wfn.org | Black Clergy Conference

[ENS.parti@ecunet.org (ENS)]

For more information contact:
Episcopal News Service
Kathryn McCormick
kmccormick@dfms.org
212/922-5383
http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens

99-172

Black Clergy Conference celebrates shared past, plans for future

by Mary W. Cox and Terrence A. Taylor

     Joining in solemn prayers and exuberant singing, more than 
150 Afro-Anglican clergy from around the world met in Miami, 
Florida, October 4-7 for the Fifth Triennial Black Episcopal 
Clergy Conference.

     With the theme "Journey Toward Pilgrimage: Reclaiming Our 
Common Heritage," the conference offered participants an 
opportunity to link their personal histories with the common 
history of people of African ancestry, and to address the issues 
that face black Episcopal clergy, their congregations and their 
communities.

      The preacher for the opening service in Trinity Cathedral 
was the Rev. Dr. Calvin Butts, senior pastor of the historic 
Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem and president-elect of the 
State University of New York in Old Westbury.

      In a fiery sermon Butts reminded the clergy that the black 
church has always had a variety of roles in the community. The 
main role of black clergy is to uphold the norms and traditions 
of the church, remembering that they can serve as a stabilizing 
force in an ever-changing society. 

     Butts exhorted, "The black church must be a community of 
remembrance. It must stand together across denominations to tell 
the story. Our struggle is based on the blood, sweat and tears of 
our grandmothers and grandfathers." The keeping of traditions, 
however, should not blind the Church to the need for change, 
which comes, he said, "through prayer and the power of the Holy 
Ghost."

Reconciliation and justice

     Butts criticized those who seek to take politics and other 
secular interests out of the faith kept by black Christians. He 
chided, "Reconciliation without justice is void." The black 
church, he said, was born in response to segregation and racism. 
"We were led to be what we are in response to the society in 
which we live." 

     He spoke of the importance of participating in the political 
and economic processes that will assist the Church in feeding the 
poor and aiding those who are being persecuted. He warned against 
the ease of saying the Church should refrain from involving 
itself in such issues.  

     Butts dismissed such philosophies, proclaiming, "If the Holy 
Spirit were not a part of who we are, we could not have come this 
far." He described leaders such as Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and 
Martin Luther King, Jr., who used the church to elevate the 
struggles of blacks. Their witness would later, Butts observed, 
inspire Germans to sing "We Shall Overcome" as they tore down the 
Berlin Wall.

     After the service, Butts admitted that, although he felt 
called to accept the invitation, initially he was a little 
hesitant about coming to address the Episcopal clergy. "Then I 
arrived, and I met brothers and sisters from Africa and the 
Caribbean, and I was struck by the commonalities of our 
struggle," he said. "Then I knew I had done the right thing."  

     At a luncheon on the second day of the conference, Drexel 
Gomez, archbishop of the West Indies and bishop of Nassau and the 
Bahamas, addressed participants on the topic of mission.

Mission 'from everywhere to everywhere'

     He reminded the clergy that the mission of the church is 
"God's mission," in which they are partners, and said that the 
old concept of mission from the rich to the poor is 
"fundamentally flawed." Mission is now "from everywhere to 
everywhere."

     In order to reach out intentionally to persons of color, the 
archbishop advised, the Episcopal Church needs to recover a sense 
of urgency--"let them know that what we have to say is...vital 
for their present and future well-being"--and a sense of clarity 
about the faith.

     "We need translators," said Gomez, "people who can bring the 
message alive in their own setting."

     "People want to see love in action...and some of our 
churches are the worst possible advertisement for love in 
action!" he added, urging the clergy to set aside "ill-feeling, 
rancor and petty politics" to focus on the demands of the Gospel 
and the priority of "God's agenda" for mission.

     Mission that focuses only on the local church, Gomez said, 
is "sub-Christian." Mission must expand from the local church and 
the diocese to the cross-cultural and the global.

     "We as black people," he said, "have a mandate to share with 
others the joy of the Gospel and our sense of being the church."

     Black clergy and laity need to have "confidence in our own 
cultural expression, confidence in our ability to be purveyors of 
the Gospel."

     "Our participation in the global mission," the archbishop 
emphasized, "must always be with the right motive--to share, not 
to exploit."

     In a time for conversation with all seven black bishops 
present, Gomez joked that he had come to Miami "to get away from 
the hurricane"--parts of his diocese suffered extensive damage 
from Hurricane Floyd in September--but added seriously, that it 
was important for him to attend the conference "to be in 
solidarity with the brothers and sisters in the wider Church."

A homecoming

     All of the bishops spoke of the importance of the triennial 
conference as a "homecoming" for black clergy from all parts of 
the church, a time for the clergy to get to know each other and 
to "have church" in the traditions of the black worship 
experience.    

     Franklin Turner, bishop suffragan of Pennsylvania and former 
national staff officer for Black Ministries, said these 
conferences grew out of the desire of black clergy, whose need 
for collegiality was often not being fulfilled in their own 
dioceses, to "get together and share their joys and woes...to 
find out what jobs were available--the good spots, hot spots, bad 
spots to avoid."

     "Scattered out," he said, "we often came away with the 
feeling that we were invisible...We are more included now, but 
these gatherings will need to continue."

     Turner said black clergy can offer the church "our gift of 
blackness," which the church needs "in order to be truly 
Catholic."

     Asked about the conference's title, "Journey to Pilgrimage," 
Bishop Orris Walker of Long Island, a member of the conference 
design team, explained that the conference was envisioned as "a 
journey to get them [black clergy] into the pilgrim band."

     "We have to go through a process to identify the common 
ground," he continued. "Until we understand the diversity of 
experience in the black community, we won't be able to move 
forward with vigor on our pilgrimage."

     Walter Dennis, retired bishop suffragan of New York, added, 
"'Journey' has a certain arduousness about it; 'pilgrimage' is 
more positive."

      Turner agreed: "On a pilgrimage, you encounter people and 
hear their stories."

Brand-new bishop 

     Meeting with the black bishops was the Rev. Wendell N. 
Gibbs, newly elected bishop of the Diocese of Michigan, the first 
African-American to be elected bishop in that diocese and the 
first African-American to be elected to the episcopate in the 
Episcopal Church since 1991.

      Gibbs, 45, said he was told that his age had been more of 
an issue than his race for some Michigan delegates. "Someone 
heard 'What if we elect him, and he's not very good, and we're 
stuck with him for 20 years?' But I said, 'Well, what if I am 
good--just think, you'll have me for 20 years!'"

     At the closing service of the conference, for which Gibbs 
was celebrant, the black clergy, led by the Rev. Lynn Collins, 
the Episcopal Church's staff officer for Black Ministries, laid 
hands on Gibbs and prayed for his new ministry, his family and 
his future in the church.

     Looking toward the future, conference participants concurred 
on some priorities for the black Episcopal Church:  Increased 
youth involvement; active recruitment of young people for 
ordained and lay ministries; a system of support and mentorship 
for those in lay and ordained ministries; prophetic ministry on 
social and economic issues--"a church of passion and justice"; 
meaningful worship styles for people of African ancestry; 
inclusivity in age and gender; "going beyond inclusivity" for 
black gay and lesbian clergy and laity; strong black and minority 
parishes; and more black bishops.

      The conference concluded in a spirit of unity and 
celebration that broke out into joyous song with "This Little 
Light of Mine."

--Mary W. Cox is acting communications coordinator for the 
Diocese of Southeast Florida; Terrence A. Taylor is chair of  the 
diocesan Commission on Racism, Justice and Reconciliation.