The Men of Brewster Place

Ben describes the two things that people in Brewster Place take most seriously: children and religion. Every summer, a big revival meeting occurs nearby, and Ben enjoys hearing the music, even if he doesn’t often go to church. Before the revival tent goes up, Reverend Moreland T. Woods always appears on the block, trying to ensure that he doesn’t lose too many congregation members to the revivalists. Ben worries that the reverend’s soul is “so smooth” that he cannot “understand what the common man is going through” (98).

Reverend Woods is frustrated because the deacon’s board will not approve his request to build a new church. His church, Sinai Baptist, often overflows with people who want to hear Reverend Woods preach. However, the deacon board insists that they cannot afford another church and instead want Woods to preach two services. Woods believes that the resistance stems from jealousy; he thinks that Deacon Bennett resents him. Woods intends to become the preacher of a large congregation and use the notoriety to run for public office, starting small with the community board and moving up to mayor.

Woods moved to the United States from Jamaica, where his grandmother, Mama Lou, raised him. She always told him that there was “greatness waiting for” him (100). At 18, he walked past a sugar cane field and thought he heard his name from the field of grass like “thousands in a congregation […] calling him to come serve” (101). Before this, Woods had attended church weekly to keep his grandmother happy. Now, however, he contemplated what he would need to do to become the head of a large church, ultimately deciding that if he trusted in himself, God would provide for him.

Woods moved to the United States. He worked at a shoe factory and paid his way through college, always “[keeping] his eye out for the church that was going to propel him into his destiny” (103). He settled on the Baptist Church, drawn to the size range and the fact that men like Martin Luther King, Jr., had come out of the Baptist Church. He married a woman named Annette, who also believed that he was destined for greatness. Eventually, Woods began preaching at Sinai Baptist to a poor, Black congregation. He offered attendees “respite from lives that were overworked and underpaid” (104), and in return, the congregation “kept him in his fancy clothes, his fancy car, and his brick house” (104).

Deacon Bennett doesn’t fall for Woods’s “smooth talking,” having seen pastors who think too highly of themselves come and go. Deacon Bennett grew up attending dramatic Pentecostal services and believed that “the purpose of religion was to make you feel” (106). When he was 16, his church closed, and Bennett switched to a Baptist church, where he admired the seriousness of the services and the dignity of the ushers. Bennett believed that the church greatly benefited Black men and worked hard to increase male membership, including establishing a mentorship program for young men.

Now that Sinai Baptist’s congregation has grown so much, Bennett looks forward to establishing more community programs like scholarship funds and perhaps building a community center with tutors and after-school programs. He thinks that a bigger church would only serve to bolster Reverand Woods’s ego. Aware of Woods’s drinking and womanizing, Bennett muses that a hangover was the likely cause of his supposed visions from God. There have been rumors about his womanizing within the congregation, but no one has confirmed it; Bennett is surprised that they are all willing to protect the man. He believes that it was a mistake to make Woods their minister and wonders how much his departure would hurt the church. Nevertheless, Bennett has found his calling at Sinai Baptist and refuses to give it up.

As Woods prepares to meet with the deacons’ board, he misses his late wife, Annette. She understood his drive and ambition, as well as his affairs, and she never chastised him “as long as he was discrete” (109). However, her silence often made him feel more guilty than screaming accusations. He wonders if it might be time to find a new wife but considers that it might be more advantageous to stay single and enjoy the affairs that come as “a fringe benefit of the job” (110). He knows the deacons are trying to get rid of him but figures that his personal life is none of their business. He knows that the Sinai Baptist has the money to build a larger church and is determined to break the “short leash” that the deacons keep him on.

Deacon Bennett arrives early for the board meeting and prepares the room, intending to play a trick on Woods. Bennett hides his nephew, an aspiring actor, in the coat closet with a straw broom and a cardboard tube to use as a microphone, telling him to act when Bennett coughs as a signal. Woods arrives 30 minutes late and launches into his arguments for a larger church. Bennett coughs twice as he tells Woods that there simply isn’t enough money for a new church. Then, a strange swishing sound seems to emanate from the walls. Woods tries to continue his argument but is distracted by the sound that none of the other deacons claim to hear. A disembodied voice begins to speak Woods’s name, and Bennett clenches his fists to keep from laughing as he suggests that Woods is receiving a message from God. When the voice tells the preacher that he “ain’t getting no new church” (114), the deacons burst into laughter. Furious, Woods tells the board that he will call a referendum and let the congregation vote on the matter of a new church.

The referendum is scheduled for later in the summer, and Woods begins a battle to win the vote. Deacon Bennett spreads the rumor that a new church would bankrupt the congregation. As the rumor becomes increasingly implausible, Woods knows that he must “fight fire with fire” (116). One day, a young woman from the congregation comes to the reverend, pregnant but unsure who the father is. However, she had slept with a man on the deacons’ board earlier in the year. Woods believes that this girl is the ticket to his new church. He tells her that he will call her to the mourners’ bench on Sunday, where she will be forgiven, but he also plans to call the girl’s “partner in sin” to come clean (117). After delivering his sermon on Sunday, Woods calls for the man to come to the mourners’ bench and repent. When no one comes, he stands directly before the deacons’ pews and calls again. No one comes forward, but Woods sees a whisper spreading throughout the congregation. Looking into Bennett’s eyes, Woods sees “a flicker of admiration” (118).

A year later, Sinai Baptist breaks ground on the new church. Bennett offers a blessing that makes the whole project seem like the deacons’ board’s idea, but he thinks that he isn’t finished fighting to keep his church together.