wfn.org | Caucus President Challenges Group

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

GA99100 
24-June-1999  
 
 
                   Caucus President Challenges Group  
               to Move Toward Forefront of Church  
 
 
FORT WORTH    With fiery conviction, the Rev. Curtis Jones urged members of 
the National Black Presbyterian Caucus (NBPC) Wednesday to heal themselves 
by rising to the forefront of the church. 
     Speaking to more than 100 people here at the Radisson Plaza Hotel, 
Jones, president of the Presbyterian caucus and pastor of the Madison 
Avenue Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, Md., told members of the audience 
to heal themselves by stepping up their activeness in both the church and 
caucus. 
     "We are in the Presbyterian Church but black folks are not in the 
forefront of the Presbyterian Church. Do you want to be healed?" he asked 
waving his arms and stomping his feet. 
     "We've got a black Presbyterian caucus and all black Presbyterians are 
not members of the caucus. We relate to the caucus in the same way we 
relate to our church, 'I'll go sometime when I get ready, if I like the 
preacher, if my choir is singing.' The prescription is not to the preacher, 
not to the choir, not to the building, but to the Lord, God all mighty." 
     It is the purpose of the NBPC, consistent with the PC(USA)'s 
commitment to a diverse ministry, to affirm an authentic African-American 
religious witness. The group's goals are shaped into programs that address 
the critical concerns of African-American Presbyterians. The caucus 
includes as its major ministry and mission priorities: black heritage 
awareness; nurturing black family life and developing Christian 
discipleship and lay leadership for ministry and mission. 
     Stirring the crowd by saying " somebody needs to pray with me," Jones 
said PC(USA) has sounded a challenge that must be answered by 
African-Americans by increasing minority participation in the looming new 
millennium. 
     "We crawl up in the drama of life and the denomination has said that 
we are too white and by the year 2010 we need to be a little more 
integrated," he said. "And so they have set a quota of 20 percent. I know I 
shouldn't use quota so let me say, 'Benchmark.' They set a benchmark of 20 
percent and have challenged us to rise to the occasion and to somehow 
increase the racial-ethnic villager in the life of the church." 
     But to accomplish the objective of more fully integrating the church, 
African-Americans must stop being complacent if they are to make a 
difference. 
     "This radical dimension of healing that Jesus is lifting up indeed has 
implications for our Presbyterian Church today," he said. "For we indeed 
can identify with the brother who has been on his pallet, has been lying on 
the bed of affliction. We've been making excuses and we've gotten 
comfortable with a certain status-quo."  
     Jones said while no one is perfect, African-Americans cannot allow 
"petty contradictions" to block a higher vision of calling to the church. 
     "You cannot allow these individual differences to separate us and deny 
the unity that is absolutely essential if black Presbyterians are to make a 
difference in this denomination and in this world," he said. 
 
Evan Silverstein 

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