ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Doreen Murray, Donna Murray and Rev. Adrienne Berry-Burton, from left, rehearse at the Zion Baptist Church in Lynn in preparation for their fundraising concert on Saturday.
By BILL BROTHERTON
LYNN — For years, the Rev. Adrienne Berry-Burton has been helping students stay on course at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.
Now the Lynn resident and longtime member/interim minister at Zion Baptist Church is seeking help for UMass-Boston’s ecumenical Oasis of Faith Campus Ministry.
Berry-Burton is presenting the Joy and Praise Concert Saturday at 5 p.m. at Zion Baptist to help support the ministry, which relies on donations and grants. She has lined up an impressive array of musical and vocal talent.
“It will be a wonderful time. Music will include classic joy-filled hymns (“How Great Thou Art,” “Jesus Loves Me”) and songs like ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow,’” said Berry-Burton, who has lived in Lynn since 1984 and raised four children here.
Members of the Joy and Praise Concert ensemble are Mrs. Elizabeth Baez Loja, Mrs. Donna T. Murray, Mrs. Doreen Murray, Mrs. Mary Bunnie Jones, Zion’s senior pastor the Rev. Dr. Kirk B. Jones, Mr. Tom Jones, the Rev. Viola Morris-Buchanan and Father Oscar Pratt, who started his career at Lynn’s Sacred Heart Church and is now at Saint Katharine Drexel Parish in Roxbury.
Musicians are Mrs. Virginia Peacock Makkers, minister of music at Zion, Mr. Jeff Brooks, a keyboardist at Zion, and bass guitarist Junior — “just Junior, no last name,” said Berry-Burton.
The welcome will be given by the Rev. June Cooper, executive director of City Mission Society of Boston.
We’re sitting in the sanctuary at Zion Baptist, where guests are greeted by the words “Here through these doors pass the most wonderful people in the world.” Berry-Burton and Donna Murray, a member of Oasis’ board of directors and wife of Zion Baptist’s beloved late pastor Walter R. Murray, are eager to talk about the campus ministry,
“Sixty percent of the job is listening, counseling students. Very rarely are the meetings by appointment. Usually, it’s ‘I hit the wall. Will you listen?’” said Berry-Burton. Some students are homeless and hungry; others are grieving the death of a friend. Many just want to talk.
Berry-Burton and the other chaplains are always available to offer one-to-one pastoral care and spiritual direction, giving all a welcoming place to receive support.
Berry-Burton helps students in the multicultural Interfaith Campus Ministry Center, serving as director on the Student Affairs Leadership Team. A campus ministry has existed at UMass-Boston since 1974.
She adds that a multicultural harvest festival is held every November, where students or various cultures and religions get together for a meal and a celebration of faith. The ministry also emails scripture each week, hosts meditation sessions and leads prayer and Bible study.
All this takes money.
“The chaplains work with the Student Affairs team, but we are not employees of UMass. The ministries are funded through donations and grants,” said Berry-Burton. “This is a tough time economically for most campus ministries. Many campus ministries have ceased to exist and most of us are struggling to survive. There are many, many students, staff and faculty to care for and encourage. Solvency is difficult. This concert will help fund the ministry.”
Murray added “Rev. Adrienne never says no. She has always helped people. I am so proud of her. She is committed to the campus ministry, and as funds dried up it would have been easy to say ‘I’m all done.’ Instead, she did all the work to form and fund the nonprofit Oasis of Faith and keep the ministry open. I’m happy to be on the board.”
Berry-Burton says she’s not a trained vocalist, but that growing up in a musical church-going family in Pittsburgh and having played violin in high school gave her an appreciation of the arts. She smiles when discussing her mom’s side of the family, some of whom performed on the “Chitlin Circuit,” the name given to venues throughout the eastern, southern and upper midwest areas of the United States that were safe and acceptable for African-American entertainers. “I had my church music and I had some honky tonk music, too,” said Berry-Burton with a smile.
The last two Joy and Praise fundraising concerts were held in Somerville. Berry-Burton said she’s finally “brought it home to Zion.”
“And I’m sorry the team (Boston Red Sox) didn’t win, and I feel bad for Big Papi, but the last two concerts were the same day as the team’s World Series parade. I’m happy we don’t have the competition this year,” Berry-Burton said with a smile.
Joy and Praise Concert, Saturday, 5 p.m., at Zion Baptist Church, 4 Adams St. Extension, Lynn. Admission: $15; $10 age 65 and older; $5 age 12 and younger. For details, call 617-287-5838 or go to [email protected].