nothin A Tuneful Tonic For Troubled Times | New Haven Independent

A Tuneful Tonic For Troubled Times

Paul Bass Photo

Inside Star of Jacob Sunday.

A cold wind was blowing outside, but inside a church in the Hill, ev’ry voice rose to the rafters with hope.

The occasion was a song-filled 50th anniversary worship service and celebration held Sunday for Christian Community Action at Star of Jacob Christian Church on Howard Avenue.

Rev. Grubbs.

An interfaith, interracial, inter-urban-suburban crowd — reflective of the history and mission of CCA — began the event joining together in singing the Negro National Anthem, Lift Ev’ry Voice.” They exited the church an hour and a half later singing a reprise, propelled by the insistent rhythms of the Afro-Semitic Experience.

In between, the crowd listened to five-minute personal reflections about the agency’s work sheltering and feeding homeless families and helping families on welfare transition to self-sufficient lives and organize for system change. Volunteers from regional churches founded CCA in the 1960s to respond to families in the Hill neighborhood who needed emergency help. The agency remains based in the Hill today, where it has blossomed into a powerhouse of service and empowerment under the direction of Rev. Bonita Grubbs.

Each reflection at Sunday’s service was interspersed with musical selections by community-based spiritual ensembles. Performers included the Trinity Girls Choir, the Unity Boys Choir, the Heritage Chorale (pictured) …

… and Salt and Pepper Gospel Singers, a racially integrated urban-suburban team led Sunday by Mae Gibson Brown, who co-founded it 30 years ago and, as you can hear in the above video, is still going strong.

However hard the times are, if there’s a saving remnant, the community can be rebuilt,” remarked Michael Morand, who along with co-chair Diane Young Turner urged people to contribute money to keep CCA going strong. We must be that saving remnant.”

Rabbi Herbert Brockman noted the storm clouds outside originating from the Trump administration in Washington. Every day we are exposed to such fear and hate — Islamophobia, racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism,” Brockman said. At the same time, CCA’s perseverance reminds us of the better angels that are in human beings.”

Those better angels soared at the service’s climax, when Warren Byrd, co-founder of the Afro-Semitic Experience, a jazz-rooted ensemble that reinterprets Negro spirituals and traditional Jewish liturgical tunes, led a rousing rendition of Mahalia Jackson’s I’m Going To Live The Life I Sing About In My Song.” He did what the song advised. The band did, too. Rising to their feet, a sanctuary full of Americans re-girded themselves to return to the world outside and do the same in challenging times.

Islamic Chaplain AbdulMalik Negedu chanted from the Koran.


Two-decade CCA staffer Lillian Marquez spoke of helping a homeless woman find housing this past week.

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