Bishop Gregory G. M. Ingram - Chair, Commission on Publications
The Reverend Dr. Johnny Barbour, Jr., Publisher
The Reverend Dr. Calvin H. Sydnor III, Editor
1. PRICE INCREASE FOR ALL AME PERIODICALS BEGINNING ON AUGUST 1, 2005:
The Commissions on Publications, chaired by Bishop Gregory G. M. Ingram met during the General Board Meeting in Dallas and recommended a price increase for all periodicals. The Commission on Publications through the Publisher and the editors of all of the periodicals did a cost and quality analysis. During the last Quadrennium, The Christian Recorder and the other periodicals experienced a deficit. The price increase is in line with the subscription price of the other, i.e., United Methodist, AMEZ and CME, denominations. The General Board approved the recommendation of the Commission on Publications. The price increase will be effective beginning on August 1, 2005. Listed below are the per annum costs for each publication:
The Christian Recorder - $36.00; Individual copies of The Christian Recorder will cost 1.50
The A.M.E. Church Review - $25.00; individual issues will cost $5.00
The Voice of Missions - $$25.00
The Journal of Religious Education - $25.00
The Secret Chamber - $25.00
The Commission of Publications also recommended that every person who is an applicant for ministry (itinerant and local orders, licentiate, exhorter, deaconess be encouraged and be expected to subscribe to The Christian Recorder and to all AME publications. The Commission on Publications also recommended at that all stewards, trustees and other officers who serve in leadership positions in the local church be encouraged and be expected to subscribe to The Christian Recorder and that all AME Academic institutions subscribe to, and have copies of all AME periodicals in their libraries.
The Christian Recorder staff and publisher is doing a feasibility study and may be increased 8 to 12 pages.
2. THE EDITOR’S CORNER - TIDBITS FROM THE GENERAL BOARD:
- Bishop Gregory G. M. Gregory and Supervisor Jessica Kendall Ingram gave every person attending the Investiture Banquet gifts.
- Episcopal Districts 14 – 20 should be referred to as, “Districts 14 – 20” rather than “the overseas districts.”
- Edward Waters College reinstated by Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). The newly appointed President of Edward Waters College is the Reverend Dr. Oswald Perry Brunson, Sr. Dr. Brunson served 29 years as President of Bethune-Cookman College. He also served seven years at the Interdenominational Center (ITC).
- Wilberforce Community College Evaton South Africa is in its fourth year of operation. President G. Joyce Mashabela serves as president of Wilberforce Community College.
- Dr. Samuel D. Jolley, Jr. is the President of Morris Brown College and although MBC does not have full accreditation, it is still open and accepting students for undergraduate study.
Editor’s Note: When I arrived at Wilberforce University in 1960, it was not accredited. We have leading ministers and lay members who attended Wilberforce before it regained its accreditation and who have done well. MBC is still an academic option. MBC has received 750 applications for the fall and hopes to enroll 150 – 250 students this fall.
- Paul Quinn College’s enrollment increased from 800 to 966 students and has an 87% retention rate, up from 65% four years ago. Dr. Dwight Fennell served as President of PQC. It is scheduled for reaffirmation of its accreditation in 2007
- Dr. Cora McHenry is the President of Shorter College. Shorter College is not accredited but they have established major partnerships and articulation agreements with major universities who have agreed to accept academic credits from Shorter because they know the quality of education provided by Shorter.
- The Reverend Dr. Floyd Flake is the President of Wilberforce University. Dr. Flake reported that Wilberforce University is operating in the “black” for the second straight year and has $8 million in endowments. Eleven hundred students are enrolled at Wilberforce and the University has received numerous grants.
- The African Methodist Episcopal University – Monrovia, Liberia has 1736 students. Dr. Levi B. Zangai is the President. AME University is developing internship programs so students will be ready to go into the work force upon graduation. Bishop Daniels shared that he received $1 million to assist in rebuilding Hatcher Hall. The proposed name of the new building: the "Hatcher Henning Norris Human Resource Center."
Editor's note: An earlier post erroneously stated the grant to African Methodist University was $ 8 million. The correct amount of the grant was $1 million (U.S.)
- Payne Theological Seminary has established a wireless campus and is working to establish an online degree program. The Reverend Dr. Leah Gaskin Fitchue is the President of PTS. Payne is working on an articulation agreement with the Board of Higher Education of the United Methodist Church. Retired Bishop, the Rt. Reverend Vinton R. Anderson is the Chair of the Payne Board of Trustees.
- Turner Theological Seminary expects to begin an online program this fall with hook-ups at the First Episcopal District Headquarters in Philadelphia and at St. Paul AME Church in St. Louis, Missouri. The Reverend Dr. Daniel Wesley Jacobs, Sr., is the President of TTS.
- Bishop E. Earl McCloud, Jr., Chair of the Commission on Chaplains, reported that he donated the Palm Sunday offering of $1,006.40, received by his office from the Office of the Chief of Chaplains, to the Eighteenth Episcopal District.
- As the Endorsing Agent for the AME Church, Bishop McCloud is requiring all chaplains to report annually to their annual conferences and make an annual report of their ministry to the annual conference with a courtesy copy provided to his office. When they are deployed, their bishop may excuse them from attending the annual conference. Chaplains are expected to subscribe to all AME periodicals and attend the annual AME Church Growth and Development Seminars. A prayer was given for all AME Chaplains.
- Bishop Samuel Green presented a $25,000 check from General Motors Corporation for sponsorship of the 2005 Lay Biennial to DR. Jesse Burns, who presented it to Mr. Joe L. Ezell, Connectional Lay Treasurer.
The Commission on Global Witness and Ministry, chaired by Bishop Richard Norris recommended that the Department develop and implement a recruitment strategy to recruit volunteer to serve in Districts 14 – 20.
- The Health Commission provided Leadership training and gave out a CD, “Caring for Your Family’s Health.”
Editor’s comment: There was more and I will report more about what happened at the General Board meeting, especially the response to the address by the President of the General Board.
3. THE EDITOR’S CORNER:
I received a note from the Reverend Carole Nelson-Ingram who shared with me some kind words about the Christian Recorder and a copy of her sermon and asked me not to publish her comments. After reading her email message and sermon, I responded, “Now, let me ask you a question? Why do you say, ‘please don't publish this’? Your message is a prophetic word and you want to keep it a secret? Now, let me chastise you - God gave you a word and you want to keep it hidden under a bushel basket! Please let us share your experience in the Holy Land and how you have so wonderfully applied your visit in a scriptural and real-time perspective.
I commend you on developing a great sermon. It was so insightful that you pointed out that the present administration (and many of us- me included) place a different value on the lives of the British and the lives of the Iraqis. Many of us were glued to the TV when we learned of the terrorism in London, but we think little about the huge numbers of Iraqi civilians who die every day. I am inspired to rethink how I look at, not just the American deaths, but also the Iraqi deaths. And the same goes for our thinking about African, Caribbean, and other third-world nations’ deaths. “
The Message Received from the Reverend Carole Nelson-Ingram
I love the Christian Recorder online, first of all. Thanks for what you do. Sorry I never wrote the article on Jordan that Mrs. Jeannette Johns was encouraging me to do. It just never came together in a way I felt comfortable submitting.
Reading your previous comments reference the war in Iraq, Afghanistan, and your question about it struck a chord within me. I have been covering the last two Sundays for a pastor on vacation for the last two weeks, and the only sermon God gave me for yesterday, was really a result of my pain, my study, my search for meaning in all that's going on.... I was terrified about preaching it...but since I was just passing through that pulpit... and since it was the ONLY thing that God gave me...I preached it with, of course, some on the spot unremembered additions and subtractions that are not included in this VERY unedited manuscript. Let me just say that the response of the people in the congregation was so powerful - tears, relief, gratitude ...I don't know what all was going on for the folks... but it was clear that God was doing something.
So that's the long way of saying, I pray this message might be a blessing to you - you bless so many on a daily basis!
The Sermon Written and Preached by the Reverend Carole Nelson-Ingram
"ONE DAY AT A TIME"
Deuteronomy 8:11-20
I have to confess that in 27 years of preaching, very little of my preaching has come from the book of Deuteronomy - or as a matter of fact from those first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures known as the Torah, which culminate in Deuteronomy. The main reason I didn’t preach from them was that I found them (with the exception of a few familiar chapters here and there) pretty hard to understand. They were often repetitive. I got lost in names, places, generations, and events. Reading these books of the Bible straight through, until recently, was all but impossible for me. However, something has changed over the last three years for me and is drawing me to these books and I want to share what I have learned with you because I believe it speaks profoundly to the church and to the world today.
What changed for me was that I have been blessed to visit the country now known as Jordan three times in the last three years - and I have been to visit Egypt once, last year. And I saw quite a bit of the territory where Moses and the people of God wandered in the wilderness. I saw parts of some of the vast deserts. I experienced the unbelievable dry heat of early fall and learned how the shade of a puny shrub can make a dramatic difference in one’s body temperature. I experienced snow on the ground in that same desert on my second trip, in winter. Then this past April, I saw spring green sprouting from crevices in rocks and sand in that same place. I have stood on Mt. Nebo, now three different times, and looked across the Jordan - not very deep, not very wide, any longer, and I have seen Jericho from that position. So I have sampled feeling and seeing and walking in some of the same places where Moses and the people of God walked for 40 years, maybe 500 to 400 years before Christ lived, two and a half millennia ago. I have been there. And it has changed my life and my understanding of this portion of the word of God forever.
Join me as we hear the word of the Lord as it comes from Deuteronomy 8:11-20. Moses is preaching. Deuteronomy is his last sermon to the people before they cross the Jordan River into the land they’ve been headed together toward for the last 40 years. Moses knows he will die before they get there. He will not be going with them, and he feels an urgency to communicate important matters to them, lest they forget, and the rewards for their “follow-ship” short-lived. Deuteronomy 8:11-20 in the NRSV says it this way: READ
So that we might have a focus in the vastness of God’s word, let’s look at the subject “One Day at a Time”, and think on one of the points Moses makes in this portion of his sermon.
He reminds the people God has entrusted him with, of a time when after they’d been on the road just a few weeks, so to speak, though there was no road to travel upon - just miles and miles and miles of sand and rocks to serve as landmarks - Moses reminds them of when they had lost it and were frantic and complaining - wishing they were back in bondage in Egypt - because at least they knew where their next meal was coming from and what it was likely to be. Moses reminded them of how God responded to their concern - promising faithful overnight delivery of their next day’s meals, one day at a time.
One version of that story is in Exodus 16, where we learn that God promised Moses and the people that he would “rain bread from heaven” for them each day, and instructed them that they should on a daily basis gather up an omer, equivalent to about 5 and a half cups, per person of this unfamiliar white flaky honey flavored substance covering the ground each morning and it would provide tasty nourishment for them in the daytime. God gave them instructions to not hoard the bread, called manna; some of the people, of course, didn’t follow the instructions for whatever reason (maybe afraid that there wouldn’t be any more coming in the morning so they held some back) but when they did that, the leftovers would be spoiled by morning. Except that on the sixth day, God’s instructions to them were that they stock up enough for the seventh day, the Sabbath - and miraculously on that day the bread of heaven didn’t spoil.
It did not take long for people to catch on as it related to this food that when they followed God’s instructions, it all worked out, no one was hungry and everyone had good healthy food each day.
Moses, in this final sermon, told them ‘don’t you ever forget the lessons God taught us so long ago - that God will provide for us One Day at a Time - faithfully - and all we have to do is remember God’s instructions and follow God’s instructions.’ ‘God has been,’ said Moses, ‘providing for us all this time when we didn’t know where we were going or how we’d get there. God has provided enough for all of us; there has been no need for us to be greedy; God has kept all his promises to us,’ said Moses.
Moses said to them, ‘and now you are about to enter a land where fruits and vegetables grow well, where you can settle down and build homes, and have animals, and fresh milk and honey, you’ll have money to buy fabric for new clothes, and you won’t be traveling all the time! You will have a permanent place to raise your children and for your children to raise their children. You will have arrived!’
And Moses said, “Please don’t mess it up by forgetting where you’ve come from and what God has done for you! Please don’t forget how God made a way out of no way! Don’t forget it was not by your power and might, but by the power of God that you have even your lives!”
Moses implored them to remember these things, and he warned them that to forget WHOSE they are, meant, like others before them, they’d lose it all.
Church - Friends - what a challenge Moses’ words are to us today. The world we live in has surely forgotten the things Moses called the people of God to remember. God’s love, God’s patience is incomprehensible and God’s grace is amazing, for God has not shut the world down yet and there are still a few of us on the planet, here and in every nation, who believe that God can restore humanity to sanity.
Consider the men of privilege who head the wealthiest eight man- made nations on earth gathered to make decisions for us this past week, men blindly worshipping themselves and their ways. I feel Moses’ tears. I feel Jesus’ tears. Millions of people all over the world desperate, hungry, oppressed, and abused by sinful social structures and economic systems, by power and greed - and these guys in the meeting don’t get it!!! Only God is God! They are not God - and they do not have the final say so.
The president said the other day, “They have such evil on their hearts that they will take the lives of innocent folks.” Of course, he was referring to the persons who set off bus and subway bombs in London - what a dreadful and sad occasion! I believe, however, that Moses would say to George Bush, “Mr. President, why is it that your heart values the life of innocents in London but does not value the lives of innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan and of our own US troops there? Why does your heart not value the lives of innocents in Darfur, Sudan, and why does your heart not value the lives of neither the poor nor the middle class in your own country sufficiently to provide adequate health care, and jobs for all, and appropriate rehabilitation rather than incarceration for persons addicted to certain drugs. Why is that, Mr. President?” I think Moses might ask. “What does that say about the content of your heart?”
Jesus speaks, saying, “Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my father in heaven.” (MT 7:21)
According to Moses’ last sermon, it is the will of God that people share the resources God has provided, and according to that sermon, the future is not good for those who disobey the will of God.
World leadership has surely forgotten that God pours out blessings one day at a time and that treasure laid up on earth only gets corrupted by moths and rust and becomes of no value to its owner in the end.
Our nation’s leadership has surely forgotten that God has blessed this country, in spite of its horrendous historical sins against its own humanity, and that God has saved it many times from itself. According to Moses’ last sermon, the future is not good for a disobedient nation. Only God’s kingdom is eternal - the famous Roman Empire, I think, only lasted about 400 years and then it was over. The United States may not last that long.
Is the church still in the remembering business? Sometimes, we are. Other times we mimic the world’s powers, calling the world’s ways success. The church, in all places, must check itself out, and ask God to do an inspection and make the necessary corrections. Do we remember all God has done for us? Do our souls still look back and celebrate how we got over one day at a time by the grace of God? Do we still pray ‘give us this day our daily bread’ recognizing that we are not hungry because of God’s gifts to us and only because of God’s gifts one day at a time? Do we remember our AME mission and purpose as a part of the larger body of Christ? Do we still, as a church, speak truth to power, or have we become a part of the perpetuation of earthly structure?
IT IS JUST TOO MUCH TO TRY TO COMPREHEND!!!!
"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. Or maybe the codependent’s prayer is more suitable ‘God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the person I can, and the wisdom to know that’s ME.'"
Do I - do you - as an individual, remember just how good God has been to us? Do we remember the times when all we had to live on was our faith? Do we remember how God has made a way out of no way - one day at a time? Do we remember how when we were sick, God healed us? Do we remember that God calls us to be witnesses to the truth that ALL things come of God - even our very lives - and we can do no less that present our lives to God that the world might know and see Jesus through our spirits and our actions?
This sermon has no conclusion.....all I know to tell you is that God will provide, one day at a time - we must remember that - we’ll know what we need to know when we need to know it - that’s how God is - etc. and AMEN.
Prayer - Help us to remember...”do justice, love kindness, walk humbly.”
Editor’s note: The Reverend Carole Nelson-a member of the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference and assists at Primm Tabernacle AME Church in Seattle, Washington where the Reverend Catherine Crosby is the pastor.
4. THE GLOBAL CORNER: IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT TRAVELING TO SOUTH AFRICA. SOUTH AFRICAN / USA CITIZENSHIP:
Given recent developments around the issue of the Citizenship Amendment Act and in response to media enquiries on this matter, the Department of Home Affairs wishes to set out to the public a clear and comprehensive picture of the situation in this regard.
Government recently repealed section 9 of the South African Citizenship Act of 1995, which regulated the use of the citizenship or nationality of another country by a major South African who has dual citizenship.
In essence, the act repealed the provision which allowed the Minister of Home Affairs to deprive a citizen of his or her citizenship for having used the citizenship of a foreign country. Consequently, the previous requirement for exemptions or letters of permission from the Minister to make use of a foreign passport has now been terminated. The issue of deprivation of citizenship was inconsistent with the Constitutional right to citizenship.
In terms of the South African Citizenship Amendment Act of 2004 which came into effect on 15 September 2004, it is now an offence for a major South African citizen to enter the Republic or depart making use of the passport of another country.
Furthermore, it is also now an offence for such a citizen, while in South Africa, to use his or her foreign citizenship or nationality to gain advantage or avoid a responsibility or duty.
Essentially, the Amendment Act provides that a South African citizen, who has dual citizenship or nationality, can freely use his or her foreign passport outside South Africa. However, they must use their South African passport to depart from or enter South Africa.
The Department has received a number of enquiries from our ports of entry on whether or not South Africans who arrive at border posts with foreign passports may be refused to enter or depart from the Republic.
The Department is obliged to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act. However, we acknowledge that many affected South Africans may not yet be aware of the amendments to the Citizenship Act and the implications for themselves.
We have therefore decided that affected South Africans departing or arriving through our ports of entry, attempting to use a foreign passport, will be issued with a warning giving them three months to obtain a South African passport. They will be allowed to depart or enter South Africa.
Accordingly, we would like advise all South Africans who have a dual citizenship and do not have South African passports to apply for their South African passports at their earliest opportunity. Distributed by the Department of Foreign Affairs on behalf of the Department of Home Affairs.
Should you have any questions in this regard, feel free to contact Mrs. Argie Garcia @ (212) 692 2403 or Mr. Johannes Tiba at (212) 692 2401.
More information can be found at http://www.southafrica-newyork.net/homeaffairs/dualcitinfo.htm
5. PASTOR MIKE BARTA SEEKS ASSISTANCE FROM PERSONS WHO HAVE EXPERIENCE IN MINISTRY IN CHANGING ETHNIC COMMUNITIES:
I am presenting a workshop at the Fifth District Christian Education Summit in Kansas City next Thursday. I will be dealing with the challenges facing Churches (like Johnson Chapel, Santa Ana) in our Zion that find themselves located in changing communities....communities where a once predominately African American population has moved away, or otherwise dwindled in numbers, only to be replaced by a rapidly growing Hispanic (or other immigrant) population majorities. We will be exploring the question of whether it is possible for an AME congregation in such a position to still be able to establish meaningful and effective models of ministry that allow the church to positively impact it's neighborhood for Christ, despite obvious differences in language and culture. We will further consider whether it is possible to do so without sacrificing the Church of Allen's (at least here in the United States) historic commitment to its core (African-American) constituency.
My purpose in writing you is not to puff up my presentation but to ask for your help. As a part of the presentation, we will of course be sharing details about the community/cross-cultural ministry model that we utilize here at Johnson Chapel. It is my hope to share and be candid about both the strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures of our approach while also reviewing the lessons that have been learned from this particular ministry model over the past nine years that it has been utilized here at Johnson Chapel. The model and approach that has been utilized here is however, only one of several approaches that can be implemented in such situations. As a part of this workshop, I would also like to share similar insights regarding other approaches and ministry models that might be in place in other congregations across our great Church. I would love to hear from any Pastor or Congregation who is attempting to make inroads in this critical area and is willing to share information about your efforts.
For those pastors and/or congregational leaders that might be thinking about responding; Please understand that if you are making any kind of effort at all in this area then we can learn from you and I'd love to hear from you...you need not necessarily consider yourself a 'success" to be of help to this presentation.
I would be SO grateful if those interested in assisting me in this effort would contact me via e-mail at pastor_myke@yahoo.com. I have a very brief questionnaire for you to complete, I do apologize for the short amount of remaining time left in which to do this but I promise you that what I need from you will not take an inordinate amount of your time.
Thank you in advance for your kind consideration of this request.
Yours in the Joy of Jesus,
Rev. Michael L. Barta
Pastor
Johnson Chapel AME Church
Santa Ana, California
Archive of The Christian Recorder Online from 2004-2016; Dr. Calvin H. Sydnor III, 20th Editor of The Christian Recorder
