1. THE EDITOR’S CORNER:
I wrote in the Editor’s Corner of the February 9th Issue of The Christian Recorder Online:
Today, I had two interesting conversations about whether or not Stewards or Licentiates could serve communion. The issue is not who consecrates the elements of communion, only ordained Itinerate Elders can, but who is authorized to serve it according to The Discipline. I was always taught that one could not participate in the handling of the elements of Communion until after being ordained a deacon. I went back and looked carefully at The Discipline and spoke with two bishops…
Here are several responses received about the question concerning the distribution of Holy Communion.
- Only Itinerant Elders and ordained deacons can distribute Communion
- Licensed ministers can help distribute Communion after it has been consecrated
- Stewards can distribute Communion after it has been consecrated
- There is nothing in the Discipline of AME Church that says only Itinerant Elders and ordained deacons can distribute Communion. The Discipline only
addresses who consecrates Communion
- The Discipline needs to address this issue more thoroughly
What are your thoughts?
2. WHY AM I AME! (PART 1 OF 4):
By the Reverend Kyle C. Gibson
About a year ago while I attend my graduation at the 45th commencement exercises from Turner Seminary of the Interdenominational Theological Center, in Atlanta, Georgia, I sat next to student graduating from Johnson C. Smith Seminary (Presbyterian) and she asked me the question, "Why are you an AME?"
Fortunately for her, the graduation service was only 2 ½ hours long. I have an intense love for history, especially African American History. The African Methodist Episcopal Church has a wealth of history that must be retold so that the legacy of African Methodism can continue to minister to the spiritual, intellectual, physical, emotional, and environmental needs of all people.
My heart swells with pride every time I hear the story of Bishop Richard Allen. Richard Allen was born into slavery on February 14, 1760 in Philadelphia.
According to recorded narratives of slave life, Richard Allen should have lived his life as a slave and died. But history records a much different story. At the age of 7, Allen was sold with his family to a farmer in Delaware. This incident shows that God’s hands were fixed on the future founder of the AME Church while he was still a child. It was rare for a slave to be sold with the entire family.
Compared to the lives of most slaves, young Richard’s life was a relatively happy one. And his owners treated him very fair. When Allen was 17, he recall’s in his biography, “The Life, Experience and Gospel Labors of the Rt. Rev. Richard Allen” that he had heard reports of a great meeting being held deep in the woods. The meetings were held in this in out of the way places because Delaware law forbidden religious meetings for blacks without the presence of a white person the curious Allen decided to see for him self what everyone was talking about. What Allen discovered was a Methodist circuit rider, better known as a traveling preacher proclaiming the gospel.
This meeting marked a great change in his life, his spiritual awakening into Christianity. The change was dramatic and immediate for Allen, for he came to see himself as a human being who was loved by God, a status that no slave trader or master could take from him.
Allen joined the Methodist society under the leadership John Gray and discovered a theological concept of divine love and was moved to lead a more diligent righteous life. It was through Methodism that Allen found a faith in tune with his own experience. He enjoyed the religious emphasis Methodism placed on individual responsibility and its attacks on slavery.
At the time of Allen’s conversion his master allowed him to attend worship every two weeks. Other slave owners attempted to discourage Allen’s owner to allow his slaves to attend the services, their reason was they felt religion would make slaves last. In order to convince his master that this was not the case, Allen worked even harder. He wanted the world to know that religion had made him a better person. In order to insure that his master was convinced, he even skipped attending the services so he could go beyond what was required in his chores.
Allen’s Owner began to boast to others that Allen had become a better worker because of their faith. As a result of Allen’s commitment, his owner allowed the circuit rider to conduct services on his farm so all his slaves had the chance to be converted. The preacher that came to preach on the Stokeley farm was a former slave owner named Rev. Freeborn Garretson. He was renown in his day for his tireless attacks on slavery; he was a powerful speaker whose words often moved slaveholders to free their slaves. Garretson preached a text from Daniel 5:27 titled “Thou art weighed in the balance, and art found wanting”. This sermon changed Allen’s inner life as well as the life of his owner. Stokeley was deep in dept and told Allen that he wanted to free him but could not do it for free. But he advised Allen that he could buy his freedom. Allen worked extra hours and odd jobs at night. At the age of 20, Allen lifted the yoke of slavery from around his neck.
Allen now found him self in a peculiar predicament. In the 1780’s work options were very limited for a black man. But Allen made earned his keep by cutting wood and working in the brickyard. For the first time in his life, Allen had to provide his basic needs. His food, shelter, and clothing had been taking care of by someone else, but he took whatever work he could. During the American Revolutionary War, Allen drove a salt wagon. It was during this time that
received his first opportunities to preach.
Allen’s preaching was received very well from the beginning. At the end of the war, Allen began preaching full time, stopping to work as a day laborer only when his money ran out. It was unheard of for a black man with no formal education to become an itinerant preacher. Allen traveled with several of Methodism’s great evangelist and was present when Methodism established itself as the Methodist Episcopal Church (Present Day United Methodist Church).
Allen was invited by the new head of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Bishop Francis Asbury to tour the south with him. Allen was warned that he would have to take his meals and sleep in the coach for a free black was still an unusual sight in the South. After careful consideration, Allen ultimately turned down the Bishop’s offer. The thought of being forced back into slavery was too much for Allen to risk.
In 1786, Allen received an invitation to preach at St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church, it was here that Allen launched into his vocation full time.
Though Allen was free from the bondages of slavery, he could not release the grip that racism had on society. Ironically, it was the racial confrontation at St. George’s that gave birth to The African Methodist Episcopal Church.
On November morning in 1787, Richard Allen and other black Methodist decided to walk out of the church that refused to allow them to worship freely. Do you know this story? EVERY AME SHOULD. While Allen was praying, he heard a commotion, when he looked up he noticed a trustee attempting to pull Absalom Jones to his feet instructing him to go to the gallery to pray, Jones only wanted to complete his prayer, but the officer refused. They were instructed that the were not allowed to pray in the front of the church , but in the designated places reserved for them, out of sight and out of mind.
Allen decided enough was enough and told the white members of St. Georges that they would never again be troubled with him. When Allen led this exodus from the church, it was the first organized protest by African Americans. This walk out led to the formation of the Free Africa Society, an organization aimed at providing assistants to the needy in the black community. The Free Methodist Society was a substitute for the Methodist church and the society took on a
variety of spiritual and religious functions.
Eventually, Allen was able to break free from the Methodist Episcopal Church and establish “The First Black Denomination in the United States, which we know today as the African Methodist Episcopal Church. This only a portion of what I was able to recite to my classmate on why I was AME.
Over the next few weeks, I will provide each of you with the remainder of the conversation on why I an AME.
3. THE CHAPLAINS CORNER
Chaplain Lonzie Symonette. AME Ordained Itinerant Elder
The Professional AMEC Chaplain
I really appreciate the AME Chaplains' Corner of our Christian Recorder. January 17th, 2005 Chaplains' Corner edition stated, "The vocation of the chaplain
is quite unique and is often referred to as 'ministry beyond the sanctuary. . . . We have the privilege of bringing the ministry of Christ, His love, guidance, and most importantly, the assurance of His presence, within institutional settings that the traditional pastor may not be called or trained to provide" was especially affirming for the professional chaplain like me. Yes, we do serve, ". . . within the Department of Veteran's Affairs, Bureau of Federal Prisons . . . state and local hospitals, hospices and prisons." The Lord has ALL the bases covered for redemption and is very inclusive using integrated ministry in our AMEC Zion to reach the spiritually lost, disenfranchised, sick and dying. GLORY!!!!!!!!! From prenatal care through aging the hospital/hospice chaplain provides spiritual care support to patients and families. As I write this article there is a two month old infant that has been a patient for one month and down the hallway is a 100 year old patient. I serve in a 46 bed acute in-patient hospice
facility...
Chaplain Lonzie Symonette. AME Ordained Itinerant Elder
WIM Coordinator Rocky Mountain District
Desert Mountain Annual Conference,
Asst. Minister, Payne Chapel AMEC
(Read the rest of the Article in The Chrsitian Recorder)
4. FAITH, CLIMATE AND PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING:
By Bishop John Chane, Episcopal Diocese of Washington,
Rabbi David Saperstein, Executive Director, The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism,
Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed, Secretary General, Islamic Society of North America
Today, February 16th, people from a variety of faiths in Washington and around our country will offer prayers of thanksgiving. Why? The date is not marked in traditional religious calendars, nor does it commemorate a significant religious event in the U.S. Indeed, the thanks given will be directed to God and toward other nations around the world. February 16th has religious significance because, we believe, global warming is one of the key religious issues of our
day. On the 16th, as the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change first takes effect for its 128 signatory countries, we, each in our way, plan to give thanks to all the nations taking just, equitable and effective steps to combat global warming by reducing the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Global warming is a religious issue because, despite our differing religious traditions, we are all grateful for the gift of creation. As the Psalmist writes: “How manifold are Your works, O God! In wisdom You have made them all. The earth is full of Your creatures.” (Psalm 104:24) Anything that threatens those wondrous works should be of concern to people of all faiths – and global warming presents a profound threat to the well-being of all life on earth, from polar bears to city dwellers to denizens of the equatorial rain forests.
But global warming is also an issue of faith because we believe that all people are equal in God’s sight, equally created in the Divine spirit and worthy of Divine love. As the recent tsunamis showed, natural disasters (which one might think would not discriminate between the poor and the powerful) typically harm most the economically disadvantaged and those whose well-being Hubert Humphrey called the moral test of a society: “those who are at the dawn of life,
the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadow of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped.” The floods, droughts, and diseases that global warming would inflict will hurt first and foremost the most vulnerable – because they do not have the economic or political power to protect themselves or the resources to recover once harmed. The Hebrew Bible’s exhortation: “Justice, justice shall you pursue,” (Deuteronomy 16:20) requires us today to do our utmost to prevent the many injustices that global warming would bring in its wake. As this is expressed in the Muslim tradition, “Indeed, God commands justice, the actualization of goodness and the realization of beauty” (Qur’an 16:90).
As people of faith, we also share a commitment to the long view, to the well-being of future generations. Too often, our government and society heavily “discount” the future, giving the momentary convenience of today greater weight than the risk to our children’s children. In the tradition of Catholic social teaching, this is expressed as the virtue of prudence, the deliberate, thoughtful basis for taking or avoiding action to achieve an eventual moral good. Continuing on our present path, wasting energy and producing prodigious amounts of greenhouse gases, is neither prudent nor just to generations to come. We should recall instead the teachings of Proverbs that “the wise foresee danger and take cover, while fools keep going and suffer for it” (22:3) and that “the good person leaves an inheritance to one’s children’s children.” (13:22)
Thus, we are grateful to all the nations, including the signatories of the Protocol, who are seeking to do justly and act wisely by taking steps right now to combat future global warming. We are also seeking to show moral leadership by “walking the talk.” Thus, for example, congregations and other religious institutions in this area, from our faith traditions and many others, have joined with a new project, Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light, to teach
about energy and faith and to take concrete steps to reduce energy use and to purchase energy that neither pollutes nor produces greenhouse gases.
We seek to remind this great and generous nation that true success cannot be measured by the size of one’s car but rather by the depth of one’s soul – by how we care for this wondrous planet, by how our deeds value and protect all our brothers and sisters, whether near or far, poor or powerful, living now or from generations yet to come. Our nation has been given many blessings – and we believe that from everyone who has been given much, much will be expected. May
our nation move quickly to fulfill these expectations, take leadership in addressing global warming, and thus establish a more just, sustainable world for
all of God’s children.
Archive of The Christian Recorder Online from 2004-2016; Dr. Calvin H. Sydnor III, 20th Editor of The Christian Recorder
