Holy Cross Baptist Church: Feeding the people spiritually and physically - The Philadelphia Tribune
Holy Cross Baptist Church: Feeding the people spiritually and physically - The Philadelphia Tribune |
| Holy Cross Baptist Church: Feeding the people spiritually and physically - The Philadelphia Tribune Posted: 02 Mar 2020 05:00 AM PST  Looking for a socially conscious church with Christ at its center? You'll find it on the corner of 1900 N. 63rd Street at Holy Cross Baptist Church where the Rev. Vincent E. Stokes Sr. is the pastor. Stokes has led the ministry at Holy Cross for 18 years and describes it as "a small faith community that has a genuine passion for those who are oppressed and affected by the systemic ills of society." The members of Holy Cross not only worship together but they have formed a close-knit community of believers whose worship neither starts nor ends at the entrance of the church. They are dedicated to taking their worship with them as they exit as well. "We try to meet people right where they are," Stokes said. "There are no prerequisites or presuppositions on how you are supposed to dress or act in church. We love the churched and the unchurched." In fact, not only are there a lot of ministries and activities inside the church but the activities of the church doesn't limit itself to confines of its four walls. "I think we are doing a work that God would be pleased with in the faith community. There are a number of outreach ministries in place right now," Stokes said. Holy Cross operates a food pantry for those in need of assistance as well as distributing clothing free to the community on a monthly basis, Stokes said. The church helps the community in other ways. "We have an evangelism ministry and a prison ministry that reaches outside of the walls so even though we nurture those inside the faith community, it is also important for us to reach those outside the walls of the church," he said. Stokes said that the community outside of Holy Cross is changing as is true with many neighborhoods in Philadelphia. The external changes necessitate internal changes. "It requires, especially living in the times and the culture that we are living today, it always require reprogramming or rethinking ministry," Stokes said. "Changing the way, we think about ministry, changing the way we actually do ministry and if its an intentional ministry then you have to actually change with the changing demographics." The community outside Holy Christ is changing but Stokes says gentrification hasn't yet really impacted the church. "If you look across Philadelphia, I'm sure it's coming 'to a theater near us' soon. I don't think we can stop it but possibly slow it down where those coming into the community can reinvest in that community. It's a challenge, it really is a challenge," he said. Minister Michael Keene visited Holy Cross with his family seven years ago. He's still there. "We first came because they had an early morning service and we needed to bring our kids to church and we came more and more," he said. "I think what kept us here was just the people, the attitudes of the people and the love that they shared even though they didn't know you they still wanted to talk to you and get to know you. "Holy Cross is a Bible teaching, preaching church that loves people and love teaching people about the Lord. We don't sugar coat or mince our words; we give it to people the way that God would give it to us." Keene said that people appreciate "the straight talk" as opposed to what he calls "dancing around" different subjects and it is this directness, this honest, straight forward talk that attracts people to the church. "Black is Black and white is white. There is no gray in-between," he said. It was a co-worker at her former place of employment that invited Minister Lisa Askew to Holy Cross. She accepted the invitation and, well… "The first Sunday that I came, I joined and ever since I've been here its been awesome," Askew said. "Holy Cross sends over so much love and if you can't receive it, something has got to be wrong with you and that's what I felt when I first came here, just so much love." Askew said she is a product of a large family and Holy Cross fits that description. "Holy Cross is like a family to me because we fellowship together and there's lots of laughter, a bunch of love, a bunch of praying for one another and concern for one another so that's what I feel about Holy Cross," she said. Like a family, Holy Cross members not only pray together, they eat together. Wednesday night's Bible study at Holy Cross is an example of life at the church. "What I love about it is that at 6 p.m. we feed our children here who attend Holy Cross, not only our children but people bring their children here as well and we all fellowship together, so it's not just Holy Cross children but children from all around the neighborhood and I love that," Askew said. "They get fed physically and they get fed spiritually. The Rev. Joseph Beatty Jr. is the son of Holy Cross' founder, the late 00Rev. Joseph H. Beatty Sr.. He said he was raised in the church. "I would say Holy Cross is friendly and welcoming," Beatty Jr. said. "Most of all, it's craving for people who are lost as all of us were. "When people come in, we do all that we can to show the greatness of what God can do in a person's life and we feel that the preached word is most important because we feel that people come to get fed spiritually."  |
| Posted: 02 Mar 2020 03:00 AM PST   Photo credit: GAB Archive - Getty Images In 1975, Joe English was staying at the Allman Brothers ranch in Macon, Georgia, after his band Jam Factory split up. He was out of cash, "driving a 1964 Dodge Dart with bald tires," he told Modern Drummer in a piece that ran in 1986. "My drums were in it and it had no backseat. I could play good, but I sure was broke." Then he got a call from a friend of a friend offering him a gig that would change his life. He joined Wings, the band Paul McCartney formed with his wife Linda after leaving the Beatles. English was the only American in the band for four years, and he traveled around the world, met rock royalty, had 200 acres of land, two Porsches. Then he disappeared from public life. Since 1990, English has been living in rural North Carolina as a member of the Word of Faith Fellowship, the subject of a new book by Associated Press reporters Mitch Weiss and Holbrook Mohr who have been reporting on the group for years. The book details disturbing allegations about the group, including physical abuse against adult and underage members during sessions called "blasting," the practice of screaming the devil out of members, who would "get so worked up they'd wail, scream, convulse, or vomit into buckets," according to the book. The church was founded in 1979 by a preacher named Jane Whaley who teaches that blasting drives the evil sent from Satan to manipulate humans into addiction and wrongdoing back to hell, Weiss and Mohr write. "[Members would] often push you down to the floor, beat your back with their fists, it's just kind of a violent group exorcism," former member Ben Cooper told Today last week. Cooper said he was "blasted" as young as age 12. The reporters describe one incident relayed to them from former members in which a church member "grabbed Joe and tossed him across the room to expel his demons. That was what it took for Joe to get a breakthrough." (Esquire has not independently verified this account, and the book does not contain any accounts of English participating in any blasting sessions.) When asked about allegations of abuse in the church, Joshua Farmer, a lawyer representing Word of Faith, said via email, "Mitch Weiss's book Broken Faith is a continuation of the campaign of vitriol and lies by Weiss and certain members of the Cooper family against our church … We have repeatedly reached out to Weiss and the publisher of this book. They have continually rejected our attempts to address their inaccuracies." Farmer did, however, confirm that English remains a member of the church. When asked for an interview with English, Farmer directed me to call the church, which didn't respond to a voicemail I left inquiring about English. Weiss and Mohr attempted to talk to English during their years reporting on the Word of Faith Fellowship for the AP and their book but say the church blocked interviews with members. "I saw English at the sentencing for Word of Faith Fellowship minister, Kent Covington. After Covington was sentenced [for fraud in 2019], I walked over to English and introduced myself," Weiss told me. "As I began to ask questions, his wife, Dayle, who used to be married to Allman Brothers guitarist Dickie Betts, pulled him away. She mumbled that he didn't want to talk." Weiss and Mohr were, however, able to get a picture of English's life in the church thanks to interviews with former members as well as audio and video from inside the organization. According to their reporting, English rarely speaks about his rock history and is treated no differently from any other member. Tasks are shared among members, and English has done janitorial work for the church and, other times, he and his wife counseled teenagers. After Weiss and Mohr first began reporting on Word of Faith Fellowship for AP, English and several other members of the church recorded testimonials for a local radio station which were posted on YouTube. In 2018, English gave an emotional interview about his years of drug abuse and his introduction to Whaley. English was introduced to the Word of Faith Fellowship by music promoter Ray Nenow, who'd visited the church with English's wife. "We had tried everything. We'd tried rehab, we'd sent him to other ministries," Nenow says in the 2018 recording. "We sent him everywhere, we tried to get him help. We couldn't help him. It wasn't until we got here and the prayer and the things started happening in his life that things started to change. He started to get free." The video is posted on YouTube and titled, "Word of Faith Fellowship Members Share: From Profane Music To True Worship." And English sits next to Nenow and another member named Andy Kidd. English looks subdued in a suit jacket, white dress shirt and purple tie; his hair is combed back and he's well-shaven. When the interviewer gets to English's portion of the story 14 minutes in, English seems uneasy, saying with a Southern drawl, "It's hard to talk without crying." After a sharp breath, he talks about his introduction to Whaley and the church. "She looked at me and gave me a hug and she could see that I was a troubled man but you know what she cared nothing about… in the world they wanted to know about your history with Paul McCartney and Wings. She wanted to help me because she knew that I had problems, and she could care less what I had done in the past. And I had never met anyone like that except my wife Dayle." After English explains his path to Word of Faith, the interviewer asks English to sing, and he stands up and belts out a song called "Your Love Never Fails." English also seemed to address reporting on the organization. "I hear about all the attacks. Hear all the stuff that's said about the church and Sam and Jane," he says. "I remember back when I came here, how messed up I was and I remember the love that she showed me. Really, nobody can really tell me anything because I know, I know the truth in my heart that when I was desperate and down and out, she just took me and held me and told me she loved me and God was going to help you if you want help. I've had struggles since I've been here, [but] you can get help if you want help, if you open your heart and say, 'Jesus help me.'" You Might Also Like  |
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