of the kings to behold Baby Jesus in Bethlehem— and is also known as Epiphany. (Its official day of celebration was Sunday.)

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Trees Traded For Asphalt On East Pearl Street

by | Dec 18, 2018 5:00 pm | Comments (1)

Allan Appel Photo

Church facade on East Pearl.

Leaders of the Pentecostal church in the historic 19th-century building on East Pearl Street in Fair Haven need to pave another quadrant of their parking area to accommodate a growing congregation

Area activists and preservationists argued that more trees and plantings should accompany more parishoners.

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Scientology Church Gets OK To Rebuild

by | Nov 16, 2018 2:12 pm | Comments (7)

Thomas Breen photo

949 Whalley Ave.

Scientology architect Christopher Sanders (right) and project manager Larry Nardecchia pitch plans.

The Church of Scientology of Connecticut got the thumbs up to convert a vacant Westville former furniture warehouse into a place of worship, despite reservations of two neighbors who lambasted the organization for long neglecting the property and spurning the community.

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A Prayer For The City Amid Harsh Times

by | Nov 12, 2018 9:01 am | Comments (5)

MOLLY MONTGOMERY PHOTO

Crowd gathered Sunday for a communal prayer event on the Green.

Pastor Todd Foster.

Father, we hear the terms One Nation Indivisible,’ and sadly acknowledge how torn and divided we as a nation are becoming. We sense the widening divide between red and blue, between black and white, between haves and have-nots … 

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Dixwell Corner To Be Renamed For “Church That Cares”

by | Nov 6, 2018 5:14 pm | Comments (1)

Thomas Breen photo

St. Matthew’s Unison Free Will Baptist Church at 400 Dixwell Ave.

St. Matthew’s Church Pastor Kevin Hardy at City Hall on Thursday night.

The city is on its way to renaming a Dixwell Avenue corner after an historic, community-service-oriented local Baptist congregation that dubs itself the church that cares.”

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Dear Jeff Sessions

by | Nov 5, 2018 1:52 pm | Comments (2)

Paul Bass Photo

Memorial candles lit for Tree of Life Victims, at New Haven’s post-massacre vigil.

Attorney General Sessions,

I am writing to express my deep concern about the way your official statements about the massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh erase Jews, anti-Semitism, and white supremacy.

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“Love Will Always Outweigh Hate”

by | Oct 28, 2018 11:59 pm | Comments (4)

Paul Bass Photos

Fatma Antar, the Rev. Bonita Grubbs, and Sergio Rodriguez (at right) at Sunday’s vigil.

Students from Bais Chana Academy and BBYO light candles in memory of the 11 killed in Pittsburgh.

In the face of terror, New Haven stands together.

That message resounded at a local standing-and-sitting-room-only communal vigil held Sunday evening for the 11 Jews massacred by an anti-Semitic gunman during Shabbat services this weekend at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

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Dixwell Corner Renamed For Church Bicentennial

by | Oct 3, 2018 1:51 pm | Comments (2)

Thomas Breen photo

Varick Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church at the corner of Dixwell and Charles, soon to be renamed “Bishop James Varick Corner.”

Dixwell church founder James Varick.

A streetcorner adjacent to a historic Dixwell church will be named after an early 19th-century Methodist minister who defied racial segregation and founded the congregation.

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Prison Reentry Through Fine Dining

by | Sep 20, 2018 8:01 am | Comments (1)

Thomas Breen photo

EDWINS owner Brandon Chrostowski (center) with New Haveners Scott Lewis and Bobby Johnson on Monday night.

When Brandon Chrostowski was 18, he was arrested for drug possession and for running from the police in his home city of Detroit. He could have gotten 10 years behind bars, but a judge sentenced him to probation and no prison time instead.

Now Chrostowski owns and runs a nationally celebrated French restaurant where he teaches the formerly incarcerated to be chefs, waiters, and house managers, extending the second chance that he received decades ago to a population of diligent, aspiring culinary employees just looking for an opportunity to work.

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Pre-Primary Pulpit Call: Slay Goliath

by | Aug 13, 2018 8:01 am | Comments (25)

Thomas Breen photos

Varick Pastor Kelcy Steele at Sabbath services Sunday.

With sweat pouring down his face and the jubilant sound of drums, keyboards, and a hundred pairs of clapping hands before him, Pastor Kelcy Steele revved up one of New Haven’s most influential African-American congregations to make their presence known at the polls this Tuesday.

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Gospel Fest Is Back

by | Jul 26, 2018 2:26 pm | Comments (0)

Markeshia Ricks Photo

Alder Jill Marks sings at City Hall Monday.

Beaver Hills Alder Jill Marks raised her voice City Hall to sing a little bit of We’re Going to Make It.” The goal: To encourage people to make it to this year’s Gospel Fest New Haven.

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“Apostle” Maria Makes Her 120th Rounds

by | Jul 23, 2018 8:13 am | Comments (3)

Carly Wanna Photo

Maria Maddalena statue carried through Wooster Square Sunday.

Rheta DeBenedet slid a tray of assorted desserts past a plate of cannolis while instructing the guests filing into the common room to skip straight to the food –– unless of course they wanted coffee. They would have to wait their turn to snag an Americano.

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