wfn.org | Author and speaker Verna Dozier

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

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Kathryn McCormick
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99-100
Author and speaker Verna Dozier honored in her home church

by Sherri Watkins

(ENS) What more evidence could there be that big things
come in small packages than the Diocese of Washington's
Verna Dozier?  She might shudder at the "icon" label,
but this contemporary prophet has touched lives and
transformed hearts through her many books and talks.

Many centuries before Verna Dozier, there was Amos, from
the country, speaking out in the market square against the
corrupt practices of merchants, who "sell the righteous for
silver and the needy for a pair of shoes." In this century
we have Dozier, a black female, spreading God's word in the
nation's capital, across the country, outside its borders.

On May 30, about 500 people arrived on foot, in cars, and on
airplanes from other states and foreign countries to pay homage
to both Dozier and Amos at St. Mark's, on Capitol Hill, with
the installation of a stained-glass window in their honor.

One of Dozier's friends and admirers, St. Mark's parishioner
Dee Hahn Rollins, had launched the whole thing earlier by
proposing that the church honor Dozier's contributions to
their lives and to the wider church with such an installation.

Wasting no time, the church consulted with stained-glass
artist Brenda Belfield about designing the window and set
about raising the necessary funds. Following the mailing
of a single fundraising appeal letter, the church received
more than twice the necessary funds to bring the window dream
to life. With the additional funds, St. Mark's is beginning
work to establish a college scholarship in the Dozier family
name.

After 81 years, Verna Dozier must strain to make out even the
large, golden bundle of wheat in the market square depicted
in the clerestory window, but she can describe the window scene
none-the-less. "I'm the larger of the two figures to the left...
in blue; I always wore blue.  The smaller one in red is my sister;
my Lois always wore red.... Amos is holding sandals, with coins
falling from his fingers." 

To stretch their hearts, minds, and spirits, Lucie Dozier encouraged
her daughters Verna and Lois to make the Bible stories their own
during nightly readings of sacred scripture.  Concerned that too
many clergy ignored issues of social justice in favor of a focus
on spirituality, Verna felt an immediate attraction to the prophet
Amos, who she describes as "the first voice of social justice in
the Bible.  He was infuriated by the flagrant ignoring of laws
designed to protect the poor."

Third-generation Washingtonians, Verna and Lois Dozier graduated
from the District of Columbia's Dunbar Senior High School-at the
time the premier high school for colored students. They moved on
to complete undergraduate education at Howard University, where
Verna later earned a masters degree, then went on to teach in the
D.C. public schools. Reminiscent of the Delany sisters, the Dozier
sisters never married and remained quite close-eventually moving
into apartments at Collington Episcopal Life Care Community outside
Washington. Lois died last year.

Following retirement from the school system in the mid-seventies,
Verna concentrated her energies on a full-time ministry as a
Christian educator and lay theologian, exciting human beings about
Jesus' message. One of the most sought-after speakers churchwide,
Verna has also authored several books. Her favorite is The Dream
of God, in which she cautions that we are too often falling away
from the dream God has for us "to follow Jesus and not merely
worship Him."
--Sherri Watkins is editor of Washington Diocese.