Allan Appel Photo
Burdell Mamie Smith-Taylor at Friday’s event.
“We miss you, we love you, and when we grow up, we want to be just like you!”
That was the affectionate birthday message Burdell Taylor sent via video Friday night to his 90-year-old pastor, Dr. Mattie Atkinson Darden.
Pastor Darden
Darden was the longtime spiritual leader of the Agape Christian Center on Goffe Street, where congregants and admirers gathered Friday night to mark their pastor’s ninth decade.
Back in 2013 they celebrated her 87th birthday — and her 30th year of preaching — with the naming of the southwest corner of Goffe and Sperry in her honor.
For the last six months Darden has been retired from the pulpit. On this night her health did not permit her to be in actual attendance.
That didn’t stop the loving greetings from embracing her, via video streaming, at home.
As each of the more than 100 attendees entered the vestibule of the church, which Darden founded in 1983, they stood in front of a big purple birthday backdrop and offered greetings to Darden through the video camera.
They came dressed up to birthday-party, carrying trays of deviled eggs and other celebratory foods. They came bearing flowers and bibles. Most important of all, they came bearing vivid memories of how Darden’s straight-talking and profound knowledge of scripture has helped people center themselves at difficult times in their lives.
They came bearing the gift of love expressed.
Walters also worships at Pitts Chapel, founded by Darden’s father.
“God bless you, Pastor Darden. You impacted my life in so many ways,” Geneva Walters said in her message. She recalled how Darden convened a monthly communal supper. “‘Eat to the max,’ you always said,” Walters reminded her pastor.
In addition to sponoring a soup kitchen, sports activities for young people, and other communal activities, Darden’s church was also one of the first in New Haven’s African-American community to embrace an HIV/AIDS afflicted family through the AIDS Interfaith Network. That network was been recently founded by Elsie Cofield, whose life was also being celebrated in town Friday night.
When Walters stepped away from the camera to allow the next guests to video-stream their messages, she recalled the many times she had been in touch with Darden for pastoral counseling: “She would [literally] pray with you on her knees, and she wouldn’t leave or get up until you got what you needed.”
She praised Darden’s deep knowledge of the bible and her down-to-earth candor. “She’s not a sugar-coated preacher. That’s the only way you’ll get your life right,” she said.
Walters is a longtime parishioner also at Pitts Chapel. Darden got her start preaching in that church, which her father had founded. In a similar manner, Darden’s daughter, Dr. Willa Darden Moody, has taken over as the full-time pastor of Agape.
The celebrants gathered in the Agape sanctuary.
Taylor, who is also the handyman at the church, acknowledged that to be a preacher, and one of such longevity in that male-dominated field, Pastor Darden has to have had some unusual qualities.
“They didn’t think a woman’s place was in the pulpit. She’s very courageous and very honest and she stood on the word of God,” he said.
Asked if he sees any essential difference between the way a male preacher and a female preacher sermonizes, he responded: “When it comes to the Word, no.”
Then after another moment of thought, he added. “They’re [female preachers] more nurturing and concerned.”
The congregants wanted to make sure Pastor Darden heard all of that. As one of the event’s organizers, Velma Barrett, said, “We want to celebrate her 90 years. We want to give her flowers [of praise] while she is still with us.”
In addition to Barrett, the birthday celebration committee included Patty Jenkins-Simmons, Aleta Harrel, Mary Collins, and co-chairs Devon Coleman and Sean Hardy.
