Multiple streams of the Black church flow through me.
I grew up in the evangelical/conservative wing of the Disciples tradition.
My mother, her sister, and her brother grew up Methodist. And while none of the three of them are Methodists anymore, I still have Methodist relatives in my extended family (mostly on my father's side).
The bulk of my family, on both sides, are Baptists. National Baptist. Progressive National Baptist. A few American Baptist. All of my preacher relatives are Baptist.
I have Black Catholic relatives.
I have Lutheran relatives.
I probably have some Pentecostal relatives if I sit and really go through the family tree.
So every part of my religious heritage was on display at Aretha Franklin's homegoing on Friday. The great. The good. The bad.
Which brings me to the title of this post. What was on display, even more than the gospel music, even more than the horrific theology of the eulogy, were the things that cross denominations.
There is a pageantry that comes with the Black church. A pageantry that I miss more and more the longer I am in UU circles. There is a feeling in the Black church that church is different. Not ordinary. That it is a place where we put our best forward and display it.
This pageantry is why so many of us are in LOVE with Queen Mother Cicely Tyson's hat. Why we're talking about how great Pastor Shirley Caesar looked in that glittering gown. How clean the men looked in their suits.
Aretha's homegoing was CHURCH. Church on a grand scale.
And church fans. I don't know if anybody outside of Black church knows about the meaning of church fans, but they were a staple of my youth. No matter which church I was at, there was always the church fan from one of the local Black funeral homes in the hymnal rack. It did not matter which season it was, there were always church fans. And you could be certain that the Church Mothers would be fanning themselves or using them as extensions of their arms.
Some even had their own fans, like Chaka Khan had on Friday (did you notice she had the words to the song taped to the fan?). Whether paper or fabric, quite often they would match the outfit the person wore that day.
Again...pageantry.
Where's the pageantry in UUism? Has there ever been pageantry in UUism?