by | Mar 19, 2020 1:54 pm | Comments (0)
Thomas Breen Photo
Rev. Steele.
Rev. Kelcey G.L. Steele of Varick Memorial AME Zion, the city’s largest African-American congregation, issued a statement Thursday making it clear that his congregation will not be holding in-person services during the COVID-19 crisis.
by | Mar 19, 2020 1:25 pm | Comments (0)
Jon Miller photo
Pursuit of the Regicides mural at the Westville library.
March 18 was the anniversary of John Dixwell’s death. For more than three centuries, Whalley and Goffe have gotten almost all the attention. Time to give New Haven’s other regicide his due.
Jon Miller is a freelance writer living in Westville. He is currently working on a book about the Regicides, from which these articles are adapted. Click here to read Part One of this series.
Ten years after his father was executed, King Charles II stepped ashore in Dover. He was already at work on a list of regicides targeted for execution. Crowds cheered the young monarch as Dover Castle, where John Dixwell had once been governor, fired off its cannons in celebration.
by | Mar 18, 2020 12:38 pm | Comments (11)
On Friday, March 13th, as news of the Coronavirus spread that the damaging virus was beginning to affect New Haven, I scanned social media to see what my friends were saying about the threat. The public schools system, which had announced half-days, to give teachers time to develop teaching plans for possible school stoppages, changed that announcement to indefinite closures. The mayor was asking bars and restaurants to cut their occupancy to half, and then to close altogether. Before full closing, one New Haven public school was already closed, and a suspected affected person was announced in the city. The concern seemed to grow by the hour, and some of my FaceBook friends did not seem to be getting it, particularly, the church-going ones.
by | Mar 18, 2020 10:04 am | Comments (0)
Jon Miller photo
Pursuit of the Regicides mural at the Westville library.
March 18 is the anniversary of John Dixwell’s death. For more than three centuries, Whalley and Goffe have gotten almost all the attention. Time to give New Haven’s other regicide his due.
Jon Miller, a freelance writer living in Westville, stepped up to the challenge. He is currently working on a book about the Regicides, from which we are publishing three excerpted articles. This is the first.
Sometime in 1665, a stranger showed up in the small village of Hadley, Massachusetts. There was nothing remarkable about his appearance. He was middle aged, 58 to be precise, and stood about 5’7.” If he spoke to anyone, it was probably to ask the way to Reverend Russell‘s house.
by | Mar 17, 2020 4:29 pm | Comments (111)
Thomas Breen photo
Mayor Justin Elicker at Tuesday’s press briefing.
Bass Photo
Norm Pattis: Eager for court test.
New Haven’s Elicker administration is considering an emergency shelter-in-place order to protect the city from the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus, but hasn’t made any decision yet on whether to proceed with it.
New Haven attorney Norm Pattis vowed to fight such an order if issued, both at the local and federal levels.
by | Mar 2, 2020 5:55 pm | Comments (3)
2105 State Street.
The halls of the two-story brick building at 2105 State St. in Hamden will once again be filled with students and Christian congregants after the Christian academy that once occupied it closed its doors two years ago. “A Church for the City” is moving … to the suburbs.
by | Feb 17, 2020 1:19 pm | Comments (8)
Yale Divinity School
Rendering of planned “Living Village.”
Soon you may be able to walk up Prospect Street — and enter utopia.
by | Feb 3, 2020 4:54 pm | Comments (2)
Allan Appel Photo
Thomas Jackson at St. Luke’s, where he now serves as pastor.
Thomas Jackson doesn’t see much difference between a good sermon and good journalism. Both, in his view, strive to make people see connections more deeply and build community.
Continue reading ‘Activist-Turned-Priest Returns In New Role’
by | Jan 26, 2020 10:39 pm | Comments (2)
Paul Bass Photo
Mayor Justin Elicker gets a tour of New Haven’s Holocaust memorial during Sunday’s commemoration.
New Haven faith and political leaders united Sunday evening to send a message of love and determination amid days of hate.
by | Jan 26, 2020 6:51 pm | Comments (10)
Thomas Breen photos
Rev. Al Sharpton and Gwen Carr at Sunday’s memorial service. Below: Boise Kimber stands alongside the many family members who gathered to remember Mubarak Soulemane.
Al Sharpton leaned into the microphone to make sure his local audience of hundreds, and his national audience of millions, got the point:
A 19-year-old black New Havener was shot and killed inside a car by a white state trooper earlier this month. This injustice must not go unnoticed, and the increasing trend of police officers serving as judge, jury, and executioner for black men accused of crimes “can’t be normalized.”
by | Jan 8, 2020 6:05 pm | Comments (23)
Paul Bass Photo
Former St. Thomas’s emerges from shell of demolished bank.
The original church.
As a bank building at Elm and Orange streets meets its maker, an edificial ghost has appeared: a long-forgotten church.
by | Jan 7, 2020 1:58 pm | Comments (1)
Paul Bass Photo
Jordan Watson performing “A Change Is Gonna Come” at the inauguration.
A famous vibraphonist gave a boy named Jordan Watson some tips. Like: Center your body when you perform. Always be conscious of the theme, even when you’re improvising.
by | Dec 13, 2019 1:31 pm | Comments (0)
Allan Appel Photo
The future sober house facility at 438 East St.
An old eyesore of an abandoned factory building on East Street is about to become a site for sober eyes.
That’s because Pastor Mike Caroleo, leader of the Christian-centered 180 Center recovery project currently on Grand Avenue, has gotten the municipal OK to move his flock in.
by | Dec 3, 2019 1:22 pm | Comments (0)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
For Jack Perkins Davidson and JaQuan Beachem, religion has a role in politics, and art and theater have a role in religion.
They’ve been showing what that means in some of the higher-profile events making the news these days.
Continue reading ‘Religion Meets Politics Meets ... Theater’
by | Dec 2, 2019 12:00 pm | Comments (12)
Christopher Peak File Photo
Rabbi Greer.
Quoting the Talmud, a state judge sentenced Rabbi Daniel Greer, once one of New Haven’s most prominent religious figures, to 20 years in state prison, suspended after 12 years, for repeatedly raping a teenage student at his Norton Street boarding school.
by | Nov 20, 2019 6:20 pm | Comments (12)
Christopher Peak File Photo
Rabbi Daniel Greer with defense attorney Willie Dow.
Blogger “Noodles” outside court with attorney John Williams.
Rabbi Daniel Greer succeeded in pushing back Judgement Day, by having his scheduled child-molestation sentencing delayed two more weeks by an ultimately unsuccessful day-long quest for a new trial.
by | Nov 15, 2019 1:28 pm | Comments (2)
Allan Appel Photo
438 East St., future home of the 180 Center Corp church.
An application to turn a long vacant industrial building on East Street into a church and refuge for those struggling with addiction won approval for zoning commissioners this week.
At the same time a plan to convert an old garage on Lombard Street in Fair Haven into a community arts and crafts center stumbled.
by | Nov 6, 2019 5:14 pm | Comments (1)
Allan Appel Photo
They did not come out to praise Dr. Abdul-Majid Karim Hasan at length. They came to bury him — with the simplicity, modesty, and deep faith characteristic of one of New Haven’s pioneering religious leaders.
by | Nov 5, 2019 5:15 pm | Comments (1)
Allan Appel Photo
Imam Hasan (at left) at 2010 renaming of the masjid.
Imam Dr. Abdul-Majid Karim Hasan, a New Haven Muslim leader and interfaith peacemaker for more than a half century, died Monday at the age of 83 after a long illness.
by | Nov 1, 2019 1:13 pm | Comments (2)
Inside Squirrel Hill’s Giant Eagle.
Recovering from a communal trauma can begin in the aisles of a neighborhood supermarket.
by | Oct 31, 2019 12:24 pm | Comments (1)
Allan Appel photo
Colville, at left, at home in the Hill the week before trial.
The founder of the the Hill’s Amistad Catholic Worker House and six fellow peace activists have been found guilty of all felony and misdemeanor charges related to their breaking into a Georgia naval base last year and spraypainting peace signs and pouring symbolic blood onto nuke-carrying submarines.
by | Oct 23, 2019 3:03 pm | Comments (13)
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Public Health Commissioner Renee Coleman-Mitchell.
An unsafe number of kindergarteners at six local elementary schools have been going to class without immunizations for measles.
by | Oct 17, 2019 2:05 pm | Comments (2)
Allan Appel Photo
Colville greeted back home by neighbor and godson Eddie Foran-Cruz.
Mark Colville has already served 15 months in jail for breaking into a Georgia naval base and spraypainting peace signs, stringing yellow police tape, and pouring symbolic blood from baby bottles onto submarines capable of launching nuclear missiles.
As he prepares to represent himself in court later this month, the Hill native and Amistad Catholic Worker House founder reflected on the close ties between his spiritual faith and anti-nuke resistance.
Continue reading ‘Jailed Activist Targets “Culture Of Death”’
by | Oct 16, 2019 4:39 pm | Comments (0)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
Weekly Friday prayers at the masjid.
At a Jummah prayer service, leaders of Dixwell Avenue’s Abdul-Majid Karim Hasan Islamic Center made an announcement that heralds a new chapter for the Muslim community: the center will honor a Nation of Islam leader at its annual banquet in November.
by | Sep 25, 2019 12:13 pm | Comments (20)
Christopher Peak Photo
Attorney Willie Dow with Greer on Tuesday.
Thomas Breen photo
The jurors head toward Regal Beagle for post-verdict lunch.
Rabbi Daniel Greer, one of New Haven’s most prominent religious figures, was led out of a courtroom in handcuffs Wednesday afternoon after a jury found him guilty of four counts of risk of injury to a minor in a high-profile child-rape case.