I'm not sure if it was on this forum or not but there was a thread about marriage between members of different races. Here is an article from Spooner, WI about races mixing in worship.
http://www.spooneradvocate.com/place...tory_id=234589
SPOONER-- At 2 p.m. on Aug. 18, worshippers from Christ Temple Apostolic Church in Roseville. Minn., will join First United Pentecostal Church of Spooner for the Power of Unity Celebration to reflect on their shared history and take steps toward restoring the spiritual unity they once shared.
America is most racially segregated on Sunday mornings, but that was not always the case for Pentecostals, said Julie Zaloudek of Spooner’s First United Pentecostal Church.
“Last year marked the centennial of what is referred to as the Azusa Street Revival that helped spark an international revival marked by the supernatural phenomenon of speaking tongues,” she said. “Pentecostals refer to the Day of Pentecost recounted in
Acts 2 as the origin of speaking tongues, but these early revivals brought the practice back into Christianity in a pervasive way.
“Another miraculous component of the Azusa Street Revival was an intimacy between black and white worshippers that was unheard of in 1906.
“What I was noticing during the centennial was some groups getting together, others celebrating on their own. Mostly it was whites and blacks celebrating separately. The experience of African Americans is very different. No one group can really tell the story; it has to be told together.”
Zaloudek explained just what it means to “speak in tongues.”
“On the day of the Pentecost, Jesus told people to wait for the Holy Spirit,” she said. “Jews from all over the civilized world were there, 120 people were praying. As the Bible describes, a ‘mighty wind’ came upon them, they began speaking in tongues they didn’t know. It was considered a sign of the Holy Spirit.”
People still speak in languages they have never spoken before, said Zaloudek. She said it has happened to her, as well as to her father, Pastor Dennis Witkus.
“In order for it to happen, you need to yield to God, just let it happen,” she said. “It does happen regularly right here in Spooner.”
But the Holy Spirit, when it came to whites and blacks mixing, was not always welcomed with open arms in 1906 when the Azusa Street Revival took place.
“At the time people thought it was the work of the devil with all the clapping and shouting,” said Zaloudek.
A prominent figure of the revivals was William J. Seymour, a holiness preacher and son of former slaves, who held services in a dilapidated building on Azusa Street in Los Angeles, Calif., beginning in April 1906. The movement at Azusa began with a handful of African Americans but quickly grew to include hundreds of white and black worshippers who attended the services that were held day and night for three years.
The news coverage of the time was sensationalistic and overwhelmingly negative. On April 18, 1906, the headline of the Los Angeles Times read, “Weird Babel of Tongues.” The article reported on a bizarre new religious sect that had started with people, “breathing strange utterances and mouthing a creed which it would seem no sane mortal could understand.” It continued by noting that, “Colored people and a sprinkling of whites compose the congregations, and night is made hideous in the neighborhood by the howlings of the worshippers who spend hours swaying forth and back in a nerve-racking attitude of prayer and supplication.”
Later articles were more inflammatory by printing that “Pandemonium reigned supreme when the meeting was practically turned over to the Negroes at ten o’clock. Black wenches threw themselves on the floor and cackled and gabbled.” It was even thought newsworthy that “whites and Negroes clasped hands and sang together.”
Despite the extreme pressure from the outside world, the diverse believers continued to worship and evangelize the nation and beyond with the pentecostal message. Over the decades, however, the extreme pressure and internal prejudices broke down the unity, and pentecostal groups become more and more racially segregated.
First United Pentecostal Church of Spooner and Christ Temple Apostolic Church from Roseville are affiliated with United Pentecostal Church International (predominantly white) and Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (predominantly black), respectively. They share the same pentecostal experience and believe the same doctrine, said Zaloudek, but the fellowship they used to share has dropped off over the years.
Racial unity
The celebration between the two churches on Aug. 18 will be marked by storytelling and song, said Zaloudek.
“We have three layers of storytelling,” she said. “First, the United States context of the time, the whole century. Second, what’s happening in these churches. Third, we’re looking at individual people and what has happened. God can transcend all the ugliness of the world.
“As believers in the words of the Apostle Paul who claims that there is ‘one Lord, one faith, and one baptism,’ we are excited to meet together to tell the collective story, unite in worship, and enjoy the stirring music of the past 100 years. Just as those early meetings on Azusa Street, all believers, spectators, reporters, and critics are welcome to attend.”
Many songs of unity and solidarity will be sung, some dating back to the beginning of the first meetings as the black and white worshippers unite.
“There is a risk to talk about prejudice,” said Zaloudek. “We don’t think that having this event carries risk because Spooner will be inhospitable to our African-American collaborators. Rather, since we are being honest about our history – both good and bad – we hope that guests from the community can look beyond the mistakes of our past and not judge Pentecostals too harshly. We want people to walk away saying, ‘How wonderful that, despite terrible injustices in the past, people can join in unity and enjoy each other.’”
The two churches have a historical connection, said Zaloudek. “We found that we have a personal history with them. They had camp meetings at Leisure Lake.
“We have connections.”
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