Susan, I started this thread because I am interested in helping to preserve memories about Black church traditions.

You are welcome to add your memories and present day experience to this thread. I also welcome your friends {those who are Black and those who are non-Black} posting to this thread.

However, I want to emphasis that this thread is about Black Church Services. Note the plural. We {Black Americans} are not one person. We are many people with varied racial, ethnic, regional, and socio-economic backgrounds. And we have a varied lifestyles, interests, and experiences. Because we are have varied backgrounds etc, our worship services are not the same in every regard.

Just as I never talk about "the Black community", or "the Black man" or "the Black woman", I don't talk about "the Black church". There are many Black churches.

Some African American churches have had and continue to have non-African American members. And most Black churches that I'm aware of have been and continue to be welcoming to non-Black people.

That said, the reason for this thread is not to talk about the racial/ethnic membership of Black churches. The purpose of this thread is to help document information about traditions {or perhaps I should say "ways of worshipping"} that are found in some Black churches. Some of these ways of worshipping within Blach churches are very old. Some are these ways of worshipping within Black churches are modifications of old ways, and some of them are new.

It is important to note that indicating that these traditions were {or are} found in some Black churches does not mean that they weren't {or aren't} found in any non-Black church.

In my opinion, a thread that lists the ways in which Black American churches and White American churches are the same would be a different thread in purpose and in content than this one.

Again, Susan, I welcome your participation in this thread. And I welcome the participation of any other person who posts to this thread who adds to the information about the thread's subject matter.