An ice storm snarled traffic and travel in central NC but did not deter Bishop Fernand Cheri, Auxiliary Bishop of New Orleans, from visiting the Diocese of Raleigh, including Saint Ann parish in Fayetteville and Holy Cross parish in Durham, leading up to his co-presiding and serving as homilist at the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Mass in the Diocese of Raleigh on Monday, Jan. 17.
Those who also braved the weather got a taste of Bishop Cheri’s abilities as a singer and his knowledge as an expert and archivist of Black religious music. After an eventful weekend of wintry weather, Bishop Cheri, who has been singing in Gospel choirs since the fourth grade, noted how appropriate it was that the AAMEN Choir performed “The Storm is Passing” during the Mass at Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral.
Earlier, Bishop Cheri began his homily by inviting the congregation to sing with him. “Even if you have a bad voice,” he said, “God deserves to hear it – so he won’t make that mistake again.” He then led the faithful in singing the gospel hymn, “If Anybody Asks You ‘Who I Am,’ Tell ‘Em I’m a Child of God.”
Afterwards, Bishop Cheri shared with NC Catholics some additional insight into his extensive work and special appreciation for gospel music.
“I’ve been very much involved with Black Catholic worship and music starting with the basis of African American spirituality, how those values are reflected in the music since the beginning -- how it started with the field songs that were brought into the church and the church songs that were brought into the community and into the House of Blues and other places where people are now singing Gospel music. And every place is an okay place to sing Gospel music!”
Bishop Cheri has written a number of books on the topic and compiled Gospel music discographies.
He is also active with the Lyke Foundation, named for the late Most Reverend James P. Lyke, OFM, PhD, who compiled “Lead Me, Guide Me,” the quintessential African American Catholic hymnal.
“The beauty of Black music is that it’s very scriptural based, and it’s very connected. I like the way our music develops and grows. How we take a spiritual, and you can hear how it was originally sung with slaves and how it developed in time and how we sing it today. It changes based upon what’s happening at the time,” said Bishop Cheri, who gave “Down By The Riverside” as an example. “Whether it’s in New Orleans or in Jamaica, Calypso-style or more developed with organ and drums, or in Chicago where Mark Hubbard and his choir take it to a whole ‘nother level. This old little spiritual, way back when, now is sung with fanfare!”
A Franciscan Friar of the St. Louis Province for 25 years, Bishop Cheri said the Province encouraged him in the summer of 2005 to insure his extensive collection gospel music recordings. “God is good,” he said, as he insured the collection just prior to the arrival of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, where he lost more than 2,000 of his recordings to the flooding. Fortunately, he still has well over 6,000 recordings and has spent months cleaning, restoring and preserving his collection.
As Mattie Moss Clark, a famous music minister said, “You should sing a song ‘til the song sings you,” he said. “And that’s really what happens in Black religious music. Black religious music is scripturally based, but it’s also humanly-based; it’s about our journey with God.”
Bishop Cheri also shared a few of his personal favorite Gospel songs:
One song that speaks to me volumes, especially the words, “He’s preparing me for something I can’t handle now,” is Ernest Davis and his choir, “He’s Preparing Me.”
Another of my favorites is So Glad to be Here. I had a heart attack in 2016, and that kind of is my song of resurrection.
And a classic Walter Hawkins song, God Will Open Doors for Me.