Posted on Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Why Wait? Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church Pastor Marries on Valentine’s Day After NYE Proposal (VIDEO)!

Hello World,

Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of Atlanta’s Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, the “spiritual home of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” already created headlines when he proposed to Miss Ouleye Ndoye at the end of Watch Night Service at the church last month! Well, Rev. Dr. Warnock capitalized on another romantic occasion, marrying the former Miss Ndoye during a Valentine Day’s wedding ceremony at the church last Sunday!

So I watched the video of the ceremony which came in at about 1 hour and 37 minutes. The wedding colors seem to be shades of lavender, purple and white as all of the flowers and decorations were in those colors. The wedding started off with a solo of Sweet Sweet Spirit which set the tone of the wedding. Also, there was a beautiful flute solo and a heartfelt solo rendition of Steve Wonder’s Ribbon in the Sky. The music lasts for nearly 40 minutes as the mothers walk in together about the 38:09 mark of the video. I counted 10 bridesmaids and 9 groomsmen along with a ring bearer and two flower girls.

Flanked by her parents and with a soloist singing Maurette Brown Clark’s The One He Kept For Me, Miss Ndoye walks down the aisle about the 47:00 mark. The wedding ceremony included readings from Genesis 2, you know the “God made a woman from the rib” from man and “one flesh” chapter, and a reading from 1 Corinthians 13, the Love Chapter. What I found most unique about the ceremony were the thorough and beautiful vows, which start at about 1:06:16. They covered EVERYTHING. As a pastor’s daughter, I’ve been to countless weddings so I know what I’m talking about…Here they are below…

O: I know that love must be kept alive by active concern, and I pledge that in loving you, I will continue to court you in many and in new ways.

R: I promise to keep our love vibrant, to discover new ways of loving you and to make our love continue to grow in new riches.

O: I will continue to be your special friend, accepting and sensitive to your needs.

R: I will continue to be the companion who is always by your side, understanding and sharing in your laughter and tears.

O: I will continue to respect your opinions and feelings in all the ways you relate them to me, and I will freely share mine with you.

R: I will continue to be honest with you, not holding back what I feel, and I will continue to be open to hearing and responding to your feelings.

O: I know that sickness is often a real part of life, and I will meet these hardships with strength and courage.

R: I recognize that death and misfortune are untimely parts of life, and I will not let these events overshadow and take away from our life now nor will I turn from the burdens they may place upon me.

O: As individuals, we need the freedom to become ourselves, and I will live with you in a way that will allow you to reach your highest potential.

R: I promise to respect the individuality of yourself and will continue to work towards the development of mine so that each of us may live life to the fullest and yet I will be close enough to continue to share in your life and to share mine with you.

Together: You will be secure in my promise to you this day that during all the years of our life together, I will be ever mindful of the things we found important from our earliest encounter to this present moment. I am committed to grow and to let our marriage grow. So be it, and so it is. Amen.

See what I mean? Following their vows, famed gospel singer Byron Cage sang “To God Be the Glory.” Following his performance, the Rev. Dr. Lawrence Carter Sr., who was the celebrant, welcomed the couple to the “the halls of highest human happiness,” a phrase I first learned about after reading a “A Man Called Peter: The Story of Peter Marshall,” by my deceased spiritual writing mentor Catherine Marshall. Rev. Dr. Carter also introduced the couple as the 5th First Family of Ebenezer Baptist Church…

So what do you think of their very short engagement? The Warnocks went from proposal to wedding at a swift speed, particularly as it has been reported by the AJC that the two actually were actually first married at a private ceremony at Danforth Chapel on Morehouse College’s campus last month! The two are graduates of Morehouse and Spelman College and “many Morehouse men and Spelman College women have married there.” “According to TheKnot.com and WeddingChannel.com’s Real Weddings Study, the average length of an engagement is 13.8 months. And 7% of people surveyed said they were engaged for more than two years,” which is from the CNN article “Standing Engagement — Are Committed Couples Waiting Longer to Tie the Knot?”

My hubby and I got engaged in December 2012 and married the following August so we were engaged for eight months. I think longer engagements give couples more time to plan a wedding, but a wedding doesn’t have to take a long time to plan in my opinion. Actually, we didn’t start planning our wedding until February 2013 so it came together in an intense six months. Celebrity couple DeVon Franklin and Meagan Good-Franklin got engaged in March 2012 and were married by June. Earlier this month, the two released their book The Wait: A Powerful Practice for Finding the Love of Your Life and the Life You Love about their entire 13-month celibate courtship.

The Warnocks speedy proposal and wedding reminds me of a line from one of my favorite movies “When Harry Met Sally.” Harry and Sally were friends for a long time before they were lovers, and Sally realized first they could really spend their life together. Of course, their friendship breaks down when Harry doesn’t immediately return Sally’s feelings. However, on New Year’s Eve, Harry, who is spending the evening alone, suddenly realizes he is in love with Sally too. Instead of telling Sally the next day, he barges into a New Year Eve’s party where Sally is partying alone and tells her exactly how he feels. It Had to Be You by Frank Sinatra is playing the background…Below are his words…

I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.

The video of the entire the wedding is below. Congratulations to the Warnocks!!!

Any thoughts?

Posted on Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Mama Se, Mama Sa, Mama Coosa: ‘Born Again Virgin’ Season 2 Episode 5 Recap…(Premiere Pics!!!)

Hello World,

After a brief hiatus during January, “Born Again Virgin” is back with new episodes! And in this episode, we get to meet Jenna’s mama! It has been said if you want to know a woman’s future, meet her mama! Jenna’s mama is cuckoo crazy – which explains why Jenna is on the cuckoo for cocoa puffs spectrum herself. And that is why I decided to name this post “Mama Se, Mama Sa, Mama Coosa!” Remember Michael Jackson’s song “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin?” He’s all jammin’ and then he breaks out into “Mama Se, Mama Sa, Mama Coosa,” and you’re like, “Whut? Is that his prayer language? Where did that come from?”

Well, when we first see Monica, Jenna’s mama, she wanna be starting somethin’ with the doorman of Jenna’s building. She basically cusses the man out for asking to carry her bags, which Jenna gets to see as Donovan is showing her a video of the random crazy woman downstairs in the lobby…Unfortunately, that’s no arbitrary crazy woman, that’s Monica, Jenna’s “Mama Se, Mama Sa, Mama Coosa!”

Just when Jenna thinks she is going to have a weekend free of writing deadlines, all the way from Colorado here come Monica, who announces she is dying…(I’ll get back to that in just a sec…So as a writer, I LIVE for weekends when I don’t have any pending writing deadlines…but I digress….) The relationship between Monica and Jenna reminds me of the relationship between the free-spirited Freddie and her equally free-spirited mother Joni from “A Different World.” Like Freddie, Jenna is biracial with a white mama and a black father. And the two also have very similar qualities. Monica refers to Jenna as the “ex-whore who is now celibate,” but Jenna comes back with,”the nut doesn’t fall far from the tree!” Monica precedes to praise Tara for being Tara and Jenna checks her mama again, reminding her that Tara is the product of a two-parent household. Rather than participate in the Monica v. Jenna madness, Tara and Kelly sequester themselves to Donovan’s apartment to “help” him prepare for a trial. And speaking of two parents, Jenna then calls her father, who is glad his baby mama who he is divorced from is not bugging him for once. Jenna asks her father about her mother’s health to which he responds, “She’s not dying. She’s dramatic. She’s menopausal.”

Yes, Monica believes that menopause is synonymous with death. Now that Jenna knows the real reason her mama is cutting up, she tries to get her to see the positive side of menopause – “Hooray. No more periods.” Monica doesn’t quite buy into Jenna’s spin on menopause, but the two do make up – crazy recognizes crazy…

Also below are a few pics from the recent red carpet premiere for TV One’s new shows “Here We Go Again” and “The Next :15” and the season 2 return of “Born Again Virgin.”

From left to right: D’Angela Proctor, Sr. Vice President of Original Programming and Production for TV One; Ranada Shepard, Creator of Born Again Virgin; Danielle Nicolet, who portrays Jenna and Eva Marcille, who portrays Tara

Danielle Nicolet & Eva Marcille

Ranada Shepard, Danielle Nicolet & Eva Marcille on stage…

Any thoughts?

Posted on Sunday, February 7, 2016

The Top 10 Blog Posts and or Articles for Black Christian Women in January 2016

Hello World,

It’s hard to believe that 2016 is a month old, and I hope it’s been a great year for you so far. As I’ve done for the past few months, I’ve corralled another list of interesting blog posts and or articles for black Christian women from last month that intrigued me as a black Christian woman ( but you don’t have be a black Christian woman to to check them out:) ! ) As usual, let me know if you like my list! Enjoy and share!

1. “New Pastor Coming to Emanuel AME Seeks to Bring Hope, Unity” by Jennifer Berry Hawes

Excerpt: The Rev. Dr. Betty Deas Clark has been named pastor of Emanuel AME Church, where nine black worshipers were gunned down on June 17 by an avowed white racist. She will be the church’s first female pastor. See more at: postandcourier.com.

2. “How a Facebook Comment Turned into a Nightmare for ‘the Evangelical Harvard’” by Sarah Pulliam Bailey

Excerpt: It’s not the first time Wheaton has wrestled with theology and identity. But the Hawkins case exploded in the thick of a national conversation about the place of Islam, and about race and privilege. Hawkins is one of Wheaton’s five black tenured professors, who make up 2 percent of the faculty, and its only full-time black woman professor. See more at: washingtonpost.com.

3. “How YWCA USA Is Evolving To Better Support Women And People Of Color” by Kathy Caprino

Excerpt: First and foremost, we’ll give the public greater clarity about who we are and what we do. Our mission is squarely focused on eliminating racism and empowering women. The 225 YWCAs around the country serving more than 2 million women and families annually work hand-in-hand with people as they take steps to improve their lives, whether through domestic violence services, housing, childcare, job training, or the many other programs available at local YWCAs. See more at: forbes.com.

4. “Why the Black Church Should Speak Out Against Sexual Predators” by Rev. Dr. Najuma Smith-Pollard

Excerpt: To be silent on Bill Cosby is a missed opportunity to speak to the real people in our pews who have been victims of sexual violence. Here are a few statistics every pastor should know. The national average suggests that 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men have been sexually assaulted in their lifetime. Translation, if you have 50 Women in your church, 16 to 20 of them have had similar acts of sexual assault, rape, happen to them as have been described by the 55 women who have come forward about Bill Cosby. See more at: lasentinel.net.

5. “Awarding Purity & Preserving Patriarchy: Why I Don’t Agree With Scholarships for Virgins” by Erica Nichole

Excerpt: The mayor in Uthukela, South Africa is awarding young women enrolled in schools with scholarships, not for excelling academically, but for remaining virgins during their time in school. Yep, there are scholarships for virgins. While the road and process to being granted a scholarship is competitive in most countries, students with exceptional academics are awarded grants to further support their education. But is it right to encourage higher education to women by solely making virginity the qualifier for the grant? See more at: xonecole.com.

6. “Loving the Stranger in My Bed” by Trillia Newbell

Excerpt: As you live, you change. I’m not the same woman my husband married 12 years ago. I’d like to think in some ways I’ve matured, but even many of my interests have changed. I’ve had children, so my body has definitely changed. Even my temperament has changed as we’ve experienced more trials in our growing together. I’m still me to the core, but I’m also different. Because of the familiarity we feel in marriage, it takes intentional effort to stay close as each person changes. See more at: todayschristianwoman.com.

7. “Single Mom of Six Gets Special Gift from Church” by Jennifer Shaw

Excerpt: Pollard’s luck changed on Jan. 3 when Pastor Chris Williams read her letter aloud to the congregation of Church at Antioch, then announcing that she was the recipient of a donated 2002 burgundy Ford Taurus,also as a way of recognizing the church’s one-year anniversary. See more at: contracostatimes.com.

8. “Harlem ‘Church Ladies’ Get Their Due”

Excerpt: Church Ladies: Untold Stories of Harlem Women in the Powell Era is an oral history based on interviews with 15 black women, members of the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, N.Y. The book is a rare glimpse into the world of women’s leadership in the black church and gives voice to Harlem women and their activism during the tumultuous mid-20th century. See more at: blogs.baruch.cuny.edu.

9. “The Black Church and the Habitus of Resistence: An Ethnographic Study of Religious Practice and Social Change” by Joi R. Orr

Excerpt: In the spring of 2015, I observed a longstanding group of moderate and liberal black clergy members in Atlanta, Georgia, whose mission is to “provide leadership, advocacy and service to the homeless, helpless and hopeless in our community.” Every Monday morning, this coalition hosts a community forum to move their agenda along. With this sustained practice, the coalition prepares and situates itself to participate in direct-action campaigns and to take on issues of mass incarceration, a livable minimum wage, and voter mobilization. See more at: theotherjournal.com.

10. “7 Dead Giveaways You’re Attending A Black Church” by Dontaira Terrell

Excerpt: Leave With A Home-Cooked Meal. It’s a week of built-up anticipation, hoping to get a taste of Ms. Gladys’ mac and cheese. Your prayers have been answered the moment you hear there will be food served in the fellowship hall following the worship service. The menu usually consists of good ol’ soul food, but if you don’t hurry, Sister Patterson’s collard greens and Ms. Gladys’ mac and cheese will definitely be gone! See more at: atlantablackstar.com.

If you know of any black Christian women bloggers and or writers, please e-mail me at jacqueline@afterthealtarcall.com as I’m always interested in expanding my community of black Christian women blogs and websites. As I noted before, while this is a roundup of interesting blog posts and or articles for black Christian women, you don’t have to be one to appreciate these pieces :).

Any thoughts?