November 2021 Edition of The Christian Recorder

NOVEMBER 2021

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VOLUME 171, NO. 2

NOVEMBER 2021

SECOND EPISCOPAL DISTRICT ORDINATION SERVICE

By Rev. Jazmine Brooks, News Editor

In 2019, the Rt. Rev. James L. Davis, presiding prelate of the 2nd Episcopal District, cast the vision for a district-wide ordination service to take place in May of 2020. The three-day event would be complete with renowned musical artists, bishops from across the African Methodist Episcopal Church Connection, and some of the 2nd Episcopal District’s best preaching. The affair was set to occur at Ebenezer AME Church, and each conference was asked to commit to sending hundreds of people to participate in what would certainly be a “Legacy Celebration.”

Inspired by the spirit of connectional ministry, the aim was to gather the five conferences in a single, coordinated effort to celebrate those who would be ordained and give reverence to the significance of ordination. In addition, Bishop Davis sought to create a moment that would inspire our clergy to remain committed to the journey of ministerial practice.

Unfortunately, in March of 2020, the world went into quarantine, and almost 100 candidates’ ordination was postponed. For the next year and a half, amid

THE 9TH EPISCOPAL DISTRICT PROVIDES FOOD TO RESIDENTS OF JEFFERSON COUNTY

By E. Ann Clemons, 9th Episcopal District

“Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I, therefore, command you, “‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land’” Deuteronomy 15:11 (NRSV). ...continued on p2

The Truth Is the Light…

p3

National Council of Churches Elects All-Female Officers, Approves New Revised Standard Version Update… p8

mounting questions and uncertainty, the threeday Legacy Celebration became a traditional, hybrid worship service that maintained its distinction as the largest ordination service in the history of the AME Church. While we were unable to manifest the original vision, the underlying intent was evident in the redesigned service— ”to create an unforgettable moment for those to be ordained. It may not happen today, but I hope some of these folk will look back and have this experience revive them and give them what it takes to help them go on just a little further and a little while longer,” said Bishop Davis.

Separated by an empty pew and two to three on an occupied pew, 69 ordinands prepared to receive their orders. The service opened with the processional of bishops and presiding elders who sat to the far right of the pulpit and altar space. While the music and ordination took place in real-time, those who led the service in prayer, statements of occasion, and collective readings were viewed on-screen.

A former bishop of the 2nd Episcopal District, the Rt. Rev. Adam J. Richardson, preached “Oh, for a Closer Walk With God” from Psalm 91:1-2. It was a powerful reminder that our public lives are evidence of our private practices. All that we are and all that we do should reflect the relationship we cultivate with the God we serve.

Following the preached word, itinerant deacons and elders were ordained ten at a time in order of conference affiliation.

Five bishops, including the first woman to be ordained bishop in the AME Church, the Rt. Rev. Vashti M. McKenzie (retired), laid hands on each diaconate ordinand. Those ...continued on p3

MOTHER’S JOY

By Erskine W. Lytle III, 13th Episcopal District

Founded in 1863 by Bishop Daniel Payne, St. John AME Church, Nashville is the Mother Church of African Methodism in Tennessee. Today, we celebrate having two general officers serving and one retired general officer who was elected and served while an active member of St. John. A fourth layperson, the late Eustace Alexander Selby (1887-1986), served as secretary-treasurer of the AME ...continued on p4

When the Word Becomes Incarnate: The Power of the Voice… p14

Updates from the AME Church International Health Commission … p17

CONTINUE TO PROVIDE LEADERSHIP TO WAYMAN TEMPLE AMEC After an unsuccessful run to become the next executive director of Retirement Services for the AME Church, one may wonder what Pastor Mark L. Griffin would do next.

The answer is simple— continue to provide leadership to Wayman Temple African Methodist Episcopal Church and the broader Jacksonville, Florida ...continued on p2

The 157th Session of the AME Church’s California Annual Conference: Not Just Business as Usual… p19

Necrology Listings…

p23

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...From The Ninth p1 Bishop Harry L. Seawright, presiding prelate of the Ninth Episcopal District, recognized his calling to serve the people of Alabama upon his election at the 50th Quadrennial Session of the African Methodist Episcopal Church General Conference. So, Bishop Seawright hit the southern soil running! He established the Daniel Payne Legacy Village Foundation (DPLV), appointing Brandon M. Cleveland as executive director, to conduct its mission to assist with community growth through education, technology, economics, and wellness throughout Alabama.

The DPLV Foundation houses The Legacy Prep Charter School within its community plaza, one of the first of its kind in Alabama with the capacity for four hundred students from kindergarten to fourth grade. In addition, the Foundation’s Job Readiness Program provides computer skills to participants who need to learn or improve computer skills for job readiness and employability in a new workforce and for entrepreneurs seeking to become self-sufficient with their business practices in this age of technology.

Since COVID-19, hundreds of families have incurred unexpected hardships and difficulty in putting food on the table. In addition to providing information for healthy living and COVID-19 awareness, DPLV’s wellness program utilizes Daniel’s Pantry as a component to addressing these issues facing the community. The Reverend Alphonso Colvin operates the Food Pantry along with Brandon Cleveland and various committed volunteers minister to the social, spiritual, and physical development of local families who have suffered hardships during this pandemic.

Historically, the AME Church has always been a champion of social justice. The United States Department of Agriculture recently reported that 13.8 million people ...From Continue p1 community. And he came back

from the 51st General Conference, continuing to build where he left off. Throughout his campaign, he never slacked on his duties and responsibilities as the senior pastor of one of the most dynamic, up-and-coming churches in our Zion.

In preparation for a victory at the General Conference, Dr. Griffin worked hard to ensure that Wayman Temple and the next pastor would be financially secure and well-organized to move forward

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in households were food insecure. National studies indicate that children growing up in food-insecure families are vulnerable to poor health and stunted development from the earliest stages of life. The Ninth Episcopal District has joined the fight to impact food insecurity and obesity by establishing Rolling Food Bank grocery bags from the community plaza’s pantry. Each Rolling Food Bank bag includes 8-10 canned vegetables, fruit, rice, beans, pasta, soup, cereal, canned meat, peanut butter, jelly, and a variety of condiments including sugar, flour, and other miscellaneous food items.

The Rolling Food Bank distributions include the Tuskegee, Camden, Mobile, and Dothan districts. The Reverend Dr. Ronald Sterling, pastor of St. John AME Church, downtown, is also grateful to Daniel Payne Pantry for the food donations, which also helped St. John’s Feed My Sheep Ministry in distributing food within an hour directly to people in parts of the city’s most concentrated homeless areas. Brandon Cleveland said, “When we have a significant overflow of donations into the pantry, in addition to donations to St. John’s Feed My Sheep Ministry, we assist other organizations with food to provide to the community. Our donations also extend to local schools to prevent food from going to waste and ensure that our efforts go toward helping schools’ lunch programs. The most recent recipient of Daniel’s Pantry donation was the Inglewood School children.”

Bishop Seawright said, “I am grateful for the leadership and management of all the work being carried out at the Daniel Payne Legacy Village Foundation by the staff there.” Mr. Cleveland said, “It is such rewarding work to see the daily plans and decisions we make as a foundation positively affect the community we serve every day.” o o o

with the work of the ministry if he were elected. “The sign of a good leader is that the work not only survives but also thrives when [the leader] leaves. After 26 years of pastoring Wayman, I wanted to make sure that I left things in order if I were to leave. Therefore, we made sure that the church was financially strong,” Griffin said.

Now, Wayman Temple has completed the goal of paying off the south campus mortgage many years early.

Shortly after the close of the General Conference,

the church wrote a check for just over $320,000 to liquidate the mortgage. Pastor Griffin stated, “When we purchased this property years ago, the members questioned whether we would be able to afford the monthly mortgage payment. It was a major faith walk for a congregation that was not used to thinking big.

To think that we have grown to the point that we can write a six-figure check without a struggle is a testimony to what God can do if we truly trust him and if we are good stewards of his provisions.” ...continued on p9

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...From Second Episcopal p1 to be ordained itinerant elders were ordained by all five bishops and two elders of their choosing. As the

service came to a close, the newly ordained itinerant elders were gifted new Bibles, an AME lapel pin, a keepsake program signed by present bishops, and a meditation chime.

Though in-person participation was capped at 350 people in Reid Temple, thousands watched online and celebrated across various

media platforms. Those in attendance included Bishops Vashti Murphy-McKenzie, Jeffrey N. Leath, Adam J. Richardson, and John H. Bryant; the 2nd Episcopal District presiding elders, and a host of district officers, pastors, and supporters of individual ordinands. It was truly evident that the 2nd Episcopal District is thriving together The Rev. Jazmine Brooks is a Master of Divinity student at Wesley Theological Seminary and is a member of New Union Chapel AME Church of Norfolk, Virginia. She currently serves as a ministerial intern at Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, DC. Throughout her matriculation, Jazmine has maintained occupation in the DC Public Charter School System as well as in the Army Reserves. She is committed to the work of creating spaces for the innovative engagement of intergenerational ministries, justice, and community as an investment in the life of the embodied gospel of Christ.

THE TRUTH IS THE LIGHT

By Rev. Dr. Charles R. Watkins, Jr., Senior Columnist

Based on biblical text: Matthew 10:31 (NRSV): “Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

We are reminded constantly about grace—God’s unmerited favor. Grace comes from God, through Jesus Christ, and we need grace in order to inherit eternal life. However, we seldom talk about God’s careful attention to every detail of our lives through his grace.

God’s grace is everywhere. It is impossible to miss, reject, or even hide from grace. As God said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient [for everything]!” (2 Corinthians 12:9 NRSV). God cares about every detail of our life and covers our lives with his grace.

We can be sure that God really cares! He numbers our hairs. Jesus says, “And even the hairs of your head are all counted” (Matthew 10:30 NRSV). If God cares that much about our body, how much more must he care about our soul? There is nothing about our physical being that God is not keenly aware of.

God counts our steps. Job asked, “Does [God] not see my ways, and number all my steps?” (Job 31:4 NRSV). God knows every step we take, and he knows where those steps take us. God knows when we break his laws, but he also knows when we stay on the straight and narrow path!

God books our thoughts. Malachi 3:16 (NRSV) says, “Then those who revered the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord took note and listened, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who revered the Lord and thought on his name.” We cannot hide a single thought from God! We are admonished that God knows the thoughts that come from our carnal mind but, he also knows our thoughts that come from our heart. God knows the conflict raging inside us.

Thus, his solution: “Think upon his name.”

God bottles our tears. David wrote, “You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle” (Psalm 56:8 NRSV). God knows every tear we shed and counts every tear precious. God knows when we are in pain, frightened, or disappointed. He sees our sorrow, and he harvests our tears and mixes them with the ones Jesus shed. Yes, Jesus wept!

God takes our hands. When Israel feared that God had abandoned them, God told Isaiah to tell them, “For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you’” (Isaiah 41:13 NRSV). There is never a time when God withdraws his hand of protection from those who ...continued on p5

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...From Mother’s Joy p1 Church Sunday School Union from 1936-1964.

Dr. Jayme Coleman Williams, Ph.D., was the first woman elected a general officer in the denomination’s history in 1984, serving as editor of The AME Church Review for eight years. She was

the AME representative to the National Council of Churches of Christ USA, Board of Trustees of Wilberforce University, and the 13th Episcopal District lay president. She was the 1st recipient of the Living Legacy Award given at the thirty-fourth session of the Connectional Lay Organization and has been a delegate to every General Conference since 1964. During her forty-five years of membership in St. John, Dr. Williams’ service included the Pastor’s Aid Board and the Lay Organization. She was active in the Nashville community with the National

The Christian Recorder Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the American Red Cross, and human relations and historical commissions, among others.

Dr. Williams lives in Atlanta with her daughter, Donna Williams. Though retired, Dr. Williams remains a source of inspiration and sought-after counsel.

John Thomas, III attended Morehouse College, Princeton University, and is currently completing doctoral work at the University of Chicago. Though not a son of the parsonage, John Thomas III listened ardently to his father, Dr. John Thomas, Jr., a lifelong AME, and student of the denomination. Dr. Thomas often engaged in long discussions about St. John and the AME connection with friends Doctors Jayme and McDonald Williams. Young John listened with an insatiable curiosity, not just about St. John, Nashville but the denomination as a whole. That same energy and intellect he had listening to those adult conversations began unfolding as he progressed in his education. Some of this was evidenced as Thomas participated with the Morehouse College team in the Honda College Bowl. The same was true when he represented Saint John in Bible bowls sponsored by the Board of Christian Education of the AME Church.

Brother Thomas was very active in all church youth activities at all connectional levels of the

THECHRISTIANRECORDER.COM church. The support of his mother, Harriett, and Dr. Thomas, along with the mentorship of the Doctors Williams, nourished his desire to work and serve the AME Church at the connectional level.

His energy and willingness to serve are a source of pride and excitement about the future.

Marcus T. Henderson, Sr., was elected the chief financial officer of the AME Church in 2021. He is president and chief financial officer of the highly successful Henderson Financial Group, Inc. Among his many memberships are the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors and the Financial Planning Association, the prestigious Million Dollar Round Table, and the celebrated Top of the Table, which accepts only 5% of the members of the Round Table internationally.

A lifelong member of St. John, Brother Henderson has served as a steward, church treasurer, and member of the Lay Organization. He is the son of Lelia and the late Reverend Samuel Henderson and the nephew of the late Reverend Joanne Allen. He and his wife Yolanda have five children and live in Franklin, Tennessee.

On August 21, 2021, members of the St. John Lay Organization under the leadership of local president Paula Y. Holmes gathered in Atlanta, Georgia, to celebrate these laypersons elected to serve the AME Church. The Rev. Lisa Hammonds, the church’s current pastor, states, “Like all mothers, St. John is excited for and proud of the general officers who were nurtured within our walls.” o o o

RACIAL SELF ESTEEM: 1 JOHN 4:7-21

By Rev. Dr. Versey Williams, Contributing Writer

Five hundred years and counting of America’s lawmakers writing laws and establishing practices that advance people with white skin and divide, dehumanize, incarcerate, and relegate people with black and brown skin into less, substandard, and inferior living conditions continue. All people living in America inherit America’s system of injustice based on a person’s skin color. Recently, a woman with white skin asked me if it was true that blacks used to be slaves here in America? She was serious and concerned about this new truth she discovered. It may seem strange to people with brown and black skin, but her reality does not include our history and struggle. Oral stories are passed on, and hers did not include the reasons for her privilege, of which she also was unaware.

She was simply living her life – unconsciously advancing because America favors her. Although it can be exhausting, I continue to educate many people like her who are willing to be vulnerable and listen. She often declares in our conversations that we are all created in God’s image!

Yes, scripture tells us all people are “created in

overwhelming day; I visited patients in an inner-city

means millions of brown and black people are

the image and likeness of God” (Genesis 1:26-27).

hospital’s emergency room. Many have roots in our

unconscious. They have subliminally renewed their

In our Church of Allen, some of us struggle with

AME Church. Our sons and daughters of Allen

mind, heart, and soul with racism’s lies, thinking

our self-image. We are proud AMEs and sometimes

lost their esteem in the mire of “isms.” I affirmed

they are not worth respect, and neither are others

find it difficult to embrace our divinely given self-

their divinely given self-worth and celebrated that

who look like them.

worth and benefits given us through salvation.

they are precious!

The reality is, if they or we lose sight of our value

Even though there is an intersect between America’s

It saddens me deeply when I witness the

and worth because of and through Christ Jesus, we

racism and self-image for people who have brown

aftermath of people who internalized racial self-

continue to play into the reasons the unjust laws

and black skin, I challenge the notion that AMEs

hatred or were innocent victims of someone’s

were written, to destroy the futures of brown and

(or other Christians) can live a meaningful life with

racial self-hatred. Is God enough? Is Calvary real?

black people. We must remind ourselves and others

God when there is tension between how we see

Racial self-hatred, birthed out of systemic racism,

that worshipping God in spirit and truth means

ourselves and God’s declaration that we are God’s

holds a seat manifested through loathing black and

we live out our esteem and identity in Christ Jesus.

beloved. Sometimes my seeing the effects of racial

brown personhood, often culminating in violence

Who will we believe?

self-hatred becomes overwhelming. Today was an

and death. Inheriting America’s system of injustice

Rev. Dr. Versey Williams is the pastor of Mt. Calvary AME Church in Detroit, MI. She is the director of Clinical Pastoral Education and Spiritual Care for Henry Ford Allegiance Health in Jackson, MI. She is a Board certified chaplain with the Association of Professional Chaplains and certified educator with the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education.

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THE MISTAKE OF MULTITASKING

By B. Washington, Columnist

If you have ever been driving in an unfamiliar place and you think you might be lost, the first thing most people do is turn down the music or turn off the radio. Why? So, they can concentrate and focus on the task at hand.

We often talk about multitasking or doing multiple things at one time.

However, based on research, very few people can multitask well; we tend to be doing many tasks yet not doing all of them well.

For example, a person is attempting to multitask at work. They are writing an email and listening to a co-worker debrief from a meeting. Typically, at some point in the conversation, the multitasking person will say “hold on” while they review and finish the email, or they will say, “Can you repeat that?” Why? Because we are not good at multitasking.

Spiritually speaking, many of us try to multitask. It is tough to grow spiritually, enhance your relationship with Christ, or even hear God if we try to multitask.

Trying to pray in the morning while making coffee, writing a to-do list, and getting the kids breakfast is not ideal for spiritual growth. Likewise, ten minutes in the car on the way to work trying to listen to an audio devotion while navigating traffic and having moments of road rage will not help our spiritual development.

In the Old Testament, we are told to “be still” (Psalm 46:10). In the New Testament, Jesus admonishes Martha to be like Mary, stop doing many things, and sit quietly at his feet (Luke 10:38-42).

In the past few weeks, so much has been happening. I wrote this article and could not get my thoughts straight. It was not until I sat quietly, reflecting on the last few days that included bad news, conflicting schedules, and deadlines, that God reminded me about the dangers of multitasking. Sitting down quietly in the presence of God is the best way to hear from God, gain direction, and be refreshed.

Brothers and sisters, take a moment to carve out some time; maybe it is only 15 minutes where you can sit and be still. Trust me—it will encourage your soul and help you see where God is leading you. Turn down the noise, focus on him, and allow God to speak to you.

God bless and always be encouraged.

Byron Washington, MPA, is an author, consultant, youth mentor, and life coach. He and his family currently reside in Abuja, Nigeria. For more about him visit http://byronwashington.org/.

LEADING SUPPORTERS AND THWARTERS OF CHRISTIAN MINISTRY: INSIGHTS FROM LUKE

By Rev. Dr. Jason Curry, Columnist

One of my fathers-in-the-ministry, the Reverend Clarence James, Sr., provided

therefore, unwelcomed but expected. Ironically,

me with sound, Christian advice prior to my first appointment as pastor. In

Judas played a role in God’s unfolding drama

essence, he said: “When you preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, you will pick

of salvation history. Jesus understood Judas’

up some unlikely supporters in the church. Some people will not like you

historical significance, and although Jesus knew

personally, but they will have profound respect for the word of God.” I have

that the devil was in Judas (John 13:24-27), we

taken the Reverend James’ counsel to heart for more than 20 years as a pastor.

neither read that Jesus hated Judas nor do we

Undoubtedly, I encountered supporters and thwarters (i.e., people who seek

read that Jesus banned him from the body of

to undermine progress) in the Christian ministry. The question that continues

Christ.

to confront me, clergy, and lay who seek to increase and enhance the body of

Jesus never abandoned the /agape/ and /

Christ is as follows: Based on the life of Christ, how shall we respond to those

philia/ love-ethic in his ministry; therefore, we

who seek to undermine Christian ministry?

should never abandon the concept of love in

Luke is credited with the writing of the book of Acts, and in Acts 1:17, Luke

ours. In fact, Jesus said, “Love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute

penned the following words that Peter ultimately stated: “[Judas] was one of

you!” (Matthew 5:44). I believe that those who seek to thwart or undermine

our number and shared in our ministry.” Jesus’ disciple, Judas, betrayed Jesus

ministry should not serve in leadership positions; however, I also believe they

when he accepted 30 pieces of silver to lead people to Jesus. These people would

should neither be ostracized nor alienated physically or spiritually from the

eventually arrest Jesus. However, Jesus also knew the “he must go to Jerusalem

body of Christ. Jesus ate with both “sinners and tax collectors” (see Mark 2:15-

and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be

16); therefore, it is incumbent upon us to show love and compassion for both

killed, and on the third day be raised” (Matthew 16:21). Judas’ actions were,

supporters and thwarters of Christian ministry

The Rev. Dr. Jason Curry currently serves as the dean of the Fisk Memorial Chapel, an assistant professor of Psychology, and the associate vice president for Institutional Effectiveness and Accreditations at Fisk University. He is an ordained itinerant elder in the AME Church and has written various academic articles; a book, The Star Book on Pastoral Counseling; and is a columnist for The Tennessee Tribune.

...From The Truth p3 belong to him. There is no enemy

against [us] shall prosper” (Isaiah 54:17 NRSV).

he cannot conquer. When God takes our hand, we

Finally, God supplies our needs. When Paul

are completely outfitted with the armor of God,

wrote to the struggling church in Philippi, he said,

thoroughly filled with the spirit of God, and properly

“And my God will fully satisfy every need of yours

anointed with the power of God. In other words, when

according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus”

God takes our hand, “No weapon that is fashioned

(Philippians 4:19 NRSV). What more assurance do

we need that God really cares? If we trust him, no worry will weaken us, no trial will destroy us, and no challenge will frighten us.

The Rev. Dr. Charles R. Watkins, Jr. is the pastor of James Chapel AME Church in Columbia, South Carolina. You can contact him at drwatkins@thechristianrecorder.com.

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COACH DEION SANDERS IS GOOD FOR COLLEGE FOOTBALL

By James B. Ewers, Jr., Ed.D., Columnist

Football is a part of the American landscape. So the buildup to each season is always exciting.

Like most of you, I am a football fan.

This affinity for football has been with me for many years. At the start of each Before Coach Sanders was hired, I cannot season, I have these football talks with my friends. recall HBCU football getting so much airtime, Our discussions run the gamut. For example, we talk about spread offenses and especially on ESPN. Media at all levels have stories who has the best defense. and interviews regarding football at HBCUs I am an old-school guy, so I can talk high school, college, and professional football. almost daily. The Grambling State University While all football is great football, I especially like college football. Maybe it is and Southern University Bayou Classic football because these guys are student-athletes. Unfortunately, as we know, most college games were probably the most consistently televised contest on the Saturday after football players will not go to the professional ranks.

Thanksgiving. Now, every week, you can listen to or watch HBCU football. That is Another topic that we have spirited debates about is football coaches. Recently, what I call the CSE: Coach Sanders Effect. after a short discussion about professional coaches, we quickly moved to the college Coach Sanders wants to truly market HBCU football. There are foundational coaches. One name that stands out for me in the college ranks is Deion Sanders. changes that Sanders has championed. For example, recently I read that Sanders In my opinion, there has not been a college coach in any sport that has come on wanted the players’ names on the back of their jerseys. That is a good idea as parents the scene like Deion Sanders. He is an eight-time All-Pro, 1994 NFL Defensive Player and other supporters want to identify the players by their names and not only by of the Year, and a two-time Super Bowl Champion. These are impressive credentials, their number. In addition, he has made comments about how the Southwestern no matter the yard marker that is on the field.

Athletic Conference (SWAC) and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) can If you recall, Deion Sanders, now Coach Sanders, was a star student-athlete work together as they are formidable opponents with excellent academic reputations. at Florida State University. As an athlete at Florida State, he was accustomed to He is thinking about the future and where HBCU football fits into it. I believe he is winning. Losing was not a part of his profile. Coach Sanders did not receive his challenging traditional mores, and that is a good thing. We will have to wait and see degree from Florida State University, however. Instead, Coach Deion Sanders is a what happens with the SWAC and the MEAC as to whether it will gain a first down proud graduate of Talladega College, a Historically Black College and University in the decision-making room.

(HBCU) in Alabama. While Coach Sanders has won numerous prestigious awards If there are discussions about working together, allowances and compromises will and honors, I believe his college graduation ranks right up there as one of his greatest be on the table. “Give and take” is what makes for healthy agreements. Power 5 achievements. conferences create alignment opportunities when they see it is feasible for them to do Jackson State University in Mississippi named Deion Sanders as its head football so. For example, Texas and Oklahoma will be joining the Southeastern Conference coach ahead of the Spring 2021 season. This HBCU gained instant worldwide (SEC) in the future. Both are currently members of The Big 12 Conference. publicity because of it. Folks may not know about Jackson State University, but they Nonetheless, you cannot say that Coach Deion Sanders is sitting by and just do know about Deion Sanders. It is my strong opinion that HBCU athletic teams watching things happen. He wants to have a hand in making things happen. I believe have benefitted directly from him being a coach. Coach Sanders has changed the Coach Deion Sanders has come to Jackson State University at a prime time. I am conversation and brought with him a different perspective. cheering for him.

James B. Ewers, Jr., Ed.D., is a retired college administrator. He is the president emeritus of The Teen Mentoring Committee of Ohio. He is an author and motivational speaker. His email address is ewers.jr56@yahoo.com.

BENEATH THE SURFACE

By Rev. Sheri Smith Clayborn, Contributing Writer

Recently, there was a leak on the second floor of our house. We could not immediately determine the origin of the leak on our own, so we called a professional. He came to the house and fixed the leak. Later, I began to smell mildew. Initially, the smell was faint, but it became increasingly worse. We discovered the leak had continued after the initial repair. The wetness created the mildew smell and eventually molded in an adjacent area. A repairman cut out the mold that could be seen. I asked why he had not removed a larger part of the wall to make sure there was no mold in other areas. He said he was fairly sure he had gotten it all, knowing that water runs until it reaches something that can hold it or stop it. I instructed him to check beneath the surface where he had done the work, and there was mold all over the backside of the wall. Had the surface not been removed, we would be living with mold.

In October, many churches endeavor to raise awareness around breast cancer, domestic violence, and mental health. Churches partner with outside agencies and other ministries, host events, and invite guest speakers in an effort to stop the mold. Special days expose the issue and give opportunity for ongoing conversations, and help shift mindsets. While this is a good start, it is equivalent to only addressing the mold we can see. The mold in our lives will persist if we do not go beneath the surface.

We need to go beneath the surface to get the mold we cannot see. We do this by addressing these topics outside of October. Breast cancer, domestic violence, and mental health awareness are needed all year long. The ongoing mentioning of these topics in sermons, Bible studies, and small groups helps connect one’s faith to agency and action. Small groups, intentional conversations led by informed people committed to saving lives, and resources that assist people in receiving help with day-to-day issues help build the confidence needed to address these difficult issues. Hearing a consistent, informed message of healing, help, and hope in the place where one’s faith is nurtured has the potential to be life-changing. When doing this work, the focus is about saving the least of these, not just those meeting the standard of respectability politics and religion.

Consider doing the following: 1. Post signage with local and national hotline your church and community.

This list is not exhaustive but suggestive. We must information prominently throughout the 3. Model health and wellness through leadership all go beneath the surface and not be satisfied with church building and on church websites and membership by committing to yearly just addressing the mold we can see. and social media platforms, and flash the medical check-ups, exercising regularly, information at different times during livedomestic violence awareness training, and Sherri Smith Clayborn streamed services and events and in the chat of a minimum of two mental health check-ups Contributing Writer virtual meetings. yearly.

Bethel AMEC - Baltimore, Maryland o o o 2. Encourage and attend support groups within

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THE DEEP IMPACT OF AME ROOTS: DR. SIDNEY MCPHEE’S STORY

By Dr. Aaron Treadwell, 13th Episcopal District

According to African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church scholar Sharon J. Grant, Allenite missionaries often sought avenues for inspiration and uplift in “foreign lands.” Some of these destinations in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries included “the West Indies (Haiti, St. Domingo, and St. Thomas, Danish, WI), the African missions of Liberia and Sierra Leone, and the Indian Territory in North America” (Rebaptism Calmly Considered, p.

109). For these Allenite missionaries, a legacy of social protest and social reform were tenants that were fervently incorporated into the mission field.

When researching the work of AME missionaries in the West Indies, when elements of worship were syncretized, explicit components of the liturgy and faith remained universal, there was always a mandate for a social gospel.

In 1907, Bishop Benjamin T. Tanner sent the Rev. Richard Henry Dames on a charge to continue the social gospel tradition of AME worship abroad.

Dames, a Bahamian-born minister, would soon plant a cornerstone for the Bethel AME Church in 1908. Thus, Savannah Sound, Eleuthera became the birth site of the Bahamian connection, but it would not be the last. In 1938, Mt. Sinai was established in the nation’s capital, Nassau, and in 2021 there are

eight Bahamian AME churches.

The impact of the Bahamian AME Church reaches far beyond membership and revenue to those that have liberated minds, bodies, and souls since their genesis.

One of the persons greatly influenced by the Bahamian AME Church is the current president of Middle Tennessee State University, Dr. Sidney McPhee. President McPhee’s name is well-connected to the Allenite legacy, as one of the country’s largest churches is Cousin-McPhee Cathedral.

However, McPhee’s relationship to this church goes far beyond namesake alone.

According to President McPhee, Cousin-McPhee Cathedral played a pivotal part in his life. “My uncle, the Rev. Freeman McPhee, was both a founder of this church and an inspiration in my life.” He recalls that, “This church gave me the opportunity to lead the choir, and to cultivate a relationship with my lovely wife, Liz McPhee.” According to President McPhee, this congregation also gave him lessons of structure, leadership, and public speaking that helped foster a spirit of leadership and confidence. “Although I am not an AME member at the very moment, I will forever be indebted to the denomination for what it

instilled into me,” the president said.

The influence of the AME Church is universal, and when membership upholds the responsibilities of The Great Commission found in Matthew 28:1620, there is no limitation to the doors that can be opened. From a Nassau choir to the president of a university, when AME churches minister to the social, spiritual, and physical development of all people, greatness will ensue.

Dr. Aaron M. Treadwell is an ordained itinerant elder in the AME Church and is an assistant professor at the Middle Tennessee State University. He is on loan to the United Methodist Church and pastors Key Memorial UMC in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR CIVIL SETTLEMENT IN PRINCIPLE IN MOTHER EMANUEL CHARLESTON CHURCH MASS SHOOTING; DEPARTMENT AGREES TO SETTLE ALLEGATIONS SURROUNDING FBI ACTIONS Today, the Department of Justice announced that it has reached an agreement in principle to settle the civil cases arising out of the June 2015 Mother Emanuel AME Church mass shooting in Charleston, South Carolina.

These settlements will resolve claims by 14 plaintiffs arising out of the shooting. Plaintiffs agreed to settle claims alleging that the FBI was negligent when it failed to prohibit the sale of a gun by a licensed firearms dealer to the shooter, a selfproclaimed white supremacist, who wanted to start a “race war” and specifically targeted the 200-year-old historically African American congregation. For those killed in the shooting, the settlements range from $6 million to $7.5 million per claimant. For the survivors, the settlements are for $5 million per claimant.

The parties have been in litigation since 2016, including before the district court and the federal court of appeals.

“The mass shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church was a horrific hate crime that caused immeasurable suffering for the families of the victims and the survivors,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “Since the day of the shooting, the Justice Department has sought to bring justice to the community, first by a successful hate crime prosecution and today by settling civil claims.”

“The nation grieved following the mass shooting at Mother Emanuel, and no one was more profoundly affected than the families of the victims and the survivors we have reached a settlement with today,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. “The department hopes that these settlements, combined with its prosecution of the shooter, will bring some modicum of justice to the victims of this heinous act of hate.”

“The department is pleased to bring closure to this long-running litigation,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “These settlement agreements represent another chapter in the justice system’s efforts to address this horrific event, following the government’s prosecution and conviction of the shooter for federal hate crimes.”

On June 17, 2015, Mother Emanuel inside the church at the time of the the handgun that he used to commit congregants welcomed a stranger who shooting, sued the government. They the atrocity. had entered their church. They invited sought to recover for wrongful death The FBI and NICS play a crucial him to participate in their Wednesday and physical injuries arising from role in combatting gun violence. night Bible study. Tragically, at the the shooting. Plaintiffs asserted that Since this tragic shooting, the FBI has close of the Bible study, the young man the FBI’s National Instant Criminal worked to strengthen and improve they had welcomed killed nine people, Background Checks System (NICS) the background check process. The including Mother Emanuel’s pastor, failed to timely discover that the department and FBI are also actively the Reverend Clementa Pinckney, also shooter was a person prohibited by working to combat gun violence, a South Carolina state senator. federal law from possessing a firearm. which is a significant aspect of the The families of the Emanuel Nine, Plaintiffs alleged that because of this department’s comprehensive violent as well as the five survivors who were delay, the shooter was able to purchase crime reduction strategy. After the

shooting, the department prosecuted the shooter for federal hate crimes and obtained a conviction.

Under applicable law, the court must approve the settlements for many of the plaintiffs. All parties expect that the court will agree that these settlements are fair and reasonable.

This case was handled by the Justice Department’s Civil Division.

The Rev. Eric Manning, pastor of Mother Emanuel, made the following statement on behalf of the local church: “We must always remember the lives that were taken on June 17, 2015, by a white supremacist.

We must always remember the five survivors who continue to live their life day in and day out with strength and courage, at times suffering in silence. Today’s settlement marks a step forward for the families of the Emanuel Nine, the survivors, and our community. We are truly thankful for those who never gave up and continued to fight for the families and the survivors to ensure that their loved ones received justice. We will continue to work with legislators to close the ‘Charleston’ loophole and ensure that South Carolina has hate crime legislation.” o o o

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NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES ELECTS ALL-FEMALE OFFICERS, APPROVES NEW REVISED STANDARD VERSION UPDATE

By Adelle Banks, Religion News Service

The National Council of Churches has elected an all-female slate of officers for the first time in the ecumenical organization’s 71-year history.

Bishop Teresa Jefferson-Snorton, leader of the Fifth Episcopal District of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, on Wednesday, October 13, 2021, became chair of the organization, starting a two-year term along with the other officers.

Bishop Jefferson Snorton is joined by the Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, vice chair; Kimberly Gordon Brooks, first vice-president of the 3rd District Lay Organization, African Methodist Episcopal Church, secretary; and the Rev. Teresa “Terri” Hord Owens, general minister and president, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), treasurer.

All but Eaton are women of color.

“At this pivotal time in the life of the church in the United States, it is noteworthy that the National Council of Churches (NCC) is modeling inclusiveness in selecting its leaders,” Jefferson-Snorton said in a statement.

“The denominations that make up the NCC demonstrate a commitment to embody the diversity of God’s creation in so many ways. This commitment is a call for all of us to show the love of God to all, promote unity in Christ Jesus, and to resist the current cultural trends of divisiveness.”

The governing board of the NCC also voted to approve the New Revised Standard Version Updated Version of the Bible (NRSVue) after a four-year effort to continue to reduce

sexist language in the widely used translation.

“The NRSVue is as free as possible from the gender bias inherent in the English language, which can obscure

earlier oral and written renditions,” the NCC said in an announcement about the project that has involved Friendship Press, its subsidiary.

In a statement, the Rev. Jim Winkler, NCC president and general secretary, called the new version, the work of dozens of scholars, editors, and reviewers, “A monumental achievement.”

The new version is expected to be released by publishers on or after May 1, 2022. In addition, Friendship Press plans to make an e-Bible of the new version available on its Word@Hand app starting November 19, 2021.

The 38 member denominations of the NCC comprise some 35 million Christians in Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican, evangelical, historic black denominations, and “peace churches.” o o o

HAITI, HUNGER, AND WORLD FOOD DAY

By Rev. Dr. Angelique Walker-Smith

“I just want to be able to put food on the table and feed my family.”

These are the words of a young Haitian father who recently found refuge with his young family in Del Rio, Texas. He was one of almost 15,000 Haitian migrants camped in Texas after crossing from Mexico. The young father was responding to a reporter who asked him why he had come to the United States from Haiti. The young father explained that their journey was a response to the environmental and political instability in his beloved home country.

Many of us have felt outrage and deep concern asylum as those same policies have done for refugees global equity issues in response to the horrific images of our Haitian from other countries south of the U.S. border, Cuba regarding response neighbors being treated inhumanely at the being a notable example. to the COVID-19 United States border. In Congress, members of This sorrow is heightened at this vulnerable pandemic. the Congressional Black Caucus, the Caribbean moment following the devastation of the August 14, And on September 23, the United Nations Caucus, the Haiti Caucus, and the Congressional 2021 earthquakes, which were immediately followed Secretary-General António Guterres convened the Hispanic Caucus all denounced the shocking images

by Hurricane Grace. The two natural disasters first Food Systems Summit. During the Summit, of Customs and Border Protection agents riding on left thousands of people dead and many homes, Elizabeth Nsimadala, president of the Pan Africa horseback, holding reins as whips. churches, and schools destroyed.

Farmers Organization (PAFO), urged movement U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters of California said that Other events amplified outrage about the from dialogue to action.

Haitian migrants were being mistreated because of mistreatment of Haitians at the U.S. border during Action is the theme of World Food Day 2021, their race. A September 22, 2021 feature story in The the same week that those horrific images were which occurs on October 16: “Our actions are our Washington Post by Tim Craig, Sean Sullivan, and featured on the front page. On September 22, future—Better production, better nutrition, a better Silvia Foster-Frau explored the history of this bias.

2021, the Assembly of Heads of State at the United environment, and a better life.”

The National Association for the Advancement Nations commemorated the 20th Anniversary of The situation of Haitian communities dramatically of Colored People Legal Defense Fund, the African the Durban Declaration in 2001, and members illustrates why action must be taken to address American-led National Bar Association, and many resolved to make the fight against racism a “high historic and contemporary racism and inequitable other coalitions, including faith leaders, have raised national priority.” food systems. As a global community, we must move moral and legal questions about the way Haitian The theme of the meeting was “Reparations, with greater urgency towards actualizing the United communities have been treated now and historically. racial justice, and equality for people of African Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Goals. May we all find There is a particular sadness about U.S. policies that descent.” On that same day, President Biden ways to do this in our communities. do not protect the human right of Haitians to seek convened a global vaccine summit, which examined Rev. Dr. Angelique Walker-Smith is senior associate for Pan African and Orthodox Church engagement.

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ONLINE SERVICES EXPANDED REACH OF CHURCHES DURING PANDEMIC

By Aaron Earls, Lifeway Research

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, online worship services were a novel concept for many churches. In the almost two years since, however, churches have adapted and reached new people with the adoption of digital streaming.

According to a new study from Nashville-based Lifeway Research, 45% of Americans say they have watched a Christian church service online during the COVID-19 pandemic, including some who say they do not normally physically attend. Around half (52%) say they have not watched a church service during the pandemic, most of whom say they do not normally attend church in person either.

“The distance to one’s nearest church has changed almost overnight,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “A form of communication that was not even used by most churches before the pandemic has now reached almost half of Americans.”

In a previous Lifeway Research study of Protestant pastors conducted prior to the spread of COVID-19, 41% said they didn’t regularly livestream any portion of their church service or post the sermon online later. At the time of the survey, only around 1 in 4 (27%) said they livestreamed either the entire service or just the sermon.

As the coronavirus began to spread and social distancing guidelines emerged, the vast majority of churches quickly provided digital options. By March 2020, Lifeway Research found 92% of Protestant pastors said they provided some type of video sermons or worship services online. That climbed to 97% in April 2020.

In a Lifeway Research study from early 2021, 85% of Protestant churchgoers said their congregation offered livestreamed worship services, and 76% said their church posted a video of the worship service to watch later. Additionally, 53% of churchgoers said they watched online worship services at their church more in 2020 than in 2019, while 21% said they watched more online services at a different church in 2020.

Throughout the pandemic, Lifeway Research found pastors reporting that new people who had previously not attended their church in the past attended or connected online. The latest study seems to bear that out.

When asked, “Have you watched a Christian church service online during the COVID pandemic?” 45% say they have, including 30% who normally attend church in person and 15% who normally do not attend in person.

“It’s not surprising to see churchgoers using online options to view a church service, but there are also those who have not been church attendees who have at least checked out a church service during the pandemic,” said McConnell.

Americans with evangelical beliefs are three times as likely as other Americans to say they watched church services online during the pandemic and normally attend church in person (64% to 20%).

Some of those most likely to say they watched church services online during the pandemic but don’t normally attend church in person include young adults ages 18-34 (18%) and African Americans (22%).

Churches were still not able to reach most Americans with the expansion of digital offerings during the pandemic, however, as 52% say they have not watched services online during the pandemic. Most of those (42%) say they haven’t watched online and normally do not attend church in person. Another 1 in 10 Americans (10%) say they do normally attend church in person but have not watched a church service online during the pandemic.

“Church participation is in flux,” said McConnell. “Some who were regular, in-person churchgoers before COVID-19 only view online services today, others have never tuned in online despite the pandemic, and still others use both at different times. This shift has created both challenges and opportunities for pastors and church leaders.”

Aaron Earls is a writer for Lifeway Christian Resources. For more information, view the complete report or visit LifewayResearch.com.

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AME MEMBER ELECTED AS PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PARLIAMENTARIANS In the 43rd Biennial Session of the National Association of Parliamentarians (NAP) held virtually from September 8-11, 2021, Ms. Wanda M. Sims was elected as national president to serve from 2021-2023.

Ms. Sims has been a member of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Gaithersburg, Maryland, for 36 years. She has served in various capacities, including superintendent of Church School, Trustee Board (Pro-Tem), Stewardship and Finance Commission, Usher Ministry (president), Women’s Missionary Society, Lay Organization, and Young Women’s Mentoring Program.

In addition, Wanda is the Connectional parliamentarian for the Women’s Missionary Society and Connectional Lay Organization of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Wanda has been a member of the NAP since 2008. Prior to her election as president, she served as treasurer and vice president. She is a past president of the McCaskill Unit, a member of the Florida State Association of Parliamentarians, the District of Columbia Association of Parliamentarians member-at-large, the Maryland Association of Parliamentarians member-at-large, and the American Institute of Parliamentarians (AIP). Wanda served as the assistant workshop coordinator for the 2015 NAP Biennial Convention in 2015 and the 2012 and 2014 NAP District 2 conference coordinator.

As a Professional Registered Parliamentarian®, Wanda has experience providing advice on parliamentary procedure, including meeting strategy, developing, revising, and amending bylaws, conducting parliamentary procedure workshops for local governments, civic organizations, and churches, overseeing elections, training presiding officers, boards, and committees, preparing meeting scripts, and analyzing unique and complex matters.

Wanda has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Spelman College, Atlanta, GA, and a master’s degree in organization development and human resources from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. In 2016, she retired from the federal government after working for the Federal Communications Commission for 36 years. Wanda is a life member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, a legacy life member of the National Council of Negro Women, and a life member of the National League of American Pen Women. Wanda recently relocated to Kissimmee, Florida. ...From Continue p2 This once small, 75-member congregation is now a twocampus, 1,400-member ministry with a charter school and a community development corporation. The ministry employs more than 130 people.

Although Dr. Griffin did not win the election, he fully supports Dr. James Miller and wishes him well. “Dr. Miller is my friend and fraternity brother.

What many people do not know is that we prayed together several times during the campaign. We were both running for something and not against each other.”

Now that their south campus location is debt-free, Dr. Griffin is moving forward with making additional improvements to both campuses while he continues to lead the church in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although the members of Wayman were disappointed that his dreams of becoming a general officer did not come to pass, they were both relieved and excited to know that he would continue to serve as their pastor and spiritual father. “I know that the connectional church would have been tremendously blessed by Pastor Griffin if he had been elected. However, we are elated to know that he will continue to lead us at Wayman. The AME Church’s loss is Wayman’s gain,” stated Sis. T’Lana Russell, vice-chairperson of the West Campus Board of Stewards. Dr. Griffin, too, is excited about the future of Wayman Temple and adds, “Our later will be greater than our past. I am focused and ready to lead this church to even greater heights. Sometimes what appears to be defeat is really a victory.”

Wanda Patterson is the Public Relations coordinator for Wayman Ministries in Jacksonville, Florida, the11th Episcopal District.

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INDIGENOUS LEADERS LAMENT INTERGENERATIONAL TRAUMA INFLICTED

BY BOARDING SCHOOLS, SOME WITH EPISCOPAL TIES

By David Pulsen, Episcopal News Service

The Episcopal News Service reported that Pearl Chanar, an Alaska native of Athabascan heritage, grew up in a small village surrounded by her immediate and large extended family. That changed when she became a teenager and was sent hundreds of miles away to a boarding school.

“I remember it took four different airplanes for me to get from my home to this small island far, far away,” Chanar said October 11, 2021, during an online panel discussion hosted by the Episcopal Church’s Office of Indigenous Ministries. “What I remember most,” Chanar noted, “was that loneliness, missing my parents.”

At the school, Chanar said she could communicate with her family through letters. However, she and other Alaska native students were prohibited from using their indigenous languages or enjoying cultural activities, like singing and dancing, she said. They were among the generations of American Indians who endured family separation and forced assimilation into white society in a system that has been described as a kind of cultural genocide.

The panel discussion, “Native thought to have Episcopal organization, she said, Voices: A Response to the Church connections, are sharing “a lot of deep Episcopal Church’s History with though the dearth of spiritual pain and, in fact, Indian Boarding Schools,” was held on Indigenous churchwide records has a lot of anger is being Peoples Day, a holiday that is increasingly being made it difficult to account expressed toward the celebrated in place of Columbus Day. It followed a for the church’s role in the church.”

July statement by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry schools fully.

The legacy of indigenous and the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, the House of “This is a very large boarding schools made Deputies president, acknowledging the church’s and complicated history international headlines past complicity in the boarding school system. that we have to unpack,” this year with the discovery “Kill the Indian, save the man” was the rationale said panelist Christine of a mass grave containing for that system offered in 1892 by Richard Pratt, McCleave, chief executive the remains of 215 children founder of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School officer of the Boarding at a former indigenous in Pennsylvania. Some of the webinar’s panelists School Healing Coalition. She is an Ojibwe boarding school in Canada. Following the discovery cited Pratt’s words as they lamented the legacy of member from the Turtle Mountain Reservation in June, the U.S. Department of Interior announced the federal system of American Indian boarding in North Dakota, and her grandfather and greatthat it was launching a comprehensive review of schools, including some founded and operated by grandfather attended indigenous boarding schools.

American boarding school policies dating to 1819, Episcopal churches.

She explained that the trauma caused by the forced and some lawmakers are pushing for the creation of a The National Native American Boarding disengagement from family and culture has been truth and healing commission to investigate further.

School Healing Coalition, a nonprofit based in passed from generation to generation.

The Episcopal Church supports those efforts.

Minneapolis, Minnesota, has identified at least 373 “We’re at a point where it’s now critical to start “We condemn these practices, and we mourn the schools that were part of that system, many run having these conversations,” McCleave said. The intergenerational trauma that cascades from them.

by Christian denominations. At least nine were Native Americans who have reached out to her We have heard with sorrow stories ...continued on p11

GRATITUDE FOR THE INCANDESCENT WITNESS OF JAMES BALDWIN If white Christians have eyes to see, Baldwin continues to illuminate the path toward ending our racial nightmare.

By Robert P. Jones, Syndicated Columnist

All writers have intellectual and moral debts, and I want to use this opportunity to acknowledge a large one. So today, I lift, with gratitude, the work and life of James Baldwin, from whose writing the title of my recent book is taken.

It’s perhaps surprising that the writing of a black, gay author hailing from Harlem a generation before my time would resonate with me—a white, straight guy who grew up as a Southern Baptist on the working-class side of town in Jackson, Mississippi. However, from the time my eyes first danced across the lines his hands first tapped out on a manual typewriter, I had an experience that is best described in a word from our shared Christian faith: “Communion.” I felt Baldwin speaking to me, and the power of his writing called for an answer. His living words compelled me, for the first time in my professional career as a social scientist, to learn to write in the first person.

I was moved by his unflinching perceptiveness. I was in awe that even in his more despairing moments, as white Americans and white churchgoers repeatedly spurned calls for black equality, he refused to dip his pen into the well of hatred.

I also found familiar his own deep wrestling with a Christianity that drew and disappointed him.

I found myself coming back, again and again, to a searing New York Times op-ed Baldwin wrote in the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. It was a painful indictment.

I will flatly say that the bulk of this country’s white population

impresses me, and has so impressed me for a very long time, as being beyond any conceivable hope of moral rehabilitation. They have been white, if I may so put it, too long; they have been married to the lie of white supremacy too long; the effect on their personalities, their lives, their grasp of reality, has been as devastating as the lava which so memorably immobilized the citizens of Pompeii. They are unable to conceive that their version of reality, which they want me to accept, is an insult to my history and a parody of theirs, and an intolerable violation of myself.

I was seven months old when these words first circulated. As I read Baldwin as a middle-aged adult, I have been haunted by his repeated calls to white Americans, and particularly white Christians, to emerge from our self-induced white supremacist psychosis. My book is, at heart, a belated attempt to begin a white Christian response to Baldwin, one that embraces his hope expressed in The Fire Next Time that, if enough of us can find the courage and the love, “we may be able, handful that we are, to end the racial nightmare, and achieve our country, and change the history of the world.”

As Baldwin provocatively noted, the Civil Rights Movement began when an oppressed and despised people began to wake up collectively to what had happened to them. The question today—and one Baldwin put before us half a century ago—is whether we white Christians will also awaken to see what has happened to us and to grasp once and for all how white supremacy has robbed us of ...continued on p11

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RAPHAEL WARNOCK HONORED WITH FOUR FREEDOMS AWARD IN ‘EXTRA STEP’ FOR RACIAL JUSTICE

By Adelle Banks, Religion News Service

Senator Raphael Warnock, who continues to pastor his historic Atlanta church while serving as Georgia’s first black U.S. senator, has received the Roosevelt Institute’s Freedom of Worship Award in a ceremony focused on racial justice.

“I really felt that the strength of his pastoral voice was unique,” Anne Roosevelt, granddaughter of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and board chair of the institute, told Religion News Service hours before Warnock was honored in a Wednesday, October 13, 2021 ceremony. “And now, he’s in this new role, in addition to his role as pastor at the church,” said Roosevelt, “but his voice is consistently counseling, teaching, making himself vulnerable in order to help the rest of us make sense of the world.”

Warnock, the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was once co-pastor, was honored on the same evening with New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones. She was awarded the institute’s Freedom of Speech and Expression Award after spearheading the newspaper’s 1619 Project that explored the history and legacy of slavery in the U.S. The senator, interviewed during the virtual ceremony by Community Change President Dorian Warren, said he views himself as a “pastor in the Senate,” reminding the powerful not to ignore people with no wealth. “For me,” says Warnock, “faith gets engaged in the messiness of worldly struggle; it’s not hidden behind stained-glass windows,” Warnock said. “You probably could step over (the poor), but you shouldn’t. God warns us not to do that. My work is putting them always at the center. Because in their faces, we see the face of God.” The respective names of the Four Freedoms Awards are taken from fundamental liberties laid out in a 1941 speech to Congress by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected to four terms in the Oval Office. He spoke of the “freedom of every person to worship God in his own way — everywhere in the world.”

His granddaughter, 73, said the institute, which has published reports and fact sheets on racial inequities, chose to take an “extra step” toward racial justice through this year’s awards. “This is one event where we could say, ‘So what does it mean to be an anti-racist giver of awards?’” she said, “and to challenge ourselves and bring it to our own consciousness.”

Acknowledging that African Americans and other people of color were often left out of her grandfather’s New Deal reforms, Roosevelt noted, “We are still falling short of making sure that we deliver the same benefits of our democracy to every person in our country.”

While Anne Roosevelt’s grandfather and grandmother, Eleanor Roosevelt, were lifelong Episcopalians, she said she was raised Catholic and is not currently affiliated with a denomination. Nevertheless, as a member of the committee that nominated Warnock for his award, she said she appreciates him as a leader and as a person of faith. “I don’t often reflect on Jesus, but when I do, I picture him being surrounded by the people who followed him,” she said. “[Jesus] taught them how to live, how to live as the fullest and best expression of humanity. And I feel like Senator Warnock is in that mode.” o o o ...From Gratitude p10

our own heritage and of our ability to be in right relationships with our fellow citizens, with ourselves, and even with God. So, thank you, James Baldwin. During your lifetime, we white Christians were plainly unable to discern our debilitating delusions, even in the incandescent light of your witness. We were unprepared to heed your call to truth-telling and repentance, and health. We may still prove incapable today. However, we have a better chance of freeing ourselves from the disfiguring disease of white supremacy because of the testimony preserved in your writing.

This is the power—the magic really—of writing: That it faithfully transports ideas across time and cultures. That it can hold an image in the looking glass until we are able to see it. That it can preserve a seed until there is soil to receive it, bearing fruit that sustains us in our time of need.

This column was originally published in Robert P. Jones’s #WhiteTooLong weekly newsletter. Sign up to receive it directly at robertpjones.substack.com.

“Robert P. Jones is the CEO and founder of Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and the author of White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, winner of a 2021 American Book Award.”

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...From Indigenous p10

of how this history has harmed the families of many Indigenous Episcopalians,” Curry and Jennings said in their July statement.

They further expressed, “While complete records are unavailable, we know that The Episcopal Church was associated with indigenous schools during the 19th and 20th centuries. We must come to a full understanding of the legacies of these schools.”

The Rev. Bradley Hauff, the Episcopal Church missioner for Indigenous Ministries, read from the presiding officers’ statement at the open of the webinar. Hauff, who is Lakota, also shared his own family’s story, how both of his parents attended indigenous boarding schools in South Dakota. His mother, Margaret, attended an Episcopal boarding school as a child. His father, Sylvan, was taken at age 5 to a boarding school run by the federal government. His father would go to the gate for the first year and wait for someone to come take him home, but no one came. In reflection, Hauff said, “[my father] got angry, and he realized he had to get tough in order to survive the boarding school experience. That’s an awful thing to happen to someone that young. I’m amazed that he made it through and did as well as he did, but that’s the resiliency.”

Boarding school students endured a wide spectrum of experiences, as Hauff and other participants detailed. Some students were forced to attend, while other families voluntarily sent their children to receive what often was the only education available. In some cases, they endured a nightmare of mistreatment, abuse, and death far from their homes. Other survivors of the boarding schools recall no physical abuse but still trauma from the family separation and deprivation of their culture and identity.

Some of the webinar’s panelists said they welcomed the statement this year by Curry and Jennings. It was “a good beginning,” said Forrest Cuch, a member of the Ute tribe and an Episcopalian from Utah. “We have a long way to go—a long, long way. Native Americans have suffered under oppressive European colonialism for hundreds of years, since the time of Christopher Columbus,” Cuch said. “The boarding school system only exacerbated that trauma.”

Cuch further remarked, “What troubles me the most is the horrific dysfunction that I’ve observed in our families and other families as a result.

It has to be healed.”

Hauff addressed the legacy of the boarding schools during committee discussions at the June meeting of the Executive Council, and a more thorough discussion is expected at the governing body’s October meeting.

Curry and Jennings also pledged to “make right relationships with our indigenous siblings an important focus of the work of Executive Council and the 80th General Convention” in July 2022.

Some indigenous boarding schools remain open today, though they no longer operate under former federal policies of forced assimilation. The Ven. Paul Sneve, who is Rosebud Sioux and serves as archdeacon in the Diocese of South Dakota, said both of his parents worked at the Flandreau Indian School, as did Sneve himself for about ten years. Stripped of the 19th century policies of “kill the Indian; save the man,” the school now focuses on helping indigenous students succeed academically while honoring their native culture and identity.

Sneve also has heard the painful stories of earlier generations of American Indians who attended the boarding schools, including his mother, grandmother, and great-grandparents. “Their pain is perpetually passed on to their descendants unless they are able to heal that trauma,” he said.

“We owe it to them to expose our hearts and begin to heal,” Sneve said.

“This discussion is going to take a very long time, and we have to be patient and listen very carefully and prayerfully.”

Chanar, who now lives northwest of Fairbanks in Minto, Alaska, said the news this year of a mass grave at a former Canadian boarding school made her “angry all over again,” but she is hopeful that the church will seize this moment to listen to the stories of survivors like her.

“This is the history of the church, and we have to go through the healing,” she said.

David Paulsen is an editor and reporter for Episcopal News Service. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.

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ON THE EDGE OF IGNORANCE AND KNOWING: BLACK PREACHING AND THE BLACK CHURCH—ARE WE IN TROUBLE?

By Dr. Brandon A. A. J. Davis, Contributing Writer

Recently, a video of Pastor Marvin Winans of Perfecting Church, Detroit, Michigan, while preaching in Independence, Kentucky, to a predominantly white congregation, made willfully ignorant, damaging, and completely false statements about the legitimacy of the Black Church. During his homiletically-problematic sermon, he denied the existence of the Black Church, stating: “There never was a Black Church.”

Winans further stated that he was disturbed when people relegated the move of the Holy Spirit to the Black Church or to an African experience as witnessed in cultural and ritual ceremonies akin to voodoo. The one-minute and eightsecond video gained viral status as scores of African American lay and clergy persons shared the offensive and biblically intrusive sound bite of stupidity, adding to the already burgeoning list of seminary and history students taking both Winans and his unsolicited opinion to task.

Winans statements are without question sickening! They reek of a “stepin-fetchit” and “yessa boss” sentimentality, proven true through his appeasement pandering to the left as he assuages his white listener’s comfort to remain in their bigoted and racist falsities. The legendary Dr. Issac Rufus Clark of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia, would certainly call Winans lack of homiletical discourse “bovine fecal matter.”

Marvin Winans revealed in that sixty-eightsecond video more than his stupidity!

He proved he lacks intelligence. That kind of hate towards one’s own culture is both psychologically and biblically problematic. It is what you call homiletical pseudospeciation—the dehumanizing of culture, customs, traditions, and practices of black people, separating himself into an “in-group” celebrated by the very skin color of people clapping for his buffoonery and racist slander of the Black Church! While preaching, he denies the ethnicity of the Black Church and Black Church experience and does so in an ethical, rhythmic, and cultural way! While he is actively denying the truth of the Black Church experience, he’s whooping his unfounded claims with a pretext of biblical context unsubstantiated with dubious and inexistent exegesis.

In a time where African Americans faced the almost successful resurgence of old-world racism, bathed in nostalgic treatment of black and brown people due to the election of Donald Trump, police brutality, Afrophobia, and white-washed Christian evangelicalism from 2016-2020, the dismissal of both the Black Church and the Black Church experience comes at a high price for both Marvin Winans and clergy and lay leaders in the Black Church tradition.

While Winans unscrupulous bashing of the Black Church in what seemingly felt like a systematically oppressive slap in the face,

it does, however, trigger the consciousness of the Black Church to rethink who she is willing to claim as its own. With the recent death of Prof. Albert Jordy Raboteau II, the famed and noted African and African American scholar and theologian whose work includes: African American Religion, Fire in the Bones: Reflections on African American Religious History, Canaan Land: A Religious History of African Americans, and Slave Religion: The Invisible Institution in the Antebellum South, one can, with ease, see how the statements from Winans present an emotional discomfort but damaging to the efficacy of the storied legacy of the Black Church experience.

With the availability of books ranging from Dr. James Hal Cone to Dr. Kelly Brown Douglass, it is with mixed emotions that I struggle to stand with the litany of people who called for the cancellation of Winans. In truth, Winans, a product of both the Black Church tradition, namely the Church of God in Christ, has also found success and notoriety because of the Black Church. Yet, in a dastardly act of pandering to whiteness, Winans sells his soul for the convenience of likability.

It’s called Dunning Kruger Effect or DKE. It happens when one’s incompetence prevents him or her from seeing his or her incompetence. DKE is harmful to the institution of the Black Church simply because actions and words have consequences.

Black millennials and some aspects of the Black Lives Matter movement have

already begun to question the need for the Black Church. There is a major decrease in their support and attendance of black churches and their desire to see the Black Church shift back to its historical position as the leader in the fight for social justice.

The flip side is that the Black Church must find ways to invest in the education of both its clergy and lay leaders in learning sound biblical, theological, and historical truths of the blackness of Christianity.

It is more than just a social commentary when respected theologians’ criticism of whiteness in Christianity calls for an end to the abuse of the truth about the messianic deity of Christ and the subjugation of people of color as slaves and inferior to white people in their contrived biblical narratives. The constant rebuke of lies, fallacies, and bovine fecal matter must be rooted out, and it begins with preaching and preachers like Winans, who deny the truth of the blackness of the church not only as a reality but also as the conduit by which Christianity was birthed.

Brandon Arthur Antavian Jasper Davis began his ministry at the age of 9 years old. A proud 2007 graduate of Allen University, he attended Payne Theological Seminary earning a Master of Divinity in 2011 due to the personal friendship and mentorship of Bishop Vinton R. Anderson.

He later earned a Doctor of Ministry from United Theological Seminary graduating as a Walker-Cummings fellow in 2015. He has pastored churches in the 7th and 3rd Episcopal districts. He is a published writer with works in several AME publications and local newspapers. He currently writes for the Duplin Times Newspaper. Ministry and preaching are secondary to his love of family; nevertheless, they are most important to him and he has for the past 26 years committed his life to those endeavors.

THAT’S LOVE?

By Rev. Jarena Hooper, Contributing Writer

Just after Jesus dismisses Judas from the table, Jesus issues the new commandment: “Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other” (John 13:34). That is really the foundation for the behavior guide of all believers. Everything that the disciples had seen Jesus do, how he treated others and them, all hangs on this moment. Now, you do it. You love!

As believers who identify as African Methodists, Christ issues the same command in 2021: You love! While this is true, we often find ourselves victims of invasive street committee banter from perpetrators who forget the command to “love each other.” We must be mindful that every conversation, theory, and rumor impacts another disciple Christ has urged us to love. of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, pastoral Most vividly, this command was abandoned during our General Conference and appointments outside of the pastor’s existing the subsequent months of adjustments throughout the Connection. As a pastor, it Episcopal district or conference often allow grace from the episcopacy. Pastors and is important to keep loving the flock to whom you are appointed even when you are congregations are given the opportunity to say goodbye. Pastors and congregations aware of a pending transition. A demonstration of this love is to preach with even more are given the opportunity to express love. Perhaps this model would better suit our intentionality and ensure that the impending transition is met with as little hurt as Connectional church even when the appointment is within a conference and Episcopal possible. After all, Jesus told the disciples himself that he was leaving them. They did not district. Whether this becomes a standard or not, we must strive to reach the standard find this out from strangers or through rumors from the Jewish street committee. They of Christ: love one another. Allow the pastor to love his or her congregation enough to were loved enough by Jesus to get the message from Jesus. Can we love in this same way? say personally, “I will be with you only a little longer” (John 13:33). That’s love. o o o Although it is not within our tradition or even required by The Doctrine and Discipline

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EXHALE—MEDITATIONS FOR HEALING THE HEART OF A WOMAN

By Rev. Dr. Maxine L. Thomas, Columnist

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1 NRSV).

Jesus Dropped the Charges Beloved, when you gave your life to the Lord Jesus, all your sins were washed away.

God forgave you of every sinful deed, every sinful thought, and every sinful word you had ever said. Yes, he washed you and made you as white as snow. I dare you to give him your old filthy garments and let him give you a robe of pure white! Jesus has washed your slate clean!

Beloved, be exceedingly glad! “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23 NRSV). You may not feel like you are forgiven. In fact, every now and then, you may not feel like you are really saved. Every now and then, Satan, the father of lies and the accuser of the brethren, will try to make you feel like you have sunken so low that you can’t get back up. He will mess with your mind and plant seeds of self-condemnation that will cause you to doubt God’s love for you. But the devil is a liar! Truth crushed to the ground shall rise again!

The Bible says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12 NRSV). He remembers them no more. “[God] will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19 NRSV). There is power in the blood of

Jesus! There is power in the blood of the lamb! When you gave your life to Christ, you became a part of his body. Because of your faith and his grace, you are now in him, and he is now in you. Because you are in him, there is no need for you to feel guilty about past sins.

God has forgiven you and forgotten them! Beloved, you must forgive yourself and forget the sins of your past. God does not want us to live in the past. He desires that we press on toward what tomorrow holds in him. Aren’t you glad to be in Christ? Hallelujah!

All of my sins have been washed away!

Perhaps you have forgiven yourself, but others remember when. You know, that friend who’s always reminding you of the time you turned left when you should have turned right—those who constantly resurrect your old life. Perhaps some even hold unforgiveness toward you because of a past offense on your part, and they have been unable to receive a place of forgiveness in their heart for you. My friend, if you have not made peace with your fellow man, go to that person and make it right. If not a visit in person, maybe a phone call or a letter will suffice.

But whatever you do, acknowledge and repent of any wrongful deed on your part. For the Bible says, “If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all (Romans 12:18 NRSV). If you have already gone to ...continued on p18

“TAKE THOU AUTHORITY”: REFLECTIONS ON MY ORDINATION AS AN ITINERANT ELDER

By Jazmine Brooks, News Editor

My most formative years were spent in a high-spirited black church that was much like how we might imagine an Azusa Street revival to look. Outside doors leading to the sanctuary were opened while spirits were cast out of persons looking for deliverance. Prayer lines filled the middle aisle with people who would eventually be covered in a white blanket after the whispers of a pastor who somehow heard what was not spoken. The sounds of glossolalia were just loud enough to cover the voices of ushers who were watching as they prayed. The music was lively, and the preaching was fiery, but the pinnacle of the service was always the laying on of hands.

Such is the case for those of us who chose to answer the call to ministry in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. We wade through the waters of examination, we earn degrees, we practice ministry, we preach, and we pray, but the pinnacle of the journey toward ordination is the laying on of hands. We watch and wait for it, as did those of New Union Chapel AME Church, Norfolk.

Many came just for that moment, and though I did not have the language to articulate what I was witnessing at the time, it was during those years that I came to understand the power of that ritualistic practice. It is not just about the jubilant worship or the pomp and circumstance, though we may enjoy those things; but it is the pouring out of the Holy Spirit facilitating a supernatural experience that cannot be encapsulated with words.

The laying on of hands signifies an anointing of sorts that ultimately serves as the catalyst for the metanoia of the Holy Spirit to meet with the broken spirit and contrite heart of those seeking transformation. The sick are healed, burdens are lifted, grieving hearts find comfort, and souls find joy in the laying on of hands. In fewer words—once you have been touched, you are never the same.

One-two-three-four-five-six-seven—each hand counted as it was laid upon my head. Each hand added an undeniable weight as Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie prepared to pray: “The Lord pour upon you the Holy Spirit for the office and work of an elder in the Church of God, now committed to you by the imposition of our hands.” The transference of power taking place at that moment is not lost on me.

Words once reserved for men are now being spoken over me by the first woman elected and consecrated to the office of bishop in our denomination. It was, for me, the culmination of every door opened for the subversive spirit of patriarchal gatekeeping to be cast out, every prayer line ending in the power of the Holy Spirit

resting upon all persons, and the laying on of hands signifying the transformative power of God’s spirit to anoint our church anew. I will never be the same. So may we never be the same.

Though many of us met the ordination altar with a sigh of relief and celebration to be done with the process, that moment was not the demarcation of an ending or a height to be plateaued, but the beginning of a transformed life turned toward a new ministerial journey. Those seven hands laid upon our heads connote the impartation of ministerial authority and responsibility that cannot be taken lightly.

Real lives are on the other side of our theology, of our preaching, of our ordination.

That is the weight of the crown of hands laid upon our heads and for those of us who are women, even more so.

In the same way that I am the product of a New Union Chapel prayer, I am the fruit of the Rev. Jarena Lee, the Rev. Elizabeth Scott, Bishop Sarah F. Davis, and the scores of women in ministry whose righteous indignation, silent tears, and courage to return after rejection built the altar on which I knelt. I have made it to the front of the prayer line, and I am covered. I will always endeavor to wear the weight of the mantle upon my head in such a way that builds upon the work of those who came before me. Taking my authority to preach the word of God and to administer the holy sacrament in the congregation in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Rev. Jazmine Brooks is a Master of Divinity student at Wesley Theological Seminary and is a member of New Union Chapel AME Church of Norfolk, Virginia. She currently serves as a ministerial intern at Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, DC. Throughout her matriculation, Jazmine has maintained occupation in the DC Public Charter School System as well as in the Army Reserves. She is committed to the work of creating spaces for the innovative engagement of intergenerational ministries, justice, and community as an investment in the life of the embodied gospel of Christ.

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THE GIFT OF BLACK THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION AND THE BLACK SEMINARY COLLABORATIVE

By Dr. Herman O. Kelly, Jr., Contributing Writer

I was fortunate to complete continuing education unit (CEU) hours from The Gift of Black Theological Education and The Black Seminary Collaborative sponsored by Payne Seminary from January to June 2021. When Dr. John Thomas approached me, I was excited because I could be a student. I tell my students at Louisiana State University, “A good teacher must always learn to be a good student.”

The program consisted of twelve one-hour learning modules, and due to COVID-19, these learning modules were presented through technology. This virtual platform added to my learning curve and allowed me to enhance my technology skills.

The presentations were directed by well-known theological scholars who pushed participants to think critically from a black theological perspective. The overall concern was to remind us of the importance of black theological training. The collaborative was a combination of all the black seminaries that actively train clergy for ministry. We were challenged by the Rev. Dr. Alton B. Pollard, the Rev. Dr. Heber Brown, Dr. Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., and others. We were asked to think and reflect from our marginalized existence as black theologians.

The program challenged us to explore the following questions: How do we do theology from the context of blackness in America? How do we articulate the message from the seminary to our 80-year-old

grandmothers who know about the saving power of Jesus Christ, a way-making God and faith and grace?

However, the question that made us evaluate our work throughout the learning modules was: “Are we truly communicating the word of God with clarity and power?” I was engaged and challenged with each session to remember the persons to whom we preach and teach regarding the salvation of Christ.

The module leaders gave us hard questions to wrestle with and rubrics to unpack for clarity and understanding.

We had one session focused on young people in our congregations and ministry settings. When this module was completed, I involved some young people at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to help me articulate and clarify the message in their language and context. The module on young people was an important step toward including our legacy in theological work.

I would highly recommend this course for anyone who wants to do serious theological work and expand his or her framework for a new and different age. The hard questions made me think and reflect on my foundational theology. As a graduate of two white seminaries, Boston University School of Theology and Memphis Theological Seminary, this experience challenged me to remember my old landmarks from St. Paul AME Church in Jacksonville, Florida,

which helped shape my theology and my personhood for Christian ministry.

It was the pastor and my parents who helped me see the saving power of Jesus. As the chairperson of the Board of Examiners of the Eighth Episcopal District, we require our candidates to study and reflect theologically and use critical and practical thinking. Since that is the case, I must continue to be theologically relevant and prepared to give direction and mentorship to a new era of preachers, teachers, and theologians. This charge is my reason for taking this engaging and thought-provoking course.

Dr. Herman O. Kelly, Jr. is the pastor of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He also serves as an adjunct instructor in the African and African American Studies Department, College of Education at Louisiana State University. He is the newly appointed advisor of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) at Louisiana State University.

WHEN THE WORD BECOMES INCARNATE: THE POWER OF THE VOICE

By J. Jioni Palmer, Contributing Writer

Black. Lives. Matter.

Three. Simple. Words.

Alone they are inanimate. Just words on the page. Without context, definition, relevance, or meaning. Kind of like—white.

Deaths. Unimportant.

Three. Simple. Words.

Black Lives Matter.

Together they come alive. Together they have power. Together they demand action.

Black Lives Matter.

Whoever writes or speaks those words as an affirmation invokes an empowering love for self and others. However, it is more than a declaration or a call to action when proclaimed in this way. It is an action in and of itself. The words have become incarnate.

Language and action ought to be inextricably linked. Or, to paraphrase the bard of Long Beach, Snoop Dogg, one without the other is like Harold Melvin without the Blue Notes, “They’ll never go platinum.”

Words give action meaning, and action gives words life. What you do should be a manifestation of what is said. Black Lives Matter is a phrase and a movement rooted and tethered to the lived experiences of people of African descent in America. It is historical and contemporary. It is political, sociological, and educational. It is eschatological and existential. It is why Audre Lorde wrote, “Raising black children — female and male — in the mouth of a racist, sexist, suicidal dragon is perilous and chancy. If they cannot love and resist at the same time, they will probably not survive.”

For religious education to equip black people to love and resist for the sake of survival, it must first embrace a critical pedagogy that begins with the learner’s existing knowledge and connects it with their lived experience.

This embrace requires rejecting the normative gaze framed by those in power, favoring an alternative consciousness that challenges the religious, political, and social order. This is precisely why Black Lives Matter, uttered as a statement or expressed in action, is so threatening and unsettling to many. It is more than

a representation of an idea or a desire; it is evidence of a transformation from acceptance or acquiescence to rejection and resistance.

Protest is often the result when religious educators connect public theology with critical pedagogy that interrogates the normative gaze. How can one not challenge and seek to change the status quo when one’s gaze has shifted to the perspective of those in need of being served rather than those who demand to be served? Education that is empowering begins by focusing on the lived experiences of the one being taught. All education, particularly religious education, must first be relevant to the learner for it to be transformative.

My very first class at the Howard University School of Divinity was “Introduction to Ministry and Theological Writing.” It is a core class that students are encouraged to take during their first year, preferably the first semester. Still, I took the class merely because it fit my hectic extracurricular and fixed schedule as a senior government executive, husband, and father. Despite the circumstance, I am glad this course served as the genesis of my theological studies. It required me to think about and try my hand at writing for the academy and the pews. Although I spent the years since the turn of the century earning a paycheck as a journalist, press secretary, communication’s director, and senior advisor, I stood at the precipices of something wholly other.

Sure, I had written academic papers as an undergraduate, but that was in the last century. Even then, I never had to opine on eschatology, ...continued on p24

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RENAMING OF THE DALLAS COUNTY COURT HOUSE

By KC Bailey, TCR Photographer

It has been a long time coming, but the Dallas County Court House in Selma, Alabama was renamed on September 14, 2021 to honor two dedicated servants of the civil rights era, Bruce Boynton, Esq., son of Amelia Boynton, and J. L. Chestnut, Jr., Esq. Both have represented many people in this court house; and it was just a matter of time for Selma to recognize two of their own. o o o

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CLIMATE CRISIS: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

By Rev. Betty Holley, Ph.D., Contributing Writer

How do we know earth is warming?

Several indicators show conclusively that earth has warmed since the 19th century. In addition to warming shown in the observational record of oceanic and atmospheric temperatures, other evidence includes melting glaciers and continental ice sheets, rising global sea levels, a longer frostfree season, changes in temperature extremes, and increases in atmospheric humidity consistent with long-term warming.

How will climate change impact economic productivity?

The impact of climate change is expected to have negative effects on economic productivity, such as increased prices of goods and services. For example, increased exposure to extreme heat may reduce the hours individuals are able to work. Physical capital- such as food, equipment, and property- derived from the production of goods and services may be impacted because of lower production and higher costs due to climate change. Sea level rise, stronger storm surges, and increased heavy downpours that cause flooding can disrupt supply chains or damage properties, structures, and infrastructure that form the backbone of the nation’s economy.

What is the difference between global warming and climate change?

The terms “global warming” and “climate change” are used interchangeably, although their meanings are slightly different. Global warming refers only to earth’s rising surface temperature. At the same time, climate change includes temperature changes and a multitude of effects that result from warming, including melting glaciers, increased humidity, heavier rainstorms, and changes in the patterns of some climate-related extreme events.

What do scientists mean by the “warmest year on record”?

When scientists declare it the “warmest year on record,” they mean it is the warmest year since modern global surface temperature record-keeping began in 1880. Global temperature data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) show that 2016 marked the sixth time this century that a new record high annual average temperature was set (along with 2002, 2005, 2010, 2014, and 2015), and that 17 of the 18 warmest years have occurred since 2001.

How is climate change affecting society?

Climate change is altering the world around us in ways that become increasingly evident with each passing decade. We rely on natural and human systems that are impacted by more intense precipitation events, rising sea levels, and a warming ocean and will be impacted by projected increases in the frequency of droughts, heat waves, and other extreme weather patterns.

Are some people more vulnerable to climate change than others?

Yes. Climate change affects certain people and populations differently than others.

Some communities have higher exposure and sensitivity to climate-related hazards than others. Other communities have more resources to prepare for and respond to rapid change than others. Communities with fewer resources are underrepresented in government, live in or near deteriorating infrastructure (such as damaged levees), or lack financial safety nets are all more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

Can we slow climate change?

Yes. While we cannot stop climate change overnight, or even over the next several decades, we can limit the amount of climate change by reducing human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). The challenge in slowing or reversing climate change is finding a way to make these changes on a global scale that is technically, economically, socially, and politically viable.

The Rev. Betty Whitted Holley, Ph.D., serves as the presiding elder of the Columbus-Springfield-Xenia District of the Ohio Conference in the 3rd Episcopal District. Dr. Holley is a member of the core faculty at Payne Theological Seminary, teaching theological research and writing, ecological theology, eco-justice and the Christian faith, and Christian Education. She was recently appointed the director for the Master of Divinity Degree Program.

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REPORT FROM THE 2021 SOUTHEAST ALABAMA CONFERENCE

By Adolphus Thompson, 9th Episcopal District

The Ninth Episcopal District has just concluded its most recent rounds of annual conferences for the close of the 2020-2021 Conference Year, under the leadership of Presiding Prelate Harry L. Seawright. All sessions were successfully conducted on Zoom and Facebook, except for the Opening Worship Services of the Solid Southeast Alabama Conference, hosted in-person and streamed from the Historic St. Luke AME Church in the charming southern city of Eufaula, Alabama.

Presiding Elders Marshall and The St. Luke AME Church Sherrod with Bishop Seawright.

Host Committee, consisting of officers and members of Historic St. Luke and led by Pastor James Redding and Steward Adolphus Thompson, paid attention to all COVID-19 precautions, ensuring all worship attendees were socially distanced, safe, and comfortable. There was even a medical attendant on-site to issue vaccinations for COVID-19.

Candid moment at the Annual Conference.

The feat of hosting an Annual Conference during a pandemic is not for the faint of heart. However, the host presiding elder of the DothanEufaula District, the Rev. Dr. Frederick D. Sherrod III, along with the associate host presiding elder of the Ozark-Troy District, the Rev. Dr. Willie E. Marshall, were super excited that their Southeast Annual Conference would serve as a model for other Ninth Episcopal District churches to emulate. This gathering felt like a homecoming because it was the first time that many clergy and lay alike were able to worship in person in several months. The Rev. Willie White, the pastor of Johns Chapel AME Church of Enterprise, Alabama, served as the proclaimer of the word with his powerful sermon entitled: “A Fresh Start.”

After the worship service, all in-person conference attendees dined over a delectable catered meal. Bishop Seawright fellowshipped and departed afterward, commuted, and continued to lead the conference while en route to his Birmingham office, while not missing a beat. What a juxtaposition! Bishop Seawright was able to conduct the business of the conference while sitting in a 181-year-old sanctuary while conversing using 2021 technology to gathered guests, Bishop Carolyn Tyler-Guidry, and members of the conference. This was truly an annual conference for the history books! o o o

CHAPLAIN, COLONEL (SELECT) REGINA O. SAMUEL We are proud to announce that Chaplain Lieutenant Colonel Regina O. Samuel was selected for promotion to Colonel on the Air Force CY21B-621B Chaplain Colonel Board. Pending Senate confirmation, Chaplain Samuel will be the first woman Chaplain Colonel in the Air Force Chaplain Corps endorsed by the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Chaplain Samuel is currently assigned to the National Reconnaissance Office, Chantilly, Virginia. She is a member of the Northeast Annual Conference. Her home church is Mt. Zion AME Church, Florence, South Carolina. ooo

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UPDATES FROM THE AME CHURCH INTERNATIONAL HEALTH COMMISSION The African Methodist Episcopal Church International Health Commission (AME IHC) has moved into the new quadrennium with the expansion of and the development of new activities, events, programs, and planning at all levels of the Connection. Based on recommendations from our most globally attended Quadrennial Training and Meeting (June 2021), we have moved our monthly meetings to the fourth Saturday and have included a time for ongoing training at the opening of each meeting.

Before the end of October 2021, the website (http:// www.amechealth.org) will look very different. It will be more user-friendly with easier to locate topical resources. A mobile app for Android and iOS will also be launched by the end of the month. Our upgraded media presence will allow improved access for those around the Connection. Translation utilities are forthcoming. The Health Commission YouTube Channel library will continue to expand the recordings of webinars and other video presentations. The Facebook page also provides regularly updated information.

Many local churches have developed or expanded their health ministries. In addition, several presiding elder districts have organized health commissions.

While there are a few recently appointed Episcopal District health directors, however, there are Episcopal districts for which we are unaware of those designated as health director. This concern also extends to the presiding elder district and local church levels. We, therefore, request that a Google Form be used to advise us of the contact information for directors and coordinators at all levels.

While this messaging summarizes the programming highlights with only two of our ministry programs, Alzheimer’s Association and Black Church Food Security Network, we will continue to provide information and updates about our 14 ministries over the next few months.

The AME IHC Farm and Garden Initiative, in partnership with the Black Church Food Insecurity Network, provides important resources and training to address food insecurity and food injustice. Farms and gardens produce an abundance of healthy food that can be shared in communities and cities that are food deserts and therefore lack access to fresh produce, the ability to feed the hungry, and have limited disaster relief food supplies. A map of farms and gardens in the Connection and other faith-based communities is currently being developed. This data will create a sustainable nationwide food supply network and will also be used to highlight the economic and health benefits of local farms and gardens. In addition, the Commission aims to increase the use of Culinary Rx (http://www.amechealth.org/culinaryrx).

The Farm and Garden Initiative programming is detailed in three subprograms: 1. Operation Higher Ground (Increase resources and connections to healthy foods) 2.

Soil to Sanctuary Market (Encourage miniature farmers’ markets at churches, connect local farmers, and provide access to fresh food) 3. B lack Church Census (Take inventory of current resources) Register for the Farm and Garden Initiative at https://forms.gle/ MEJAM3HFfWdHUGTz9. If there are any questions, please feel free to contact the Rev. Carolyn Cavaness at amefarmfresh@gmail.com.

AME IHC –Alzheimer’s Association Partnership The African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC) is proud to partner with the Alzheimer’s Association® for the third year to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s disease among the African American community. We are expanding AMEhosted education programs and support groups to reach more communities and increase the resources available throughout the Connection.

To learn about volunteer opportunities, join us on Tuesday, November 16, 2021, from 6:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m. CDT for a Volunteer Welcome and Orientation webinar. During this webinar, the Alzheimer’s Association will provide an overview of the various AMEC-specific volunteer roles, how to apply to become a volunteer, and what to expect as an Association volunteer.

ALZ Magazine shares inspiration and information about ...continued on p24

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— — HOMEGOINGS — — MRS. LUCINDA CRAWFORD BELIN (1941-2021) Lucinda Crawford Belin was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on November 24, 1941, to Willie Lee Crawford and Leola Gaunt Crawford. The third of five children, Mrs. Belin was raised in Clarksdale in a loving and nurturing home. Since her birth and early years, the Crawford family had a prominent presence in Friendship African Methodist Episcopal Church in Clarksdale, where Mrs. Belin was nurtured in the Christian faith, and it was there that she attended Sunday School and ACE League.

Mrs. Belin was educated in the public schools of Clarksdale, Mississippi, where she excelled in her studies. Her excellence was rewarded by her acceptance as a scholarship student to both Fisk University and Spelman College, but her father decided that she was too young to go away from family at fourteen years of age. She attended Coahoma Junior College and Alcorn State University in Lorman, Mississippi, where she earned a degree in English, was initiated into the Delta Epsilon Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. In May 2011, she had the opportunity to celebrate her 50th class reunion. Upon her graduation, Mrs. Belin taught in the public schools of Mississippi.

She met the Rev. Henry Allen Belin, Jr. during his tenure as pastor of Friendship African Methodist Episcopal Church, and after two years, they were married on September 4, 1962. They moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and became the proud parents of Henry III; they were transferred to the 13th Episcopal District, where Toni and Roderick were later born. Their marriage began a lifelong partnership in ministry, where Mrs. Belin, as the first lady of Missions and Ministry, offered unwavering support to all the congregations her family served, establishing meaningful relationships and being fully involved in the life of the church. With three young children, Mrs. Belin understood the plight of young mothers and founded and directed the daycare center at Payne Chapel AME Church, Nashville, when her husband served as pastor. After Rev. Belin was elected secretary-treasurer of the AME Sunday School Union in 1972, Mrs. Belin served as bookkeeper and accountant. Following Rev. Belin’s election as the 104th elected and consecrated bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Mrs. Belin served as an Episcopal supervisor of Missions for 20 years, initiating an even more prominent reach in the global African Methodist Episcopal Church. She served as Episcopal supervisor in the 15th, 12th, 16th, 3rd, and 7th Episcopal districts before her retirement with her husband, Bishop Henry Allen Belin, Jr., in 2004.

During her service as a supervisor of the Women’s Missionary Society (WMS), Mrs.

Belin served in the Republic of South Africa, Arkansas, and Oklahoma; the West Indies, South America, London, and Amsterdam; Ohio, western Pennsylvania, and West Virginia; and South Carolina. While serving in South Africa, Mrs. Belin raised funds for the building of several parsonages to house pastoral families who had been living in church buildings. As supervisor in the WMS, she taught by example the importance of sisterhood and loyalty. She also served on the Board of Trustees of the Women’s Missionary Society of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Mrs. Belin co-founded the Jubilee Women’s Experience, which became a viable part of very successful women’s retreats in each Episcopal district where they served. Mrs. Belin, known throughout her career as a strong advocate for families and young mothers, shared freely with those in need. It was not uncommon for young women to anonymously receive gifts such as college tuition or clothing made possible by her generosity and care.

Mrs. Belin’s heart for service led to her active involvement in many civic organizations, including Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. for over fifty years, and the Links, Inc. Mrs. Belin also served in the Black Women’s Agenda (BWA) for more than twentyfive years, including as a member of the Board of Directors. In those years, she never sought the limelight but worked tirelessly at every task assigned to her hands. She willingly shared her bookkeeping and accounting expertise with BWA and served as treasurer at the time of her homegoing. In addition, she often nominated women and young ladies for BWA awards; those nominated were of the highest caliber and invariably went on to become winners.

Mrs. Belin departed this life on September 24, 2021. She is survived by her husband of 59 years, Bishop Henry A. Belin, Jr. (retired). Together they are the parents of three children: the Rev. Dr. Henry A. (Rita) Belin III, the Rev. Dr. Toni L. Belin (Raymond) Ingram, and the Rev. Dr. Roderick D. Belin. They have six grandchildren, Omar, Iman, and Asha Ingram; Henry Allen IV, Richard, and Blake Belin; and one greatgrandson, Zion Gibson. She is also survived by one sister, Shirley Crawford Harris of Clarksdale, Mississippi; brothers, Matthew (Bea) Crawford of Jackson, Mississippi, Derrick B. (Ruby) Crawford of Tunica, Mississippi; family members, the Rev. Dr. Connie Belin and Bishop Stafford Wicker, Valencia and Lauren; the Rev. Lynne Denise Burkhead, Ladell, Leilani, Travon, Jalyn, and Lillian; Raffaela Wilson; Toyce and Herman Newton; James, Betty, Beronia, and Belinda Battle; Josh and Renee Sanders; Robert, Tammy, and Michah Bolton; and a host of nieces, cousins, and special friends Thelma Griggs and Mable Brown.

REV. BOHLALE PHAKOE (1969-2021) The Rev. Dr. Bohlale Phakoe was born on June 18, 1969, to the late Rev. Rex Teboho Phakoe and Mother Lillian ‘Mabohlale Phakoe. He was the third of their six children.

The Rev. Dr. Phakoe was raised in a pastoral family under godly principles. His education started at Leribe LEC primary school, then St. James Anglican High School in Maseru, Lesotho. As an excellent scholar, he made his way to the National University of Lesotho, where he completed his Bachelor of Economics and later his master’s degree in Economics. He received an honorary degree in Ministry and Church Governance from Divinity College Consortium in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

As a son of a pastor, the Rev. Phakoe walked in his father’s shoes and responded to the call to preach in 2013 at Agnes Ball Temple African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was ordained an itinerant deacon by Bishop John Franklin White, Sr., and following, an itinerant elder by Bishop Stafford J. N Wicker.

As a pastor in the AME Church, he founded and built St. John AME Church in Maseru, Lesotho, starting from no membership and growing it to a thriving church.

In his ecumenical ministry, he served the royal family through preaching on several occasions. He was a member of the AMEC General Board representing the 18th Episcopal District from 2012 to 2016.

The Rev. Bohlale Phakoe worked diligently to build his career from the bottom up. At the time of his death, he served as director of Financial Markets at the Central Bank of Lesotho and as vice-chairperson of the Lesotho Revenue Authority.

He was a loved son, a cherished brother, a respected uncle, a needed colleague, and a soulmate to his wife, Malethola Phakoe.

He departed this life on October 2, 2021. He is survived by his wife, mother, three sisters and brother, five children, and the entire Phakoe clan, who all were shoulders on which he proudly stood.

For the gift that he was, we give God honour and glory. o o o

...From Exhale p13 that one whom you

unchanging hand! Songwriter H. R. Palmer wrote, “Ask the Savior to help you, strengthen, comfort, and keep you. He is willing to aid you. He will carry you through” (1868). My friend, you have been forgiven.

have offended, that one whom you have injured, and if you have taken it to the Lord, but still your neighbor holds past offenses against you, know, “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand

firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1 NRSV). God has already forgiven you.

Sis, walk in the newness of life.

Hold on, hold on! Hold on to God’s

Exhale

All of my sins have been forgiven.

I release all guilt from past sins. I exhale. And now, I receive limitless love and an abundance of his grace.

The Rev. Dr. Maxine L. Thomas is an ordained itinerant elder in the AME Church and serves as assistant pastor at Quinn Chapel AME Church in Louisville, KY where her husband, the Rev. Troy Thomas is the pastor. She is also a professor in the Religious Department at Simmons College of Kentucky and is the director of Crossroads Ministry at Second Presbyterian Church in Louisville. She is the founder of Sisters Keeping the Covenant and the founder of My Sister’s Keeper Bible and Leadership Academy.

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THE 157TH SESSION OF THE AME CHURCH’S CALIFORNIA ANNUAL CONFERENCE: NOT JUST BUSINESS AS USUAL

By Rev. Dominic L. Holland, 5th Episcopal District

The month of September drew to a close on Thursday, and it seemed to be business as usual throughout the city of San Francisco. The bright lights of the night gave way to the bustle of the big city. Meanwhile, for the 157th time in history, the African Methodist Episcopal Church in California (now comprised of churches and ministries based in northern California to central California as well as Reno & Sparks, Nevada) met to report at the call of their bishop. The Right Reverend Clement W. Fugh called the meeting, which for the first time was held both online and in-person from Bethel AME Church of San Francisco. The renowned presiding elders were the Rev. Dr. Harold R. Mayberry and the Rev. Dr. Vernon S. Burroughs.

Bishop Fugh’s charge shared the accounts of their respective districts via prerecorded videos at the meeting hosted by churches of the Sacramento Valley. The lead congregation from the valley is Murph Emmanuel, pastored by the Rev. Dr. Carieta Cain Grizzell, whose spouse, the Rev. Martin Grizzell, is also known for his past ministry in the bay. The venue church is served by the Rev. Robert R. Shaw and his partner, assistant pastor, the Rev. Ann Champion Shaw. Bishop Fugh acclaimed Murph Emmanuel and Bethel AME Church for their cooperation in this session of the California Annual Conference.

Bethel, San Francisco looked like a television production studio had grown into the sanctuary, complete with multiple lights and cameras. There was a technical team (in-person and online) primarily made up of young adult members of AME churches under the purview of the bishop. The meeting was a clear joint effort of both clergy and laypeople, more than in past years. Though the California Annual Conference has long made a point of including noncleric church members, young and old, the COVID-19 pandemic circumstances have clearly advanced the Conference’s intentions toward inclusivity.

“The word of God is colorblind,” said Bishop Fugh during the retirement portion of the annual conference, which honored the retirement of the host pastor. The diversity within churches of the California Annual Conference was on display at this 157th session of this historic meeting, and it was clear that the leadership encourages the welcoming of all who would like to join with the church. There was an apparent focus on meeting safely, with limitations on those allowed to join in person. Attestations related to COVID-19 were required of registrants, and a screening process was administered at the venue.

The bishop commended the venue leadership and church for the dignity that was maintained during the process. Registration for Zoom attendance was also a painless process and opened to whoever desired to attend the webinar. The conference was accessible on Facebook as well as YouTube. Bishop Fugh also encouraged churches to make attendance as safe as possible while keeping the process simple and focusing on a quality worship experience. Bishop Fugh set a goal for represented churches to reopen their sanctuaries by the first Sunday of November.

This session of the California Annual Conference carried the longstanding traditions of the first Christian denomination founded in response to social injustice over 200 years ago. Component ministries reported primarily using prerecorded videos this year as it all followed through decently and in order.

Indeed, there was a genuine spirit of love during the conference. o o o

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CONNECTIONALNEWS

WHY ME?

By Cameron Seawright, Connectional YPD Affiliated Groups Chairperson

During my elementary and middle school years, growing up different and set apart from my peers brought a lot of isolation, bullying, and anxiety. I often asked God and myself a question, “Why me? Why do I have to be the one who is bullied, treated less than, and, most importantly, left out of some things that came with school and social activities?” A few weeks ago, I was privileged to be a panelist on 16th Episcopal District’s webinar. Bishop Marvin Zanders, the presiding prelate of the 16th Episcopal District, entitled the discussion, “Why Me?” At the Northwest Alabama Young People’s Division (YPD) Conference meeting in December 2017, I told my Conference YPD director of my desire to run for Connectional YPD worship director for the 2019-2023 quadrennial year. After sharing with her, I prayed about it, talked with others, and received support every step of the way.

In July 2019, I lost the election. The loss was my first loss at anything, and knowing the entire African Methodist Episcopal Church witnessed my loss did not help me at all. During my season of grief, in my own way, I left the AME Church temporarily. I did not attend Annual Conference or Connectional meetings and did not participate at my local church. From July to December 2019, I went through a mild depression. My grade point average (GPA) fell. I gained over 20 pounds. I lost sight of God and the church. Why me?

My maternal grandma, Episcopal Supervisor Sherita Moon Seawright, kept telling me that, “Everybody is happy winning, but the challenge is how you react when you lose!” I did not appreciate her remarks, but she was right on point. I slowly embraced the fact that God took me through a season of grief and wilderness to get me ready for better days.

When I decided to attend a college in Columbia, South Carolina, I told God and my family I was going to leave the AME Church, step down from my Connectional position, and join a church I often attended

while visiting South Carolina. Because I was only thinking about myself, I was ready to let go of my gifts, settle for less, and, most importantly, have my life go down the drain slowly. Why me?

While making my transition from Alabama

to South Carolina, Pastor James W. Dennis III heard I was moving to Columbia. He met with me and invited me to join the staff at Pine Grove AME Church. For me, this was an opportunity to start fresh. Why me?

During the 16th District webinar, the moderator asked a question, “Do you feel like this is your purpose?” Well, after being bullied, embarrassed in front of mentors, peers, and family members, after going through a cycle of depression, and after experiencing church hurt, I made a choice to dedicate the time and effort to becoming the best version of myself.

As a result, I found my purpose: to empower and encourage others to let their light shine; to preach and motivate my peers. I am convinced that if we are still alive, then God has more in store for us. ...continued on p21

THECHRISTIANRECORDER.COM ...From Why Me? p20

On July 4, 2021, Pastor

Dennis introduced me to the Pine Grove AME Church family as the College Ministry coordinator.

On that day, I started walking in my purpose. On September 12, 2021, I launched Pine Grove’s first College Ministry service entitled, “The Virtual Experience.” This worship service, aimed to attract college students, aired on Pine Grove’s YouTube channel.

Why me? I was born to a single mother. My father did not go past the 10th grade. My half-sister did not attend school beyond the 11th grade. Why me?

I had a 1.0 GPA one semester that turned into a 3.0 GPA the next semester. Why me? After getting accepted into seven colleges, the college I chose, Benedict College, gave me a $5,000 scholarship and a $12,000 grant.

Why me? Let me rephrase the question, “Why not me?” I am grateful and humbled that God chose me and gifted me with the skills to lead my peers. God chose me to empower others to do better, achieve every goal, jump over every obstacle, and fight every demon that comes against my life, health, and mind. I am glad God chose me! o o o

CONNECTIONALNEWS

The Christian Recorder

NOVEMBER 2021

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NOVEMBER 2021

The Christian Recorder

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CONGRATULATORY LISTINGS

OCTOBER 2021

*Purple font connotes Episcopal Family; Red font, General Officers; and Blue font, Connectional Officers.

Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis Is a Candidate for the President of American Psychological Association Thema S. Bryant-Davis, Ph.D. is the daughter of Bishop John Richard Bryant (Retired) and Rev. Dr. Cecelia Williams Bryant, Supervisor (Retired) Campaign website is www.thema4apa.com.

• Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis completed her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Duke University and her post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical Center’s Victims of Violence Program. Upon graduating, she became the coordinator of the Princeton University SHARE Program, which provides intervention and prevention programming to combat sexual assault, sexual harassment, and harassment based on sexual orientation. She is currently a tenured professor of psychology in the Graduate School of Education and Psychology at Pepperdine University, where she directs the Culture and Trauma Research Laboratory. Her clinical and research interests center on interpersonal trauma and the societal trauma of oppression. She is a past president of the Society for the Psychology of Women and a past APA representative to the United Nations. Dr. Thema also served on the APA Committee on International Relations in Psychology and the Committee on Women in Psychology. The American Psychological Association honored her for Distinguished Early Career Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest in 2013. The Institute of Violence, Abuse and Trauma honored her with their media award for the film Psychology of Human Trafficking in 2016 and the Institute honored her with the Donald Fridley Memorial Award for excellence in mentoring in the field of trauma in 2018. The California Psychological Association honored her for Distinguished Scientific Achievement in Psychology in 2015. She is the editor of the APA text Multicultural Feminist Therapy: Heling Adolescent Girls of Color to Thrive. She is one of the foundational scholars on the topic of the trauma of racism and in 2020, she gave an invited keynote address on the topic at APA. In 2020, the International Division of APA honored her for her international contributions to the study of gender and women for her work in Africa and the Diaspora. Dr. Thema has raised public awareness regarding mental health by extending the reach of psychology beyond the academy and private therapy office through community programming and media engagement, including but not limited to Headline News, National Public Radio, and CNN. Congratulatory responses can be emailed to: info@drthema.com.

(Thema S. Bryant-Davis, Ph.D.) Chaplain, Colonel Lieutenant Regina O. Samuel Selected for Promotion to Colonel on the Air Force CY21B-621B Chaplain Colonel Board We are proud to announce that Chaplain, Lieutenant Colonel Regina O. Samuel was selected for promotion to Colonel on the Air Force CY21B-621B Chaplain Colonel Board. Pending Senate confirmation, Chaplain Samuel will be the first woman Chaplain Colonel in the Air Force Chaplain Corps endorsed by the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Chaplain Samuel is currently assigned to the National Reconnaissance Office, Chantilly, VA. She is a member of the Northeast Annual Conference.

Her home church is Mt. Zion AME Church, Florence, SC.

The Rev. Enercida Rodriguez and Mr. José Manuel Tolentino Announce the Birth of Their Daughter, Alana Zoé Tolentino Rodriguez Rev. Enercida Rodriguez and Mr. José Manuel Tolentino announce the birth of their daughter, Alana Zoé Tolentino Rodriguez, born on September 27 at 5:03 p.m.

The Rev. Rodriguez is an ordained itinerant elder in the Dominican Annual Conference and the former Connectional YPD third vice president and 16th District YPD director.

Her father, the Rev. Abraham Rodriguez, is the presiding elder of the Southeast District of the Dominican Annual Conference, pastor of Impacto de Vida AME Church, La Romana, and a former member of the General Board. Her mother, Sonia Pacheco, is a former Dominican Annual Conference YPD director.

Congratulatory expressions may be sent to enerruez@gmail.com.

Electronic gifts may be sent via PayPal to enerruez.

On behalf of Publications Commission chair Bishop David R. Daniels, Jr., president/publisher of the AMEC Publishing House (Sunday School Union) the Rev. Dr. Roderick D. Belin, and editor of The Christian Recorder Mr. John Thomas III, we celebrate and applaud your achievements.

“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”

Jeremiah 29:11 (NRSV) To share or receive information about Connectional clergy family bereavements and congratulations, please contact the AME Church Clergy Family Information Center. Mrs. Ora L. Easley, administrator • 5981 Hitching Post Lane • Nashville, TN 37211 • 615.833.6936 (CFIC Office) • amecfic.org • facebook.com/AMECFIC.

The Christian Recorder

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NOVEMBER 2021

NECROLOGY LISTINGS

PAGE | 23

OCTOBER 2021

*Purple font connotes Episcopal Family; Red font, General Officers; and Blue font, Connectional Officers.

The Rev. Marcia Bethel, pastor of Jacob Mission (Elgin), Lancaster District, Columbia Annual Conference of the Seventh Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Mrs. Patricia George, the grandmother and adoptive mother of Chaplain (Captain, USAF) Melissa W. Hale, first lady of the commonwealth district

(Presiding

Elder

William Hale) and ministerial staff of Embry Chapel AME Church, Elizabethtown, KY, Thirteenth Episcopal District Mrs. Queen Ester Jackson, mother

of

Mrs.

Priscilla

Jackson-Scott, and son-inlove of the Rev. Tom W. Scott, pastor of St. Paul AME Church, Arkadelphia,

AR,

Twelfth

Episcopal District Mr. Leonard Eugene Ball, the oldest brother of Chaplain, the Rev. Gregory Ball of Baltimore, Maryland, Second Episcopal

District,

African

Methodist Episcopal Church The Rev. Bohlale Phakoe, an itinerant elder and the pastor and founder of St. John AME Church (Lesotho Central

District)

of

the

Eighteenth Episcopal District; one of the chief intellects of the economic market of the kingdom of Lesotho and was employed as the director

of financial markets in the Central Bank of Lesotho Ms. Serena Elizabeth Byrd, the beloved daughter of retired Presiding Elder Dr. J. Leander (Geraldine) Byrd.

Elder Byrd; retired from the Pensacola District of the Florida Conference, Eleventh Episcopal District Ms. Johnnie White, sister of the Rev. Donald White, retired pastor, and member of Greater Bethel AME Church, Nashville, Tennessee, Thirteenth Episcopal District The Rev. Thomas Benjamin DeSue, Sr., retired presiding elder, Eleventh Episcopal District; he was appointed in 1987 as presiding elder in the East Annual Conference

by Bishop Philip R. Cousin, later he was appointed as administrative assistant to the bishop, responsible for handling of the treasury of the Eleventh Episcopal District The Rev. Joyce Jones, age 77, served in the West Arkansas Annual Conference, Camden-El Dorado District, as pastor of St. Andrews African Methodist Episcopal Church, Hutting, Arkansas, Twelfth Episcopal District The Rev. Carroll G. Anderson, a retired minister in the Arkansas Annual Conference of the Twelfth

Episcopal District; a member of Union AME Church in Little Rock, Arkansas where he served on the ministerial staff; he was the beloved spouse of WMS life member Carolyn Anderson and father of Dr. Kevin Anderson The Rev. Dr. Jacquelyn Lorraine Brown Hurston, pastor of Piney Grove (Gaston), Columbia District, Columbia Annual Conference of the Seventh Episcopal District Mr. Reginald (Regi) J. HargisHickman, an acclaimed R & B guitarist, one of the original members and a co-founder of R&B band, Brick; and the grandson of Bishop Ernest Lawrence Hickman, the 75th elected and consecrated bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church The Rev. Roger L. Washington, pastor of Mt. Lebanon (Andrews) African Methodist Episcopal Church, Georgetown District, Palmetto Annual Conference of the Seventh

Episcopal

of

African

the

District

Methodist

Episcopal Church The Rev. Donald Burems, Sr., the beloved pastor

District of the Philadelphia Annual Conference, served as a marshal for the Philadelphia Annual

Conference,

and

was appointed the bishop’s attendant for four bishops of the First Episcopal District Ms. Toledo Alice Riley, the daughter of Presiding Elder Rev. Dr. Freeman Leo Riley, Sr., and WMS life member Mrs. Georgia Woods Riley, deceased; she was well known in the Sixth Episcopal District as an outstanding past SED YPD director, a very active WMS leader, and an active PK in the SED-M-SWAWO+PKs at all levels The Rev. Lee A. Thomas, Jr., a retired itinerant elder in the New York Annual Conference and former pastor of Payne African Methodist Episcopal Church in Chatham, New York, Jamaica/Long Island District, First Episcopal District Mr. Cleophus Torrence, the baby brother of the Rev. Napoleon Davis, Jr., retired pastor and former presiding elder in the West Arkansas Conference, Twelfth Episcopal District

Church,

Mr. Erston Wilson, the father

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and

of the Rev. Cindy Robinson,

a son of Hickman Temple

pastor of the Lacy Circuit, East

AME Church; he was the

Arkansas Annual Conference,

president

Twelfth Episcopal District

of

St.

John

of

AME

the

South

Condolences to the bereaved are expressed on behalf of Publications Commission chair Bishop David R. Daniels, Jr., president/publisher of the AMEC Publishing House (Sunday School Union) the Rev. Roderick D. Belin, and editor of The Christian Recorder, Mr. John Thomas III.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Matthew 5:4 (NRSV) To share or receive information about Connectional clergy family bereavements and congratulations, please contact the AME Church Clergy Family Information Center. Mrs. Ora L. Easley, Administrator • 5981 Hitching Post Lane • Nashville, TN 37211 • 615.833.6936 (CFIC Office) • amecfic.org •facebook.com/AMECFIC

NOVEMBER 2021

24 | PAGE

...From When the Word p14

The Christian Recorder

theodicy, or soteriology.

Other than attending class regularly and participating in the classroom, the only other requirements were two papers—which required me to

THECHRISTIANRECORDER.COM ...From Updates p17

the

fight

to

end Alzheimer’s and offers tips on

examine my relationship with Jesus.

making your brain the focus of a

The first was to be no more than six

healthy lifestyle. Published three times

pages and was due halfway through the semester, and the second was

a year, ALZ features useful lifestyle

10 to 12 pages and would serve as

tips, human interest stories, celebrity

our final. Easy enough, I thought.

supporter profiles, and the latest

However, I did not realize that virtually every week, I had to submit

Alzheimer’s research.

a draft of the papers, workshop, or

The Winter 2021 (November 2021)

discuss the material I unearthed in

issue of ALZ Magazine highlights the

my research.

There was never any mystery about

AME Church’s partnership with the

how or why each assignment related to

Alzheimer’s Association, the success of

the course objectives, which laid the

the March 2021 Purple Sunday event,

foundation for approaching ministry and

communicating

theological

concepts. Yet, both concepts were new to me. The theory of the course was illuminated in how we engaged

and the story of Roslyn Thibodeaux Goodall, an AME member and cochair of the Alzheimer’s Association/

the material. Those papers informed

AME Church National Partnership’s

how I approached classes such as

Steering Committee.

Systematic Theology and Church Administration

throughout

my

The magazine is free and distributed

seminary studies and how I engage

to Alzheimer’s Association supporters

in ministry.

and the general public across the

As a student, what I loved most about the professor was that she frequently

said

she

and

wanted

expected us to get an A. Initially, I was

thought

exclusively

“A”

referred

to a grade. Still, as I received her feedback on my drafts and listened to how she facilitated our class discussions, I could discern

a

deeper

and more profound meaning.

Yes,

an

“A” meant that we mastered the material according

to

the

grading rubric. Still, more

importantly,

it meant we divined an ability to tap into an eternal well from which we could draw to give life to dry bones. o o o

country. o o o

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NOVEMBER 2021

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EDITORIAL

THE STORIES WE TELL AND THE MEANINGS WE MAKE

By Rev. Jason D. Thompson, Ph.D., Contributing Writer

Everybody loves a good story. Stories create their own bonds, represent cohesion, shared understandings, and meanings. Stories also enliven our understanding of complex issues and introduce new perspectives into our worldview. For any particular narrative, there are potentially multiple, often contradictory stories and counterrealities that provide solidarity for storytellers and, for listeners, the impetus for change. What have we learned from the alternative perspectives that subvert and call into question the dominant, recurring narratives that maintain the status quo? More importantly, what are we doing about it?

A recent example of a counter-story emerged from the 2021 General Conference that voted down a bill that would have allowed clergy to perform same-sex marriages.

The stories we told (and still are telling) about that decision reveal that we are not a monolithic denomination. For instance, a clergy colleague used the word “standard” to describe their opposition against full inclusion. The problem is never about a standard, but a double standard, as in the case in Thorofare, New Jersey, with St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church’s refusal to accept their duly elected pastor who happens to be a woman. Truthfully, one can be homophobic, misogynistic, racist, or sexist if one chooses. However, you cannot be those things in the name of Jesus. It does not appear that Jesus is in favor of how we use his name to show bias and hate toward God’s children. We need to get this in our heads: God loves everyone, and Jesus died for the people you cannot stand. Should we want the same mercy for others that God graciously extended to us?

I spotlight below two counter stories worth exploring for how they reflect the espoused values for ministry we claim important. The intent is to provide a mirror through which to view ministry practices and a window to explore new avenues and vistas of possibilities.

Counter Story #1 – Who Does God Call?

There are two stunning and perhaps surprising truths about God’s call. The first truth is that God never calls volunteers. No one ever just “signed up” for discipleship.

Instead, we were summoned, sent for, perhaps subpoenaed. That truth gives new meaning to God’s call on our lives. We did not choose Jesus; he chose us. The second stunning and surprising truth is that our unworthiness, unpreparedness, and unreadiness are no deterrent to God’s call for us.

On the contrary, God calls us, fully aware that we are quite ordinary, not good enough, not strong enough, and not pure enough for the task we are assigned – and then God calls us anyway! Unfortunately, the story about “the calling” is too often attached to clergy persons predominantly, with seldom attribution to the work of the laity. As a result, Rev. Jason D. Thompson our perspectives of “the calling” are narrowly Guest Editorial conceived and raise an essential about what counter-narratives must we hear to shift the paradigm of our thinking about God’s calling in more comprehensive ways?

Counter Story #2 – God’s Instructions Let us break down the instructions Jesus gives to the two disciples in Luke 19.

These instructions are quite ordinary, and at the same time, very specific. They are so simple that we run the risk of overlooking their significance as counter-story. The animal Jesus sends them for was one that “has never been ridden” (v. 30). It had been bound and tied up, restrained and inhibited. The first instruction Jesus gives them is to set the animal free (“untie it”).

Similarly, Jesus comes into our lives as a liberator! His presence is never to keep us tied up in a long list of rules and regulations or bounded by our history, heritage, or habits. Then, Jesus attaches to this first instruction a second, specific order: “Bring it here” (v. 30). This order means the freedom these animals are about to enjoy, and the freedom we are offered, is not random. We are free, yes, but not independent. And that freedom comes attached with a purpose, as is the case for this colt who is released for the assignment Jesus has for it. God’s instructions for our lives mean that we are released, not reckless but assuming responsibility.

Individuals with counter realities must be centered because they have been most impacted, and they are our insiders to congregant experiences. These congregants are our experts and must be on the frontlines leading our work to create a more inclusive church. What stories do we need to tell, and what meanings do we make from them? o o o

ANNUAL/QUARTERLY CONFERENCE REPORTING OBSERVATIONS

By Cynthia Gordon-Floyd, CPA, Contributing Writer

In the Disciplinary Questions posed at each Quarterly Conference, the pastor is asked the following questions: •W hat is the present indebtedness? (For stewards, trustees, and the Stewardship Commission, respectively.)

• How much money has been collected for the General Budget Fund?

I would suggest that it is time to change this language to more closely reflect how we should report on the financial activities of our churches.

While the pastor, stewards, trustees, and other lay leaders may be actively involved in encouraging the congregation to give, should those gifts be reported as money raised by the stewards or trustees? It is money

given by the congregation to support the needs of the church and should be clearly reported as such.

Should church indebtedness be reported as belonging to the stewards, trustees, or the Commission on Stewardship and Finance? Many pastors and church leaders have been required to assist the church with securing debt for various reasons. I, too, was a trustee years ago when my church entered into its first mortgage debt, and I personally guaranteed the debt along with my fellow trustees. (Hallelujah! It’s liquidated!) We entered into the debt in the name of our church. The initial responsibility to pay the mortgage belonged to the church.

Our responsibility was to pay it if the church could not.

I should reiterate that the debt was held in the name of the church. We should not secure debt in the name of individual church members. If you have a current situation of this nature, this is an excellent time to refinance the debt. It may still require a personal guarantee if the church is not financially strong, but church debt and deeds are to be held in the name of the church. Many states have made it easy to incorporate a church, and you may apply online at www.irs.gov for a tax identification number (EIN). Church incorporation and an EIN will help the refinance process move smoothly.

Many of our congregations have instituted requirements for members to give specifically for the church to meet its obligation for the General Budget. I believe that asking members to

contribute separately to raise money for the General Budget portrays it as an additional burden. Ideally, I strongly encourage churches to incorporate the General Budget responsibility into the annual church budget. Therefore, this would allow you to teach and train on stewardship and tithing principles while securing the funds to cover the General Budget and other assessment responsibilities.

Cynthia Gordon-Floyd is a certified public accountant and founder of Willing Steward Ministries, LLC. Willing Steward Ministries (www.willingsteward. com) is a financial consulting and accounting firm for churches and other faith-based non-profits, specializing in Bible-focused financial practices, pastoral compensation issues, Internal Revenue Service compliance, and other financial needs specific to churches. Cynthia is a graduate of Lake Forest College and holds her MBA in Accounting from DePaul University. She is a steward and the financial secretary at the First AME Church of Manassas in Manassas, Virginia.