Church, students bond at Greek Day

Albany congregation praises the power of youth during event

Editor’s note: During Black History Month, the Times Union is sharing stories from its archive highlighting significant people, places and events that are part of the Capital Region’s Black cultural heritage. This story was first published Nov. 30, 2019.

On Metropolitan New Testament Mission Baptist Church’s recent fifth annual Greek Day, 650 worshippers crowded the sanctuary where vibrant colors of the Divine Nine — historic black fraternities and sororities — are everywhere.

The church sends two school buses to University at Albany and College of Saint Rose for the celebration. Dozens of students put on sorority or fraternity colors, then board the buses — and not just because the church throws an afterworship service feast in their honor with fried and baked chicken, delicious homemade side-dishes and desserts.

Metropolitan invites Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOS) to set up Greek Day informational tables in the church foyer. Alpha Phi Alpha men wear the black and gold of Martin Luther King Jr.’s fraternity. It’s America’s oldest BGLO founded in 1906 at Cornell

University.

Metropolitan’s Rev. Damone Johnson is an APA man.

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc.’s white and blue was worn by Ualbany alum Jimmy Dilone, lab technology coordinator for SUNY’S Research Foundation. Like most Divine Nine members, he’s devoted to his fraternity long past graduation, volunteering for its charitable efforts like Habitat for Humanity. He manned Sigma’s table with Ualbany senior Moises Urena.

“Phi Beta Sigma is in my blood and brotherhood in the Divine Nine is for all my life,” Urena said. “There were people who helped me get out of homelessness. A lot of people who work hard, don’t. My fraternity’s community outreach helps me pay the help I got forward.”

Mentoring black youth powerfully engages the Divine Nine. (Urena was already praised on Ualbany’s website as an outstanding campus mentor.) For example, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.’s Albany Alumnae Chapter has programs to guide at-risk African American girls from age 10 to 18 with cultural activities, financial education, STEM, beauty and etiquette classes.

Like other BGLO sororities, Ualbany Deltas host an elegant cotillion, a showcase for grace and achievement.

James Franco / Special to the Times Union Members of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity dance during the Greek Day Stroll at the Metropolitan New Testament Baptist Church in Albany on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2019.