[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 17229]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 WELCOMING REVEREND ANTHONY L. BENNETT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Himes) is recognized for 1 minute.
  There was no objection.
  Mr. HIMES. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor for me to introduce today to 
the Congress of the United States, Pastor Anthony L. Bennett of the 
Mount Aery Baptist Church in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
  Pastor Bennett is accompanied today by his wife, First Lady Bennett, 
and their young and energetic son, Ahmad.
  The Mount Aery Baptist Church draws its name from the biblical Mount 
Ararat where Noah's ark is believed to have come to rest after the 
cataclysmic floods. This is an apt metaphor because Mount Aery is a 
beacon, a refuge, a house of good works in a very troubled city, one of 
the poorest in Connecticut, in fact, one of the poorest in the Nation.
  But under Pastor Bennett's leadership, the Mount Aery Church has 
sponsored ministries for children, for teenagers, for those at risk of 
dependency or recovering from dependency. He has fostered educational 
outreach programs that have made a difference in a very, very troubled 
location.
  One of the most personally moving things I have experienced in the 
last several years was when the Mount Aery Baptist Church raised up 
recent high school graduates of the city of Bridgeport at a time and in 
a place where half of the city's high school students do not graduate 
from high school.
  Pastor Bennett is a leader, a minister, and a pastor; and I can't 
help but thinking this morning that if all of us strove to match his 
example, we would be a better country, indeed.

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