- Finally today, we wanna congratulate Church of the Messiah for 150 years serving our community.

Senior Pastor Barry Randolph is a member of our Black Church in Detroit Advisory Panel.

And our cameras were at the church's anniversary celebration.

- For this 150th anniversary, part of the reason we chose to have the celebration here at the cathedral is because the cathedral plays a role in the history of Church of the Messiah.

As you all know, Church of the Messiah go back to 1874.

But the physical building of Church of the Messiah was originally St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and it was in Downtown Detroit.

The church caught fire, and they decided to build the new St. Paul's, which we are in.

And the leftover pieces of old St. Paul's from that fire, the then rector or pastor of Church of the Messiah went to the diocese and asked for those leftover pieces.

Those leftover pieces of old St. Paul's is the standing building of Church of the Messiah currently.

And we just felt as though this is the fitting place to be able to have our 150th celebration, since we literally came from this physical structure.

So our theme for the day is the audacity of faith.

The audacity to be able to say you are going to do something about the circumstances in the world.

A few years ago, our local PBS station created the "Black Church of Detroit," and they asked me to be on the advisory board.

Rich Homberg, president of Detroit PBS.

(audience applauds) - Sarida Scott from the Community Development Advocates of Detroit took us to the Church of the Messiah.

And we took a crew in.

And the reverend brought together about 10 folks, and we sat and talked about the importance of his church and churches across Detroit.

He talked to us about his commitment to young men.

He talked about his commitment to ending violence.

He talked about the role the church plays in the community.

- From us to Detroit PBS, for all of the great work that you do, the commitment to Detroit, and the fact that y'all are coming back to Detroit and gonna be in the neighborhood, God bless you.

- You build in two years.

Thank you.

- [Barry] Let me continue.

Let me bring over Richard Cannon.

- And my mother heard about what's happening at Church of the Messiah at the Sunday school at the Episcopal church over on East Jefferson and MANC.

And when I came to a prayer meeting, what I saw and experienced was love.

Love.

And it was something that undid me and drew me to be a part of that community.

- We created something called Silence The Violence in 2008, where we honored those young men and we stood up for them.

- I love the Church of the Messiah.

So can we give Church of the Messiah a hand, please?

For 150 years of service that is turning around church hurt, demonstrating what church is about.

Faith in action and the work behind it.

- Just so many of you in here who are just such amazing people.

This is a room full of energy and power.

Muhammad Ali said something so strong when he said, "When the mission is right, the odds don't matter."

♪ Put on my robe ♪ Tell the story ♪ How I made it over ♪ I'm going to put on my robe ♪ Tell the story ♪ How I made it over ♪ Made it over ♪ Made it over ♪ Made it over ♪ Soon as ♪ I get ♪ Home