wfn.org | Moderator Appoints African-American Education Task Force

[PCUSA_NEWS@ecunet.org]

18-Jan-96

96025    Moderator Appoints African-American Education Task Force 
 
                      by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--Marj Carpenter has appointed an eight-member task force 
that is charged to provide more information about African-American history 
and resources to developers of the Presbyterian Church's educational 
materials. 
 
     The African-American Task Force on Christian Education was authorized 
by the 1995 General Assembly in response to concerns expressed in a 
commissioners' resolution that "the General Assembly Council staff design 
has not provided African American staff persons to address African American 
education concerns." 
 
     The task force was sought, according to the resolution, because 
"African American Presbyterian congregations need to develop appropriate 
Christian education programs that strengthen the relationship between 
church and community, empower people to address their context with hope, 
and help them overcome the powerlessness of apathy and escape." 
 
     The Assembly asked the task force "to compile information such as, but 
not limited to, the history and resources of the African and African 
American heritage and feedback from listening sessions with the Christian 
education community and the African American community." 
 
     The task force is scheduled to report to the 209th General Assembly 
(1997). 
 
     Members of the task force are Cordell Wynn (moderator), president of 
Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Ala.; John Baugh of Westlake Village, 
Calif., and a member of the National Ministries Division committee; the 
Rev. James Costen of Atlanta, an educator and  former General Assembly 
moderator; Valerie Giles-Reynolds of Detroit, a member of the National 
Black Presbyterian Caucus; John Grayson of Los Angeles, a member of the 
Presbyterian Church's African-American Advisory Committee; Mary Jane 
Patterson of Washington, D.C., former director of the denomination's 
Washington Office; the Rev. Paul Smith of Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Byron Wade of 
Richmond, Va., a member of the Congregational Ministries Division 
committee. 
 
     Staff to the committee are the Rev. Jaime Delgado, associate for 
curriculum development in the Congregational Ministries Division, and the 
Rev. Rita Dixon, associate for black congregational enhancement in the 
National Ministries Division. 

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