Thu, 28 Mar 2013 18:20:26 +0000
GOOD FRIDAY SILENT MARCH AND CALL TO ACTION TO “STOP THE PIPELINE TO PRISON AND END GUN VIOLENCE” AIMS FOR EDUCATION, JOBS AND JUSTICE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE     

Historic Metropolitan AME Church Leads Local and National Effort to Stop "Death Nails" of Prison-Industrial

Complex, Unemployment, and Indifference Killing Black Families

Through Education, Jobs and Justice,” is the aim of a Good Friday Silent March and Call to Action on Friday, March 29 at 1 p.m. Led by historic Metropolitan A.M.E. Church (MAMEC) in coalition with over 40 local and national partners, the marchers will gather at the church, 1518 M Sts. NW, and walk silently to Freedom Plaza, 14^th and Pennsylvania Ave. NW, the site for a rally. As a symbolic gesture of Good Friday, participants will carry crosses. More than 2,000 supporters are expected to participate in the event which is designed to increase national awareness and action around the disproportionate rates of arrests and incarceration of African Americans, and to stimulate urgency for ending increasing gun violence which daily claims the lives of Black men and women in the nation.

“African Americans are being imprisoned at four times the rate of other American citizens, largely because of a lucrative ‘pipeline to prison system’ fueled by a voracious multi-billion dollar ‘prison-industrial’ complex, and a biased criminal justice system that singles out African American people for prosecution,” says the Rev. Dr. Ronald E. Braxton, senior pastor of the l75-year-old church in Washington, DC. Braxton sees these ills as “death nails” in the nation’s black communities and a parallel to the crucifixion of Jesus.

Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, keynote speaker at the Freedom Park rally, adds: “I'm here to show solidarity with all folk of color and others who have been ensnared in a prison system which is hungry for profits while eating poor people's bodies' whole.   I am marching and speaking on behalf of the millions who are racially profiled, inappropriately stopped and frisked, unjustly detained, and disproportionately incarcerated.  The pipeline must be clogged, disabled and destroyed."

Led by the Mighty Men of Metropolitan, the Stop the Pipeline to Prison Partners include the NAACP-DC, Metropolitan Washington AFL-CIO, 100 Black Men of Greater Washington, DC, a number of local elected officials from the District, Maryland and Virginia; the Council of Churches, and many others. ”We must organize ourselves, step up to the plate and do our part to reclaim our young people, educate our children about the collateral consequences of arrest and prison records, restore our broken family structures and values, and put an end to this vicious cycle that is destroying our communities,” says Rev. Braxton.  “We must also do all we can to support gun legislation which will help stem the tide of weapons that are taking precious lives away from us much too soon.”

View a list of partners to date

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 04:28:51 +0000
METROPOLITAN AME PRESENTS DEC. 31 DRAMATIZATION OF FIRST “FREEDOM’S EVE”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 19, 2012

Media Alert
Contact:  Anthony Hawkins
202-331-1426

METROPOLITAN AME PRESENTS DEC. 31 DRAMATIZATION OF FIRST “FREEDOM’S EVE” CELEBRATES 150^TH ANNIVERSARY OF SIGNING OF EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION

WASHINGTON–  The date was Dec. 31, l862.  The enslaved African Americans had been promised freedom after hundreds of years of painful bondage and a civil war.  Enslaved and free persons alike gathered to await the news that the Emancipation Proclamation would become law at midnight and their long-awaited freedom would finally be realized.   It was a night never to be forgotten.

On Monday, Dec. 31. the 150th anniversary of  the celebration of  “Freedom’s Eve” and the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation the following day, Rufus Tiefing Stevenson, noted Africanist and griot,  and other  members of Metropolitan AME Church will dramatize that memorable occasion at a Watch Meeting Night Service.  The Rev. Ronald E.  Braxton will deliver the sermon that will accompany the dramatization.  The program begins at 10:30 p.m. Metropolitan is located at 1518 M St. NW. and the community is invited.

Freedom’s Eve was inspired by the Watch Night Service tradition.  Although Watch Night services can be traced back to 18^th Century Europe and are now observed in churches of all denominations around the world,  Dr. Calvin H. Sydnor II, editor of The Christian Recorder, stated,  “in the black community, the Watch Meeting Night worship began with …the AME church and with the founder, Rt. Rev. Richard Allen.”

Pastor Braxtron added that,  “Metropolitan had already been in existence for 25 years and the AME Denomination had been founded 47 years before the Emancipation Proclamation was signed,” pointing out that the historic Metropolitan would begin a year-long celebration of its 175^th  anniversary in 2013.

150th Anniversary of Freedom's Eve

Watch Meeting Night Services in Black America

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 04:03:50 +0000
Journalist Gwen Ifill and Leading Soloist to be featured at Handel’s Messiah
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MEDIA
CONTACT: Dr. Lester Green
202-331-1426

Nov. 20, 2012

JOURNALIST GWEN IFILL AND LEADING LOCAL SOLOISTS FEATURED AT HANDEL’S MESSIAH AT METROPOLITAN A.M.E ON DECEMBER 2

WASHINGTON—Journalist Gwen Ifill and leading local soloists will be featured when Handel’s Messiah is presented at Metropolitan A.M.E. Church, 1518 M Street N.W. on Sunday, December 2 at 5 p.m.

Sopranos Michele Gutrick and Alia Waheed-Ky; baritone Vashawn Savoy McIlwain, tenors Keith Craig, Rev. Anthony Brown, Wayne Jennings and countertenor Curtis Adamson, along with the Metropolitan AME Cathedral Choir, will perform the beloved oratorio by George Frideric Handel. Ms. Ifill, one of the nation’s leading journalists and host of Washington Week on PBS, will serve as host.

“Over the past decades, Metropolitan has helped to usher in this highlight of the Christmas season and we look forward to persons from across the Greater Washington area sharing this spectacular joy with us,” said Rev. Ronald E. Braxton, senior pastor of Metropolitan, known as the National Cathedral of African Methodism.

The production will also feature local high school and college talent from Metropolitan Art Partners Program singing this quintessential musical crown of the holiday season. Dr. Lester S. Green, Jr., who has performed with the Washington National Opera and is Minister of Music at Metropolitan A.M.E., will conduct the performance.

The performance is free and free parking is available.

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 22:17:09 +0000
REV. AL SHARPTON TO SPEAK THIS SUNDAY

REV. AL SHARPTON TO SPEAK AT METROPOLITAN A.M.E CHURCH SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 ON NEW CHALLENGES TO VOTER REGISTRATION

The Rev. Al Sharpton, host of “Politics Nation” on MSNBC and founder and President of the National Action Network (NAN), is scheduled to speak at Metropolitan A.M.E. Church on Sunday, September 23, 2012. Senior Pastor Rev. Ronald Braxton has designated that Sunday a special Voter Education and Registration Day as part of Metropolitan’s annual Christian Education observance. The congregation and community will convene in a single service at a special l0 a.m. worship experience. The 2012 Christian Education theme is “Be A Disciple: Beyond Membership to Commission for Christ,” (Matthew 28:19-20).

The occasion will serve to educate our congregation and the public about critical problems facing people of color, especially people of African descent. Further, the aim is to remind persons who live the Christian faith of our responsibility to address social injustice issues, especially through advocacy and direct action, including voting in national, state and local elections. Persons from DC, Maryland and Virginia will be able to register at the church on that day for the historic Nov. 6 election.

Rev. Al Sharpton is the founder and President of the National Action Network (NAN), a not-for-profit civil rights organization headquartered in Harlem, New York, with approximately fifty Chapters nationwide. As one of the nation’s most-renowned civil rights leaders, Rev. Sharpton has been praised by President Barack Obama as “the voice of the voiceless and a champion for the downtrodden.” and by former President George W. Bush who said that “Al cares just as much as I care about making sure every child learns to read, write, add and subtract.” NAN has recently opened a Washington, DC Bureau to monitor and work on social policy issues that involve Congress and the White House.

This special religious service, Sundays with the MET, is a collaborative effort of Metropolitan and its outreach arm, the Daniel Alexander Payne Community Development Corporation.

The service will be led by the The Christian Education Commission, in partnership with the Circles of Twelve, under the umbrella of “Sundays with the MET.” The Circles is a unit of the Daniel Alexander Payne Community Development Corporation, (CDC) Metropolitan’s outreach arm. For further information contact Anthony Hawkins, 202.331.1426.