IT IS often not just a gathering of the faithful come Sunday at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York.
On one recent morning, there were almost 200 tourists quietly waiting for their turn to enter the church. Instead of a Bible, many were holding guidebooks.
Gospel music is the hallmark of Harlem and travellers from all over the world get the calling to attend the Abyssinian Baptist Church upon learning from their guidebooks that it is among the best place to experience gospel music.
As the first African-American Baptist church in New York, it is housed in a lovely 83-year-old building with beautiful stained glass windows.
When the Sanctuary Choir sang “Wasn’t That A Mighty Day?” that day, the congregation, especially the tourists on the upper level, was clearly mesmerised.
By the time Timothy Allen took his turn as the tenor soloist, the audience was spellbound.
“The music was very good,” said Karen Goll, a visitor from Vienna, as she stepped out from the church when the service ended.
Asked how she had found out about the place, the Austrian whipped out the Baedeker’s New York from her bag.
A Spanish traveller, Almudena Rivas, said she arrived at the church at 8.30am but the queue was already so long that she couldn’t get in.
“I had to wait for the next service,” she said.
The Abyssinian Baptist Church, which has seven choirs, conducts two worship services every Sunday, at 9am and 11am.
“We get hundreds of tourists. The tour buses would drop them off here. There are so many of them that sometimes a number of them can’t get into the church,” said Dinean Davis, the communications manager of the church.
Asked to explain the prominence of the church, she said the Abyssinian had a long history and had recorded a number of precedents, besides being the largest African-American church in Harlem.
“The worship experience is different in a black church. The music is what intrigues most people,” she said.
Doesn’t it bother regular churchgoers that the visitors turn their church into a tourist stop?
“It has its ups and downs. Sometimes it’s disruptive but, hopefully, the message in the music would stir up something in them,” said Davis.
Just what is it about gospel music that touches so many people from all corners of the world?
“It’s the rhythm and the words,” said Jewel T. Thompson, the minister of music of the church.
This genre has often been defined as religious music which emerged from African-American churches at the start of the 20th century. Tricia Whitehead, who is the spokesman for the Nashville-based Gospel Music Association (GMA), said diversity is why this form of music has such appeal.
“There is great diversity and quality about gospel music. No matter what kind of music you like, whether rock or inspirational, or whether you are old or young, there is something in it for everyone,” she said in a telephone interview.
She observed that many people would turn towards gospel music during conflicts or crises.
“We find that the power of gospel music is its ability to inspire people.”
