Living Black Catholic History: Father Clarence Rivers
By Eric T. Styles

As we stood in the choir section of Cincinnati’s St. Peter in Chains Cathedral, singing a jubilant processional song, a group of acolytes, lectors, deacons and priests made their way up the isle toward the altar. It was a cool Saturday in November and we were celebrating Black Catholic History Month. I watched the ministers closely, hoping to see some African American deacons and priests that I hadn’t seen before. There were a few. But there was one priest who caught my eye in a most interesting way. They were all wearing the cathedral’s drab set of white vestments. Yet this one priest seemed to stick out. Literally sticking out of the ends of his chasuble was most bold and brilliant red alb! Across the bottom and on the large sleeves, black and gold embroidery could clearly be seen. Around his neck hung a fat pectoral cross with red, black and green enamel and a black "spirit” dove in the middle. He was an older man with a shaven head and a silver goatee. In both his ears were small red studs. On his fingers was an array of gold rings. By far, however, the most astounding element of his whole outfit was a pair of red patent leather high-tops with tan soles.
I was astonished to say the least. While we were singing, I leaned over to a friend and asked, “who is that?” He replied with a nonchalant, bragging attitude, “oh that’s just Father Rivers.” At that moment the ecstatic joy in my voice must have increased tenfold. It was my first and most important confirmation that I, a naively radical artist and college student, might be able to live in one body as both black and Catholic at the same time. I really believed that if this man could be Catholic then so could I.
Setting the Stage
Born in 1931, Fr. Clarence R. J. Rivers ahs been rightly called the “father” of the black Catholic liturgical movement and “dean” of black Catholic liturgists. The black Catholic liturgical movement can be said to have begun in the 1960s with the convergence of the Second Vatican Council, the civil rights movement and later the black power and arts movements of the 70s. As a result of Vatican II, Mass was being celebrated in English, the priest faced the congregation, which became much more involved in the ritual action of Catholic liturgy. There was a great need for new musical composition in English as well as a lot of excitement about the future of the Church’s worship.
God is Love
Rivers, the first African American priest of the archdiocese of Cincinnati, Ohio was ordained in 1956. He became a full time English teacher in a Catholic high school and associate pastor of a predominantly black parish. During this very early time (even before the official change from Latin to local languages had been made), Fr. Rivers had been challenged by a Belgian monk and liturgist to start composing music for the liturgy from his own background. As a strong singer and cantor who had already begun demonstrating his “liturgical gifts” through effective presiding while the Mass was still in Latin, he naively took up the challenge not knowing how hard composing music would be. His first piece came to him after being struck by the power of the words from 1 John 4:16: God is love; and he abides in love abides in God and God in him.
Because Fr. Rivers was later in Washington, D.C. studying drama at Catholic University of America, he came into close contact with the leadership of the Liturgical Conference who asked to use “God is Love” as a communion hymn for the first American Mass in English, held in St. Louis. With that and his “An American Mass Program,” Clarence Rivers was thrust into the national scene for the first time.
Fr. Rivers’ “God is Love” spread throughout the American Catholic as well as many other Christian communities. Invitations started coming in from college campuses, parishes, and (arch)diocese for him to travel and teach. He continued to compose and eventually spent a year studying liturgy at the Institute Catholic in Paris. Upon his return to the states he founded Stimuli, Inc. and along with a staff of musicians and designers, began to provide a broader spectrum of services in consulting that included original compositions, design of vestments, jewelry and workshops in liturgical ministry.
Black is Beautiful
It was during this time in the late sixties and early seventies that African American Catholic leaders began to make new initiatives to bridge gaps between the black community and the Catholic Church. A number of organizations began to form in 1968, including the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, the National Black Sisters’ Conference, the National Black Catholic Seminarians Association. The National Office of Black Catholics in Washington, D.C. was formed in 1970 and Father Rivers was the natural choice for the position as its first Director of the Department of Culture and Worship. The NOBC national worship “Freeing the Spirit,” which began in 19761 in Detroit, traveled the country, expanding the notion of African American Catholic worship and identity. NOBC created a magazine of black liturgy using the same name as the workshop for which Fr. Rivers was the editor. This time of Afro hair styles, “Black Power,” “Black is Beautiful!” and “Red, Black & Green” pride deeply affected the African American Catholic community, in turn influenced the collective outlook of all the black Catholic organizations of the day.
However, during this time, Rivers who was steeped in the European traditions of the Roman Rite as well as the black religious experience of the U.S., always advocated that Black Catholics should never “throw away” the beautiful chants and the pomp and circumstance of stately liturgy. In fact, he taught and demonstrated with liturgies he himself designed that the spirit-filled, emotionally engaging black sacred music and the poetic fervor of black prayer and preaching could live side by side with the grandest classical pieces and be a source for authentic black Catholic worship. His own music took that belief a step further and represented the beauty of combining and melding many styles in order to create something new.
It was during these exciting times that Rivers, through NOBC, published “Soulfull Worship1 the first of a two-part set on black Catholic worship. This “how-to” book for many black Catholic authenticated their work of bringing black culture to Catholic ritual. It gave them some guidelines, legitimization, and a host of broad ranging practical examples of liturgies that were prepared by Rivers. In 1972, Fr. Rivers joined a group of mainly Protestant black church scholars called the Martin Luther King Fellows as a consultant. With the MLK Fellows, he traveled through North and South American and the Caribbean Islands to study the religious activities of peoples of African descent.
The Art of Celebration
Without a doubt, Fr. Rivers demonstrated in one single event his clearest vision for black Catholic worship in the Black Heritage Program Mass of the 1976 International Eucharistic Congress held in Philadelphia. With Bishop Eugene Marino2, an African American, preaching and African Cardinal Maurice Otunga of Nairobi, Kenya presiding, Rivers, enlisted a crew of his most talented associates to hand-craft a celebration that was unparalleled. The process was not without its conflicts and controversies and surely took a serious toll on his morale in the often uphill battle of changing people’s heats and minds about the Catholic Church in the black community.
In 1978, he completed his Ph.D. in black culture and liturgy at the Union Graduate School of Cincinnati (now the Union Institute). Rivers knew he needed the flexibility of Union to write his dissertation from a multi-disciplinary perspective that allowed him to combine Catholic theology, African American studies, and drama. His dissertation was adapted and published as The Spirit in Worship, the companion volume to Soulfull Worship. It provided a stronger theoretical basis for his teachings about the essentials of ritual drama in general and African based worship in particular, as well as more developed examples of his interpretations of black preaching and praying in a Catholic context.
Lead me, Guide Me: The African American Catholic Hymnal, acknowledges Fr. Rivers’ leadership with this dedication:
Renowned Liturgist and Musician
Father Clarence Jos. Rivers, Ph. D.
who paved the way for liturgical inculturation and inspired
Black Catholics to bring their artistic genius to Catholic Worship.
In the 80s and 90s, Father Rivers began to work on the concept for the Lion of Judah Institute that would be “a college of apprenticeship to graduate not only scholars, but especially worship professionals, liturgical practitioners, and worship impresarios.” That dream of his is still a dream. But now at seventy-two and officially retired from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, it has become his mission and primary focus.
The Rev. Dr. Clarence Rufus Joseph Rivers is a living legend. He is one of the most eccentric, spry, bold Christians one could ever be graced to know. The tallest short man by far. We American Catholics stand on his sturdy shoulders and sometimes look to the horizon catching a glimpse of that Holy City, that New Jerusalem,
It is the city where there is “plenty good room,”
a kingdom where “I got shoes, you got shoes, all of God’s children got shoes.”
There are twelve gates to the city and the streets are paved with gold.”
The angels and saints, wrapped in beauty, dance as they sing:
“holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty”
and “hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah amen!
Thank the Lord for the Holy Spirit, who revives my soul again!”
“oh, how I’d love to be in that number, when the saints go marching in!”

Eric T. Styles, a dramatic artist, works as the Liturgy Coordinator of St. Benedict the African (East) Catholic Church in Chicago, Illinois.

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