When Stephanie Richards invoked the Holy Ghost from the pulpit in a small wood-paneled sanctuary on Dickerman Street, she was preaching. In a way, she was singing, too.
She didn’t know she was singing — but she knew she had a message. And that message, it turns out, had a melody and a beat, all tied up in the holy spirit.
That was thrust of two hours of jubilant musical praise Sunday inside the crowded, cozy confines of Mt. Zion Temple Pentecostal Church. It was a special occasion: Founders’ Day. The Pentecostal-tinged approach to worship has kept Mt. Zion an island of tuneful consistency since 1967 — on the one-block street between Sperry and Orchard streets, a block from Whalley Avenue.
Richards, a 37-year-old social services worker, is a lay leader of the church. She took over the pulpit from Pastor Gary K. Ross at Sunday’s service to deliver a sermon about transcendence to the 40 or so congregants filling the room.
“It’s the holy ghost that gives us power to understand what God wants us to do,” she preached, wisps of melody seeping into the spoken cadences. (Click on the play arrow for snippets.) The spoken words became a chant — which became a ballad — that fit right into the pulsating feel of the overall service.
Citing the King James Version of 1 Corinthians, Richards contrasted what can be learned from the holy spirit with what can be taught by human wisdom.
Richards read from the scripture: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the carnal heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for those that love him.”
But the Holy Ghost is a teacher, one that makes clear the messages of God, she called out. “And the Holy Ghost is a keeper. It’s power, it sustains us and keeps us rooted and grounded in the Lord. We won’t make it without the holy ghost.
“It teaches us how to talk, live, look right, to praise.”
Richards said later that she didn’t realize she’d been singing. “I just really rely on God for the entirety of my messages. I don’t sit at home and write them out. I rely on scripture. I rely on direction from God.”
But she acknowledged the importance of music. Throughout biblical history, she said, music has been integral to working, and worshiping, at the tabernacle, the tented dwelling place of the Holy Spirit during the Israelites’ journey from Egypt.
Today music remains a vital piece of worship. “It really puts your body and mind in concentration on God,” she noted.
Uma Ramiah Photos
That reverence for music and its role in worship was strong throughout Sunday’s service. By 11 in the morning, the small sanctuary held around 40 congregants — whose voices lifted to the ceiling for nearly two hours of musical praise.
Led by Assistant Pastor Aaron Collins and his sister, Mary Ann Hopkins, the congregation worshiped in a deep, gospel tradition — praising with call and response, dancing, arm-raising and feet-stomping.
Pastor Ross played the bass guitar.
Hopkins said she’s been singing since before she can remember. She’s married to Mt. Zion member Sylvester Hopkins — former member of the doo-wop group, “The Five Satins.”
Collins’ voice sounded like a piece of living history. (Click on the video at the top of the story for a sample.)
Founders Day
Mt. Zion’s congregation has been around since 1957. That’s when Pastor Ross’ father, Bishop Eugene Ross, moved from Tennessee and, “called by God,” started a tiny storefront church on Grand Avenue in New Haven.
That church soon grew from five to 60 members. Mt. Zion moved four times until it found a home on Dickerman Street in the summer of 1967.
After Eugene Ross’ death in 1998, his co-pastor and sister, Rev. Mary Frances Ross Pencial, took over the church. She passed away in 2002. Gary Ross found himself at the helm.
“I resisted at first,” he said. He now runs the church with the help of Co-Pastor Collins and Minister Richards.
The church celebrated Founder’s Day Sunday with a second afternoon service. “It’s about honoring the legacy of my father and the founders, and this church,” Ross said.
Out In The World
The Mt. Zion membership roll currently holds at 58. “On average, we have about 35 – 40 people attend each Sunday service,” said Ross. Church starts with Sunday School for both adults and children at 10 a.m. Ross’ wife Shirley takes the church van out each Sunday and picks up kids from neighborhoods around New Haven. They come to Mt. Zion without their parents.
“These are kids whose parents we’ve met over time, or have encountered out in the community,” said Ross. On Sunday, the seven kids present were served a steaming breakfast of grits, bacon, sausage and sweet rolls.
“We do breakfast every Sunday for them, and really for whoever would like it,” said Ross. “But these are kids who may otherwise not be getting breakfast at home.” The church started serving a Sunday morning meal about two years ago, he said.
Hopkins, who started coming to Mt. Zion in the early 1970s, said membership has remained at about the same levels. “But the neighborhood was a little different than it is today — and that’s everywhere, not just here,” she said. “The people have changed. They don’t have that caring feeling, or respect for each other and their properties.” When she was growing up in Fair Haven, where she lives today, people had more respect for their elders, she said.
“But respect is a thing of the past,” she said. “It was safer back then.”
While there’s been a lot of change outside the church, there hasn’t been much inside, she said. Under Pastor Ross’ direction, Hopkins and the congregation plan to branch out more into the community.
“Yeah, we’re going out and getting busy in the neighborhood,” she said. “We want to share people’s concerns and what they’ve got going on. It’s good to know that. Maybe the church people can reach some of them.”
Ross retired as a state corrections officer in Cheshire in 2009. He’s now devoted full-time to his church and the surrounding community.
“I think my experience working has had a positive impact,” he said. “It helps a great deal in pastoring. Some of the same people I encountered at Cheshire I see out in the street here. It helps me in my observations of the neighborhood, to maybe detect dangers or ways to help.”
Congregants already go door to door in Dixwell and Dwight to meet people and tell them about the church. They plan to open a daycare center in the church, pending on city approval. Monday afternoon found Richards, Ross and Hopkins clearing out the basement space in preparation.
And Minister Richards, who’s studying towards a degree in psychology and currently works with developmentally disabled people in Guilford, is “on call” for the neighborhood.
“I give her cell phone number out to anyone who needs it,” Ross said with a chuckle.
“Yeah,” Richards said. “Sometimes those 2 a.m phone calls, I don’t know.”
Psychology plays an important role in ministry, she said. “There are so many people with issues in this neighborhood particularly,” she said. They’re dealing with violence and poverty. “And a lot of them don’t understand how much help is available, even just in this church.”
The Pentecostal Church
Pentecostalism, one of the fastest growing, truly global religious traditions, emphasizes a personal experience with God. This relationship is marked by the baptism of the Holy Spirit—when a person is filled with that Spirit, as happened in the biblical story of Pentecost.
“Our beliefs are based totally in the scriptures of the Bible,” said Ross. “That is our motivation and our belief system. We offer help to others in their spiritual needs. And it’s power. We believe that through Christ we can succeed.”
Ross said Mt. Zion, like other Pentecostal churches, practices the gifts of the spirit: speaking in tongues, prophecy, and the working of miracles.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%2012:1-11&version=NIV
“The Holy Ghost, as Minister Richards said, is a keeper. It preserves us and reminds us of the power of God,” Ross told his church on Sunday. “It’s only through the Holy Ghost that things can change in our families, and in our communities.”
Cacophony & Harmony
The world is full of noise, Richards (pictured) told the congregation. It’s full of voices that aren’t God’s.
“And when all those worldly voices start talking,” Richards said, “you want to make sure you’re hearing the right one.”
There are so many voices out there in the world, she said, and some sound like they could be just almost right. But you want to make sure you’re responding to God’s will.
“God was so gracious, he gave us that gift of the Holy Spirit. Human intelligence don’t compare to the spirit of God,” she said. “When you rely on what God has left for our learning, on that Holy Ghost, then you’re on a true foundation.”
“Don’t think,” she implored her church in cadenced tones, “that we can reason through this life on our own.”
