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Ricky Dillard will host The Red Party, his eighth live recording in Detroit, October 30th. Ricky Dillard recently signed with Light Records along with Dorinda Clark-Cole of the Clark Sisters. Dillards’ 2007 hit “The Light” was one of my favorite songs of that year. This years 2010 live recording will be held at Second Ebenezer Church, everyone is encouraged to wear something red and bring a canned good for Gleaners Food Bank. There will be some amazing folks in attendance, we’ll keep you updated as the stars RSVP.
If you are in or near the Detroit area, you should certainly look into attending this event.
Ricky Dillard will host The Red Party, his eighth live recording in Detroit, October 30th. Held at Second Ebenezer Church, everyone is encouraged to wear something red and bring a canned good for Gleaners Food Bank. Of course you know there will be some amazing folks in attendance and I will be sure to share as we get closer!
If you are in or near the Detroit area, you should certainly head over to hear Ricky and New Generation (New G).
Gospel legend Albertina Walker died this morning at 81 years old. She was known as “The Queen Of Gospel” and was the lead singer and founder of the legendary gospel group “The Caravans” that launched the careers of other gospel pioneers like Shirley Caesar and Dorothy Norwood.
Over the summer, Albertina had taken very ill and was hospitalized with breathing complications stemming from her battle with emphysema. We pray for her family, friends and all of those that loved her in the gospel music industry.
Walker was born in Chicago in 1929. She had been in the hospital since Aug. 29, the day she celebrated her 81st birthday.
She started to sing for the children’s choir of the West Point Baptist Church when she was just 4 years old. By age 22 she had organized the Caravans, her gospel group.
She is known for a long list of songs including Lord Remember Me, Walk Around Heaven and Lord Keep Me Day by Day.
Albertina Walker will be deeply missed by fans and family. Go Walk around heaven woman of God. Job well done.Below is a couple of her songs.
Music World Gospel’s recording artist, Brian Courtney Wilson begins his 25 city tour today to promote the re-release of his debut break-through and award-winning project. JUST LOVE Deluxe Edition will be in stores October 5.The 25 city tour includes concert and promo dates as well as a partnership between the American Heart Association’s Power to End Stroke campaign and Music World Gospel/Music World Entertainment. In addition to the American Heart Association concert dates, Wilson will visit other cities including Columbus, OH; Atlanta, GA; Montgomery, AL; Nashville, TN; Birmingham, AL; Jackson, MS; Mobile, AL; New Orleans, LA; Baton Rouge, LA; Houston, TX; Dallas, TX; Little Rock, AR; Washington, DC; Philadelphia, PA; New York, NY; Detroit, MI; and Chicago, IL; (see partial schedule below).
Wilson’s new single “Awesome God” is # 1 Most Added, Billboard’s Greatest Gainer and Billboard’s Top 30 on the Hot Gospel Song chart. The song is also on Billboard’s New and Active list with only two weeks at radio. Pat McKay of Sirius XM Satellite Radio’s “Praise Channel” says, “‘Awesome God’ is the captivating gospel truth.”
In addition, to Wilson’s “Awesome God,” the CD/DVD package includes four brand new songs—”The Word,” “Monday’s Pain,” “The Only Way,” and “This Christmas.” The relaunch project also features all the songs from the original recording. The DVD includes video footage from a worship service at Bethany Baptist Church in Lindenwold, New Jersey, where Wilson ministered in song.
Wilson’s second single from his debut project; “Already Here” will impact INSPO/Light AC radio in October. The single has been on the Billboard charts for over 60 weeks and remains in the Top 20 on Billboard’s Gospel Recurrent chart.
JUST LOVE’s first single release, “All I Need,” is the longest-running current single, charting for over 75 weeks on Billboard’s Hot Gospel Song chart. In 2009, “All I Need” was named Song of the Year at the Mississippi Gospel Music Awards, which also saluted producer, Stan Jones, as Producer of the Year for his work on the project. In September 2010, Wilson received the Gospel Music Heritage Month Rising Artist Award and he also received a nomination for Song of the Year by the Atlanta Gospel Music Choice Awards. The third and title single, “Just Love” also remains in the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot Gospel Song chart.
JUST LOVE debuted at #2 on the Billboard Top Gospel Album chart and #6 on Billboard’s Top Christian Album chart. The CD has remained at #1 on Christian Music Trade Association’s (CMTA) Inspirational Album chart for nearly 50 weeks. Since its release in June 2009, the CD has held steady in the Top 15 on the Billboard Top Gospel Album chart for over 65 weeks.
An Algerian court on Tuesday acquitted two Christian men of eating during Ramadan in spite of a prosecutor’s demand that they be punished for “insulting Islam.”
Authorities arrested Salem Fellak and Hocine Hocini on Aug. 12 for eating lunch on a private construction site where they were working. Ramadan, Islam’s month of fasting during daylight hours, started this year on Aug. 11.
The incident took place in Ain El-Hammam, a town in the province of Tizi Ouzou about 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of the Algerian capital. Tizi Ouzou is part of Kabylie, an area of Algeria where the country’s Protestant church has grown with relative freedom in recent years.
Officers at a nearby police station saw the two men eating and confronted them for not fasting. When police realized the two men were Christians, they accused them of insulting Islam, according to local French-language press reports.
“I do not apologize for anything, and I regret nothing,” Fellak said before the verdict, according to Dernieres Nouvelles d’Algerie. “I have the right to not fast. I am a Christian, and until found guilty, the Algerian constitution guarantees respect for individual freedoms.”
The Algerian Constitution gives the right to all citizens to practice their faith, although it declares Islam the state religion and prohibits institutions from behavior incompatible with Islamic morality. Proposing other faiths to Muslims is also forbidden.
After police arrested Hocini and Fellak, authorities interrogated them for two hours and “admonished” them, according to a French-language news site. Authorities took them to court, where a state prosecutor questioned them. When the men explained to her that they were Christians, she said that Algeria was a Muslim country with no room for Christians and that they should leave the country, according to a local news site.
On Tuesday, however, the judge at the court in Ain El Hamman dismissed the case since “no article [of law] provided for a legal pursuit” against the two Christians, according to the BBC.
A small group of Christians standing on the steps of the courthouse reportedly shouted “Hallelujah!” when they heard the outcome of the case. After the verdict, Fellak said he was happy and that he had done nothing wrong, according to Reuters.
Local media also reported cases of Muslim Algerians arrested for eating during Ramadan.
Famed worship leader Martha Munizzi is gearing up for next live recording. The session takes place at City of Life Church in Kissimee, FL on October 22, 2010. Martha burst on the scene with hit songs like “Glorious” and “Because of who you are.” Special guests for event include Michael Gungor, William McDowell, Jonathan Stockstill, and Mary Alessi. Munizzi won the 2005 Stellar award for New Artist of the Year.
Last Sunday Bishop T.D. Jakes said he has been asked what he thought about the Bishop Eddie Long sex scandal. So he took the liberty Sunday to speak to the congregation and the world on how we should be handling the allegations as Christians.
Jamal Parris, one of the four accusers in Bishop Eddie Long sex scandal said, “That the Bishop turned his back on them when he had no more need for them.” “This was our father and we loved him.” His presence alone is seduction to a boy without a father.”
When asked why he didn’t say no this is wrong? Parris Says he was “Afraid to loose a father.” “You finally have a father that you’ve always wanted for and always dreamed of,” Parris said. “He would just walk away from you if you don’t give him what he wants. So you end up turning into something you never thought you would be, which is now a slave to a man that you love.”
Recalling the details of nights spent with Bishop Long, Parris said, “I cannot get the sound of his voice out of my head,” “I cannot forget the smell of his cologne. And I cannot forget the way that he made me cry many nights when I drove in his car on the way home, not able to take enough showers to wipe the smell of him off of my body.” Jamal Parris spoke to Atlanta’s Fox 5 and told the station, “that man can not look me in my eye and tell me we did not live this pain,” Parris said. “Why you can sit in front of the church and tell them that you categorically deny it. You can’t say that to our face. And you know this. You are not a man, you are a monster.”
Bishop Eddie Long (left) Poses with Jamal Parris (right)
President Barack Obama in an Albuquerque, NM, backyard. President Obama is trying to reconnect with the American people, and he is using the simple setting of everyday citizens backyard, to do it. In one of the questions a woman threw the president a unscripted question — “Why are you a Christian? she asked. This gave Obama an opportunity to speak on his Christian faith, and once again dispel the rumors that he’s a Muslim. Obama said:
You know, I’m a Christian by choice. My family didn’t — frankly, they weren’t folks who went to church every week. And my mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew, but she didn’t raise me in the church.
So I came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead — being my brothers’ and sisters’ keeper, treating others as they would treat me.
And I think also understanding that Jesus Christ dying for my sins spoke to the humility we all have to have as human beings, that we’re sinful and we’re flawed and we make mistakes, and that we achieve salvation through the grace of God. But what we can do, as flawed as we are, is still see God in other people and do our best to help them find their own grace.
And so that’s what I strive to do. That’s what I pray to do every day. I think my public service is part of that effort to express my Christian faith. And it’s — but the one thing I want to emphasize, having spoken about something that obviously relates to me very personally, as President of the United States, I’m also somebody who deeply believes that the — part of the bedrock strength of this company is that it embraces people of many faiths and of no faith — that this is a country that is still predominantly Christian. But we have Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, and that their own path to grace is one that we have to revere and respect as much as our own. And that’s part of what makes this country what it is.
White House aides says ithe backyard discussions are a good way for the president to get out of the “white house bubble,” and hear the needs of everyday people. It’s also a strong point for the president which keeps him in campaign mode. The President is scheduled for future backyard stops in Iowa and Wisconsin.
What do you think? Do you think the President is doing a good job expressing the beliefs of the Christian faith? Is the backyard talks helping his approval rating?
In Black in America’s third year, CNN will focus on the church. Spiritual and gospel music has always been at the heart of the black church. To honor this rich tradition, CNN is inviting choirs around the world of all denominations to sing as one.
How to participate: Gather your choir and sing a very special hymn, “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power” by Andrae Crouch — commonly referred to as “The Blood.” Then upload your video here. CNN will blend all the videos together to create a unique global version.
Tips and guidelines:
– Please sing in the key of F.
– We encourage you to sing a cappella, but minimal instrumentation like percussion is welcome.
– Audio is key, we encourage you to use microphones in order to capture the best possible audio.
– You’re welcome to sing in your place of worship, but we encourage you to sing someplace that best represents your hometown. Someplace significant to your community.
– Don’t have a choir? That’s fine – sing by yourself, or with members of your congregation.
Upload your videos below before Sunday, October 10, 2010. Please be sure to include the name of your church and choir and please keep video files under 600MB. After you’ve uploaded your videos, CNN will put them together to make a global choir of voices.
Baptist televangelist Eddie Long said Sunday he will fight allegations that he coerced young male church members into having sex with him.”I am not the man that has been portrayed on television,” he told his congregation.
This after a fourth lawsuit has been filed against Atlanta-area pastor Eddie Long, alleging he coerced a 17-year-old into a sexual relationship during a 2005 trip the two took to Africa.
The suit — filed, like the others, in DeKalb County, Georgia, State Court — claims Long invited Spencer LeGrande, now 22, on a trip to Kenya.
On the first night in Nairobi, Long asked LeGrande to come to his room, where the youth told the pastor he was having difficulty going to sleep, the suit states. Long provided Ambien, a sleep aid, and they both took the drug, according to the suit.
Long then gave LeGrande a hug, kissed and licked the youth’s lips and rubbed the teen’s chest, according to the lawsuit. They slept in bed together that evening and during the rest of the Kenya trip, the lawsuit states, adding they went on shopping sprees.
In a statement released by his spokesman, Long denied these allegations along with the other three.
Speaking publicly about the accusations for the first time, Long did not address the specific allegations contained in four lawsuits filed against him earlier this week.
“I’ve been accused, I’m under attack,” he said, lowering his head and softening his voice behind the pulpit at the New Birth Baptist Church in suburban Atlanta.
“I want you to know, as I said earlier, that I am not a perfect man. But this thing, I’m going to fight,” he said. “I feel like David against Goliath, but I’ve got five rocks and I haven’t thrown one yet.”
With that, the 57-year-old pastor put down his microphone and walked off stage, receiving deafening applause from the thousands who had come to hear him.
The lawsuits accuse Long of using his power and influence within the 25,000-member church to lure young male church members into sexual relationships. The suits allege that the relationships, which began when the men were in their teens, lasted over many months.
Long took the young men — all of them teens at the time — on trips, including to Kenya, according to the suits. Long allegedly paid for their hotel rooms, and gave the young men gifts, including a car, cash and jewelry — all in exchange for sexual favors such as massaging, masturbation and oral sex.
The accusations were particularly controversial because Long, who is married, has preached passionately against homosexuality over the years.
In 2004, he led a march to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s grave in Atlanta in support of defining marriage as being between a man and a woman. He once declared that his church had created a ministry that “delivered” people from homosexuality. He has a national presence, has been invited to the White House, runs a popular television ministry, and oversees a worship campus that includes a school.
In the parking lot after the services Sunday, church member Juan Davis told CNN affiliate WXIA that he was “very satisfied with what I heard.”
“It’s a very difficult moment for the church, for the pastor, but I know for sure they’re going to overcome it — overcome it in a big way,” Davis said.
Gabrielle Richards, 21, who has attended New Birth for nearly eight years, told CNN that after hearing Long’s sermon, “nothing has changed.”
“My love for the ministry, my love for [the] bishop and his family has not changed,” she said.
Richards also said she was proud of Long for “the way he came out with his head up. … He showed the strength that I’m accustomed to.”
On Saturday, New Birth members also voiced support. “I stand behind the bishop because of the leader that he is. He is a true leader. The word that he gives is so rich, it is so life-changing,” church member Gary Foster Jr. told CNN.
A former New Birth employee, Kevin Bond, said he hopes the allegations are not true. “The evidence … all of that is very troubling to many of us in the gospel community, the Christian community,” said Bond.
Long gave 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. sermons on Sunday. They were essentially the same. Eliciting chuckles from the audience, Long began both by joking, “I gotta talk to my family” of worshippers before addressing what other “folk” — meaning media — were there to hear.
Both sermons focused on “understanding painful situations.”
He quoted Isaiah: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”
Long encouraged congregants to think about natural disasters — tornadoes and floods. He specifically named Hurricane Katrina and other “painful situations.”
“Bishop Eddie Long will have painful situations,” he said.
Shouts of affirmation came from the audience.
“We will walk through this painful situation,” he continued.
Then, the bishop quoted the 23rd Psalm.
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death …”
Worshippers were on their feet.
He urged them to stay committed to being “prayerful,” then briefly reminded them that it’s nearly election time in Georgia, that it was important to vote and be involved.
He then went back to speaking about himself. “Some people think I’m lost,” he said. It is those people, he said, who “will have an opportunity to come down to the altar.”
New Birth will continue to worship and thrive, he said.
“We ain’t gonna stop it,” he said.
More cheers. The camera panned to the pastor’s wife Vanessa Long. She smiled.
Each sermon ran approximately 20 minutes.
Between sermons, Long spoke briefly to reporters. “I want this to be dealt in the court of justice and not by public opinion,” he said. “I will say that I am going to fight, fight very vigorously against these charges.”
Bishop Eddie Long (left) Poses with Jamal Parris (right)
