Black churches as tourist entertainment

Congregants irritated as rules ignored

The stern warning issued from the pulpit was directed at the tourists - most of whom had arrived late - a sea of white faces with guidebooks in hand. They outnumbered the congregation itself: a handful of elderly black men and women wearing suits and dresses and old-fashioned pillbox hats.
“We’re hoping that you will remain in place during the preaching of the Gospel,” a church member said over the microphone at this Harlem church on a recent Sunday morning. “But if you have to go, go now. Go before the preacher stands to preach.”

No one left then. But halfway through the sermon, a group of French girls made their way toward the velvet ropes that blocked the exit. An usher shook his head firmly, but they ignored him and walked out of the church.

The clash between tourists and congregants plays out every Sunday at Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the oldest black church in New York state. It’s one of many Harlem churches that have become tourist attractions for visitors from all over the world who want to listen to soulful gospel music at a black church service. With a record number of tourists descending upon New York City last year, the crowd of foreigners is becoming a source of irritation among faithful churchgoers.

To preserve the sanctity of the service, pastors struggle to enforce strict rules of conduct. But the reality is that these visitors are often filling church pews that otherwise would remain empty - and filling the collection basket with precious dollar bills.

“Our building is in need of repair,” church member Paul Henderson said after the service. “We need assistance. They’re helping to sustain us.”

The rules are simple enough: No photography, no flip-flops, no exiting during the sermon. They are printed on pamphlets and multilingual signs and announced at the start of every service. But they are often ignored. Ushers roamed the pews like security guards, stopping more than one person from using digital cameras.

“I understand that you’re visiting and you want to have a memory of it,” said Carlos Smith-Ramsay, who joined the church several years ago. “But when we ask you to stop and you continue to do so after the fact, that’s disrespectful.”

Some pastors quietly manage the crowds by requiring a written confirmation of guests from tour operators, whose business has boomed in recent years. Some churches provide assigned seating for tourists, while others demand a list specifying the tourists’ home countries and whether they speak English.

The Rev. Gregory Robeson Smith, Mother AME Zion’s pastor, refuses to work with tour operators. He doesn’t even like to use the word “tourist,” preferring instead to call them part of his “international congregation.” He won’t turn away anyone.

“I refuse to commercialize the church worship experience,” he said. “You don’t pay people to experience the Lord, to come and pray. I think that’s unconscionable.”

Yet the tourists’ presence is undeniable. At Mother AME Zion, there were nearly 200 of them, overwhelming the congregation by at least 5-to-1.

“They want to see what they’ve seen on television,” said Larcelia Kebe, president of Harlem Your Way Tours Unlimited. “They want to see what they’ve seen in the movies.”



Psa 137:1-  By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

Psa 137:2-  We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.

Psa 137:3-  For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us [required of us] mirth, [saying], Sing us [one] of the songs of Zion.

Psa 137:4-  How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a strange land?

Mic 3:11-  The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, [Is] not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.

Ezek 16:30-  How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord GOD, seeing thou doest all these [things], the work of an imperious whorish woman;

Eze 16:31-  n that thou buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in every street; and hast not been as an harlot, in that thou scornest hire;

Eze 16:32-  [But as] a wife that committeth adultery, [which] taketh strangers instead of her husband!

Eze 16:33-  They give gifts to all whores: but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom.