Black Worshipers Enrich Their Traditions With Seder Rituals : Passover: Pastor of nondenominational Watts church uses ceremonial Jewish meal to draw parallels with slavery experience. More than 400 are expected to attend.

When Pastor Charles C. Queen began to study Hebrew some years ago, he did not expect that his pursuit of the biblical tongue would lead to his presiding over a Seder, or Passover meal, for more than 400 people.

But his determination to get to the bottom of the ancient stories awakened a feeling for the parallels between the plight of the ancient Hebrews and that of black people in America today.

“These two people, if they have anything in common, it is that both of them were severely incarcerated by tyrannies of hatred and lust,” said Queen, who about 10 years ago began inviting members of black churches, including his nondenominational Strait Way Church in Watts, to take part in a Seder.

Using the Hebrew words, he describes some of the ceremonial objects that will make up the centerpiece for each of the tables at the Seder he is holding tonight, the second night of Passover, at the Proud Bird Restaurant near Los Angeles International Airport.

The evening will include the haroset, the mixture of fruits, nuts and wine that symbolizes the bricks made by the ancient slaves. And carpas, the bitter vegetable that is dipped in saltwater to remember the tears of oppression.

“It’s designed to enlighten the African-American community about how all of us can relate to the Seder,” said Queen, whose silver-gray Mercedes-Benz carries a license plate reading EMUNAH, the Hebrew word for faith.

His Seder will follow the traditional pattern spelled out in the Haggada, the booklet that retells the Exodus with a combination of dramatic narrative and Talmudic exegesis. But the menu will be anything but traditional.

In place of gefilte fish and matzo ball soup, plans call for chicken breast and rice pilaf, “the normal banquet stuff,” said Valerie Williamson, a former member of Queen’s church who helped organize the event.

People who grew up in Jewish homes will not feel totally out of place. The meal will begin with blessings over glasses of sacramental wine, followed by the Four Questions, led by an 8-year-old boy who, in Hebrew, will recite the portion of the ritual that asks why this night is different from all other nights.

Queen and his students, who include the leaders of several other black congregations, do not claim to be Jews.

But they use Jewish ritual in order to dramatize and understand the teachings of Jesus and his disciples, whose Last Supper is generally believed to have been a Passover Seder.

Asked if it is odd for black Christians to be following Jewish ways, Queen responds:

“It’s the only way we can go. Peter, Paul and James were all Jews, and even Jesus himself was a Jew. He wore a tallit,” the fringed garment worn by religiously observant Jews. Queen will wear one at the Seder.

The minister, a slender man of 62, was born in Vicksburg, Miss., the seventh of 11 children. He has 10 children, 23 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Trained in repair of typewriters and adding machines by Jewish employers in Vicksburg, he came to Los Angeles after military service in the Korean War, became a Pentecostal minister in 1955, and went on to earn a doctorate at the California School of Theology at age 53.

The 125-seat Strait Way Church, in a predominantly Latino neighborhood of Watts, draws worshipers from as far away as Pomona and Moreno Valley.

Queen also runs the Total Word Concept Institute, a night school teaching Hebrew, Greek and the Bible, in rented quarters at the Mt. Zion Apostolic Church on Slauson Avenue in the Crenshaw district.

The Seder celebrations began 10 years ago in the social hall of the Strait Way Church and other churches.

“We had been familiar with Alex Hailey’s ‘Roots,’ and since he was introducing to us our roots, it was natural that we should embark on a search for our spiritual roots,” Queen said.

“We tried to introduce it a little bit at a time, so when we did the whole Seder it was not a real shocker.”

Angela Robinson, an office worker from Pomona, said the Seder helped her understand the meaning of symbols such as the sacrificial lamb. The lamb’s blood was shed to mark the doorposts of the Israelites when the Angel of Death passed them over to smite the Egyptian first-born, according to the Bible’s account.

It reminded Robinson of her grandmother’s tales of slavery days, “stories she told with tears and bitterness,” she said. “And when I experienced the Seder for the first time I got a deeper appreciation of God’s love for me and the sacrifice that was made at Calvary.”

Fellow church member John Bolden, 44, a Pacific Bell service representative from Inglewood, went to his first Seder three years ago.

“From the black experience of having been through slavery . . . we should really recognize where real freedom comes from, and it’s not necessarily from a political system but from the Lord Jesus Christ,” he said.

“It’s impossible to fully express Christianity to the fullest without having the background of the major Jewish festivals,” he added. “You can’t just discard the roots of a tree without damaging the tree.”

Queen speculates that the ancient Israelites may have learned something useful during their sojourn in Egypt and cited theories that biblical devotion to one God may owe something to monotheistic cults that, despite the polytheism of ancient Egypt, flourished under some pharaohs.

“The Hebrews learned something in Egypt, teachings and concepts that enhanced their ability to understand God better,” he said.

Queen also recalled the mention in Genesis of Cush, the grandson of Noah, who is identified as the forebear of the African peoples.

“The basic message is that we as African-American Christians should have a symbol . . . so that we can remind our children that they have a rich heritage. And if they can relate to it, then they’ll cease to gun down each other in the streets,” he said. “Because if they do not know who they are, then they have no concept of where they are going to go.”