The Birth of the Angelic Choir

Abstract

Chapter 3 opens with Reverend Lawrence Roberts being named pastor of the First Baptist Church of Nutley. Church membership having dwindled to almost nothing, Lawrence and Bootsy set about turning the ship around. They recharged the church’s music ministry by inviting Lawrence’s Voices of Faith community choir to sing periodically for Sunday services. The Voices of Faith soon became First Baptist’s main choir. A brief explanation of the significance of a gospel choir in African American Baptist churches is presented for readers unfamiliar with the practice. When in 1961 the Voices of Faith cut their first album for Savoy Records, the ensemble was rechristened the Angelic Choir.