Canaan Baptist Church — Attraction in New York

Ok so today is Sunday January 26, 2025…We must have got here at about 9:30 am so the staff invited us in and welcomed us in very nicely telling us we can sit upstairs or downstairs and wait for the service to start…ok so we go downstairs where about 15 other people were waiting as well…at about 10:20 A church member enters the room and tells everyone to gather by the front entrance of the room we were in…and he said, “Everyone here has to pay $20” I asked a lady who was a member how come he said that… She told me that they charge tourists $20. Because they don’t come to worship they just come to look! I said I have never heard anything like that in my entire life!!! So I asked her how do they determine who is a tourist and who is not? She said well they call and let them know that they are coming… ok well I didn’t call this is my first time here, and further more how can anybody tell you what you have to pay to a church! So needless to say we left there and went across the street to the Corinthian Church where we were welcomed in and escorted to sit upstairs however they had metal detectors we had to go through first. This Church was amazing !!!! They did not take up a collection unless we missed it! On the way out I saw a donation kiosk.The preacher delivered a...

We came 20 mins early and waited in the line. We had nice seats upstairs - the first 3-4 rows are the best, so come early. On the upstairs balcony, the church members are hidden from sight, which is a great policy. I appreciate how this church is dealing so sensibly with the large number of tourists (about 200) and protecting their regular members at the same time. The service took 2.5 hours, and we were all deeply touched, our four teenagers as well. If churches were like this in my homeland, I would be a regular churchgoer too. My husband was raised a baptist, but baptism is so different in our country! The engagement in the individual members birthdays and anniversaries, the sermon which also related to the current government, the amazing choir and their warmth and happiness, the many musical overlappings between speech, song and music. This was about celebrating life and sharing a beautiful live moment in time and space with our fellow human...

It's a majestic historic church located in the heart of Harlem, 132 West 116th Street!. Its main auditorium has ample seating and a balcony to accommodate even more patrons if needed. The cafeteria which was used for our repast was also immense in size and conveniently upstairs. The church itself is about 4 stories high, bathrooms on each and an escalator for convenience. The walls are flanked with vintage photo's of its founder's, to the likes of attendees/dignitaries like; Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela to Hilary Clinton, just to name a few. Unfortunately I'm not a member but instead I came to pay my last respects to a beloved sister inlaw. She was a devout member and couldn't have chosen a better place to worship!. The staff, clergy, organist, ushers, you name it. All professional, and it made the send off of my family member less sorrowful and more of a celebration of a life well...