Saint Barnabas 100-Year Centennial (1923 – 2023) – Still We Rise


The Saint Barnabas Church Family is celebrating our 100-year centennial this year 2023 – inspired by Queen Dr. Maya Angelou’s Masterpiece, Still I Rise

Sunday, June 11th, we SHOWED UP and SHOWED OUT! The Saint Barnabas Centennial Service and Celebration was a sight to behold!!! We bore witness to the manifestation of God’s GREATNESS in the form of Love, Saint Barnabas Style 🖤!

Replay the service https://fb.watch/l7nTk8rZ-w/

Check out these articles This historically Black Pasadena church just turned 100, with a message: Love – Pasadena Star News and Historically Black St. Barnabas Episcopal Church Celebrates 100th Anniversary in Pasadena – Los Angeles Sentinel (lasentinel.net)

Thank you to ALL of our speakers and presenters (Rep. Judy Chu, Assemblymember Chris Holden, Assemblymember Candidate Phlante Riddle, The Office of Supervisor Katherine Barger, The Office of Mayor Victor Gordo, Councilmember Justin Jones, NAACP Pasadena President Allen Edson, Bishop John Taylor, Rev. Anthony Miller, Mr. Michael Mims (Historian-In-Residence & Griot) and Queen Sylvia Wiggins (Lifelong Member, Matriarch & Sunday School Teacher)!

Thank you to Yerevan Bakery in Sunland!

Thank you to ALL of the guests!

Thank you to ALL of the volunteers!

Thank you to ALL of the Saint Barnabas Church Family (In-Person, Online, Offline, Past, Present & Future)!

Thank you LORD!

This IS what Love, Saint Barnabas Style 🖤 looks like, sounds like, tastes like, smells like, and feels like!

This IS what Love, Saint Barnabas Style 🖤 IS!

If you didn’t know, now you know!


Still I Rise

By Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

You are hereby formally, officially and cordially invited to please join us during this our centennial year and beyond (in-person, online, offline and/or Pastoral Care), on our continuing journey of Love, Saint Barnabas Style 🖤