Episcopal Press and News
Black Clergy Conference Celebrates Shared Past, Plans for Future
Episcopal News Service. November 18, 1999 [99-172]
Mary W. Cox, Acting Communications Coordinator for the Diocese of Southeast Florida, Terrence A. Taylor, Chair of the Diocesan Commission on Racism, Justice and Reconciliation
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."
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.
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."
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."
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."
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