DCBC Notables

DCBC shares the following notable events in the lives of its members…

We congratulate the following congregations and individuals celebrating anniversaries, births, installations, retirements and other accomplishments:

 Ms. Keva Sturdevant and Rev. Dr. Paris L. Smith, Sr., Senior Pastor at Mt. Carmel

Baptist Church, who were married in Washington, D.C., on September 30.

Above: Deacon Marlene Sherrill (left) with Rev. Dr. Ella Redfield.  Zion Baptist Church celebrated the retirement of the Rev. Dr. Ella Redfield on Saturday, September 24 after having served 32 years of ministry. (Photo taken by Lashanor Doolittle and used by permission of Deacon Marlene Sherrill).

 Rev. Dr. Kenneth R. Pruitt whose installation service as President of the John Leland Center for Theological Studies took place at Alfred Street Baptist Church in Old Town Alexandria on September 11.

 Riverside Baptist Church, which welcomed Rev. Mia Michelle McClain on September 1 as its new pastor and celebrated its 165th anniversary on September 25.  Rev. Thomas Rainsbury, whose installation service as pastor of West Hyattsville Baptist

Church in Hyattsville, Maryland, took place on September 18.  Ginny Tourville, Associate Pastor at Vienna Baptist Church, and her husband Paul on the birth of their son Alexander David Tourville on August 27 at 9:49 a.m.

We extend condolences to…

 The family members and congregants of Gateway Cathedral of Praise on the passing of

Rev. Dr. Diana Dunn on July 7.  Rev. Dr. Adrien Ngudiankama on the passing of his mother on September 12.  Rev. Yvonne Lamb, former DCBC President, on the passing of her husband, Greg Lamb, on September 1.

Black Theology Pioneer, Dr. James Deotis Roberts, Dies at 95

Dr. James Deotis Roberts, who helped pioneer Black theology, a new perspective on Christianity that evolved in response to the revolutionary spirit of the Black Power movement, died at his home in Clinton, Maryland, on July 26, 2022, at the age of 95. Born in Spindale, North Carolina, on July 12, 1927, to a carpenter and a homemaker, Roberts went on to graduate high school in 1943, receive a bachelor’s degree from Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte in 1947 and a Bachelor of Divinity from Shaw University in Raleigh in 1950, a Master of Sacred Theology in 1952 from Hartford Seminary and a Ph.D. in Philosophical Theology from the University of Edinburgh’s divinity school in Scotland in 1957. He was the first African American to earn a doctorate from the University of Edinburgh and did so because of the limited opportunities for minorities to attend divinity schools in the United States.

Roberts’ passion for education was evident throughout his life. He began teaching at Howard University soon after earning his doctorate and later taught at Yale University, Duke University and Palmer Theological Seminary. He went on to serve as the president of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, as a distinguished professor of philosophical theology at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and, in 1992, was elected as the first Black president of the American Theological Society. In this role, Roberts worked to increase the number of minorities and women at seminaries and other religious institutions. In addition to his role of educator, he also authored several books, including The Prophethood of Black Believers; Black Theology in Dialogue; Black Religion, Black Theology; Liberation and Reconciliation; and Africentric Christianity.

Roberts was predeceased by his son Deotis (his father’s middle name, suggested by his elementary school principal, who said that it meant “learned man” or “scholar) and by his wife Elizabeth Caldwell Roberts, an elementary school teacher who died in 2019. He is survived by his three daughters: Charmaine Roberts Parker of Clinton, Maryland; Carlita Roberts Marsh of Washington; and Kristina Roberts, a best-selling author who writes under the pseudonym Zane and lives in Atlanta; eight grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.