CLEVELAND — During this Black History Month, News 5 is shining a light on the Baptist faith in our community.
The religion was brought from the south and spread in the area by white and Black missionaries.
Members of the Black community later shaped the Baptist faith into what we see today, where it is the dominant religion among Black Clevelanders.
Some of those notable Black churches include Shiloh Baptist Church, Antioch Baptist Church and Gethsemane Baptist Church.
“This is the Black history,” said Pastor Richard Parker oof Gethsemane Baptist Church with a laugh. “The church is the Black history.”
Richard Parker is the pastor of Gethsemane Baptist Church.
For the last 122 years, the church’s name has been in existence, founded as a Baptist mission for African Americans.
Over all those years, the congregation would create a legacy of breaking barriers.
“Gethsemane has a rich history,” said Parker. “You figure from 1900, where slavery was just being abolished. Harriet Tubman was still alive in 1900, when this church was a mission.”
It’s also home to the Wings Over Jordan Choir, which originated under the direction of Reverend Glynn T. Suttles during the 1930s.
Pastor Richard Parker and church leader Glenn Brackens tell News 5’s Remi Murrey that Suttles began the group not only as a Sunday morning choir but as an entity for inspiration within the Black community.
“It was like in today’s time, if you were doing the Wings Over Jordan in our now, he would bring in people like President Obama, Oprah, Spike Lee, Tyler Perry,” said Glenn Brackens, who serves as a pastor council member and musician staff.
The choir eventually broke the color barrier.
“He started what you call the Negro Hour, and from that 15-minute broadcast, it went to a national broadcast, which became syndicated,” said Brackens.
In the 1930s, it became the first Black choir with a national audience, thanks to the CBS broadcast.
As Black churches continue to evolve, Parker believes the church community is needed to battle issues like gun violence, police brutality and voting rights.
“We have Black pastors that are involved in the community, but the church itself has fallen by the wayside,” said Parker. “I believe that there’s been a change based upon the unity in our community, based on the fact that many people don’t come to church.”
Then, when the pandemic hit, Parker and Brackens say Black churches faced even more devastation from COVID-19 deaths, vaccine mandates and fear.
“If we keep going at this rate, especially with our oldest Black churches that have older congregations, I don’t know where we’re going to be at in 15-20 years,” said Brackens.
As a result, Parker says he began to lose even more members, which he says he couldn’t afford, so he got creative and moved the church outside.
Speaking about the drastic evolution of the church in the short time since the pandemic hit, Parker said, “I believe, I really believe that God allowed it to happen to get the church to become the church again. If you think about Christ himself, Christ didn’t stay in the building. He went beyond the four walls."
Still, there’s this lingering question: Where do they see the Black church going in the next five years?
“I believe that the church will still be in existence, but it’s up to the people,” Parker said.
“I think as the Black church, we have to address that issue. What we can do? We have to get our young people back in,” Brackens said.
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