Bishop Flunder Holds Court
http://www.gbmnews.com/articles/882/1/Bishop-Flunder-Holds-Court/Page1.html
David Jones
I am a young black author (unpublished as of yet) that writes poetry and prose. My I am inspired by Baldwin, Tim'm West, Lourde and others and hope to find in this particular forum a platform for encouraging work that will uplift us all as black gay men. By David Jones
Published on 07/6/2007
The Fellowship, an organization of radically inclusive churches, holds its annual meeting at the Lincolnshire Marriott......
From June 27 to July 1 at the Lincolnshire Marriot, Dr. Yvette Flunder, internationally known gospel artist and presiding Bishop of The Fellowship, an organization of radically inclusive churches, held their annual meeting.
This writer was present and partook of some much needed spiritual nourishment.
The Fellowship, an organization of radically inclusive churches, holds its annual meeting at the Lincolnshire Marriott......From June 27 to July 1 at the Lincolnshire Marriot, Dr. Yvette Flunder, internationally known gospel artist and presiding Bishop of The Fellowship, an organization of radically inclusive churches, held their annual meeting.
This writer was present and partook of some much needed spiritual nourishment.
BISHOP FLUNDER HOLDS COURT AT FELLOWSHIP 2007
From June 27 to July 1 at the Lincolnshire Marriot, Dr. Yvette Flunder, internationally known gospel artist and presiding Bishop of The Fellowship, an organization of radically inclusive churches, held their annual meeting. This writer was present and partook of some much needed spiritual nourishment. As is the way of Fellowship and Bishop Flunder, spiritual communion blended seamlessly with the work of social justice and holistic healing, as the conference featured speakers like renowned Chicago poet E. Nina J and Bishop Flunder’s daughter Nubian, who conducted a workshop on violence against women and girls and mind and body maintenance respectively.
Bishop Flunder’s mother Rev. Mother Ruth Langston’s early-morning prayer clinics were also a stand out; they were a happy mixture of down-home story-telling and humor and intense, powerful spiritual connection.
In the world of the black church the supremacy of the same gender loving community in the realm of music goes unquestioned, and in this matter, the mass choir of The Fellowship, the luminous array of special guest musicians and soloists, and the Bishop herself, along with her partner of 22 years, Mother Shirley Miller of Oh Happy Day fame, did not disappoint.
The famed disco diva Martha Wash electrified Friday night congregants with her renditions of the traditional hymns Where God Is, and James Cleveland’s God Knows. The legendary conductor Alonzo Atkins, a colleague of the Detroit gospel pioneers Rev. Charles Craig and Herbert Pickard and preferred choir director of James Cleveland and the Gospel Music Workshop of America sat in on rehearsals and conducted several choir performances, giving pointers on harmony and choir decorum. Gene Viale, the original tenor of the Cleveland Singers, lent his powerful voice to the tenor section of the mass choir as well as being received as a Minister in The Fellowship in the majestic ordination ceremonies that took place Friday night.
The centerpiece of any gathering in the black church is of course, the spoken Word and the marvelous array of eloquence and spiritual force on display was enough to delight any hungry soul. On Thursday, Rev. Benjamin Reynolds, his commanding bass-baritone and sense of phrasing sounding eerily like C.L. Franklin’s, told us he “knew why the caged bird sings”, mixing deft humor, profound literary allusions and emphatic delivery in an incendiary cocktail.
Bishop Wyatt I. Greenley called the congregants back to holiness and devotion with his explication of Romans and Bishop Flunder, speaking on the final night, called congregants back to their places in God, telling them that their sexuality by no means negated, or excused them from, the call on their lives.
Fellowship 2008 is slated to take place in Winston-Salem North Carolina, Church of the Holy Spirit, host church.
Bishop Flunder’s mother Rev. Mother Ruth Langston’s early-morning prayer clinics were also a stand out; they were a happy mixture of down-home story-telling and humor and intense, powerful spiritual connection.
In the world of the black church the supremacy of the same gender loving community in the realm of music goes unquestioned, and in this matter, the mass choir of The Fellowship, the luminous array of special guest musicians and soloists, and the Bishop herself, along with her partner of 22 years, Mother Shirley Miller of Oh Happy Day fame, did not disappoint.
The famed disco diva Martha Wash electrified Friday night congregants with her renditions of the traditional hymns Where God Is, and James Cleveland’s God Knows. The legendary conductor Alonzo Atkins, a colleague of the Detroit gospel pioneers Rev. Charles Craig and Herbert Pickard and preferred choir director of James Cleveland and the Gospel Music Workshop of America sat in on rehearsals and conducted several choir performances, giving pointers on harmony and choir decorum. Gene Viale, the original tenor of the Cleveland Singers, lent his powerful voice to the tenor section of the mass choir as well as being received as a Minister in The Fellowship in the majestic ordination ceremonies that took place Friday night.
The centerpiece of any gathering in the black church is of course, the spoken Word and the marvelous array of eloquence and spiritual force on display was enough to delight any hungry soul. On Thursday, Rev. Benjamin Reynolds, his commanding bass-baritone and sense of phrasing sounding eerily like C.L. Franklin’s, told us he “knew why the caged bird sings”, mixing deft humor, profound literary allusions and emphatic delivery in an incendiary cocktail.
Bishop Wyatt I. Greenley called the congregants back to holiness and devotion with his explication of Romans and Bishop Flunder, speaking on the final night, called congregants back to their places in God, telling them that their sexuality by no means negated, or excused them from, the call on their lives.
Fellowship 2008 is slated to take place in Winston-Salem North Carolina, Church of the Holy Spirit, host church.