Street Stories - A Ringside Seat To Over 4 Decades Of Taking Jesus To The Streets Of The World

Several of us adopted this practice and we wore white clerical collars when we were out and about ministering and having meetings with authorities in the city. Instantly, we were allowed access because we were ministers. I would find out later that for me at least, wearing that clerical collar might not have been such a good idea. Several days after Officer Uhuru Houston’s body was recovered, an official funeral was planned at a nearby church. Large sanctuaries were needed to facilitate funerals of policemen and firemen who died at the World Trade Center, as not only their families would be in attendance, but large groups of NYPD personnel and even people off the street would come to pay their respects. It was the morning that Officer Uhuru Houston’s funeral service was to be held, so many of us gathered at Abounding Grace in preparation to attend. Sondra Berry Young was going to attend as she had become a friend and strength to Anane, a few members of Abounding Grace were going to attend, and I had been requested by Anane and her family to attend. I got dressed in black slacks, a black dress coat and wore my black clergy shirt with a white clerical collar. I had never been to a funeral the likes of what I was about to attend. When we got to the very large church where the funeral was being held, there was a motorcade of dozens of NYPD motorcycle officers. All their motorcycles were parked side by side in amazing uniformity. What appeared to be dozens of officers, in full NYPD blues and knee-high leather boots with bright white motorcycle helmets adorned with shiny gold NYPD badges, raptly stood at attention.

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