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[Back to index of January articles] Hurricane help By Lucy Chumbley For 11 years, St. Paul Community Baptist Church in East Brooklyn has staged a musical drama to tell the story of the Maafa - the enslavement of the African American people. Maafa, a Kiswahili word that means disaster, is the term now used to describe the Middle Passage - the transatlantic slave trade. And the performance that bears its name is intended to be a healing journey; mourning the past, honoring the resilience of those men and women and their descendents, and lighting a path to the future. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina - a different kind of catastrophe visited on a largely African American population - the Rev. Johnny Ray Youngblood, pastor of St. Paul and a native of New Orleans (Ninth Ward, below the Industrial Canal) plans to bring elements of this story and at least 500 people to a fund-raising revival at Washington National Cathedral. The revival, "A Celebration of New Orleans," set for 7 to 9 p.m. Feb. 3, is an opportunity to come together to grieve, celebrate the Crescent City's faith and fortitude and raise funds toward its renewal. The event is the brainchild of the cathedral's new Canon Missioner, the Rev. William Barnwell, a former resident of New Orleans and a longtime friend of Youngblood's. "We've all seen so much sad news about New Orleans," Barnwell said. "My home. [Youngblood's] home.... We want this event to be something different. We want to face the racism, face the poverty. But we want it to be a revival. That's what these people from New Orleans need right now - this hope and this sense that it's going to be alright." The revival aims to raise more than $100,000, Barnwell hopes - which will be divided among the Christian Unity Baptist Church in New Orleans, an African American church whose congregants were scattered far and wide by the storm; The Peoples' Institute for Survival and Beyond, a New Orleans based anti-racism organization; and Rebuilding Together, formerly Christmas in April, a large home rebuilding program based in Washington, D.C., and led by St. Columba's parishioner Patty Johnson. Like the city's famous jazz funerals, the event must strike just the right note - sad but celebratory - Youngblood and Barnwell agreed, both grieving loss and welcoming resurrection. To that end, Youngblood and some members of his flock, including drama director Jesse Wooden, Jr., and dance ministry director Robin Gray-Bishop made the journey by train to Washington, D.C. in December to look at the space and start to plan the service with staff from the cathedral's Worship Department. "Celebration can give the idea of not recognizing the tragedy," Youngblood said. But at the same time, "nobody I think is authentically celebrating the victories that are coming up out of this… We have been invited because we've found a way to celebrate in spite of. We celebrate recognizing how disastrous that whole thing was. If this was going on in New Orleans, this is their Maafa. We will celebrate the God-given resilience to get through every Maafa." When it comes to both hurricanes and revival, Youngblood has a story or two to tell. In September 1965, when Hurricane Betsy struck New Orleans, he took refuge on the roof of his home, surviving the storm that took 81 lives and flooded 80 percent of the Lower Ninth Ward. He saw first-hand the devastation and long-term damage that a hurricane can wreak, and is keen to help the residents of his hometown however he can. For the last 32 years, Youngblood has been involved in a different kind of revival - building a strong church in East Brooklyn - a community weakened by poverty and violence. In 1974, when he was called to be pastor of St. Paul, the struggling parish had just 84 members on its rolls. Now it has around 10,000, a full-time staff of 60, an elementary school and a junior high and a nationally recognized ministry to black men, which recruits and trains them to assume leadership responsibilities within their church, family and community. "In 1993, our community had 129 murders - the year before last I think we reached 18," Youngblood said. "I think our ministry has something to do with that. We think our ministry has had that kind of effect." Youngblood hopes the revival at Washington National Cathedral will have a similar effect on those still suffering the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, offering them powerful spiritual and financial support and the courage to overcome their own Maafa. "A crucifixion did take place," Youngblood said. "But Sunday morning it is all worthwhile." [Back to index of January articles]
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