A minister, social ethicist and scholar has been chosen to lead a new endeavor by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to repair the damage done by structural racism and white supremacy within the church and around the globe.
In the final of three forums celebrating Black History Month last week, the Rev. Dr. Alonzo Johnson, coordinator of the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People (SDOP); the Rev. Carlton Johnson, coordinator of Vital Congregations; and Christian Brooks, the representative for domestic issues at the PC(USA)’s Office of Public Witness, addressed the 2022 theme “Resiliency to Recovery.”
Rick Ufford-Chase, a ruling elder and the Moderator of the 216th General Assembly (2004), and the Rev. Ashley DeTar Birt, who last spring co-founded, along with Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary and the Presbytery of Utica, co-founded the Center for Jubilee Practice, appeared last week on A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast. The two talked about their work studying, among other things, how churches might facilitate conversations around reparations in light of the wealth gap between Indigenous and African American families and white families in the U.S.
In the latest edition of Everyday God-Talk, Rev. Dr. Brian Blount, the president of Union Presbyterian Seminary, shares the complicated history of the seminary in the context of slavery, the civil rights movement and Black Lives Matter.
Last week the Special Committee on Racism, Truth & Reconciliation hosted conversations with the Rev. Dr. Mark Lomax, founding pastor of First Afrikan Presbyterian Church in Lithonia, Georgia, and Dr. William Yoo of Columbia Theological Seminary around race, church history and reparations.
He drives up the Philadelphia Turnpike for his semi-annual appointment with the allergist, and sneezes. Not unusual for this time of year. Should he, a senior, be nervous? He’s not anxiety-prone, but with the advancing virus constantly in the news, how can he not have dying at the back of his mind?
