Cover Story: Floyd & Elaine Flake
Expanding the borders of Their Ministry
By Jean Nash Wells

The Reverends Elaine and Floyd Flake co-pastor The Greater Allen AME Cathedral of New York, perhaps the largest and most influential African American congregation in the State and a model for the nation of how churches can change communities. This month Rev. Dr. Floyd Flake celebrates his thirtieth year as pastor. During that time the Flakes have built not only a major spiritual and cultural center, but also an economic engine in Southeast Queens around which a community revolves. The Greater Allen Cathedral's operations are a national paradigm of church-centered, faith-based, public/private community educational and economic development.

A Shepherd's Corner:
The Parent is the Child's First Teacher
By Rev. Grady James

As another school year has begun, it is an appropriate to revisit and project a long standing truth that goes to the heart of a child's achievement in school: parents must be active daily participants in the educational processes of their child(ren). We must as a community re-embrace the precept that children must be accountable to their parents, especially in matters relating to their performance in the classroom, and parents are responsible for their children's performance and conduct.

People always talk about the “good old days,” but in my first days as a Christian, I tortured myself with thoughts of the days I had wasted without Christ. I lamented over the wrong decisions I had made. How much more productive and worthwhile would my life have been if He had been in my life?

My View:
By Rev. Theresa Nance Pastor of
The Church By The Side Of The Road
108 Hoover Ave., Passaic, NJ.

Indigo Smoke. Yes, that's what it's called. And, for those who have not yet trekked to the lower end of Bloomfield Avenue in the Township of Montclair, I urge you to run don't walk to this marvelous treasure. Indigo Smoke offers a variety of mouth-watering food, including soul food. How do I rate the cuisine? In a word, delicious! But above and beyond the menu, the restaurant offers smooth jazz in the persons of gifted vocalists and musicians. I love it!

THE WAY AHEAD: Black in Nova Scotia
By Mwandikaji K. Mwanafunzi

The scene was the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church in Halifax, Nova Scotia, mid-afternoon on July 27, 2006. Nineteen African-Americans from the Brooklyn-based St. Paul Community Baptist Church (SPCBC) and other New York congregations fellowshipped, studied, and broke bread with members of Cornwallis and the encompassing African United Baptist Association (AUBA) of Nova Scotia, Canada.

Dick Gidron Sues GM for $150 Million
Legendary Entrepreneur Charges Fraud and Negligence

Dick Gidron isn’t mad at General Motors. “I just want to get even,” he said. To Gidron “even” means recouping the millions of dollars lost as a result of the actions or rather inaction of the giant automobile manufacturer, and getting his good name restored. “I want my customers to know why I’m not in business now.” He has hopes of getting back into the car business.

Saving Our Own Community
Freedom rings in the classroom
Schools focusing on heritage and culture give children new focus

The idea of Freedom Schools is both unique and historic. First as part of the "Mississippi Freedom Summer Project" of 1964, these schools were designed to provide Black children and teenagers with a richer educational experience than was then offered in Mississippi public schools. Change was necessary and therefore inevitable, and the youth needed to be trained as agents of that change. In addition to a basic academic curriculum, these momentous gatherings were structured to motivate young people to become critically engaged in their communities and to help them identify and design authentic solutions to the local problems of that time.