The Reverend Dr. Johnny Barbour, Jr., Publisher
The Reverend Dr. Calvin H. Sydnor III, the 20th Editor, The Christian Recorder
Pentecost Sunday, May 24, 2015
1. TCR EDITORIAL
– SOME ADVICE FOR PREACHERS AND ESPECIALLY FOR YOUNG PASTORS:
Dr. Calvin H. Sydnor III
The 20th Editor of The
Christian Recorder
I have said it
before and I will say it again, “The ministry is a hard profession.”
Here is another
thought: “The ministry is an unforgiving profession.” Sermons are preached about
forgiveness and we talk about forgiveness, but a pastoral misstep can derail
ministry. As Dr. Johnny Barbour, AMEC Publisher opined, “A pastor labors years
working to get to the pinnacle of ministry, but it only takes minutes, seconds
or a bad decision to derail ministry.” In a large part, we have married clergy
and the unfortunate aspect of a derailed ministry is the negative impact it has
upon spouses and children.
Not only is the
pastoral ministry hard and unforgiving, but it also has a personal responsibility
component, especially in medium and small-sized congregations, which other
professions do not have.
For instance a
person entering the profession of law or medicine has a higher beginning
salary, health insurance, Social Security or another retirement program in
place. The law school or medical school
graduate signs the necessary papers and everything is taken care of and no
discussion or no questions asked.
The seminary
graduate or preacher arriving at his or her first or even successive pastoral
appointments most often will not find health insurance, Social Security, the
AME Annuity Program or other retirement programs in place. And, in many instances, if the pastor does
not address those issues, the stewards will not address them either. Pastors
could serve in the pastoral ministry for years without medical insurance and
retirement benefits, which would have negative repercussions later in ministry
and life, especially when preachers reach retirement age.
I learned a lot in
seminary, but I didn’t learn anything about how to pay into Social Security and
other ministry benefit programs because many of those programs were already
established in many of the majority denominations. I guess my seminary didn’t see value in
wasting time with a problem it didn’t have.
I was blessed with
the benefit of wise preachers on “the sidewalk” who advised the young
preachers, “Take care of your family, get life insurance, pay into the Social
Security, even if you have to pay into it yourself; and make sure you have
medical insurance and purchase a home. If something happens to you, your family
is on its own.” I heard that message time and again from pastors, presiding
elders and even my presiding prelate, Bishop Frederick D. Jordan.
The
sidewalk advice is relevant today
We still have
pastors who have not gotten around to paying into Social Security or enrolling
in the AME Annuity Program.
We have pastors who
feel they cannot afford health insurance and do not have sufficient life
insurance coverage. I am embarrassed and feel badly when appeals are made to
assist with the burial expenses of deceased pastors.
In the spirit of
one of my early mentors in the ministry, the Rev. Robert F. Walters, my
classmate during my first year at Conwell School of Theology at Temple
University in Philadelphia, often said, “Repetition is good pedagogy.” His point was that sometimes parishioners
need to hear the same things over and over again. He was the pastor of Ebenezer African Union
Methodist Protestant (AUMP) Church in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and later was
consecrated as bishop in the AUMP Church. It’s in the spirit of “Repetition is
good pedagogy” that I am reiterating some of the same things I have said
before.
Pastors need to
take care of themselves and their families if they are going to provide
effective ministry. Secondly, pastors need to take care of the flock if they
expect to have a successful and respected ministry.
Sidewalk
talk
If, those of you in
the United States haven’t done so, it is important that you enroll in the
Social Security Program.
One example that’s
real: If you are not enrolled in Social Security and you don’t have 30 quarters
of paying into Social Security and you become disabled, you will not qualify
for disability payments. Qualifying for disability payments is sufficient
reason to pay into the Social Security Program without even taking into
consideration the Social Security retirement program. If you are not enrolled in the Social
Security Program, you won’t qualify for Medicare Benefits.
Every pastor needs
health insurance for his or her family. Medical costs are high all over the
world.
Physicians in all
specialties are dedicated professionals, but don’t let that fool you. They are
well-paid and when you need medical help, one of the first questions asked is
about your health insurance. They will not buy, “I am Reverend John or Jane
Doe…” and wave you in to see the doctor.
I have seen patients turned away from the doctor’s office who did not
have the money for the co-pay.
Auto Insurance is a
must and I am sure most pastors have automobile insurance. A person with an
automobile cannot afford not to have automobile insurance.
Participation in
the AME Church Annuity program will benefit those who participate in the
program. Episcopal leaders should
provide vigilant oversight to insure all pastors participate in the program and
talk to local churches about the importance of insuring that their pastor is
enrolled in the program.
If a pastor dies,
the local church has no responsibility for the deceased pastor’s family, which
is why it is incumbent for pastors and their families to prepare for “what
happens when something happens.”
If a pastor becomes
incapacitated and is unable to receive a pastoral appointment, the local church
or the annual conference no longer has financial responsibility to care for the
family, not because they are cold-hearted, but because local churches and
annual conferences don’t have the financial resources to do so. It is the
pastor and his or her family that have to take responsibility to prepare for
“what happens when something happens.”
Purchasing a home,
even if you never live in it is a wonderful way to prepare for unforeseen and
unplanned life-events.
I wish I had
secured the services of a financial advisor at the beginning of my ministry. I
didn’t because I was embarrassed about how badly I had taken care of my
finances.
Financial advisors
are professionals and I discovered that they know how to handle whatever state
of financial affairs a person or family might have. If you live, there will
come a time when you might not be able to work and sometimes that comes earlier
than expected. When you no longer can work or the pastoral ministry comes to an
end, then what? The answer to that question is why you need a financial
advisor.
Preaching is great
and the clichés about “God taking care of us” and “making a way out of no way”
that most of us use are great, but each pastor has the responsibility and
should take the initiative for taking care of his or her family. When we do so, “God will take care of us” and
God will “make a way out of no way!”
We all need to
prepare for the rainy day. To paraphrase
the gospel song, “There’s a financial storm on the ocean and it’s headed your
way. If you haven’t prepared for the stormy day, your financial foundation will
surely slip away!”
Never forget, when
the ministry journey is completed, the only thing left is your family.
When bishops no
longer have the power of pastoral appointments, they generally walk alone; no
more crowd. When you are no longer the
pastor-in-charge, the crowd around you will thin out. The pastoral perks will evaporate because the
newly assigned pastor or the assigned presiding bishop will be the recipient of
the pastoral perks.
The only entity a
preacher can count on when everything else ends is his or her family.
Ministry
sidewalk talk
Pray, read your
Bible and love the people!
An effective pastor
has to be a person of prayer - prayer every day, during the day and at night. A
dedicated prayer life will keep Satan at bay. It won’t keep Satan away, but you
will be better able to deal with Satan if you are a person of prayer.
The Bible is your
weapon and you need the Bible to become proficient in your craft – the craft of
ministry.
I heard a preacher
some years ago who preached about the Prodigal Son and he said the father
killed the “fatted lamb” when the son returned home from the “far country.”
That preacher was not “on top of his game.”
I wondered if he heard the gasps in the congregation. I guess not
because he didn’t make the correction.
A preacher has got
to master the Bible and always be in a posture to become a biblical scholar. A
pastor needs the Bible to deal with Satan too. Jesus certainly used scripture
when confronted by Satan.
Love the people and
love ministry. Share their intimate moments.
Visit the flock. Take the time to
attend sporting and significant scholastic events of the children. Visit your
parishioners’ homes and visit the sick and shut-in members.
Pastors of medium
and small churches – You visit the sick and shut-in members and you take the
Sacrament to them; don’t delegate the responsibility of visiting the sick and
shut-in members to the ministers on your staff.
You do it and the people will love and respect your ministry.
Treat everyone
equally – those whom you like and those you don’t like and treat with respect
those who like you and those who don’t like you very well – treat them all with
respect and be a pastor to all. Provide
pastoral care and pastoral oversight to all the flock.
And
let me reiterate, if a family wants another preacher to do a
eulogy, preside at a wedding or other function don’t get in a fight; be
gracious and generous and you will be endeared to them forever.” Don’t let turf battles kill your ministry.
Always be gracious and kind and always take the “high ground!”
It might be a good
idea to read the Ordination of Elders ritual in The Doctrine and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church
2012 on Page 542 from time to time to be reminded of our pastoral
responsibilities, which commands Itinerant Elders to “Take thou authority to preach the word of God and to administer the
holy sacraments in the congregation in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.”
2. TCR OP-ED - AME SEMINARIES ESSENTIAL:
*Dr. Leah Fitchue
Introduction
First, let me say
that I think many of the points expressed by the editor in the March 12 and
March 20, 2015, TCR editorials, “A
Seminary Degree is Laudable, but Impractical for Many Pastoral Assignments in
Our Zion, Parts 1 & 2” deserve further exploration. However, I do not
agree with the editor’s suggestions that the MDiv degree should be eliminated
as the primary pathway to itinerate ordination and clergy leadership
preparation. The mandate was written over a decade ago when current internal
and external changes impacting theological education had not yet emerged, such
as the expansion of online programs, like the MDiv degree that Payne
Theological Seminary currently offers, and more rigorous assessment of student
outcomes. Certainly, it would be appropriate to review the mandate and consider
timely adjustments.
Also, for those who
conclude that the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC) made a mistake in The Doctrine and Discipline of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church 2012 in asserting that “a candidate for
ordination as itinerant elder must be a graduate of a seminary accredited by
the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) or a similar accrediting agency,”
I suggest that the only mistake made was not to emphatically state that the
candidate must be a “MDiv graduate.” I would invite the AMEC to correct this
omission and continue with its ordination practice.
Given the
challenges associated with varying and multifaceted attempts at accreditation
during the last 20 years, including “do-it-ourselves” models, the AMEC should
also examine the wisdom of eliminating the phrase “similar accrediting agency.”
Too many AMEs select to study at non-ATS institutions that have lower
accrediting standards than ATS and produce products that do not honor the integrity
of graduate-level theological education or the leadership needs of our Zion.
In acknowledging
the editor’s focus on student debt, I want to note that Payne Theological
Seminary is one of 67 ATS institutions that received a $250,000 Lilly Endowment
grant in 2014 to address the colossal debt problem currently expanding across
the entire theological education community. Debt is a major higher education
issue across all areas of study. While Payne and Turner Theological Seminary
students also experience challenges with student indebtedness, the AME
seminaries’ tuition rates are a better cost value compared to other seminaries.
Payne is grateful that the Bishop’s Council of the AMEC has formulated a
subcommittee to review student indebtedness issues in search of debt relief
strategies.
The
MDiv Degree and AME Clergy Leadership
Core to my response
is the recognition of the quintessential purpose of the MDiv degree.
Consequently, I invite you to reflect on the fact that the MDiv degree was
designed to prepare church leaders, not managers. There is a difference.
Leaders are those who lead people where they otherwise would not go, while
managers provide due diligence in maintaining people where they are. Managers
may keep churches open, but leaders build churches and grow congregations.
Since the black church is responsible for liberating and empowering black
people, its leaders must be equipped to engage the prophetic and speak truth to
power. It is in MDiv studies where clergy leaders are trained to exemplify the
use of gospel weaponry in manifesting the power of God before powers and
principalities. In the book Engaging the
Powers, Walter Wink addresses the unique call of the church to use its
divine power to demolish demonic strongholds.[i]
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as
the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On
the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish
arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of
God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2
Corinthians 10: 3-5)
The called leaders
of the church, fully aware of to whom they belong, are expected to serve as
spiritual and mental warriors in modeling for their congregants the appropriate
weapons to engage in their battles to live in the world but not be of the
world.
In pursuit of the
MDiv degree, AMEC clergy who identify themselves as leaders and seek to become
ordained itinerant elders are expected to experience personal transformation
and to leave seminary as changed servants. Studying for the MDiv degree, AMEC
candidates learn to sharpen their leadership acumen and permanently adorn their
spiritual armor for lifelong battle. The MDiv, the most desirable professional
graduate degree for clergy, encourages AMEC candidates to not only know the
Word of God but also to give themselves permission to affirm an Africentric
ethos and to ponder, question and interpret anew, as an exegete, the parochial
worldview of the Bible. For example, for many clergy, the concept of “womanist”
is not relevant in their ministry. Regrettably, this is also true for female
congregants who resist the assignment of female clergy.
It is at the MDiv
level where these and other inclusive concepts are introduced, examined, and
validated, thus highlighting the contribution of women in the gospel and in ministry.
Africentrically speaking, MDiv studies is where we discover that the function
of the Bible is not to stifle and “dominionize,” but, as stated by Dr. Michael
Joseph Brown in his book What They Don’t
Tell You: A Survivor’s Guide to Biblical Studies, “with liberation as its
common norm, the act of reading the Bible contextually has as its goal the
transformation of readers and their societies.”[ii]
Seminary,
particularly the black seminary, is where the words of African American
scholars (the worth of whom too many are unknown or undervalued, especially in
many majority seminaries) crisscross the mental synapses of the brain and
create new pathways about what it means to be black and Christian. A critical
principle of being black and Christian is to acknowledge the deficit of the
Bible in its just treatment of blacks. The church is called to sustain a
frontal attack on injustice, even if the injustice is in the church; and the church does its best job when its leadership
is composed of MDiv-prepared and transformed warriors who are called to risk
uttering a prophetic word or an unpopular truth. In Where Have All the Prophets Gone? Marvin McMickle reminds us that
without exegetical richness and prophetic preaching, those in power offer the
marginalized a fraudulent vision that only helps those in power to maintain the
status quo: “The work of the prophet is to combat that single vision and show
that God can and will bring about a future different from that envisioned by
the ruling elite.”[iii]
The
Protest DNA of AMEs and Theological Education
In the spirit of
the protest DNA of African Methodism and the empowered people it produces, we
must remember the genius of our ancestors in leading us out of darkness into
light. It was “superior knowledge”[iv] that drove Daniel Alexander Payne—the architect for
AMEC educational preparation—to educate himself so that he might educate slaves
and free blacks. Payne resisted anti-intellectualism and insisted on the
highest possible theological education preparation of clergy leaders whose
ministerial charge was “no less than the destiny of the race.”[v]
In 1844, at the
AMEC Ohio Conference at Columbus, Ohio, Daniel Alexander Payne received the
mandate of the AMEC to start a school for the preparation of young black men to
enhance their theological education. This outcome was not achieved without an
internal battle between the anti-education AMEs and the pro-education AMEs.
Now, one and a half centuries later, we once again broach the conversation of
the appropriate higher education degree attainment of clergy for African
Methodism. During the conference, after Payne’s resolution was initially
defeated in the assembly, it required a late evening meeting of the conference
leadership to propose a strategy to reverse the defeat of the resolution that
had occurred earlier in the day. The next day, the resolution passed and opened
the door for the preparation of AME clergy to become spiritual and intellectual
agents of the gospel and advocates of
social justice.
It may well require
similar late night sessions of the AME leadership to resolve once and forever
why, as a people, we resist the reality of our oppressive sojourn and continue
to experience repeated enslavement, both physically and ideologically. We were
liberated from slavery in 1865, only to be enslaved by Jim Crow Laws from 1890
to 1954 until the passage of Brown vs.
Board of Education; enslaved again in 1986 when the U.S. Senate proposed
and President Ronald Reagan signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which advocated
incarceration for low-level drug users instead of high-level drug distributors;
and enslaved again when President Bill Clinton signed the Crime Bill, which
ramped up the use of prisons and created a more punitive criminal justice
system for people of color.
Notably, these two
criminal justice laws have contributed to what Michelle Alexander describes in
her book The New Jim Crow as a 21st-century
new plantation system of jails and prisons that disproportionately warehouses
black men and women and other people of color. “No other country in the world
imprisons so many of its racial or ethnic minorities. The United States
imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at
the height of apartheid.”[vi] Nevertheless, even when provided with irrefutable evidence
of repeated enslavement, some of us tend to underestimate the power of
“superior knowledge” in confronting unjust systems which is required to sustain
personal and collective liberation and empowerment. These acts of repeated
enslavement are described as “black cyclical reality” in the article,
“Collisions Between Racism and the Truth of the Cross.”[vii]
MDiv
Degree Partnership: Church, Board of Examiners, and Seminary
The centrality of
the MDiv degree in the preparation of persons for ordained ministry and for
general pastoral and religious leadership responsibilities in congregations and
other settings cannot be overstated. It should be noted that the MDiv degree is
also the recommended degree for admission to the Doctor of Ministry degree and
advanced programs oriented to theological research and teaching. It is,
therefore, the foundational degree for clergy seeking to enhance both their
pastoral and scholarly acumen in order to serve the Kingdom from the font of
one’s greatest servant potential. Consequently, it is difficult to consider the
attainment of the MDiv degree “impractical” if educated and informed clergy
leadership is foundational to the sustainability, elevation, and advancement of
our Zion.
The recent and more
rigorous assessment requirements of ATS have strengthened the reliability and
instructional relevance of the MDiv curriculum by allowing the seminary to
employ data-based findings to support curriculum changes that best serve constituency
needs. Those who achieve the MDiv degree are expected to demonstrate learning
outcomes congruent with the institution’s mission and purpose. The seminary is expected to demonstrate that
MDiv students have achieved the goals of the learning outcomes of the degree
program utilizing direct and indirect evidence of student achievement in and
out of the classroom.
Therefore, it is
understood that the MDiv degree, in principle and practice, is nurtured by the
theological educational “trinity” of African Methodism—the church, the Board of
Examiners, and the seminary. This is the recommended AMEC theological education
model that intentionally joins the efforts of the seminary, the church for whom
the seminary exits, and the Board of Examiners in ensuring African Methodism
perpetuity. Any fair assessment of the MDiv degree or other degree initiatives
should give attention to the seminary’s primary calling for academic excellence
and its relationship to the church’s expectation for spiritual and ministry
formation and the Board of Examiners’ expectation for professional ministry
readiness.
If the MDiv
instructional journey continues to go well, just as entering students clearly
indicate that experiencing a call from God led them to seminary, graduating
students should be able to express a life-changing power that provides expanded
clarity and greater commitment to their renewed sense of call and ministerial
vocation.[viii] The seminary’s MDiv experience should make a
difference in how its academic program interacts with life experiences, faculty
advisement, peer exchange, supervised church and faith-based community
mentoring, and should cause students to gain new insight and greater
discernment of the specificity of God’s call on their lives.[ix] It is this kind of life-changing seminary experience
that empowers men and women to serve as faithful and competent leaders of the
church and deems MDiv study to be a requirement, rather than an option, for our
Zion.
Consensus
Welcomed
In Part 1 of his
editorial, the editor makes the following observation:
…seminaries, especially majority seminaries do not
always provide their graduates with the skills needed to pastor AME or minority
church congregations…I attended a majority seminary and received a first-class
education that worked especially well in the military environment and I am sure
would have worked well in a majority denomination, but much of what I learned
was not applicable in any appreciable way in my AME pastorate.
I welcome this
perspective and the consensus it makes possible in affirming the authentic
value of theological education for AMEs in the historically black theological
context. I close with the thesis set forth in my November 7, 2014, op-ed in The Christian Recorder Online, entitled
“AME Seminary Preferred:” Payne and Turner are uniquely called to equip men and
women to receive the MDiv degree and subsequent itinerant orders for the
leadership of African Methodism. My question also remains the same:
How important is it to African Methodism that its
church leaders are embedded in the African Methodist tradition and history and
devoted to its polity, praxis, and passion for social justice? Only when one
fully understands a theory and praxis pedagogy that embraces both a salvation
tradition and a liberation heritage—as rich as that of the AMEC—can one most
effectively work within African
Methodism to…course-correct for future growth and development.
The most
appropriate process for this course correction can only be implemented
successfully if the AMEC prayerfully acknowledges the value that the MDiv
programs offered by Payne and Turner bring to the distinctive preparation of
leaders for African Methodism. As I stated in my previous article, and I repeat
now, “AME students cannot obtain what AME seminaries have to offer anywhere
else.”
i Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of
Domination (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992).
ii Michael Joseph Brown, What They Don’t Tell You: A Survivor’s Guide
to Biblical Studies, 2nd ed. (Kentucky: Westminster John Knox
Press, 2015), 23.
iii Marvin McMickle, Where Have All the Prophets Gone? (Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press,
2006), 11.
iv Charles Foster, et al, Educating Clergy: Teaching Practices and
Pastoral Imagination (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2006), 208.
v Foster, et al, 211.
vi Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the
Age of Colorblindness (New York:
The New Press, 2012), 6.
vii Ebony Joy Fitchue and Leah Gaskin
Fitchue, “Collisions Between Racism and the Truth of the Cross“ in Contesting Post-Racialism: Conflicted
Churches in the United States and South Africa, R. Drew Smith, William
Ackah, Anthony G. Reddie and Rothney S. Tshaka, eds. (Jackson: University Press
of Mississippi, 2015), 161-163.
viii Timothy D. Lincoln, “How Master of
Divinity Education Changes Students: A Research-Based Model,” Teaching Theology and Religion, 215.
ix Lincoln, 217.
3.
NEWS AROUND THE AME CHURCH:
--
Wake’s Caldwell sets sights on setting school record
Nyki Caldwell’s
pursuit of clearing 6-feet in the high jump is anything but a pipe dream. At
this juncture, she’s only 1½ inches shy of soaring to heights which have never
been achieved in women’s track and field at Wake Forest University.
TCR Editor's Note: Nyki Caldwell is the daughter of TCR Getting to Zero Columnist, the Rev. Dr. Oveta Fuller Caldwell
(and, of course her husband, Dr. Jerry Caldwell)
--
Ex-First AME Church Trustee Accused in Scam
A former trustee of
First AME Church in Los Angeles has been charged for allegedly scamming seniors
- some of them church members - out of more…
--
AME Church Wins Ejectment Case - Defendant to Pay $30K -AMEC
In the petition the
counsels say that the 14th Episcopal District of the AME church is the owner of
the property occupied by the defendants.
--
Pastor brings faith, understanding to St. Paul AME
McFadden brings his
faith and understanding to the pulpit of St. Paul AME Church. He's served as
the church's pastor for the past five months.
4.
WILBERFORCE UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT ALGEANIA FREEMAN FEELS GOOD ABOUT THIS WEEK’S
ACCREDITATION VISIT:
--
Wilberforce University makes policy changes, upgrades campus in bid to keep
accreditation
The nation's oldest
historically black private university is making policy changes and spending
more than $3 million on its southwestern Ohio campus in an effort to keep its
accreditation.
The Higher Learning
Commission sent a warning to Wilberforce University last June requiring the
school to show why accreditation shouldn't be withdrawn.
Members of an
accreditation team will visit the campus this month to evaluate whether
Wilberforce has resolved the issues outlined. They include low enrollment and
financial deficits.
The commission has
said loss of accreditation could result in students lacking eligibility for
federal financial aid and having problems transferring credits.
Wilberforce
University President Algeania Freeman told the Dayton Daily News (http://bit.ly/1DSyNWR) that the school
has been following the commission's recommendations and feels good about the
upcoming visit.
5.
NEW WEBSITE FOR THE 8TH EPISCOPAL DISTRICT OF THE AME CHURCH:
The Eighth
Episcopal District is delighted to host the Meetings of the Council of Bishops,
General Board and Investiture of Bishop Julius H. McAllister, Sr.; June 29 -
July 1, 2015, at the Hilton Riverside New Orleans Hotel in New Orleans,
Louisiana.
Download the
Investiture Souvenir Journal Applications, Vendors/Exhibitors Forms, and hotel
and other information at the new Eighth District's website: http://ame8.org/
Submitted by the
Reverend Michele R. Goodloe, Executive Administrative Assistant, Eighth
Episcopal District AME Church
6.
SENIOR BISHOP JOHN R. BRYANT TO BE A GUEST PREACHER AT THE CME SUMMIT IN
ORLANDO, FLORIDA:
The Fourth Annual
CME Unity Summit will be held Monday, September 28, 2015 through Friday,
October 2, 2015 at the Rosen Centre Hotel located at 9840 International Drive
in Orlando, Florida. Bishop Teresa E. Snorton and the members of the Fifth
Episcopal District will host the CME Unity Summit.
The General
Connectional Board meeting will be held this year during the CME Unity Summit
and will convene on Monday, September 28 and Tuesday, September 29, 2015.
This year's Unity
Summit will feature the General Officers leading many of the plenary and
model-building sessions, and guest preachers, speakers and teachers from around
the United States. The Friday Concert
will feature Grammy Award-winning gospel recording artists Tramaine Hawkins and
Jennifer Holliday, and teen Stellar Award-winning gospel recording artist,
Jekalyn Carr. A Gala Banquet will be
held on Thursday evening. And a
"CME Best" talent show will be held to showcase the talented men and
women in our Zion. Additional information about the CME Unity Summit and
registration is available below.
Theme: "Investing
Where You Are"
This year's CME
Unity Summit theme is, "Investing Where You Are" (At Home). The
Vision of the Unity Summit for the coming quadrennial period is based on the
Connectional Theme of the CME Church, “The Investment Factor: A Changed People,
Changing the World.” The goal of the
Summit is to make the theme real in the life of the Church. The CME Unity Summit will provide the
appropriate resources and models for our members to take back to enact at their
local church. Many of the sessions will
be led by our General Officers.
The objective is to
study and assess the four applications of the theme and design a plan of action
for the implementation of the several applications at each level of the Church.
This will cause the theme to come alive in the church’s ministry to community
and become for the church a new paradigm!
Guest
Preachers, Presenters and Teachers
- Bishop John R.
Bryant, Senior Bishop, the African Methodist Episcopal Church and Presiding
Prelate of the Fourth District
- Bishop W. Darin
Moore, Presiding Prelate of the Western Episcopal District
African Methodist
Episcopal Zion Church
- The Rev. Dr.
James A. Forbes, Jr., Senior Minister,
Emeritus, Riverside Church, New York City
- Dr. Todd D.
Still, Professor of Christian Scriptures, Truett Theological Seminary
- Pastor Olu Brown,
Impact Church, Atlanta, GA
- Thomas Mikal
Ford, Actor and Producer
- The General
Officers of the CME Church
In
Concert - Friday Evening
- Tramaine Hawkins,
Grammy Award-Winning Gospel Recording Artist
- Jennifer
Holliday, Grammy Award Recording Artist and Tony Award-Winning Actress
-Jekalyn Carr, Teen
Stellar Award-Winning Gospel Recording Artist
General
Connectional Board Meeting
The General
Connectional Board will meet on Monday, September 28 and Tuesday, September
29. All members of the General
Connectional Board and Special Commissions will receive additional information
from Dr. Victor Taylor, the General Secretary of Finance. All members of the General Connectional Board
and Special Commissions are expected to register for the Unity Summit.
For additional
information go to the CME Official Website.
* Submitted by the
CME Unity Summit Executive Committee
7.
DR. DOROTHY JACKSON-YOUNG GUEST SPEAKER AT M-SWAWO+PKS LUNCHEON AT THE 2015
MID-YEAR CONVOCATION/FOUNDER’S DAY:
*Mrs. Andrea Ivy
The Third Episcopal
District M-SWAWO+PKs, held their Mid-Year Convocation luncheon on Friday, March
27, 2015, at the Renaissance Columbus Hotel in Columbus, Ohio.
There were over 70
attendees, including presiding elders and pastors. All present received a warm welcome from Mrs.
Yuolanda Murray, 3rd District Vice President and Connectional
M-SWAWO+PKs Scholarship Chairperson, who
served as the luncheon Presiding Officer.
The Episcopal
District was also delighted to have in our mist our beloved Bishop McKinley
Young and former 3rd District Connectional Officers Dr. Barbara J.
Thompson and Mrs. Geraldine Tate.
We were very
excited to acknowledge out of District guests: Bishop Earl E. McCloud, Jr.;
International WMS President, Dr. Shirley Cason Reed (2nd Episcopal
District) and Mrs. Brenda Hurt (8th District), Connectional
M-SWAWO+PKs PK Advisor.
The luncheon theme,
“Uniting, Supporting and Empowering Clergy Families for the Journey,” set the
stage for uplifting worship, great fellowship, and a meal conducive to a
healthier lifestyle.
A Spirit-filled
invocation was given by Mrs. Dorothy White, in the excused absence of the 3rd
District Worship Leader, Mrs. Patricia Thornton.
Bishop McKinley
Young extended greetings and stated that he appreciated all the efforts of the
clergy spouses and prayed continued blessings on behalf of the Organization.”
Mrs. Marlyce
Roberson-McCants stirred our souls with her melodious rendition of “The Lord's
Prayer" and Mrs. Cynthia Gainey gave the blessing of the meal.
President Judy
Williams, 3rd Episcopal District M-SWAWO+PKs introduced the guest
speaker of the hour and humbly thanked Dr. Dorothy Young for empowering,
supporting and loving the clergy spouses.
Dr. Dorothy Young
captivated the spouses with her “Healthy Living as a Clergy Spouse and a Clergy
Family” message.
She shared a few of
her experiences as a spouse and that she is a cancer survivor. Her compelling
and inspirational story brought forth “Amens,” tears to our eyes and smiles on
our faces.
In her summary she
stated,” … a healthy, strong marriage will lead to a healthy, strong ministry
and a healthy, strong church.”
Dr. Young received
a standing ovation for her outstanding message and President Williams presented
her with a token of love and appreciation that could never repay her for her
exceptional leadership in the 3rd Episcopal District.
The luncheon was in
"Honor" of our widows and widowers for their faithfulness and
dedicated work in M-SWAWO+PKs.
A roll call of
their names, by Conference, was read.
The following were
present and received gifts and accolades: Mrs. Juanita Arterberry, Mrs.
Ernestine Casson and Mrs. Andrea Estes, Pittsburgh Conference; Mrs. Sarah
Chappell, West Virginia Conference; and Mrs. Joanne Harris, Ohio Conference.
Mrs. Pamela
Blackwell, North Ohio Conference M-SWAWO+PKs President was presented as the 1st
Lady contestant. She will represent the
3rd Episcopal District at the Conn-M-SWAWO+PKs Clergy Family
Breakfast on Tuesday, June 30, 2015 at the June Bishops’ Council meeting in New
Orleans. President Williams asked all to
support Mrs. Blackwell and reminded everyone, "We are in it, to win
it!"
Mrs. Murray shared
information on the 3rd District M-SWAWO +PKs Fellowship Retreat
scheduled for May 15-16, 2015, in Cleveland, Ohio.
The event
culminated with final words to the Terrific Third District M-SWAWO+PKs by
Supervisor Dr. Dorothy Jackson-Young.
She thanked President Williams for her outstanding leadership and the
clergy families and guests for supporting the luncheon and M-SWAWO+PKs.
To God be the
Glory!
*Mrs. Andrea Ivy,
Recording Secretary is the 3rd Episcopal District M-SWAWO+PKs
8.
WAKE FORREST UNIVERSITY'S NYKI CALDWELL SETS SIGHTS ON SETTING HIGH JUMP
RECORD:
The article at this
link is about goals and achievements of our youngest daughter, Nyki Caldwell.
She brought home the gold medal for winning the women's high jump at the 2015
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Indoor Track and Field Championship meet held
February 26-28 at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, VA. Nyki is a senior
Health and Exercise Science major and psychology minor at Wake Forest University
(WFU).
We are especially
pleased to share that on April 15, at an all ACC luncheon held in Greensboro,
N.C., she was recognized for "outstanding academic and athletic
achievements." She is one of two seniors chosen for such recognition from
among all students in any collegiate sport at WFU. For those designated as
outstanding ACC scholar-athletes, the Weaver-James-Corrigan Postgraduate
Scholarship Award comes with $5,000 to use towards graduate or professional
studies.
We are grateful and
proud of Nyki and her accomplishments. We look forward to enjoying the May
graduation and blessings in the 2015 ACC Outdoor Track and Field Championship
and the regional meets as the culmination of the high jump season.
---
Nyki is one of
three children of Dr. Jerry Caldwell and Dr. Oveta Fuller-Caldwell. The family
is part of the Michigan Annual Conference of the Fourth Episcopal District.
9.
MORE THAN A DISTRICT CONFERENCE, A MEETING THAT MADE A DIFFERENCE:
The Presiding Elder
of the Camden-Trenton District Reverend Dr. Robert C. Wade and his Lovely wife
Mrs. Prudence Hope Wade created an air of unity during the Camden-Trenton
District Conference Meeting held on October 18-19, 2013
The theme and the
workshops presented reflected the keen awareness of current and impacting
issues that we are facing in these tumultuous days. Well planned and thought
out, the entire Conference was a seamless and enriching experience for all in
attendance.
The Camden-Trenton
District Conference was hosted by Bethel AME Church Moorestown N.J. where the
Reverend Dr. Stanley Hearst Sr. serves as the shepherd with First Lady Sharon
Y. Hearst at his side. Bethel church family were most gracious hosts, no stone
was left unturned to accommodate the District Conference participants.
The Camden-Trenton
District (One church in Twenty-four locations) came together preparing to join
forces in hosting the New Jersey Annual Conference of the AME Church. All
hearts and minds were attentive as Mrs. Prudence Home Wade our Consultant
presented in storybook fashion the strategic plan for again hosting a
successful Annual Conference.
Two detailed
presentations laid out detailed information concerning the new health care law.
Special guests Mrs. Barbara Andrews ,Regional Administrator of U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services spoke on the Topic The Affordable Health Care
Act-Health Insurance in the Market Place “Materials were readily available and
many questions were answered during the dialogue between the presenters and the Conference delegates and attendees.
Throughout the
sessions the Elder reached out to touch the pulse of both the Clergy and the
delegates to see what matters or aspects of the church needed attention. In a
series of discussions with the delegates opportunity was given to exchange
ideas between the churches in advancing the church in areas of evangelism, and
church growth.
The worship
services were uplifting, encouraging and revitalizing with the Reverend Gervine
Bell, spoke using Ephesians Chapter 6:10-17 s her text posed the question “Are
You Dressed for the Battle”. The Reverend Arthur O. Hall, pastor of Saint James
Thorofare preached for the Laity and reminded us not to forget our heritage as
a people and as a church, the Saturday afternoon closing worship culminated
with the presentation of our Bishop, The Right Reverend Gregory Gerald McKinley
Ingram who stopped by to bless us with a word from the book of Exodus chapter
14, Verse 10 that resounds even now: “Go, Forward or Move On!"
10.
THE AMERICAN REFORMATION BEGINS, PART 1:
The Rev. Hannah
Adair Bonner
Not all Revolutions
begin with a Declaration, and not all Reformations begin with a list of Theses.
The Reformation of the Methodist church in the United States began with prayer.
In 1787, ten years
after Thomas Jefferson penned the words, “We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal,” Richard Allen and Absalom Jones
came to the recognition that these words though ambitious in scope were incomplete
in execution. These ideals, impressive as they sounded, were not truly intended
to include all people.
On July 12, 1987,
the Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia, the city where Allen and
Jones were pastors, and agreed upon the “Three-Fifths Compromise.” It was a
compromise between the Northern States, who did not want African American
slaves to be counted as persons in the census, but instead as property; and the
Southern States, who did want them to be counted, but only so that they could
receive more seats for white men in the legislature. The two sides agreed to
compromise and count slaves as 3/5th of a person.
Within only four
years of the establishment of the United States, it was abundantly clear that
the nation that had won its independence from Great Britain would not be
extending that liberty and equality to all people. The white, land-holding men
who held power in the country would continue to treat the indigenous peoples as
trespassers on their own land, or rather God’s land, and would continue to hold
their brothers and sisters in slavery.
While they said
that all men were created equal, which was not how they treated all men, let
alone all women? This hierarchy of value, placed upon persons according to
their gender and nations of origin, ran contrary to the Christian scriptures.
Disappointingly, however, that was not the prevailing narrative told by
preachers and theologians of the time.
“
According to the
seventeenth-century English theologian Lancelot Andrewes, “Animals [i.e.
indigenous persons of the Americas, Australia and Africa] can have no right of
society with us because they want reason.” With respect to land, animals had no
rights, Andrewes concluded on biblical grounds, because God had given the earth
to humans. Since they had no human rights, they could be exterminated, both in
the sense of being driven from land settled by humans and in the sense of being
killed, because biblical commandments against theft or murder did not apply to
non-humans.” – David Chidester, Savage
Systems, p. 14
Although the
Methodist movement had been built upon staunch abolitionism in Great Britain,
and although it contained many abolitionist preachers within its ranks, within
a nation whose economy was built upon this theological falsehood, the new
religious movement found itself failing in many places to remain true to what
had set it apart.
So it was that
Absalom Jones and Richard Allen found that the promises of freedom rang just as
false when coming from the church bells of St. George’s as they did when
tolling from the nearby Liberty Bell.
At the root of this
disconnect was that theological error, that exegetical fraud, that
hermeneutical crime – or, as we once called such things – that heresy. The
heresy that God did not love all people the same. The abominable heresy that
not all people were made fully in the image of God; thus, justifying leaving
them out of the words, “all men were created equal and endowed by their Creator
with certain inalienable rights.” Thus, allowing the “Three-Fifths Compromise”
to go unchallenged on theological grounds.
Falsehood in
science, ignorance in philosophy, criminal greed in the economy – yes, all
these things played a role. Yet, the betrayal and falsehood that cut most
deeply, was the one that was the most unexpected: the betrayal that came from
the church. Abolitionist preachers, of all races and ethnicities, did battle to
be heard over the more common teachings of preachers that promoted and endorsed
the practice of classifying African Americans as only 3/5 of a person and,
thus, not made in the full image of God.
If left
unchallenged, this social teaching, supported by a false hermeneutic of
exclusion rather than inclusion, rang the death toll for any hope of spiritual
integrity that the churches of the fledgling nation might have.
Enter the American
Reformation.
In November of
1787, just three months after the passing of the “Three-Fifths Compromise,”
Richard Allen and Absalom Jones had the courage to take action in the face of
theological cowardice just as reformers throughout the centuries had done
before them. Rather than nailing the 95 Theses to their churches door, the
renowned preachers did what many civil disobedience activists since that time
have done: they simply knelt to pray in a place where they were not welcome to
do so.
When the Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. knelt in the middle of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in
Selma, did he know that Jones and Allen had been there before? When leaders of
the United Methodist Church were arrested while kneeling in front of the White
House to protest the separation of families taking place through deportation
last year, did they know that Jones and Absalom had been there before? When we
kneel to pray in the driveways of prisons about to execute human beings, or in
the streets of places like Ferguson where lives have been lost, do we recognize
that Jones and Allen have been there before?
With a simple act
of kneeling to pray in a place that God had called them to pray, yet man had
denied them the right to pray, these leaders sparked the American Reformation
within the Methodist movement.
When they knelt to
pray at the front of the church, rather than in the balcony where the white
members preferred them to pray, they were pulled to their feet and told to go
pray where they belonged; receiving treatment much the same as practitioners of
civil disobedience today. Their response, so the story goes, was to respond
that they intended to finish their prayers and then would bother the
congregation of St. George’s no more. That is exactly what they did.
Absalom Jones
walked out and went on to eventually found the African Methodist Episcopal Zion
Church (AMEZ). Richard Allen walked out and went on to found the African
Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC). Sixty years after, Laroy Sunderland and
Orange Scott walked out and founded the Wesleyan Methodist Church. A hundred
years later, more leaders down in Tennessee would walk out of their church and
founded what is now called the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (CME).
Richard Allen had
been present at the actual establishment of the denomination, The Christmas
Conference in 1784. Yet he had been restricted to preaching at 5:00 a.m. early
services at St. George’s Methodist rather than the regular Sunday services, and
disrespected until walking out of that church was the only way he saw to be
faithful – the only way to continue the movement, both of Christ and of Wesley.
For the past decade
of my ministry, I have looked to this example as the root of a Reformation that
began, at least in the Methodist movement, with Allen and Jones, and continues
to our day. That Reformation, I would argue, quite possibly holds equal
importance to the one begun by Martin Luther. The fundamental truth that all
people are made in the image of God, and all people hold equal value in God’s
sight, has perhaps just as much to do with our relationship with God and with
one another as Luther’s sola fide.
Historically, we
have not called Allen and Jones reformers, most likely because we have not
recognized that their actions have universal importance; not only for African
Americans, but also for all people. The men made this clear in addressing their
voices to the nation as a whole: “If you love your children, if you love your
country, if you love the God of love, clear your hands from slaves, burden not
your children or your country with them” - Richard Allen, To Those Who Keep
Slaves and Approve the Practice
In fact, the men
were so serious about their theology of love, that when given the opportunity
put it to the test, during the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793, Allen and Jones
organized their followers to care for the dying white citizens of Philadelphia
while other white citizens fled the city. They did not allow the cruelty of
others to impact their own integrity and theological consistency.
The question
arises, why have we been so slow to follow the leadership of Jones and Allen,
who insisted upon being treated as children of God and as no lesser than their
fellow human beings? Why have we been so hesitant to join our voices with
theirs in condemning the heresy of a hierarchy of humanity: not only in
philosophy, but also in practice? Why have we been hesitant to vocally
acknowledge, repent and confront the inherently corrupting sin of racism?
The American
Reformation began over 200 years ago; it is time for us to finish it.
*The Rev. Hannah
Adair Bonner is an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church and a member
of the Eastern Pennsylvania Annual Conference. She currently serves at St.
John's Downtown in Houston, Texas.
**Used with
permission of the Rev. Hannah Adair Bonner
11.
LEGACY OF SELMA ENERGIZES THE JUSTICE MOVEMENT TODAY:
The Rev. Dr.
Angelique Walker-Smith
William Shakespeare
wrote in The Tempest, “What’s past is prologue.” We see a movement today toward
justice that echoes the Civil Rights Movement, a thread of earlier struggles
that emerges in our day.
In the summer of
1962, the Rev. Bernard Lafayette accepted a position with the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). This position was tasked with
conducting organizing work in Selma, Ala. This was after the executive
secretary of SNCC, James Forman, cautioned that SNCC should not go to Selma to
do voting rights organizing. Forman told
Lafayette that “Selma had too many black people wounded by oppression.” Forman
said white people were too man for such an organizing campaign to have any
success.
Lafayette had done
extensive research at Tuskegee University and in various communities. He made a
strong case that Selma should be a place for their work. After much debate,
Forman agreed along with other SNCC leaders, like Diane Nash, that SNCC could
go to Selma. History now shows that the three were right.
Violence and hatred
were cast upon African-Americans and their partners in the struggle for voting
rights. These partners included white
people and a diverse people of faith. When Bloody Sunday occurred on March 7,
1965, 525 to 600 civil rights marchers headed east out of Selma on U.S. Highway
80. John Lewis of SNCC and the Rev. Hosea Williams of SCLC led the march,
followed by Bob Mants of SNCC and Albert Turner of SCLC. The protest went
according to plan until the marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge out of
Selma. On the other side of the bridge, they found a wall of state troopers and
a county posse waiting for them. Marchers were brutally attacked. As a result,
SNCC and SCLC formed a new coalition.
Despite these
life-threatening hurdles, the long battle was won. The Voting Rights Act was
passed. On March 7-9, 2015, over 61,000 diverse peoples and groups from
throughout the nation and world were present in Selma. They were there to not
only remember the events, but also to re-commit to the struggles related to the
legacy of Bloody Sunday. They were also there to re-consecrate their
faithfulness to change. Many youth and young adults from colleges and local
communities were noticeably present and engaged.
The roots of
today’s movements—Moral Mondays, being led by the Rev. William Barbour based in
North Carolina, broader movements like Black Lives Matter, and even the
questioning of our country’s practices of mass incarceration—have their roots
in Selma. Anti-hunger and anti-poverty campaigns of economic empowerment are
consistent with the recommendations of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King in his
book, From Chaos to Community. There was
also movement recently in the Supreme Court that has removed certain protections
originally written in the Voting Rights Act.
This justice agenda
was threaded throughout the 50th anniversary events in Selma. Engaging worship
and strategy sessions with faith leaders, government leaders including two U.S.
presidents and 100 congressional leaders, the foot soldiers of 1965 and new
foot soldiers of today, as well as grassroots organizers were important parts
of the commemorative weekend. The commemorative marches across the bridge were
not just about victories of the past. They also demonstrated the energy present
for a new day of struggle—energy for a new moment of just change through
informing and directing public policy with and for all people.
*The Rev. Dr.
Angelique Walker-Smith is Bread for the World’s national senior associate for
African-American and African church engagement.
12.
U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION IS CURRENTLY HIRING 2,000 CUSTOMS AND BORDER
PROTECTION OFFICERS BY 9/30/15:
-- U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Is Currently Hiring
2,000 Customs and Border Protection Officers (CBPO) By September 30, 2015
A CBPO entry-level
job opportunity announcement will be open on USA JOBS from April 24 through May
11, 2015 or until 12,000 applications are received.
CBP Officers play a
vital role in preventing terrorists and terrorist weapons from entering the
United States and enforcing customs, immigration, and agriculture laws and
regulations at U.S. ports of entry.
To ensure the
accomplishment of our mission, CBP requires that every employee be reliable,
trustworthy and fit for duty. To meet these standards, applicants must undergo
and successfully pass a thorough background investigation (which includes a
polygraph examination), a medical examination, two pre-employment fitness
examinations, a drug test, and a structured interview in order to be placed in
a CBP Officer position. Information on
how to apply for the CBP Officer career is located on the following CBP
webpage: http://www.cbp.gov/careers/join-cbp/which-cbp-career/cbp-officer
On this website, you will find the following information:
CBP’s Office of
Human Resources Management (HRM) recruits for the CBPO positions using
short-term vacancy announcements throughout the year. This provides candidates the opportunity to
move through the hiring process quickly and efficiently, and facilitates hiring
quality candidates to report to the Office of Field Operation Academy fully
prepared to join the proud ranks of CBP Officers. Below is the schedule for the Job
Announcements or CBP Officers and Border Patrol Agents that will be open
throughout 2015.
|
CBP Job Announcements for 2015
|
|
|
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Officers
|
April 24 ⎼
May 11
|
|
U.S. Border Patrol Agents
|
May 22 – June 8
|
|
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Officers
|
June 26 – July 13
|
|
U.S. Border Patrol Agents
|
October 16 – November 2
|
|
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Officers
|
November 27 – December 14
|
You and your
friends, neighbors, and family members are encouraged to visit http://www.cbp.gov/careers to learn more
about this occupation that protects our Nation’s borders from terrorism, human
and drug smuggling, illegal migration, and agricultural pests while
simultaneously facilitating the flow of legitimate travel and trade.
By spreading the
word about our Agency’s upcoming job opportunities, you can help build a better
and stronger CBP.
Follow us on
twitter: @CustomsBorder.
13.
THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT:
*Dr. Pam DeVeaux
Fruit of the
Spirit: Joy
Thank you God for
the sheer joy of being able to call you, “Father.”
A joy that is
unspeakable and full of glory - We thank you Lord for the joy that we
experience as we delight in the majesty of your handiwork. It was you and you alone who crafted the sun,
moon and stars into a celestial masterpiece.
Thank you for the
joy that we take in a baby's smile, a bird's sweet chirping and the completion
of a difficult task.
Forgive us Master
for the times we have neglected to say thank you for the joy that Jesus brings
into our lives, lives that would be mundane but because of Him each day brings
new mercies that herald miraculous expectations.
On this day let us
strive to share the joy of knowing and loving Jesus with all we meet. Once we
have been with Jesus there should be a joy that emanates from our spirits that
sets us apart from the unsaved.
God make us joy
givers. When we enter the presence of your children, equip us to sow and
cultivate a harvest of joyous bounty. Help us to lighten and brighten the days
of our brothers and sisters who are going through trials and tribulations. We
thank you God for who you are and we continue to marvel at your unending favor
on our lives.
We pray that
through the storms, you send your joy - In the stresses of a chaotic world You
send joy - Help us to remember the world didn't give it and the world can't
take away our joy. You are and always
will be the center of our joy.
Fruit
of the Spirit: Patience
We thank God for
the quality of patience as modeled by His son.
That spirit of
patience which allows us to persist and persevere in times of difficulty and
trials of challenge. It is patience that keeps us going when would like to
throw up our hands. That job we applied
for and have not heard about, that teenager who tries our last nerve, that rude
driver who cut in front of you and the waitress that got everything wrong with
your order except the glass of water.
Patience enables us to reach down in the inner recesses of our being to
react with understanding and compassion and not act with anger, curses or
complaints. Patience will motivate us to
find humor in situations in spite of their annoying characteristics. Remember mothers how you wondered if your
toddler would ever get toilet trained.
One toddler's mother declared he
was probably going to go from diapers to Depends Lord, in these days of
microwave, text sending, email immediacy living, won't you please give us the
virtue of patience that will cause us to slow down and take a deep cleansing
spiritual breath that opens us up to a closer relationship with You.
*Dr. Pam DeVeaux is
the 2nd Episcopal District Supervisor
14. THE TRUTH IS THE LIGHT
*The Rev. Dr.
Charles R. Watkins, Jr.
Based on Biblical
Text: Exodus 24:12: “And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the
mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and
commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them”
I have known people
who have trouble with their eyes. I’m speaking of the folks who can see things
close-up, but their vision for distant objects is impaired. Most people in this
predicament may think corrective lenses might be necessary. After a lengthy eye
exam, the optometrist may remind folk that their eyes have gotten lazy.
I have come to
realize that is what’s wrong with a lot of Christians. Their spiritual vision
has gotten lazy. They don’t understand the things of God because they don’t
take the time to distance themselves from their troubles and get alone with
God. When we confine the truth of our own finite understanding, we limit the
divine to what we know. Christians need to put some distance between them and
their troubles.
I wonder sometimes
when was the last time we stretched the limits of our understanding of God.
Some of us are muddling through this Christian walk, hoping to make it on what
we learned of God when we were at our mother’s knee, or in the primary class in
Church School. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. If we
were asked to recite a scripture verse from memory, some of us would still use
that old familiar “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”, or the first
verse of Psalm 100. The very fact that someone reading this is wondering right
now what the first verse of Psalm 100 (Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you
lands!) says is evidence of our shaky relationship with God!
The fact of the
matter is quite frankly unless you have the Spirit of God in you, you have no
might within and no means without to battle your storms. Without the Spirit of
God we are like an unfinished two story building with no roof on it. We can
attempt to live in it, but when storms come the rain will come in on us. In
order to put a roof on our faith, we have to get alone with God. I know
somebody is saying, “That will preach.”
It has been said
and certainly it should be understood that absolutely nothing can come out of
us that has not been deposited in us. In other words, we must receive before we
can give out. We seem to understand that concept in most of; if not all of the
other journeys we take. We certainly understand that we cannot become a doctor
until we have studied all the laws of medical science; we cannot be a lawyer
until we have studied all the laws and rules on which a society is governed. We
seem to understand, at least in these secular instances that we must be
equipped for the task.
I am compelled to
remind Christians that we are on a journey. And what we do to equip ourselves
for our journey will largely determine the success or failure. Before God sends
us out into the world to fulfill our preordained purpose for Him, He wants to
equip us first. And the equipping process must include time alone with God.
I have spoken with
pastors who choose all of their ministry leaders from among the attendees of
their weekly Bible Study class. If you don’t attend the class, or Church
School, you cannot hold a leadership position in their church. I submit that it
makes perfect sense because every good leader must first be teachable. Leaders
who don’t listen and learn will soon pine over their own failed leadership.
I can almost hear
the objections as it relates to Bible Study, Church School and church
leadership positions. I have experienced one person resign from the Steward
Board when I made a similar declaration. I have found that is how many
Christians function in the realm of spirituality. They refuse to get alone with
God to receive His Divine instruction for their lives and to take the time to
consider God’s ways above their ways. And as a result, the world is full of Christians
who are intellectually great, ethically enthusiastic, but spiritually dead.
Paul said, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above
(Colossians 3:1). No man can be alive in Christ unless he first shares his
spiritual life with Christ.
If we would be all
that Christ would have us to be, we must first be willing to develop an
inquisitive, adventurous theology that solicits God’s wisdom above all else. We
must be willing to get alone with God. We have to get alone with God, remove
the distractions of daily life that often keep us from hearing His voice and
take the time to focus on Him and Him alone. We must develop an open line of
communication with Jesus that will, in time, reveal His purpose for our life,
and give us new direction.
We are encouraged
to not put a time limit on God. In other words it is not six minutes or six
days. We are to just get alone with Him and learn of Him as we cannot fight the
good fight unless we get to know the Battleaxe. We cannot tell the story until
we have spent time with the Author and Finisher of our faith. We cannot face
our storms without the aid of our ship’s Captain. We cannot expect light in the
midst of our darkness, unless we spend time with the Bright and Morning Star.
We are challenged
to stop starving our faith, and eat of the Bread of Heaven. We must stop
thirsting for rest, and start drinking from the Eternal Fountain. It is
imperative that we stop wandering in darkness, and start spending time with the
Good Shepherd. He wants to be alone with us!
*The Rev. Dr.
Charles R. Watkins, Jr., is the pastor of Morris Brown AME Church in
Charleston, S.C.
15. GETTING TO ZERO: REMEMBER REST:
*The Rev. Gwendolyn
Hatter, Guest Writer
A Foreword: In
April as Minority Health Month, here is a timely reminder that is written from
the perspective of a woman, but clearly can be applied to each person.
Especially, clergy and others who are known to get things done- and thus they
get more to do- can learn from and receive the wisdom expressed. Physical,
mental and spiritual wellness is all closely intertwined. I am grateful to the
Rev. G. Hatter, for sharing the insight and for consenting to its wider
distribution as a blessing to TCR readers. Indeed, here is an important lesson
for Minority Health Month. To purposefully seek health, remember rest.
“Save Some for You” - A Woman’s Need for a Sabbath
As a very young
married wife and mother, I remember my mother’s advice just as clearly as if
she said it to me yesterday: “Gwendolyn
– you have to remember to save some of you for you.” The statement was often
followed by her famous last words “you’re going to wind up somewhere in a TB
hospital if you don’t slow down.” My
mother, an LPN who practiced in the 1940’s and 50’s, knew firsthand the
connection between physical exhaustion and susceptibility to various
diseases.
Recently, as I
found myself at the computer working on a presentation around 2:00 AM for yet
another night, I heard in my spirit these words: “You are going to work yourself
to death” – and I literally froze. As I
labored to stay awake, I knew I was experiencing signs of exhaustion. Thinking back, I realize now that my back had
a dull pain in the center that radiated down my left arm all the way to my left
thumb. My heart was actually pounding as
I worked and my eyes were burning. Yet, I was determined to get it finished
before going to bed.
When I heard those
words, I knew God was trying to get my attention. I shut it down and went to
bed, only to rise less than four hours later to complete the task. I couldn’t
let them down – could I? By the end of
that day, I was so tired that I found myself driving home praying that God
would help me make it safely. My sense of perception and response were
distorted. I realized I was driving ‘impaired’ from sleep deprivation.
“Save some of you
for you”. As a young woman, I thought
myself to be the epitome of the old 70’s Enjoli perfume commercial – you know …
“I can bring home the bacon … fry it up in a pan … etc., etc., etc.” I learned how to work myself to the bone from
my mother’s work ethic, and then modeled it by example to my own children. It
was not until recently, when my own young, married daughter wound up in the
hospital for an undiagnosed medical emergency (that turned out to be
exhaustion), that I found it necessary to take her aside, deprogram her and
share with her my mother’s wisdom.
The Need for Sabbath Rest
In our high-tech
driven society, the evidence of exhaustion and stress is obvious and pervasive.
In particular, women – as the primary caregivers in the family - are most prone
to experiencing illnesses caused by exhaustion and stress.
“Stress” is the
tenacious byproduct of overwork which can lead to a whole host of physical and
mental maladies.
Sleep-deprivation
can cause problems up to and including physical and emotional/mental
breakdowns. When sleep-deprived, we do not reason as well as we can when we are
fully rested. Our minds are not as sharp and become foggy; over time, without
proper rest, we lack clarity and cognitive reasoning gets skewed; perspective
is off; white becomes black; green becomes red; good becomes evil; friends
become “frenemies”; and loved ones become nemeses.
There is such a
thing as literally ‘working yourself to the bone’. As women of God, when we are
exhausted and bone-soul-weary, we cut short our effectiveness to our families
and to the Kingdom. Just like operating a car on empty, without times of rest
and refreshing, you quickly run out of gas. God has made us stewards over all
things He has given us, and that includes our bodies. “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is
in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own…” (1 Corinthians 6:19). NIV
Understand the Sabbath
The Hebrew word for
Sabbath is “Shabbat” which means “Intermission” or “cessation from work”; to
essentially “repose and desist from exertion or work.” If Almighty, infinite
God rested from all His labor on the 7th day, as finite beings, how much
greater is the need for you and I do likewise? Jesus said in Mark 2:27 that the
‘Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath’. God’s purpose in
creating the Sabbath day, therefore, was to demonstrate the need for rest for
both physical and spiritual renewal.
In the 1990’s, I
was introduced to the Sabbath practice called “Erev Shabbat”, through a
Messianic Jewish friend. This weekly gathering occurred at sundown on Friday
and was held at the home of a loved one. Immediate family and members of their
faith community gathered to break bread and officially begin the Sabbath. In
this setting, I learned, too, of the weekly practice of speaking blessings over
and into the lives of the children present. It was so spiritual in nature and
such a guiding blessing to me that for years I followed it and made it my own
practice. It was not until I found myself both a pastor’s wife and a minister
that I began to fall back into my old patterns and ‘superwoman’ mentality. Once
again, through my own exhaustion has come the need for a fresh reminder to
“Remember the Sabbath”.
In the following
compilation, I share briefly what I have gleaned over the years from various
sources about the Sabbath and the practice of spending one day out of seven in
rest, worship and fellowship.
The Sabbath:
- is a time of
complete rest (mind, body and soul) that protects us from exhaustion,
over-exertion and complete burn-out
- is a time that
protect us from psychological stress
- is a time to
reconnect our spiritual selves to God through praise, worship, prayer, spending
time studying the Word of God and Personal Meditation
Why take a personal Sabbath
There is numerous
health benefits derived from taking a personal Sabbath. Scientifically proven
benefits include:
- Body
renewal/regeneration at the cellular level
- Longer Life - In
a 2010 study of women ages 50 to 79, more deaths occurred in women who got less
than five hours than those who slept six and a half or more hours of sleep per
night.
- Better sleep
curbs inflammation – (inflammation is linked to heart disease, stroke,
diabetes, arthritis, and premature aging).
People who sleep less than 6 hours per night are at greater risk for
these diseases.
- Enhanced immune
system/immunity
- Increased
creativity
- Physical Benefits
include: more energy; improved stamina; better endurance; weight control
- Mental Benefits:
improved memory; increased concentration; better problem-solving abilities;
greater efficiency
- Spiritual
Benefits: heightened spiritual clarity,
guidance and awareness including answered prayers and direction. The ability to
hear God speak to you and instruct you.
When we turn our
attention to the Lord, we begin to experience the ‘Joy of the Lord”, which the
Bible teaches us is our strength. While this list of benefits is not
all-inclusive, there are many more benefits- I encourage you to purposefully
set aside in each week a time to spend as a personal Sabbath. Take time to
journal as you go into the Sabbath retreat and at the end of it. See what God
is able to do when you turn your attention from the pressures of life, to the
presence of God. Remember to “Save Some
of You, for You”.
Key scripture
follow-ups to meditate on: Exodus 20:8-11; Psalm 28:7; Matthew 4:4; John 6:63
**The Rev. Gwendolyn
S. Hatter is a mother, grandmother, wife of Pastor Jerry Hatter (Brown Chapel
AME Church in Ypsilanti, Michigan) and is a Local Deacon at Brown Chapel.
*The Rev. Oveta
Fuller Caldwell, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
at the University of Michigan (U-M) Medical School, Associate Director of the
U-M African Studies Center and an AMEC itinerant elder and former pastor. She
lived in Zambia for most of 2013 to study HIV/AIDS prevention among networks of
religious leaders.
16. iCHURCH
SCHOOL LESSON BRIEF FOR SUNDAY, APRIL 19, 2015 - BELOVED CHILD - I JOHN 4:13 –
5:5:
Bill Dickens. Allen
AME Church, Tacoma, Washington
Introduction
People of faith are
challenged to express love toward all people, even those difficult to
love. Despite such challenges, believers
model their lives after God’s love when they love their neighbors. Still, believers wrestle with both the form
and content of neighbor love. An
effective way to help grapple with this responsibility - showing agape love to
all - is believing that the presence of the Holy Spirit is proof that we and
God are interrelated. We look to the
Holy Spirit because we learned in Unit I that the Holy Spirit is comforter,
helper and teacher. If we ever need a
helper it is in the area of loving everybody unconditionally. The Church School Lesson of April 19, 2014
preps us for the challenge of putting love in action. We need to have a clear understanding of who
God is in order to fulfill our duty.
Let’s get started by looking at I John chapters 4 – 5.
Bible Story - Discourse on Love (I John 4:13-16)
The disciple John
provides another teaching moment about love.
Readers will find that the theme of love permeates throughout the
book. Is this purposely redundant or is
the writer suffering from an acute case of writer’s block? Theological evidence would suggest the former
not the latter is true. Love is
described again and again because it is the one variable that can “make or
break” an individual or community. John
wants readers to understand that contrary to what religious heretics were
suggesting during his time Jesus is the Son of God and his special status with
God was demonstrated thru his love to a fallen humanity. Since God loved us it is only logical for
humanity to love each other.
God’s Love Inspires Confidence (I John 4: 17-21)
With our new
relationship in Christ founded on the principle of love, we can now move boldly
in sharing that principle with others.
This inspires confidence and fortifies our faith. God is love.
His love will be my source in meeting the challenges set before me. The challenges in life can be looked at as
learning steps in our odyssey to spiritual maturity. We may slip.
We may fall. We may want to throw
in the towel and give up completely.
However if the seed of God’s love is a part of our spiritual DNA we have
the confidence that we can overcome because he overcame for us.
Obedience the Test of Love (I John 5: 1-4)
The litmus test of
love is obedience. Unfortunately many,
believers and non-believers, look at obedience as an added chore. Obedience signals for many a burden of
compliance. Adults in particular are not
exactly fond of being accountable to someone when he/she is “paying the
freight” in their home. This type of attitude
should be purged by Christians.
Obedience is not a function of age, status or position. Obedience is independent of burden. God requires us to love because He is love
and demonstrated His love to us at Calvary.
If we are to be ambassadors to Christ it is imperative we represent the
values he held in high esteem. Love is
one of those values. Love is a
non-negotiable value if we truly desire to be in fellowship with God. Disobedience to the principle of love puts us
at risk in being outside the ark of safety and eternal bliss.
Life Application
Beloved is a 1987
novel by the American writer Toni Morrison. Set after the American Civil War
(1861–1865), it is inspired by the story of an African-American slave, Margaret
Garner, who temporarily escaped slavery during 1856 in Kentucky by fleeing to
Ohio, a free state. A posse arrived to retrieve her and her children under the
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which gave slave owners the right to pursue slaves
across state borders. Margaret killed her two-year-old daughter rather than
allow her to be recaptured.
The novel won the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988 and was a finalist for the 1987 National
Book Award. It was adapted during 1998 into a movie of the same name starring
Oprah Winfrey. A New York Times survey of writers and literary critics ranked
it the best work of American fiction from 1981 to 2006.
The contrast
between Beloved the novel and the beloved child for our lesson is quite
remarkable. Death and disorder define
Morrison’s epic novel. Love and
compassion define I John 4 -5. It is
assuring that we who are alive in Christ today are the beloved child described
by John.
Community is built
on unity and mutuality. What holds the members of a community together?
According to I John 4 & 5 shared values hold a community together. Those shared values involve loving God and
extending that same love to members of your immediate household. If love
permeates a community it will foster healthy, sustainable growth and
development. The writer of First John
says believers are made complete when as a community they abide in God’s love
and the Spirit of God’s love abides in them.
*Brother Bill
Dickens is currently the Church School Teacher at Allen AME Church in Tacoma,
Washington. He is currently a member of
the Fellowship of Church Educators for the African Methodist Episcopal Church
17. MEDITATION BASED ON MATTHEW 11:25-30:
*The Rev. Dr.
Joseph A. Darby
My younger son - a
recent college graduate and an excellent and award-winning artist, illustrator
and graphic designer is preparing to move to the Washington, DC area to pursue
employment opportunities that simply aren’t available to young black men in
Charleston, South Carolina. I celebrate
the fact that he’s safely reached manhood, completed his undergraduate
education and made the decision to “leave the nest” as his older brother did,
but I’ll miss something that he’s faithfully done while living at home - taking
out the garbage.
That aggravating
but routine task will now again become my responsibility. It’s not that hard to do and only requires
that the garbage bin be rolled out to the street once a week, but its
importance becomes immediately evident if we happen to miss a week. Like most families, we generate our fair
share of garbage, and when we forget to roll it to the street to be picked up
and hauled away, I spend a part of the next week struggling to stuff it all in
to the garbage bin and close the lid!
I thought of that
“household garbage reality” while contemplating this week’s meditation, because
we all accumulate our fair share of spiritual “garbage” in this world. Struggling to meet the demands of life in
this world can cause all of us to accumulate the “garbage” of fear,
uncertainty, envy, anger, anxiety, frustration and hopelessness - things that
we don’t need and that can clutter our lives and complicate our well-being.
That’s why it’s
good to believe in and be in touch with the Christ who gave His life as the
price for our sins and arose to guarantee us everlasting life. When we gather up all of the sin, sorrow and
uncertainty that complicates our lives, “roll them out” and turn them over to
Jesus, God will forgive our sin, take away our sorrow and supply us with the
courage, confidence, hope and joy to face each day with hopeful, healthy and
“garbage free” lives.
Take the time each
day to turn the “garbage” in your life over to Jesus. He’ll haul it away, renew your hope, restore
your joy and give you a new reason to say as one hymn writer did, “Jesus knows
all about our struggles, He will guide us till the day is done; There’s not a
friend like the lowly Jesus, no, not one, no, not one.”
This Meditation is
also available as a Blog on the Beaufort District’s Website: www.beaufortdistrict.org
and on Facebook at:
Get Ready for
Sunday, and have a great day in your house of worship!
*The Rev. Dr.
Joseph A. Darby is the Presiding Elder of the Beaufort District of the South
Carolina Annual Conference of the Seventh Episcopal District of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church
18. CLERGY FAMILY CONGRATULATORY ANNOUNCEMENTS:
-- The Reverend Dr. Michael W. Waters has been named to
the Dallas Business Journal's 2015 “40 Under 40” List
The Rev. Dr.
Michael W. Waters, founder and Senior Pastor of Joy Tabernacle AME Church in
Dallas, Texas has been named to the Dallas Business Journal's 2015 “40 Under
40” List. The honor highlights executives and entrepreneurs 39 years of age or
younger who, per the nomination criteria, “have a proven track record in both
business and community involvement.” A
formal announcement can be found here:
Congratulatory
messages can be sent to:
-- Dr. Betty W. Holley will serve as a panelist at the
Smithsonian Institute
Dr. Betty W.
Holley, Professor of Environmental Ethics and African American Religious
Studies at Payne Theological Seminary, Wilberforce, Ohio will serve as a
panelist at the Smithsonian Institute, in the discussion "Imagining the Human Future: The Ethics of
the Anthropocene," April 26, 2015.
She give thanks to God for the awesome opportunity!
Well-wishes can be
emailed to: bholley@payne.edu (Dr. Betty W. Holley)
-- Felecia E. Commodore successfully defends her
doctoral dissertation
On April 10, 2015,
Felecia E. Commodore successfully defended her dissertation "The Tie That
Binds: Trusteeship, Values, and the Presidential Selection Process at AME
Affiliated HBCUs" to complete the requirements for the Doctor of
Philosophy degree at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.
Felecia is a member
of Reid Temple AME Church in Glendale, Maryland and currently serves as the
Connectional Lay Organization Young Adult Representative. She is the daughter of Rev. Bedelia Commodore
and Frank Commodore, Jr.
19. CLERGY FAMILY BEREAVEMENT NOTICE:
We are saddened by
the loss of Ms. Wanda Rucker, sister of the Rev. Debby Thomas Gaskin, assistant
pastor of St. Andrew AME Church where the pastors are the Rev. Dr. Kenneth
Robinson and the Rev. Marilynn Robinson.
Funeral
arrangements are:
Wake: Friday, April
10, 2015
7:00 -8:30 p.m.
N J Ford Funeral
Home
12 South Parkway
West
Memphis, Tennessee.
38109
Telephone: (901)
948-7755
Funeral Services:
Saturday, April 11,
2015 at 1:30 p.m.
St. Andrew AME
Church
867 South Parkway
East
Memphis, Tennessee
38106
Condolences can be
sent to:
The Rev. Debby
Thomas Gasken
3525 Royal Oaks
Drive
Memphis, Tennessee.
38106
20. BEREAVEMENT NOTICES AND CONGRATULATORY
ANNOUNCEMENTS PROVIDED BY:
Ora L. Easley, Administrator
AMEC Clergy Family Information Center
Telephone: (615) 837-9736 (H)
Telephone: (615) 833-6936 (O)
Cell: (615) 403-7751
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-AME-Church-Clergy-Family-Information-Center/167202414220
21.
CONDOLENCES TO THE BEREAVED FROM THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER:
The Chair of the Commission on Publications,
the Right Reverend T. Larry Kirkland; the Publisher, the Reverend Dr. Johnny
Barbour and the Editor of The Christian Recorder, the Reverend Dr. Calvin H.
Sydnor III offer our condolences and prayers to those who have lost loved ones.
We pray that the peace of Christ will be with you during this time of your
bereavement.
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[i]
Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers:
Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination (Minneapolis: Fortress
Press, 1992).
[ii]
Michael Joseph Brown, What They Don’t
Tell You: A Survivor’s Guide to Biblical Studies, 2nd ed.
(Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015), 23.
[iii]
Marvin McMickle, Where Have All the
Prophets Gone? (Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 2006), 11.
[iv]
Charles Foster, et al, Educating Clergy:
Teaching Practices and Pastoral Imagination (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,
2006), 208.
[v]
Foster, et al, 211.
[vi]
Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow:
Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
(New York: The New Press, 2012), 6.
[vii]
Ebony Joy Fitchue and Leah Gaskin Fitchue, “Collisions Between Racism and the
Truth of the Cross“ in Contesting
Post-Racialism: Conflicted Churches in the United States and South Africa, R.
Drew Smith, William Ackah, Anthony G. Reddie and Rothney S. Tshaka, eds.
(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2015), 161-163.
[viii]
Timothy D. Lincoln, “How Master of Divinity Education Changes Students: A
Research-Based Model,” Teaching Theology
and Religion, 215.
[ix]
Lincoln, 217.
