On any given Sunday, people who hail from Kenya, Italy, China or Central America and now live locally worship at First Baptist Church.
On April 28, the church at the corner of Park and Lawrence streets celebrated their diversity by hosting a Heritage Sunday worship service.
“We want to say we’re proud of who we are and we acknowledge and embrace our different cultures,” said Pastor Nathaniel Burnes. “This is what America looks like, but most importantly this is what heaven will look like.”
This is the fourth year the church celebrates Heritage Sunday.
Some members attended the service wearing traditional dresses from Italy, Africa and Asia. Others wore T-shirts or a scarf with the logo or symbols of their ancestral homelands.
Cathy (Cutrera) Zembruski welcomed congregants in Italian, while others like Patty Smith talked about her trip to Ireland, and Jean Benjamin asked for prayers for his native Haiti.
The music and gospel readings reflected the theme of many nations under one God. Choral Majority Praise and Worship Choir sang hymns including “God is So Good,” with lyrics in Spanish, French and Swahili.
Following the service, there was an old-fashioned Baptist pot luck featuring food from across the globe.
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- Members of the horn section of the Choral Majority Praise and Worship Choir perform at Heritage Sunday. Pastor Nathaniel Burnes is singing.
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- Members of First Baptist Church wore traditional dresses in celebration of Heritage Sunday at the church. Shown are (from left) Dorothy Huff, representing Liberia; Cathy (Cutrera) Zembruski, Italy; Lura Smith, New Orleans; Adine Latimore, Africa; and Rose Katulege, Uganda. MethuenLife photos by Yadira Betances Muldoon
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- Marilou Agbi, a native of the Ivory Coast, became a U.S. citizen April 16.
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- Patty Smith holds a brick from the Youghal, where her ancestors are from in Ireland.
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- This is a sampling of the smorgasbord enjoyed by members of First Baptist Church during Heritage Sunday.
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- Mary Wong talks about her experience as a Chinese woman.
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- The Adult Learning Center was previously located at this Boylston Street site, built in 1923.
