“Radiant” Church Honors Its Pastors

Josue Ortiz sounded the shofar, but it wasn’t the Jewish Day of Atonement. He wasn’t even in a synagogue.

The site was the Estrella Resplandeciente de Jacob, the Radiant Star of Jacob Church in Fair Haven, where the spirit and service of long-time pastors Javier and Shari Diaz were trumpeted, along with the help of an official certificate presented by U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal.

Sunday morning more than 200 in-person worshippers, and many more catching the stream online from all over the area and the world, gathered at the church at 185 Chapel St. for the annual service of pastoral appreciation at the 52-year old bilingual church, which is affiliated with the Assemblies of God.

In addition to a food pantry, a diaper bank, and community walks where congregants check in on their neighbors, what makes the church unique, said Assistant Pastor Ariel Perez, is that in all that half century there have been only three leaders –founder Armando Hernandez, then Eliseo Aponte, and now Javier Diaz. All have shared leadership with their wives also functioning as co-pastors.

“We call him hijo de la casa, or son of the house,” said Perez speaking of Diaz because he, like many in the multi-generational congregational membership, quite literally grew up at the church.

As the long rectangular sanctuary filled with pulsating inspirational Christian rock performed by eight singers and a driving drum and guitar ensemble, people greeted each other with embraces and Dios te bendiga, or ​“God bless you,” and a sense of family was everywhere evident. 

“Even if they don’t know you, they are like family,” said Josue Ortiz, who has been attending for 13 years, bringing with him this day three kids, his wife, and mother-in-law along with an impressive shofar.

“What the Hebrews used at the walls of Jericho,” he said. Ortiz brings it every time he comes (he did not know political dignitaries were also attending), he said, and the purpose was to punctuate his sense of praise and to personalize his worship.

It must be held up high as it’s played, he said, ​“just like this, with the voice of the human player at the mouthpiece that points down, and at the other raised end the ear of God,” he explained.

“A church is not a building. We’re the church,” Ortiz said as he went in to take his seat. ​“I feel like I’m at home.”

Members of the church youth group, Co-Op High School dancer Alondra Rodriguez and her friend Wilbur Cross 16-year-old Alina Alicea, were equally enthusiastic as they served as unofficial greeters in the church’s light-filled lobby.

“I’m from New York,” said Alina (where she attended other churches) and this never feels forced. ​“I come Sunday, Friday, Thursday. I was going through a rough time emotionally and it really helped to be with others, just being in their presence.”

The young women described how they in part fulfill the church’s theme for the year, which is repairing breaches, by holding services outside to appeal to neighbors, by going on walks knocking on neighbors’ doors by way of checking in, and by participating in the long-running food pantry and diaper bank that the church operates.

In his brief remarks to the congregation and presentation of the official certificate, Blumenthal echoed the theme of family: ​“No one more exemplifies public service than your senior pastor who is there every day for you. He takes strength from his beautiful family. Because the family is everything.”

Although there was nothing explicitly political about the visit, in answer to a reporter’s question whether he had concerns about the Latino vote, he replied, ​“I go for every vote.”

In his remarks Blumenthal had pointed out, to applause, that post-hurricane he had visited Puerto Rico. ​“I have fought for Puerto Rico (in part) because it has no representation in Congress and I consider myself a representative for Puerto Rico.”

Earlier in the morning the senator had visited Shiloh Baptist Church in Bridgeport; he had been invited there to help mark that church’s sixty-third year.

In the lobby, Blumenthal noted both what he termed the remarkable growth in church membership and the spiritual fervor. 

“They truly live this mission.”

Then he left for his next engagement accompanied by his deputy state director, former New Haven Alder Joey Rodriguez, and Democratic Party staffer Audrey Tyson, who had helped coordinate the event.