Choir still singing praises of God 44 years later

“We have a story to tell about how good God is to us,” said Shirley Stokes, a founding member of the former St. Francis de Sales Golden Voices Choir.
    And what a story the choir told Nov. 9 at the 44th anniversary celebration of its founding at Ashé Cultural Center in New Orleans.
 

  “Who says you have to be in church to do praise and worship?” director Henry Washington bellowed. “We are not here to entertain. This is a concert of praise and worship, and all of you look like you are praisers and worshippers. If you know he is worthy of praise, give him praise.”
    For the next two hours, the choir – called the Golden Voices Community Choir since a church merger in 2008 – and special guests belted out a repertoire of songs, including “Give Him Glory”; “I Won’t Go Back”; “Clap Your Hands”; “I’m Still Here”; “Trust Me”; “I’ll Say Yes to the Lord”; “Thine Shall the Glory Be” and closing with “Nobody Like You Lord.”
  
 Former member Leslie Bourgeois gave a rousing oration about the choir, beginning and asking the crowd, “Is Jesus in the building?” The Golden Voices is winning souls, she said, on the battlefield for the Lord. The choir is a beacon of truth and light and has done God’s will for 44 years.
    “God imbued the Golden Voices with the gift of song, the gift of praise to tell everyone that God loves them,” Bourgeois said, thanking the choir for heeding the call so few do.
Tough beginning
    The choir has come a long way from infusing folk songs such as “Michael Row Your Boat Ashore” or “Kumbaya” with Gospel to gain acceptance from those initially against Gospel music in Catholic churches.
    “It was something different, a different type of music,” Stokes said. “We were singing Gospel in a Catholic Church.”
    When the 50 Golden Voices formed at St. Francis de Sales Church in 1968, it was unheard of to sing Gospel music at a Catholic Mass. But the pastor, Father Joseph Putnam, recognized the changing climate in the nation toward race relations and encouraged the choir, even allowing non-Catholics to become members.
    “We sang in an appropriate place during Mass,” Stokes said. “We don’t take the place of the spoken Word. We enhance it. We are ministers. Sometimes you can touch a person with music, and the spoken word seals it. We feel we got them in the church.”
    Stokes said people walking on the street would hear them sing during Mass and step inside to see what was happening. The church became so popular that chairs had to be placed in the aisles to accommodate attendees. Jazz Fest performances also brought people to the parish asking to join.
Evangelizing tool
    “It really converted a lot of people (to Catholicism),” Stokes said. “We converted whole families. (Father Putnam) had a vision. Because of that, the choir became recognized all over the city, and we traveled to Europe. We were ambassadors for Louisiana. We went to Paris twice.”
    Over the years, the choir has had up to 60 members, sang at the national cathedral in Washington, D.C., and appeared in the movie “Dean Man Walking.” Stokes said the choir returned its many blessings by singing at prisons and hospitals every Thanksgiving weekend.
  
 Members credit the success with its many talented directors, among them Ronald James, Gail Gilmore, Dwight Franklin, Lois Dejean, Donald Smith and Davelle Crawford.
    Its first director, Carol Sutton, clearly remembers the first Sundays the choir sang at Mass in the choir loft. Older members were waiting at the bottom of the stairs, she said, to express their dislike for what they heard. Her mother, Marguerite Bush, was the organist at St. Francis de Sales.
    “We were the first Catholic Gospel group in the world,” she said. “It was not that well accepted in the beginning. Gradually, we started getting more professional with a professional director and musicians and it kept growing and growing.”
    She said the choir had an important purpose at the time.
    “We were bringing some souls into that religion,” Sutton said. “We were the only ones speaking to the black community as far as religion was concerned.”
Recorded success
    The choir has recorded three albums, a 45-record and a CD, according to members, beginning in 1974. The last recording was in the 1980s. Previously at one church, members now are parishioners at several including St. Katharine Drexel, All Saints and Our Lady of Guadalupe.
    Lydwina Hurst, a 40-year member, said she’s gained so much from the choir. She’s been president of the group among other board positions.
    “It’s been spiritual,” Hurst said. “I’ve done a lot of traveling all over the world to places I normally wouldn’t have gone. It’s been overwhelming.”
    Washington, who has been director for eight years, considers the choir’s mission as a ministry through song. “Our hope is that someone is touched by the words we sing,” she said.
    So do others.
    “Wherever we go, if we touch one person, we’ve done what the Lord has asked us to do,” Hurst said. “Most of the time, we have touched many, many people.”
    The choir’s next engagement is Dec. 9 at “Holiday on the Boulevard,” on Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard. Washington can be reached at 915-2733.
    Christine Bordelon can be reached at cbordelon@clarion herald.org.