[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 157 (Sunday, November 9, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S12405]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            RETIREMENT FROM CONGRESS OF REP. FLOYD H. FLAKE

 Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, Adlai E. Stevenson remarked of 
Eleanor Roosevelt that ``She would rather light candles than curse the 
darkness and her glow has warmed the world.'' So it is with my dear 
friend and colleague, Representative Floyd Flake of Queens, who will be 
retiring from Congress this Saturday, November 15. Few individuals can 
match his accomplishments, which have materially and spiritually 
benefited so many. I view his departure as bittersweet. He is going 
home to his church, answering God's call ``to a greater ministry and to 
a greater work,'' as he has put it. Surely, his congregants will be 
happier for his decision. But we will sorely miss him here in Congress.
  Representative Flake was born in Los Angeles and raised in Houston--1 
of 13 children born to parents with fifth- and sixth-grade educations. 
Modest circumstances. But in the words of an October 19, 1997 New York 
Times magazine article by James Traub, ``they (people who told Flake he 
would never go to college) hadn't reckoned on his mother, who taught 
the kids how to sew and wash and cook, or his fiercely self-improving 
father.''
  Representative Flake received an undergraduate degree from 
Wilberforce University, the first black college in America, founded in 
1856 in Ohio under the auspices of the African Methodist Episcopal 
[A.M.E.] Church and named after the great English statesman and 
abolitionist, William Wilberforce. From there, on to graduate study at 
Payne Theological Seminary and Northeastern University and jobs early 
in his career as a Head Start social worker and market analyst for 
Xerox.
  In 1976, Representative Flake--barely 31--became pastor of the Allen 
A.M.E. Church in Jamaica, Queens. At that time, the church congregation 
numbered about 1,200; the church's annual budget was about $250,000. 
There were three employees. Now, some 20 years later, the congregation 
has grown to nearly 9,000 souls. The church and its subsidiaries have 
an annual budget exceeding $24 million. Tithes and offerings alone 
exceed $5 million--this from a mostly middle-class congregation.
  When considering Reverend Flake's stewardship, the Parable of the 
Mustard Seed comes to mind. Allen A.M.E. Church-sponsored community 
development enterprises now include a 300-unit apartment complex for 
the elderly; the Allen Christian School, which has an enrollment of 
some 400 elementary students--and a growing waiting list; hundreds of 
single-family and two-family homes; a strip mall; an office complex; a 
home care agency; a credit union; and a transportation company. The 
Allen A.M.E. Church and its subsidiaries employ 800 people. Only 
Kennedy Airport employs more people in the Sixth District.
  In the middle of this remarkable stewardship, he earned a Doctorate 
of Ministry degree from the United Theological Seminary in Dayton, OH, 
and he became a Member of Congress. He has ably represented the Sixth 
District, which covers southern and southeastern Queens, since 1986. As 
a result of his efforts, the Food and Drug Administration and the 
Federal Aviation Administration are building major facilities in the 
district. As a senior member of the House Committee on Banking and 
Financial Services, he has been an indefatigable architect of 
innovative public and private urban investment programs. While other 
politicians have abandoned urban communities, Floyd Flake has found 
ways for such communities not only to survive, but to thrive. While 
others curse the darkness, Floyd Flake lights candles.
  Perhaps the capstone of his accomplishments is the new Allen A.M.E. 
Church cathedral on Merrick Boulevard. The $23 million cathedral is 
93,000 square feet and seats 2,500. It is the largest church structure 
to be built in New York City since 1954. Heinrich Heine remarked that 
it takes more than mere opinion to erect a cathedral, it takes 
conviction. Indeed it does. Reverend Flake secured a $15 million 
mortgage for the project from Chase Manhattan Bank Corp.--the largest 
loan Chase has ever made to a religious institution. That's conviction.
  Given all of these commitments, it is understandable that Floyd Flake 
feels he must go home and minister to his church community full-time. 
The community will be richer for his presence. We here will be poorer.
  Mr. President, the inscription on Sir Christopher Wren's tomb in St. 
Paul's Cathedral reads, Si monumentum requiris circumspice. ``If you 
would see the man's monument, look around.'' If you would see Floyd 
Flake's monument, go to Jamaica, or to St. Alban's, or to Rosedale, or 
to Laurelton, or to nearly any neighborhood in Queens, and look around.
  And so, to my friend, his wife Elaine, his daughters, Aliya and 
Nailah, and his sons, Rasheed and Hasan, I say, ``Godspeed.''

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