wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Silent hearts thunder in us, speaker says

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Note #8376 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Silent hearts thunder in us, speaker says
GA04082
June 30, 2004

Silent hearts thunder in us, speaker says

Memory is a kind of reincarnation, Black Caucus diners are told

by Shane Whisler

RICHMOND, June 30  - The Pounding of Soundless Heartbeats, the theme of
Wednesday night's National Black Presbyterian Caucus dinner, is not a mere
"semantic paradox, an oxymoron of ambiguity, nor just a mixed-up, shook-up,
gurgled quibble that aimlessly muddles and befuddles the brain," said the
featured speaker, the Rev. Katie Geneva Cannon.

It's the sound of the still-beating hearts of those who came before us, she
said, encouraging her 150 listeners to recognize and thank the people who
made it possible for them to be here in Richmond today.

Cannon had told the story of a great organist who abused the African-American
man who pumped the bellows for him for having excitedly used the pronoun "we"
in talking about a great performance. The black man refused to go on until
the self-important organist had apologized publicly.

"Before you leave the room," she said, "if there is a black Presbyterian who
pumped up air for you to be here - thank them."

Cannon, a professor at Union Theological Seminary/Presbyterian School of
Christian Education, said, "We should listen to the story to see what clicks
for us." Remembering the ancestors who lifted you up is a reincarnation of
the spiritual kind that makes audible the ancients' long-silent heartbeats.

She remarked on the location of this year's Assembly, where a General
Assembly of the Presbyterian church was last held in 1864, asking the crowd
to think about how they have arrived in this time and place.

"What do we need to do in a various fields of vision and ministries so that
we can hear ... and resonate with the life memories of enslaved women,
enslaved men and enslaved children who served as the capital on which
capitalism was built?" she asked.

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