Tourist queue to church in Harlem ©Camera on autopilot
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The rules are simple and spelled out in multi-lingual signs; no photography, no flip-flops, no exiting during the sermon. But more often than not, the rules are ignored by the international tourists visiting Harlem’s historical churches. Ushers are transformed into bouncers and security guards, monitoring the doors and confiscating cameras.
The clash plays out each Sunday between the tourists who want to listen to soulful gospel music and a fiery sermon and the congregants at these churches who want to gather and worship without being on display.
The gospel tour industry in Harlem has exploded since the early 1980s. In many churches the tourists vastly outnumber the local parishioners. And different churches have different attitudes and varying ways to manage the crowds.
Some churches work exclusively with tour providers and refuse to admit walk-in visitors. Ticket prices for these tours can cost up to $55 per person and the churches usually get a cut of the profit.
But at Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, where during high season tourists can overwhelm the congregation by at least 5 to 1, the Reverend Gregory Robeson Smith refuses to work with tour operators. He instead refers to the crowds of tourists as part of his “international congregation” and he refuses to turn anyone away–regardless of their motivation for attending the service.
“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.”
Even with his altruistic view of his “international congregation” Reverend Smith still knows that the tourists’ dollars in the weekly collection plate are a benefit he can’t ignore. The historic church, the oldest black church in New York state, is expensive to maintain. The congregation’s current project, repairing the church’s aging organ, will probably be funded with tourist dollars.
Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church is certainly not the only church battling the implications of becoming reliant on gospel tourist dollars to survive. The tourists bring much needed dollars and fill the pews in churches where the majority of the congregation is aging and there are very few young people left to fill the generation gap. But are the tourist crowds a blessing or a curse?
Read more at AP/Yahoo.