Hearing Gospel in New York is one of the musical activities you shouldn´t miss. You can find services in many African-American churches in Harlem as well as in Brooklyn. I went to the Convent Avenue Baptist Church. (http://www.conventchurch.org/)
They offer services at 8:00 and 11:00 every Sunday morning. I would recomend to be 15 min earlier. The chuch volunteers explain how the service is and give visitors morning programs in diferent languages.
In this church visitors are welcome. And people are very friendly. You can sit whatever you want and integrate yourselves with the locals. They share their song books and make you feel part of the ceremony.
Don’t forget that it is a religious ceremony and of course is not all about singing. I lisent to a sermon that it was longer as expected. The service use to take around 2 hours, but the one I attended it went 3 hours.
If you are hungry after that intense experience go to Jacob Soul Food and Salad Bar (http://www.jacobrestaurant.com/). On Sunday they have live music and you can sit outside too. Great place to finish a misical day!
