CRCDS 2014 Autumn/Winter BULLETIN by Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School

CRCDS B u l l e t i n o f t h e C o l g at e R o c h e s t e r C r o z e r D i v i n i t y S c h o o l

Faith. Critically engaged.

Inside:

✛ Sustainability: Many meanings, One humanity ✛ R e v . Dr. Allan A. Boesak: Humanity with a Kairos Consciousness

✛ CRCDS 2014 President’s Scholar: Activist & Author Robert K. Hoggard

Aut um n /Wi n t er 2014

“Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors.” –Jonas Salk The Autumn/Winter 2014 CRCDS Bulletin is the first issue printed on recycled paper. Although minor aesthetic changes and slightly increased costs result from this choice, CRCDS is committed to sustainability and responsible stewardship of God’s Creation.

About this issue: If you’ve read a magazine, listened to a podcast or watched a newscast in the past year, it’s more than likely you’ve encountered the word “sustainable.” A simple Google search results in over eight million entries! The term “sustainable” has been so overused, and has so many different connotations, it’s often considered cliché. Most people associate the term “sustainability” with the environment. However, sustainability, in its broadest sense, includes the alleviation of poverty, protection of human health, employment, fair trade of goods and services, and education. The “three-legged stool” of sustainability — planet, people and profits — is the foundation upon which our future rests. However, the biggest challenge to success lies in our collective willingness or unwillingness to deviate from our comfort zones in order to effect positive change. In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development, known as the Bruntland Commission, gave the word “sustainability” worldwide recognition in its report entitled, “Our Common Future.” Almost one hundred years earlier, “Father of the Social Gospel” Walter Rauschenbusch (1886 graduate of Rochester Theological Seminary and later Professor of Church History) composed a prayer entitled, “For Our World, Our Earth” (reprinted in its entirety on page 2). This prayer of Thanksgiving implores, “May we live so that our world may not be ravaged by our greed nor spoiled by our ignorance.” Sadly, despite our efforts, ignorance and greed continue to devastate our world and its future. The endeavors of Norway’s Prime Minister Gro Harlem Bruntland in 1987 and Walter Rauschenbusch at the turn of the century had, at their core, the understanding that we are stewards of the earth and, as Pope Francis warned earlier this year, “Creation is not a property, which we can rule over at will . . . Creation is a gift, it is a wonderful gift that God has given us, so that we care for it and we use it for the benefit of all, always with great respect and gratitude. Safeguard Creation (because) if we destroy Creation, Creation will destroy us!”

CRCDS: Faith. Critically engaged. is a bi-annual publication of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School 1100 South Goodman Street, Rochester, New York, 14620. PUBLISHER: Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School (CRCDS) EDITOR: Michele Kaider-Korol DESIGN: MillRace Design

Sustainability is a complex and difficult issue. However, the CRCDS community, firmly grounded in our mission of social justice and stewardship, is engaged on all levels of the sustainability conversation. Our ongoing work in the area of Kairos brings the focus of “God’s time” squarely on our care for all creation — from plants, insects and animals to the poor, the disadvantaged and all those who lack a voice. The time for this conversation is now and CRCDS is playing a vital role in fostering this dialogue. CRCDS will explore sustainability in-depth during the 2015 Spring Lecture Series, “God’s Time is Now: Recultivating the ‘Garden’ . . . tending creation as people of faith.” We invite you to join in the conversation April 7–9 as we gather on the Hill to explore what it means to be sustainable and to examine God’s call to faithful stewardship of all creation.

CRCDS

Aut um n /Wi n t er 2014

Faith. Critically engaged.

Prayer for Our World, Our Earth

Waste and Recycling Facts

A Humanity with a Kairos Consciousness: Rev. Dr. Allan A. Boesak

CRCDS Student in Action: Robert K. Hoggard

Out in the World: Alumni/ae Updates, News and Notes

Alumni/ae Focus: Spotlight on Sustainability

Rev. James L. Cherry, Sr. Retires

In Memoriam

Spring Lecture Week Preview

The BMTS Legacy Continues

Memorial and Appreciation Gifts

Horizon Society: Ms. Patricia Doolittle Tingley

For Our World, Our Earth Walter Rauschenbusch (Rochester Theological Seminary, 1886)

O God,

we thank You for this universe, our great home; for the vastness and richness of our cosmic environment; for the manifoldness of

life on the planet of which we are a part. We are thankful for the morning sun and the clouds and the constellations of stars. We rejoice in the salt sea and the deep waters and green leaves of grass. Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918), an 1886 alumnus of Rochester Theological Seminary (now CRCDS) and later a professor of German and Church History, was a major influence in mainstream American Protestantism at the beginning of the twentieth century. Widely known as the “Father of the Social Gospel,” he applied Christian ethics to solve social problems and stressed the individual’s personal responsibility to society. His writings include Christianity Revolutionary (1891), Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907), For God and the People: Prayers of the Social Awakening (1910), Christianizing the Social Order (1912), The Social Principles of Jesus (1916), and A Theology for the Social Gospel (1917).

We thank You for our sense by which we experience earth’s splendor. We would have souls open to all this joy, souls saved from being so weighted with care that we pass unseeing when the thornbush by the wayside is aflame with beauty. Enlarge within us a sense of fellowship with all that lives and moves and has being in space and time, especially with all who share this earth as their common home with us. Remembering with shame that in the past, we human beings have all too often exercised high dominion with ruthless cruelty, we admit that the voice of the earth, which should have gone up to You in song, has been a groan of travail. May we so live that our world may not be ravished by our greed nor spoiled by our ignorance. May we hand on earth’s common heritage of life, undiminished in joy when our bodies return in peace to You, our Great Mother who has nourished them.

Did you Know? Wa s t e & R e c y c l i n g Fa c t s l

U.S. recycling facilities earn $2,981 million per year.

Recycling has increased 7% in the past five years.

In a lifetime, the average American will throw away 600 times his or her adult weight in garbage. This means that each adult will leave a legacy of 90,000 pounds of trash for the world’s children.

Americans comprise about 5% of the world’s population and annually produce 27% of the world’s garbage.

One recycled bottle saves enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for four hours. Plastic

Each adult will leave a legacy of 90,000 pounds of trash for the world’s children. l

Recycling a single run of the Sunday New York Times would save 75,000 trees.

If every American recycled one-tenth of their newspapers, we would save 25,000,000 trees per year.

Aluminum and Tin l

Aluminum cans are the #1 recycled item. Because of this, they make up less than 1% of waste in the U.S.

There is no limit to the number of times an aluminum can can be recycled.

A recycled aluminum can is back on the shelf within 60 days.

Every day, Americans use enough steel and tin cans to make a steel pipe running from Los Angeles to New York and back.

The aluminum foil on Hershey's Kisses is recyclable; 133 square miles of it per day are used to wrap the candies.

Glass l

Glass bottles take 4,000 years to decompose.

Glass never wears out — it can be recycled forever.

Globally, we use as many as 1 million new plastic bags every minute, at a cost of 2.2 billion gallons of oil a year.

One recycled bottle saves enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for four hours. It also causes 20% less air pollution and 50% less water pollution than does making a new bottle.

Oil l

One quart of motor oil can contaminate 2 million gallons of fresh water.

Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as does burning it.

Motor oil never wears out; it just gets dirty. It can be recycled.

We throw away 25,000,000 plastic bottles every hour.

*Information from MassSave, Live Earth, other sources

1.5 million tons of plastic are used to make bottles every year, a waste that could instead power 250,000 homes.

Paper l

It takes 390 gallons of oil to produce a ton of paper.

The average American uses seven trees and 680 pounds of paper per year.

Today, 62 million newspapers will be printed in the U.S., and 44 million will be thrown away. That means the equivalent of about 500,000 trees will be dumped into landfills this week.

One quart of motor oil can contaminate 2 million gallons of fresh water.

R e v . D r . A l l a n Au b r e y B o e s a k : t h e o lo g i a n , h u m a n i ta r i a n , p r o l i f i c au t h o r a n d t i r e l e s s a d v o c at e f o r s o c i a l j u s t i c e

ne of the world’s preeminent authorities

on liberation theology, Dr. Boesak was named the Desmond Tutu Chair of Peace, Global Justice and Reconciliation Studies by Christian Theological Seminary and Butler University. Dr. Boesak was the honored keynote speaker for the African American Legacy Lecture at the CRCDS Fall Lectures, Reflection & Worship Series in October. In his opening remarks, Dr. Boesak said, “I have been looking forward to this evening for several reasons . . . Dr. McMickle earlier today mentioned that when he sent me the invitation (to speak), I did not take a full twenty-four hours to respond and say, ‘Yes, I will be coming.’ One of the reasons for that is because of my desire to be associated with what is happening here at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School; with the seriousness with which you are taking on challenges that face the church today. I have great admiration for that. I want to congratulate you, as this fall you are starting the Master’s Program in Kairos Studies. I think that’s amazing. You might be just the only theological institution I know that does that. Even in the home of the Kairos movement, we are looking at you with some envy with what you are achieving here.” Reprinted here with permission is Dr. Boesak’s lecture, “Hearing the Cry and Reading the Signs of the Times: A Humanity with a Kairos Consciousness” which is part of a chapter in a forthcoming publication at Palgrave McMillan: Kairos, Crisis and Global Apartheid, The Challenge for Prophetic Resistance (March, 2015).

“A kairos consciousness is therefore a critical, self-critical, and engaging consciousness. It is also a liberating, empowering, evocative and humanizing consciousness and allows, no, urges us to respond to the discernment of the moment of truth, in resistance to the powers of evil, for the sake of the wronged and powerless, and for the sake of the Gospel.”

outh Africans who consider themselves part of the worldwide kairos community, standing in the prophetic tradition of the first Kairos Document that came out of South Africa in the dark days of the struggle of the 1980s and the first state of emergency, are the first to admit that the Palestinian Kairos called them to a moment of awareness of that prophetic tradition they seemed to have forgotten. It was a reawakening of kairos in a community where the prophetic voice has not only been scarce, but even when hesitantly raised, also not gladly heard since the birth of a democratic South Africa in 1994. This holds true, I suggest, for the church in the US as well, and perhaps elsewhere.

In December 2009 the Palestine Kairos Document was published. It could easily have been just one more kairos document in addition to all those other kairos documents that followed the original Kairos Document from South Africa in 1985. But this time it was different. It set in motion what is becoming a “global kairos movement” and through the responses from the United States and South Africa to begin with, triggered serious attention for what some have called “the rebirth of kairos theology.” It also raised a question that indicated that the response to the Palestinian Kairos Document was considering something much more profound, and which will prove to be much more durable, namely the question of a kairos consciousness. “Is there such a thing as a kairos consciousness?” was the question I was asked by Rev. Edwin Arrison, one of the leaders of Kairos Southern Africa in 2011. It was one year after a series of conversations in circles of progressive, concerned persons in faith communities; the year, essentially in response to the Palestinian Kairos Document, “Kairos Southern Africa” was launched stating its sweeping vision: “A Humanity With a Kairos Consciousness.” I then responded with some preliminary thoughts on what I thought was an important and intriguing question, now more so than ever. In light of the reemergence since then of a “kairos theology” and the concomitant establishment of not just a Southern African, but, as the bold vision statement of Kairos Southern Africa makes clear, a global kairos movement we should reflect more carefully on what such a kairos consciousness might be. Kairos is not so much a “time” or a “season” but a moment, unique, for people of faith to see, understand and act upon. But speaking of a “kairos consciousness” already indicates that what is meant here is more than just the realization of some matter of mere momentary import. It suggests an abiding awareness, what one could call a prophetic alertness, a readiness for when such a moment might arrive. The phrasing of the vision statement also suggests more than

an individualized consciousness, indeed, a consciousness that stirs, embraces and inspires “humanity.” The understanding is clear: in 1985, a group of prophetic Christians were overwhelmed by a moment of truth for the situation in South Africa, and the Kairos Document spoke specifically to the South African context of racist domination, political oppression, socio-economic exploitation, and the silence of the church in regard to all these. Almost to our surprise we discovered how others, in their specific contexts across the globe — and not only in the global South — understood their situations of political, social, and theological crises as a kairos moment for themselves. Hence the birth of several kairos documents across the world since 1985. Now, however, there is a deliberateness to the call not merely for new kairos documents, but for an abiding kairos consciousness for humanity. The crisis we are facing now is a global crisis, the call to understand this moment as a kairos moment is for all humanity. It is, moreover, a moment of truth, revealing the falsehoods without which an unjust status quo cannot exist, but which nonetheless blind, beguile and disable us. Without seeing, discerning and acting the moment passes us by. Hence the kairos moment is decisive. A kairos consciousness is a consciousness awake and open to the discovering of, and responding to the decisiveness and uniqueness of that moment. Such a kairos moment also reveals the truth about ourselves, strips us of all pseudo-innocence and as such it is a moment of discernment, repentance, conversion and commitment. In that moment we discover the truth: about the situation with which we are faced, about ourselves and the Other; about the realities of pain and suffering, about the demands of love and justice, and about the God-given possibilities for real and fundamental change. It is also the truth that sets us free. It is simultaneously a shocking and a liberating moment. Crucially, however, a kairos consciousness knows that the discovery of that moment of truth is not a moment of triumphalist gloating, confirming and celebrating our own spiritual superiority, but rather of profound and humble joy for the gift of discernment, discontentment, and dissent. Discernment of what is wrong in a situation and the crisis it creates for the most vulnerable, discontent with that situation of injustice, and a refusal to leave things as they are; and dissent from the dominant judgment that the status quo is acceptable, beneficial, unchangeable or irreversible. The discovery of a moment of truth in history is not the result of our intelligence and extraordinary cleverness. It is revelation, the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are not the truth: the

truth has found, recovered and reclaimed us. We are not the light: the light illumines and leads us. We are not the voice: we speak and act because we heard the Voice that calls us to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. The voice we hear and respond to is the voice of the voiceless, the poor and oppressed, those who are the faces at the bottom of the well. In those voices, is the forceful argument of John Calvin, we hear the very voice of God: Tyrants and their cruelty cannot be endured without great weariness and sorrow… Hence almost the whole world sounds forth these words, ‘How long?’ When anyone disturbs the whole world by his ambition and avarice, or everywhere commits plunders, or oppresses miserable nations, when he distresses the innocent, all cry out, ‘How long?’ And this cry, proceeding as it does from the feeling of nature and the dictates of justice, is at length heard by the Lord… [The oppressed] know that this confusion of order and justice is not to be endured. And this feeling, is it not implanted by the Lord? It is then the same as though God heard Himself, when he hears the cries and groaning of those who cannot bear injustice.

This is an insight from Calvin I have had cause to return to and reflect upon again and again, and in this context it is most helpful in understanding what I mean by a kairos consciousness. This is how I understand Calvin on this issue. Notice first how such a consciousness understands the indivisibility of justice. Martin Luther King Jr., was right: injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Calvin’s repeated “the whole world” is not just rhetorical hyperbole or a manner of speaking. It is a keen awareness of the impact of injustice on humanity as a whole, to quote yet another famous expression of Martin Luther King, Jr.: of the “inescapable network of mutuality” and the “common garment of destiny,” of our common yearning for justice and of the need for human solidarity in resisting injustice and striving for justice. It understands the workings of power and the destruction wrought by power “divorced from the fear of God” as Calvin states elsewhere. It is remarkable how relevant this insight has become in our 21st century globalized political and economic power realities and in the deadly stranglehold of a few — the now universally recognized 1%! — on the rest of humanity and on creation as a whole. Second, still engaging Calvin, a kairos consciousness understands the difference between “order” and “justice” and refuses to accept that tyranny, injustice, and oppression should be tolerated as necessary for “order,” or more precisely, mistaken for order. Calvin calls this a “confusion.”

For Calvin — despite his grave concern for order in society and his fear of chaos, or perhaps better put, because of his concern for proper order in society — “order”, or in its other, often used, and always lethal combination, “law and order”, in our global reality more and more parading as “national security” — is not the enforced state of confusion when the law, violence, and the abuse of power are used to protect the position of the powerful and privileged and to keep the poor impoverished and the subjugated silent. Order prevails when compassionate justice is done and there is no confusion about right and wrong in society. A kairos consciousness, in reading the signs of the times, making political judgments and calling upon the church to act, will, I think, embrace Paul Lehmann’s contention about what he calls “the proper priorities of politics”, namely that “Freedom is the presupposition and the condition of order: order is not the presupposition and condition of freedom. Justice is the foundation and criterion of law; law is not the foundation and criterion of justice. These are the proper priorities of politics.”

“The discovery of a moment of truth in history is not the result of our intelligence and extraordinary cleverness. It is revelation, the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Third, the cry for justice is not only implanted by the Lord; it is as though God hears Godself when the oppressed cry “How long?” Their cry is God’s cry, emanating from the heart of a God wounded by the injustices inflicted upon the poor and defenseless. If a renewed Kairos movement is “now conceived and established to nurture the prophetic voice that recognizes the face of God in the face of the poor and most marginalized people” as Kairos Southern Africa proclaims in its constitution, then a kairos consciousness that understands injustice and injury inflicted upon God’s children as wounds inflicted upon God is absolutely vital. Calvin is quite radical in this: if it is true that God is not just hearing the poor and oppressed when they cry out against injustice, but God is hearing God’s own self in their cries, it means that God is not just the God of the poor; God presents Godself as the poor and oppressed. Their cries are God’s cries. Those cries may be the cries of the powerless, but they make their appeal upon us with inescapable authority. Furthermore, Calvin speaks of all those “who

cannot bear injustice.” He means not only those upon whom injustice is inflicted, but also those who cry out on their behalf, and therefore do what is right and just. In their cry as well God hears Godself, and in their doing of justice the wounds of God are healed. A kairos consciousness will observe and experience the world as seen through the eyes of the suffering, the poor and the marginalized, in so doing seeing the world through the eyes of Jesus. This means, besides much else, that one is no longer blinded by the propaganda of the powerful, by the pressures of contemporary society or global imperial powers to conform to what those powers may deem normal or acceptable. One will, instead, resist being dictated to by one’s own fears or desires to be part of a world that scandalizes Jesus because that world lures us with privileges and the comfort of protection against the powerful or against the appeal (or the wrath?) of those brothers and sisters we are leaving behind. For the Palestinians who produced the Palestinian Kairos Document and living under Israeli occupation, and as the atrocities in Gaza are piling up even as I write, “seeing through the eyes of Jesus” has existential, and extraordinarily poignant significance, as Palestinian liberation theologian Naim Stifan Ateek makes clear: Like many Palestinians today, Jesus was born under occupation and throughout his life knew only a life under occupation. All his travels, his eating and drinking, his teaching and healing ministry, his relationships with others — every aspect of his life — were carried out under the oppressive domination of the Romans. Finally, he was executed by the occupation forces in collusion with the religious leaders of first-century Jerusalem.

It also means that one can no longer avoid making choices, and those choices will reflect God’s choices: for the poor, the wronged, the destitute and the vulnerable. This depicts an engaging consciousness, an understanding that because one is no longer blind to injustice, one can no longer be neutral. One cannot but join the struggle for the sake of justice and righteousness. A kairos consciousness becomes an engaging, liberation-oriented consciousness, intent on the humanizing of God’s world. A kairos consciousness is a critical and simultaneously selfcritical consciousness. It is critical because it discerns and critiques the situation in which we live, understanding that it is a situation of life and death, and seeing through the eyes of those who suffer and are most vulnerable, it offers prophetic critique of that situation, and calls for prophetic resistance in that situation. Such a consciousness understands that there is a conflict, a struggle going on for the sake of those whose lives are precious in God’s sight and that the moment calls

for the church to take sides. Because it is a matter of life and death neutrality is not possible. It is a conflict between rich and poor, oppressor and oppressed, powerful and powerless, beneficiaries and victims, those who are included in the circles of power and privilege and those who are excluded, denied flourishing and a meaningful life.

“A kairos consciousness will observe and experience the world as seen through the eyes of the suffering, the poor and the marginalized, in so doing seeing the world through the eyes of Jesus.” From India, habil James Massey tells us where, for Indian Christians with a kairos consciousness, that critique will lead us: “The final call of Kairos that comes to social activists (including the church) is: they should move from an ‘ambulance ministry’ to a ‘ministry of involvement and participation’ in the struggle of the Dalit-Bahujan for their liberation (including their own), so that a ‘just society’ may get established, in which peace will reign with justice, and all will live with fuller redeemed dignity and recovered humanity.” In that critique there is no room for sentiment and romanticism — the lives of the innocent are at stake. That critique will be wary of notions of “critical solidarity” with governing powers that in our recent South African history have so quickly, and disastrously, replaced solidarity with the poor and prophetic faithfulness to God. A kairos consciousness is aware that the crisis we are facing is not just economic, social and political; it is at the deepest level a moral crisis. By the same token though, a kairos consciousness is a selfcritical consciousness. This works on at least two levels. There is indeed a conflict, but there are Christians on both sides of that conflict. There are those Christians, and sometimes whole hierarchies within churches, who seek to use the Bible, the tradition, and theology to serve and protect the status quo, those who uphold and sustain it, and those who benefit from it to the detriment of the poor, the weak, and the vulnerable. On the other side of the conflict are those Christians with a kairos consciousness who understand God’s call in that moment as a call to repentance and conversion, to commitment to justice and the liberation of the oppressed.

Hence the very important distinction of the 1985 Kairos Document between what it identified as three theologies: state theology, church theology and prophetic theology. A kairos consciousness is critical vis-à-vis the church that takes sides with the oppressors, but does not try to deny the fact that we ourselves are part of the church. The call of the kairos moment is therefore a call to repentance. That is why the Kairos Document was called “A challenge to the church.” It understood, correctly, that “The time has come… [1985] is the KAIROS moment of truth not only for apartheid but also for the church.” It understood that the “crisis in South Africa” constituted not just a crisis in society; it was a crisis within the church. In this crisis “there will be no place to hide.” What the crisis reveals is that the church, tragically but not at all surprisingly, is deeply divided. Here however, an important issue arises. In discerning the Kairos moment in the crisis the prophetic theology of the Kairos Document did more than recognize that such a crisis exists. Prophetic theology stood, and acted, in tension, and in contention with “church theology” and “state theology”. It contested the willingness of the church to make alliances with “state theology” for whatever reason. It recognized the role of the church in creating the crisis and then acting as if the crisis did not exist. As a consequence, it called the church to repentance and conversion, to the unmasking and undoing of injustice and the doing of justice; to say “no” to compliance with the oppressive powers and “yes” to solidarity with the poor and oppressed. It called on the church to exchange its fear of state power for the fear of the Lord. It challenged the church to turn its back on the rewards of expediency and to choose instead for the risks of obedience; to shun the comforts of complicity and embrace instead the uncertainties of the struggle for justice. It called the church to a different kind of witness, to a life truer and more faithful to its confession that Jesus Christ is Lord, not the imperial powers to which the church has made itself beholden. In challenging the church with the call to stand with the oppressed and challenge the oppressor, prophetic theology, in engaging the crisis in society and confronting it with the justice Yahweh requires, did not simply find itself in a situation of crisis as if by accident. It provoked the crisis — albeit a different kind of crisis — within the church and in society. That moment of truth is not just the truth about society; it is the truth about the church — its faithfulness to Christ, its choices, its witness, its relationship with God, in other words, its life. Hence the intensity of the crisis. Walter Brueggemann makes this even clearer. “The task of prophetic ministry is,” he says, “to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us.”

Brueggemann makes the point that the public crises Christians are facing are not isolated, incidental and temporary. They are, he insists, the result of “the dominant crisis that is enduring and resilient, of having our alternative vocation coopted and domesticated.” So in following Brueggemann and applying his superb understanding of the prophetic imagination to my understanding of a kairos consciousness, we should say that a kairos consciousness is also an evocative consciousness. It evokes the crisis by evoking in us a consciousness alternative to the dominant consciousness, a consciousness that resists the cooptation and the domestication of our prophetic imagination and our prophetic ministry. At another level, however, the self-critical consciousness knows, as South Africa’s Steve Biko insisted, that the strongest ally of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed; that oppressors of all sorts and all eras cannot be successful without the cooperation or submission of the oppressed; that through the pressures of fear or the desires for reward or a distorted theology we ourselves might become complicit in our own oppression or that of others. A kairos consciousness knows that throughout all times in history God has raised up faithful women and men who heard God’s voice in the cries of the oppressed, who took refuge in the love of God and from within that place of refuge found courage and stepped into the world to challenge the powers of evil — so when for us that time comes we recognize it, acknowledge it, and are called to embrace it. Their prophetic courage stirs, disturbs, and unsettles us even as it moves, inspires and emboldens us — from the Hebrew midwives denying the Pharaoh the right to deny them their right to do justice to Moses and Elijah and Jeremiah and Amos; to Mary in the Magnificat and the women who followed Jesus in defiance of patriarchal power to the martyrs of the church of all ages. All of them faced a kairos moment of discernment, repentance, and of discontent; of conversion, decision, and dissent; of commitment and resistance. Hence there are choices to be made here: a kairos consciousness is one that urges us to make righteous choices. Certainly choices are made on empirical evidence, as a result of painstaking and correct social, political and economic analysis, and a proper understanding of the ways in which power and powerlessness work, a thorough grasp of the insidiousness of systemic injustices and their generational tenacity. This is what the Kairos Document calls “reading the signs of the times.” Our struggle, is the famous line from Ephesians 6:12, is not just against enemies of flesh and blood, “but against the rulers, the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.” If this is true, we

would well to remember that for these “cosmic powers and rulers” imperial power on earth is never enough; they will seek to occupy the heavenly places as they do the earth, not resting until their will is done in heaven as it is on earth. But then we cannot afford to be led by a blind pseudo-innocence that leaves no room for the combatant love — of which I speak below — that is necessary to change the world so that it more faithfully reflects the theatre of God’s glory. As such, a kairos consciousness will do yet another thing. It will, Cornel West speaking of prophetic witness, reminds us, highlight the reality of evil; both personal and institutional evil, “including the evil of being indifferent to personal and institutional evil.” As prophetic consciousness, it will “[shatter] deliberate ignorance and willful blindness to the suffering of others and to expose the clever forms of evasion and escape we devise in order to hide and conceal injustice.”

For this reason the call to conversion is so crucial in our thinking on kairos. It is not, to be sure, the emotional conversion experience so many of us have grown up with, that leads us to a spiritualized, individualized, inner experience of the love of God with no understanding of the love of God in Christ for the cosmos. (John 3:16) Neither is it the “conversion experience” the Roman emperor Constantine was supposed to have had, when he had a vision of the cross emblazoned in the sky inscribed with the words In hoc signo vinces! – In this sign conquer! Some translate, Conquer by This! The church has not yet recovered from that vision’s deadly consequences for the church and the world. Neither has the world. Pastor/activist Brian McClaren has written beautiful words on this. “Imagine a different conversion,” he says, one that never happened but could have:

“A kairos consciousness is critical vis-à-vis the church that takes sides with the oppressors, but does not try to deny the fact that we ourselves are part of the church. The call of the kairos moment is therefore a call to repentance.”

Just as certain, however, a kairos consciousness makes these choices on the basis of faith. Much more than the sociopolitical liberation of the oppressed is at stake here. Because Christians participate in and benefit from the oppression of others while claiming faith in the God of Jesus Christ who came to establish justice in the earth, that faith, the integrity of that Gospel, and the credibility of the witness of the church are at stake. The moment of truth is a moment to act for the sake of justice and humanity, but also for the sake of the integrity of the Gospel. These are the deepest issues in the “apartheid is a heresy” debate of the late 1970s and early 1980s which preceded the writing of the Kairos Document. It is for this reason that the Dutch Reformed Mission Church in South Africa, in first formulating the Belhar Confession in 1982 and naming the theology that has undergirded and justified apartheid a heresy, already spoke of “a moment of truth.”

Instead of a gold-plated, bejeweled spear-cross with the words ‘Threaten and kill by this’, imagine that Constantine had seen a vision of a basin and a towel with the words ‘Serve by this’, or a vision of a simple table of bread and wine with ‘Reconcile by this’, or a vision of Christ’s outstretched arms with ‘Embrace by this’, or a vision of the birds of the air and flowers of the field with ‘Trust like this’, or a vision of a mother hen gathering her chicks with ‘Love like this’, or a vision of a dove descending from heaven with the words, ‘Be as kind as this.’ But it was not so.

This calls for critical judgment and acts of prophetic faithfulness and prophetic courage; hence the emphasis on humility, truthfulness, and integrity. This is another reason why the stakes are so very high.

Indeed. I would add just one thing. Imagine that Constantine, having seen all of the above, had a vision of Jesus on the cross, overcoming the power of violence and domination and death with the power and of love and servanthood and sacrifice, with the words, “Resist by this.”

In sum then, I would say that a kairos consciousness is therefore a critical, self-critical, and engaging consciousness. It is also a liberating, empowering, evocative and humanizing consciousness and allows, no, urges us to respond to the discernment of the moment of truth, in resistance to the powers of evil, for the sake of the wronged and powerless, and for the sake of the Gospel.

A global kairos movement today with the purpose of engendering a kairos consciousness for “all humanity” will not only be concerned with struggles for racial and socio-economic justice as was the focus of the first Kairos Document. It will have to be concerned with world-wide struggles today, struggles for ecological justice, the rights of indigenous peoples which are so closely related to the

well-being of the earth; with movements for economic justice in the face of the devastation wrought by globalized neoliberal economics such as the Occupy Movement as a movement mainly of the rich North but which echoed, and joined forces with, the struggles for social justice of the global South. It will be concerned with the endless devastation of perpetual war, with the broad issue of global resistance to the scourge of war, and with the specifically focused issue of rape as weapon of war as we are seeing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and elsewhere as women’s bodies become occupied territory; with the growing, and utterly alarming trends of patriarchal domination with its concomitant devastating consequences in the worldwide, deeply embedded culture of violence against women, in too many instances justified by what the 1985 Kairos Document identified as “church theology.” It will be confronted with the challenges of choices between the forces of violence and the forces of nonviolence in struggles for freedom and democracy today raging across the world. Within these struggles falls the struggle for the dignity and rights of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, trans-gender and inter-sex persons who by all indications are under renewed onslaught in frightening, and far too often deadly ways in different parts of the world and to whom in so many places the church has so scandalously closed its doors, so that they find themselves cast by the wayside and left to die at the hands of self-appointed, self-righteous avengers of God. It shall also have to take account of the fearsome uncertainties of the Palestinian struggle, the Arab Spring in North Africa and the Middle East, the promise, the temptations and the hard lessons; the battles between the forces of violence and the forces of nonviolent transformation for ownership of those revolutions. It cannot ignore the battles against predatory imperial powers whose desires for global domination seemingly dare not allow a single peoples’ revolution remain the peoples’ revolution, and the painful and vexing paradoxes and contradictions these are producing even as we speak. A kairos consciousness will, in a word, have to take serious cognizance of what Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza has called “kyriarchy” or “kyriocentrism”, an ideology of “lordship” and domination which she defines as “a complex pyramidal system of intersecting multiplicative social structures of supremacy and subordination, of ruling and oppression.” The term is all the more compelling, since Fiorenza points to the perverse inversion of the Lordship of Christ, which is the exact opposite of the kind of “kyriarchy” she is

exposing. The early Christians called Christ “Kyrios”, appropriating for Jesus of Nazareth the same title the Caesar claimed for himself. But Caesar’s title spells domination, oppression, threat, fear, and death. In Jesus, the title is rejection of and resistance to the very meaning of kyrios as Rome understood it: love, justice, compassion, mercy, servanthood, liberation, inclusion, peace. To call Jesus “Lord” therefore, was to join God’s resistance against the forces of domination and death. In that regard nothing has changed: it is still the Lordship of Jesus Christ over against the overlordship of Caesar; the obedience to Christ over against loyalty to earthly powers; the steadfastness of prophetic faithfulness over against the pliability of civil religiosity. “This is the KAIROS,” the Kairos Document declared in 1985, “the moment of grace and opportunity, the favorable time in which God issues a challenge to decisive action.” This crucial sentence tells us two more things. First: in reality it is not so much the cadre of prophetic Christians who are making the call to conversion, action, commitment and change. The challenge comes from God, in the cries of the oppressed and the defenseless. To hear and respond to that call is not so much an act of extraordinary power or courage for which we pat ourselves on the back, as an obedient response to grace. Second: it is the grace of God that calls us from our sinful apathy to commitment and acts of justice, and it is grace that offers the church and the world the opportunity for repentance, conversion and change. It is grace that makes of the challenge also an invitation. If you can only see what I see, Yahweh seems to be saying, then together we can change this world and make it into a dwelling place for all God’s children. This makes of a kairos consciousness, besides all else, a hope-filled, life-giving consciousness. Precisely for these reasons, kairos consciousness is not a consciousness that we naturally possess, but one that is awakened in us by the Spirit of God, by the promises of God, and it calls on those promises for God’s sake, for the sake of creation, and for the sake of the oppressed whose sufferings are the cause of the wounds of God. In the healing of those wounds is the redemption of humanity.

CRCDS Student In

Action

Robert K. Hogg ard, CRCDS Presidential Scholar (M.A., K airos Studies) knows how to raise his voice.

native of Middletown, Connecticut, Robert was licensed to preach in 2010 and is now fulfilling his dream of bringing people together in conversation around difficult social issues. “Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world…would do this, it would change the earth.” –William Faulkner

He was recently promoted to Vice President of Content for HBCU Buzz Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based media outlet sharing the challenges, opportunities and achievements of 105 Historically Black College and University (HBCU) students. Robert says that the HBCU platform, as well as his blogging position at the Huffington Post and strategic involvement in social media help him realize his goal of serving as an activist for social change. He says, “Justice always calls and I never stop answering . . . I will never stop answering.” Robert graduated from American Baptist College in Nashville, Tennessee in 2014, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Bible and Theology with a concentration in Community and Nonprofit Leadership. After his freshman year, he preached and performed missionary work in St. Thomas, Anguilla, St. Kitts, Antigua, Barbuda, Dominica and Trinidad. In a Huffington Post article entitled, “God In Antigua,” he writes, “I find that some experiences we face in life are just a set-up to grow up. God has a way of maturing us in ways that one doesn’t expect will mature them [sic]. This trip has been an incubator for learning that will be sacred and sound for the rest of my life.” While attending American Baptist College, Sigma Pi Phi awarded Robert the Chi Boule Social Action Scholarship which was instrumental in his founding of the chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) at the school. As its President, he used this prominent platform to open dialogue on educational disparities, race, equality and economic barriers to success. Robert says, “The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, founded by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., taught me many things about carrying the torch of social justice. The many words I heard and meetings that I was able to attend will forever serve as a catalyst for my continued efforts to be the best activist possible in a world full of hidden racism, blatant sexism, and many other senseless “isms” that prevent equal opportunity.” One of the most powerful communication tools Robert uses is social media. He utilizes seven Twitter accounts and has tweeted 36.7K times on his personal account alone. His voice is being heeded — he has almost 1,000 followers on that single site. He’s active on Facebook, Instagram and a host of other popular sites. His work has appeared in USA Today, the Associated Press, Washington Times, Tennessean and the Democrat and Chronicle. His articles include discussions on poverty, gun violence, racism, voter suppression, tuition reform, the state of HBCUs and the criminalization of young black men. Upon completion of his studies at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, Robert plans to enter the Executive Doctorate Ed.D. program at the University of Pennsylvania. His goal is to lead an historically black church or university.

Robert says two quotes by CRCDS President Dr. Marvin McMickle inspire him and serve as a moral, spiritual and social compass. The first, Robert says, is crucial advice for pastoral success: “It is not enough to pastor a church and stay inside the building. You’ve got to get out. Your voice has to get out. Your congregation’s influence has to be expanded. You’ve got to engage the world around you. And if you don’t, you’ve failed.” The second reflects Dr. McMickle’s philosophy on speaking the truth, a philosophy Robert strongly identifies with: “Being heard is not the issue. People will hear you, and then they’ll decide what to do about you for having the nerve to say it to them. I can tell you one thing: They will respect you more if you come back next week and say it to them again.” Robert keeps that advice close to him, recognizing the need to speak truth to power, again and again, until change becomes a reality.

Out in the World U p d at e s , N e w s and Notes from CRCDS, CTS and B M T S A lu m n i / a e

Dr. Hans W. Florin

(CRDS, ’54) As of last autumn, Dr. Florin retired as Lutheran pastor in St. Paul, MN. He moved nearer to his family and enjoys grandparent duties. He also lives near Luther Theological Seminary.

Ms. Joy Denlinger Gale

(BMTS ’54) Joy’s grandson recently graduated with honors and will study electronics at Boston Northeastern.

Rev. William P. Diggs, D.Min.

(CRDS, ’55) Rev. Diggs received an honorary degree from Francis Marion University in Florence, SC.

Rev. Paul J. Hardwick

(CRDS, ’63) In June, Paul and Linda Rae (Maas) Hardwick (CRDS ’64) went on the “Beauty and Wonders of China” tour sponsored by the University of Redlands (Linda Rae is a Redlands alum). They had a very exciting and personal 13 day tour that included Beijing, the Great Wall, Hangzhou, the Huangshan Mountains, and Shanghai. Linda Rae continues her work part time as a psychotherapist; Paul is retired. They live in Walnut Creek, CA.

Rev. Clinton L. Barlow

(CRDS ’64) Rev. Barlow celebrated both the 50th anniversary of his ordination and 50th wedding anniversary in June. He was ordained June 4, 1964 at the First Baptist Church in Haddonfield, NJ and married Diana Wright at the First Methodist Church in Cape May, NJ on June 20, 1964. Rev. Barlow served churches in CT, NY and MA during his career and served as the Director of the Meriden OEO Poverty Agency. He did Refugee Resettlement work with Ruth Hargraves Bersin (CRDS ‘65) and currently serves as the Interim Minister at the Millbury Baptist Church in Millbury, MA. He and his wife have three children and three grandchildren. They live in Watertown, MA.

Rev. Richard G. Parker

(CRDS ’65) Richard and his wife, Karen live in Warren, RI near their daughter and son-in-law who live in Swansea, MA. Karen is the church secretary of the Union United Methodist Church in Fall River, MA and Richard substitutes as organist at various churches. He is on call as a substitute preacher for churches within a 30-mile radius. He celebrates his 50-year ordination in June, 2015.

Mr. Thomas R. Argust

(CRDS ’66) Tom was awarded the Joe U. Posner Award by the Rochester Area Community Foundation in recognition of his committed public service and his philanthropic endeavors throughout the region. He was instrumental in the development of Rochester, New York’s new zoning code, the Neighbors Building Neighborhoods program, the Neighborhood Empowerment Team effort, Rochester 2010: The Renaissance Plan, as well as housing initiatives including the Home Expo program and the Anthony Square and Chevy Place developments.

Rev. Dr. Thomas White Wolf Fassett

(CRDS ’67) Thom led the International Academic Convocation at Martin Methodist University/College, Tennessee, this fall, where he was awarded the President’s Medal. His lecture was entitled, “History as Theology: The Church and American Indians.“ Thom also aught a course on Ethics to Native clergy at Navajo Nation, Window Rock, AZ and coauthored the book, “Coming Full Circle,“ to be published by Fortress Press in late Spring, 2015. The work is focused on Native American perspectives on Christian Theology.

Dr. Emma J. Justes

(CRDS ’67) Abingdon Press just published Emma’s second book, Please Don’t Tell: What to do with the Secrets People Share. The book is about helping pastors process secrets of shame.

Mr. Doug Archer

(CTS ’72) Doug has been named Global Affairs Librarian for the University of Notre Dame’s Hesburgh Libraries. In that role, he will continue as the Peace Studies Librarian and serve the information needs of the new Keough School of Global Affairs. Doug also recently completed a two year term as Moderator Elect/Moderator of the Church of the Brethren’s Northern Indiana District Conference. His wife, Alice, is the current Moderator.

Rev. Judith C. Gere

(CRDS ’72) Judith is now retired and is engaged in works of justice and mercy, while maintaining an active prayer life. Judith lives and volunteers in

Albuquerque, NM, where the poverty rates are among the highest in the nation.

Rev. Douglas Deer

(CRDS ’76) Doug officially retired on August 31, 2014. He and his family have recently moved to Cortland, NY.

Rev. Glenn Loafmann

(CRDS ’68) Glenn is retired and living in Oberlin, OH, with his wife, Kathie Linehan. They attend Peace Community Church, where he served as Moderator for the past year.

Dr. Phillis I. Sheppard

(CRDS ’88) Phillis is the Associate Professor of Religion, Psychology and Culture at Vanderbilt University Divinity School in the Graduate Department of Religion.

Rev. Wilfredo J. Baez

(CRDS ’98) Will is now the pastor at Tabernacle United Methodist Church in Binghamton, NY.

Rev. Jane Winters

(CRCDS ’00) Rev. Winters recently moved from Reading Center, NY to Elmira, NY and is currently serving as Temporary Supply Pastor at the Westminster Presbyterian Church and Chaplain at Schuyler Hospital in Montour Falls, NY.

Rev. Beth Sheila Malone

(CRCDS ’11) Beth was appointed to full time ministry at the Lyndonville United Methodist Church in Lyndonville, NY. She and her husband, Damen, are enjoying life in Orleans County.

Rev. Sharon Jacobson

(CRCDS ‘05) Sharon’s meditation and prayer garden is officially open. Plants and donations are being accepted. The garden is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for those seeking a space to meditate and pray. You can learn more by visiting http://inspiritual.biz/meditation-prayergarden/.

Ms. Necole M. Vitale

(CRCDS ’12) Necole was hired as a Family Advisor/Service Coordinator at SKIP of New York this past June. She helps people with severe medical needs and/or developmental disabilities and their families navigate social services systems.

Ms. Diane A. Ellis

(CRCDS ’14) Diane is currently doing her Clinical Pastoral Education at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY.

A lu m n i / a e Fo c u s :

Spotlight on Sustainability J a n e l M i l l e r - E va n s ( C R D S ’ 8 5 ) a n d P h i l M i l l e r - E va n s ( C R D S ’ 8 6 ) : B u i l d e r s o f fa i t h , h o p e a n d c o m m u n i t y

t the Micah Center in Pinellas County, Florida, Phil and Janel Miller-Evans use an empowering and effective sustainable strategy known as Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) to work with the poor, homeless and underemployed members of their community.

Phil, a minister at the Church of the Beatitudes in St. Petersburg, Florida and Janel, a social worker and chaplain at Westminster Palms Retirement & Assisted Living Facility in St. Petersburg, were commissioned in June, 2014 as members of the Economic Development and Poverty Transformation Mission Communities of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF). The “ABCD” program has proven to be very successful. Phil explains, “Most programs operate using a needsbased model, that is, people depend on others to provide economic or social support. Assetbased community development uses resources, tools and strategies that are already present in the community.” This is exciting for the couple and their community, as they see people moving from a helpless, needs-driven position to an empowering lifestyle of self-sufficiency. In effect, it is a sound and practical application of the concept of social capital. Families who are helped then “pay it forward” to help others.

“Our center has been the presence of Christ to our community giving these families dignity and respect in our community.”

This model fits perfectly with the Miller-Evans’ life’s work of ministering to “the least of these” and acknowledges the worth and dignity of each person. Pinellas County, where

Janel Miller-Evans (CRDS ’85) and Phil Miller-Evans (CRDS ’86)

Phil and Janel live, is a an area particularly hard-hit by the economic downturn and housing bust in Florida. Jobs are scarce. Higher-paying jobs that people used to have are never coming back. Janel says that many people in their community live at or below the poverty level and many have lost, or can’t afford, health insurance. A 2013 Pinellas County survey stated that 66% of those seen at area emergency rooms had no health coverage and could not afford to pay their medical bills. Janel says that families who work two jobs at minimum wage and have no access to health care need their help the most. Many families lack affordable child care, which is an enormous barrier to employment. Grandparents, already burdened with their own health care challenges and fixed incomes, are pressed into service, caring for their children’s children. Both the Asset-Based Community Development resource and Phil and Janel’s skills as ministers have provided real hope and help to this economically distressed area. The newly-formed Micah Center has proven to be that place of healing and hope. Janel says, “Phil and I have been working with the underemployed, their children and families in the neighborhood around the church for the last 11 years. As a social worker, I am called to advocate, educate and assist these families who struggle on a daily basis. As they relate to our center we have seen their lives improve financially, emotionally and spiritually. Our center has been the presence of Christ to our community giving these families dignity and respect.” For more information about the Micah Center, email: micahcenteratpinellas@gmail.com or call (727) 822-7178.

CRCDS Trustee Rev. James L. Cherry, Sr. retires after 54 years of s e r v i c e , 3 3 y e a r s at A e n o n B a p t i s t C h u r c h

“Remember that I loved the Lord...” O

n Friday, October 10, 2014 over 1,300 people gathered at the Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center to honor Rev. James L. Cherry, Sr. and his retirement. Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School President Dr. Marvin A. McMickle and CRCDS Trustee Mr. Emerson U. Fullwood spoke at the celebration, which was attended by CRCDS students, alumni/ae, staff and faculty. Mr. Fullwood delivered the following moving tribute to his longtime friend, Rev. Cherry. Thank you! Good evening! I am truly honored and delighted to have the have this distinct privilege of paying a special tribute to my extraordinary friend, Reverend Cherry. Extraordinary events in one’s life are very rare and they don’t happen very often. Such an event for this community and our nation would have been the birth of Frederick Douglass — the great orator, freedom fighter, and extraordinary humanitarian. These giants only come around once in a lifetime. Little did we know that our greater Rochester community would be blessed some 200 years later with another extraordinary humanitarian, a living legend, a giant among men, Reverend James Cherry. It was a long time ago, almost 25 years ago that my wife Vernita and I were returning from a trip when we met Rev. Cherry on the last leg of our flight. On the flight from New York City to Rochester, we were very blessed to have encountered who we thought was a stranger. But, after a warm and engaging conversation, a budding friendship emerged almost instantaneously. Little did I know at the end of our flight that he would choose me as a dear friend. Now if I were to choose a friend, I would want that friend to be a family man, who loved his family, friends, and community; an inspirational person, perhaps a leader, with extraordinary vision who could lead, lead people with purpose; a family man, who loved his family, friends and community.

I would want that friend to be a mentor, a counselor, who would extract the very best in me and others, a trusted advisor; a builder, a builder of bridges, building bridges across all of humanity. Lastly, I would want that friend to be a golfer, a golf buddy where friendly competitive engagement could be enjoyed. That friend would travel to my golf tournament in North Carolina for almost 20 years, and support scholarships for the next generation of young leaders, CEOs, preachers, mayors, teachers, doctors, and lawyers. Fortunately, I do not need to create that friend. I am very proud to call Reverend Cherry a very dear friend. I have all of the qualities of that friend and more in Reverend James Cherry. I am blessed that he chose me as a friend, and also chose my mother, my family, and many relatives in North Carolina, including one family member who was the Aenon general manager for the multi-million church building addition. As I think about my friendship with Reverend Cherry, I am reminded of a quote: “To find one very real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.” It’s a blessing, and I’m so honored that he has kept me over the past 25 years as a lifetime friend. Reverend Cherry — congratulations and thank you for the extraordinary leadership, contributions, and friendship!

“Remember that I loved the Lord; that I taught and preached the Word of God; that I loved the people as pastor. I think that Christ taught us that the ground at the foot of the cross is level.” —CRCDS Trustee Rev. James L. Cherry, Sr., Pastor at Aenon Baptist Church, Rochester, NY In his remarks, President McMickle highlighted the impact of Rev. Cherry’s ministry: Rev. Cherry lived up to the words of W.E.B. Du Bois who wrote in ‘Prayers of Dark People’: We must endure to the end, and learn to finish things, bring them to accomplishment and full fruition. We must not be content with plans, ambitions, and resolves; with part of a message or part of an education, but be set and determined to fulfill the promise and complete the task and secure the full training. ‘Give us, O God, to resist today the temptation of shirking, and the grit to endure to the end.’

Rev. James Cherry has shown us all how to finish things. He has shown us how to complete the task. He has shown us how to resist the temptation of shirking and possess the grit to endure to the end. We rejoice tonight over his godly life and his determination to finish what he started so many years ago.

We recently spoke with Karen Cornwall of Upstate Gospel Magazine, who had the opportunity to interview Rev. Cherry about his legacy, his faith in God and his retirement plans. Reprinted here, with permission, are excerpts from that interview. Greetings Pastor Cherry. I would like to thank you for taking the time to talk to the Upstate New York Gospel Magazine. I would like to talk to you about your history here at Aenon. I know that you are retiring after over 50 years of service. Thirty-three years here at Aenon and 54 as a pastor in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and here at Aenon. How did you know that you were being called to the ministry? The Bible says that many are called but few are chosen. When I came out of the Marine Corps in 1956, my wife and I had been married about two years. The Lord led us to Brownsville, PA where I began not my preaching ministry but serving God

Aenon Baptist Church

through ministry at Mount Lebanon Baptist Church, pastored by Dr. William B. Richardson. He started me working as a Sunday School teacher for all young people. The class grew so large, he gave me the boys to teach and my wife the girls to teach. Then he placed me on the board of trustees. He put me on the board of deacons. Eventually, I became the minister of music, directing all five choirs of the church. It was while I was minister of music that I grew in my ministry by attending Bible class, teaching Sunday School (and) working with the board of deacons. I grew closer to the Lord. My brother had given me a book entitled, “So You Want to Preach” that was the only book in my bookcase. Early one morning when I got up, I picked it up and threw it on the floor. I felt in my spirit that I was called to preach. It was a cold day and we had a coal furnace in our home. I went down in our basement to make a fire so it would be warm when my wife and kids got up. When I got there, water had seeped in and saturated all of the coal. Knowing you cannot make a fire with wet coal and I had no wood, I said to the Lord, “All right, you want me to preach. You help me start this fire.” I put paper and wet coal in the furnace. In less than five seconds there was a flame of fire. That is when I knew for certain that the Lord had called me into the ministry. I began to thank God for calling me because the Bible says (I Timothy 1:12) “… I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has enabled me for that He counted me faithful putting me into the ministry.” I have held onto that Scripture ever since. To put it simply, I prayed that the Lord would make me worthy of this calling and that He would fulfill all of His goodness in my by the work of faith with his power. From that moment on, nearly 55 years ago, I have been in preaching ministry. We worked for a while. We built a new home in our early ministry so I had to keep a job. I was a supervisor in a post office. I became assistant to the postmaster. The entire good thing about that, I got a pay raise. I didn’t have a big job, but I had big pay. From then on God just directed our ministry. For our first two churches, we not only pastored, but we worked until we went to Philadelphia in 1969. That was when I became a full time pastor. From 1969 until 2014, we have been in full time ministry, trusting God for our earthly means and things of that nature.

You tend to say “we.” We know behind every good man there is a great woman. Tell me about your wife, First Lady Eunice Cherry (The Cherry’s were married 60 years June 28). The reason I say “we” is because we are in the ministry as a team, although my wife does not want to be called a “minister.” I do believe that God wanted her to be my wife and partner in the ministry years ago. While I preached and pastored, my wife raised our family, encouraged me and put no stumbling blocks in the way of my ministry. So all we have done in the ministry — here at Aenon, the Nazarene Baptist Church in Philadelphia, the Bethlehem Baptist Church in McKeesport, the Mount Rose Baptist Church in Uniontown and Rising Star Baptist Church in Adah, when we first started — my wife has been right by my side, encouraging me and sometimes advising me, very few times correcting me. I believe we have been quite successful as a pastoral team. “My advice to young ministers is don’t go full time until it’s time. Don’t say, “God is sending me.” Make sure it’s not ego sending you because where God directs, God provides and God protects. If you do that you will be successful.” I would agree with that since I have been under your leadership and guidance for many, many years. I hear a lot of people refer to you as a pastor’s pastor. What does it mean to you when people call you a pastor’s pastor? Here at Aenon, I licensed my 11th minister in March. There are nine at Aenon, plus my two sons, so 11 ministers have come under my leadership, tutoring or mentorship. I have been blessed by God to assist other ministers and pastors in their ministry. Every pastor at some time needs a pastor. I have tried to be there for pastors who need someone to share, to talk to. I tried to be that person, letting them know I would be faithful to God and faithful to them. I would never be disloyal to them. I would always tell them what God tells me to tell them. I would not put James Cherry (first), but I would put what the Lord says. That’s why they called me a pastor’s pastor, because pastors come to me. Some are young and some are not so young. They feel that they can come to me and I will counsel them according to the Word of God. I am proud to believe and hear people say that I am a pastor’s pastor. You have been involved in the Rochester community for nearly 35 years. What have been some of your greatest moments, your greatest memories? Well, first of all becoming the pastor of the Aenon church. We came here from Philadelphia, pastoring the Nazarene church, not knowing what to expect, but understanding that there was a great pastor before me by the name of Pastor Murphy Greer. A church that is set near the heart of the city. I was asked by the search committee if I would make Aenon a community-serving church. I said, “Yes.” Since coming to Aenon, through God’s leadership, it has become a community-based church. We have had some wonderful

Rev. James L. Cherry, Sr. and his wife, First Lady Eunice Cherry

moments. I served on the different boards in this city or community such as the Urban League. At one time serving on the United Way and knowing how much money United Way is putting in our community through different organizations. I also served on the boards of Baden Street, Boy Scouts and the YMCA and on the board of ABC (Action for a Better Community). Those are great moments. I guess I have to say one of the greatest is that at least seven churches began out of the Aenon Church. Those were shining moments for me and for my heart here in Rochester. I know your participation reaches beyond Rochester. You are also involved in regional, national and international organizations. What can you tell me about your participation outside of Rochester? Well, there is a convention called Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission. When we came here, I had been serving on the board for like 30 years. I was also a part of the Progressive National Baptist Convention. Aenon was a part of the National Baptist Convention, but they were not a part of Lott Carey. They asked me would I join the National Baptist and also stay with the Progressive. I told them that I would join the National and leave the Progressive… but I would ask them to join Lott Carey. Since that time, we have upwards of 18 people go every year to the Lott

“My advice to young ministers is don’t go full time until it’s time. Don’t say, “God is sending me.” Make sure it’s not ego sending you because where God directs, God provides and God protects. If you do that you will be successful.”

Carey Foreign Mission Convention. We have just as many who travel to the National Baptist Convention. I have held office on the board of directors for Lott Carey since 1967 and I have been a statistician for Lott Carey since 1975. I have served as a teacher in the National Baptist Congress. Lott Carey came to Rochester for two of their conventions, being invited by the Aenon church. So those are the hallmarks that I look over because you are doing the Lord’s work, but in a broader sense. What do you view as your main accomplishments in the ministry? Here at Aenon one great accomplishment was our renovation. When you undertake your renovation, that’s stepping out on faith, because sometimes you step out on faith and you are never able to complete the building or to pay for it. God permitted us to do all of this work –millions of dollars – and pay for it in a record amount of time. So now, out of all we have done in this church, we are, I guess we would say, debt free. We are blessed to have quite a bit of money in investments. As pastor, you don’t know everything, so you have to have faith in people. We have men who know finance. I am the pastor and by trusting them, we are sound and solid financially, spiritually and numerically. I am proud of that. Not bragging — just spiritually proud. What advice would you give to young ministers? Be certain of your calling, because the Bible says “Many are called, but few are chosen”. The ministry is an attraction to some men and women, but also the ministry is hard work. The Bible says don’t put your shoulder to the plow and look back. Once you accept the call to the ministry, you should first prepare yourself. Do as much schooling as you can in the right places. Then be committed first to God, then to the ministry. If you happen to have a family and be married, then be committed to your family. I would tell a young minister to find a pastor that he can sit under, who will mentor him and to watch that pastor. Be active in the church. Most pastors want to become full-time pastors. That means you won’t have a second job. My advice to young ministers is don’t go full time until it’s time. Don’t say, “God is sending me.” Make sure it’s not ego sending you because where God directs, God provides and God protects. If you do that you will be successful. Pastor, what is your take on women in the ministry? I know you ordained a female in March. How has your perspective on females in ministry changed over the years? When I first came to Aenon, I had pastored a church in Philadelphia where a woman could not teach a man in class because there is a Scripture in the Bible that says that a woman should not usurp authority over man. In most churches you attend, 60 percent or more of the membership would be female. I have watched women in the church. They are committed. They are spiritual. They depend on the Word. I asked God how did He want me to treat women who said they are called to preach. I sincerely believe God spoke to me and gave me an incident of testament from the Bible. When Jesus rose from the

dead, the first message He said to His disciples, He sent it by a woman. He told her to go and tell my disciples and Peter. That was Mary. I know there are men who yet teach, and some are my friends, and are firmly against women in ministry. But I have watched their lives. I have watched their commitment and I have become a believer that God can call whomsoever He will to carry the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. So I don’t stand between any women. I don’t push it on other pastors but I believe that God does call women in the ministry and they make good leaders across the years. What do you want your legacy in the ministry to be? What do you want people to remember about you? Remember that I loved the Lord; that I taught and preached the Word of God; that I loved the people as pastor. I think that Christ taught us that the ground at the foot of the cross is level. I have tried to treat all people with the same respect, whether they are young or old. I love the ministry. I love going to the hospital, my wife and I, early in the morning, in a late afternoon in ice and snow or late at night to comfort a family. I have buried so many people from this church. In some families I have buried over 10 people. I don’t bury church members, I bury friends. So I am hurt, when they are hurt. I would like my legacy to be that I was a truly a man of God. I was truly a pastor who stood on the Word of God, who was led by the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus Christ and who really demonstrated he loved his people. What are your post-retirement plans? Is it relocation, speaking tour, golfing? Well, Mrs. Cherry and I have purchased a home in Gainesville, Virginia. When 2014 is no more, we plan to move to Virginia. I have a son that pastors a church there – Bishop Wesley T. Cherry Sr. We plan to join his congregation as members. We have three children, six grandchildren and seven great- grandchildren. We plan to enjoy our family. I have some ministers that heard I am retiring and have called me. “You have to come and preach for me when you retire,” said a minister from Detroit. My goal is that when I retire not to quit preaching but to retire from preaching. Maybe preach sporadically, but have somebody preach to me. I love it, but I am looking forward to God giving me three things in my retirement: keep me holy, keep me healthy and keep me happy. And I will enjoy retirement. Now you mentioned golf. That is a sport I loved but as I grow older it loses some of its luster. Mrs. Cherry and I plan on enjoying our grandchildren and enjoying ourselves. She and I are doing what God has asked us to do, going when He wants us to go. But sometimes just sitting and doing nothing. Amen. Being a pastor is really a full-time experience and you have got to love it to do it. So I have loved it for 54 years. My hope for post-retirement days and years, and I hope there are many, is to serve God and to be used as a vessel in any way God wants to use me.

Lectures, Reflection, Reunion and Worship April 7–9, 2015

In Memoriam Baptist Missionary Training School Shirley Mae Wilcox O’Farrell ‘50 Colgate Rochester Divinity School David C. Derby

‘58

Wesley Bourdette

‘61

Fred Jackson

‘64

James A. Marvin

‘64

Daniel H. Berry

‘68

Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School Patricia Austin

’07

Heather M. Janes

‘11

Friends of CRCDS Mary Erzinger Shirley M. Jones Virginia Medd Mildred Jeanne Solomon

G o d ’ s Tim e is No w :

Recultivating the “Garden”

...tending creation as people of faith

Early registration and more information available at www.crcds.edu/spring-lecture-week

he Baptist Missionary Training School (BMTS) Legacy Continues Enabling women for ministry for over 130 years

Introducing BMTS Scholarship Recipient Laura Bachmann Laura is a first-year M.Div. student. She was raised in the Episcopal faith but is a “working Presbyterian.” Laura is most interested in Christian formation and mission work, in her words, “being God’s hands and feet.” Laura, who earned her AB in International Relations at Brown University, would like to convey a personal message to the Baptist Missionary Training School donors who help make her education at CRCDS possible. She says, “Not only does the support of women who have gone before me encourage me on a personal level, but . . . your support offers me the gift of non-anxious Laura Bachmann

time to focus on my studies, to sink into the seminary community and to really listen to the leadings of the Holy Spirit. I thank you for that chance. I thank you for the generous support which makes this scholarship fund available to all students like me who want to follow their calling. Your interest and care mean a great deal.”

Introducing BMTS Scholarship Recipient Andrea Abbott Andrea is a third-year M.Div. student at CRCDS. A librarian, Andrea received her B.A. in Psychology from Antioch University and her MA and MLS degrees from the State University of New York, Buffalo. Her goal, upon completion of her studies at CRCDS, is to serve in parish ministry. A part-time student, Andrea is incredibly grateful for the Baptist Missionary Training School scholarship, since it enables her to accelerate her studies in time to graduate in 2016. While completing her education, Andrea currently serves as pastor at The Unitarian-

Andrea Abbott

Universalist Church in Central Square, a small community north of Syracuse, NY. She also interned at Immanuel Baptist Church in Rochester, NY.

Memorial & Appreciation Gifts June 8, 2014-September 24, 2014 Ms. Heather M. Janes Mr. John Tetz and Ms. Verna Tetz

Dr. Paul L. Hammer Rev. Suzanna E. Harriff

In Memory of:

Mr. Donald E. Klarup Dr. Bruce C. Gray

Ms. Rebecca Hess Rev. Douglas E. Hess

Dr. James B. Ashbrook Dr. C. Jack Richards Dr. Oren J. Baker Rev. Clifford H. Haskins Rev. D. Richard Neill

Rev. Ruth Lacker Rev. Barbara J. Laker-Ware and Rev. Michael Ware

Ms. Hanson Johnson Rev. Lawrence Hargrave and Ms. Brenda D. Lee

Dr. Werner E. Lemke Rev. Marie E. King

Mr. Albert C. Barnett Ms. Gladys Rudolph

Dr. Richard E. Murdoch Rev. Archie Smith Jr., Ph.D.

Rev. Dr. Leardrew L. Johnson Rev. Lawrence Hargrave and Ms. Brenda D. Lee

Rev. Martha M. Barr Dr. William F. Barr

Dr. Charles M. Nielsen Dr. Wendy J. Deichmann

Dr. Gene E. Bartlett Rev. Mahlon Gilbert, D.Min.

Mr. and Mrs. Dong Y. Park Rev. Dan W. Park

Dr. J. Rodney Branton Rev. D. Richard Neill Ms. Marilyn W. Burdick Rev. Gary V. Burdick

Mr. Leroy Pullen and Mrs. Dorthea Pullen Dr. Bruce R. Pullen and Ms. Judith A. Pullen

Dr. Paul C. Carter Rev. Vernon E. Kuehn

Dr. Wilbour E. Saunders Rev. Willis J. Merriman

Rev. William B. Connor Ms. Marie B. Connor

Ms. Alice Shae Ms. Emma Enoch

Rev. Theodore Cox Ms. Ruth A. Cox

Mr. Robert Slaughter Rev. Lawrence Hargrave and Ms. Brenda D. Lee

T h e Fu n d f o r CRCDS

Mr. Forrest Cummings, Jr. Rev. Lawrence Hargrave and Ms. Brenda D. Lee Rev. David C. Derby US Tsubaki Mr. John W. Derby Ms. Phyllis H. Derby Mr. Craig P. Wilson

Ms. Emily Sundland Rev. Karen S. Sundland Mr. Gary D. Talbot M. Kathleen Talbot

Mr. Thomas McDade Clay Ms. Elizabeth T. Clay Rev. Marvin A. McMickle, Ph.D. and Ms. Peggy McMickle Rev. Lawrence Hargrave and Ms. Brenda D. Lee Dr. James C. Miller Rev. G. Travis Norvell Dr. Barbra A Moore, RSM Ms. Germaine Knapp Dr. James Sanders Dr. Emma J. Justice Rev. Dr. Stephanie L. SauvĂŠ Rev. J. Peter Belec Rev. Robert L. Booher

O t h e r Fu n d s : The Martin Luther King, Jr. Endowed Chair for Social Justice and Black Church Studies

Rev. E. Robert Ferris, Jr. Ms. Susanna Ferris

Ms. Lee Wilmore Rev. Lawrence Hargrave and Ms. Brenda D. Lee

Rev. Dr. Benjamin G. Garmer Rev. William L. Frederickson

Mr. Elder Yung Ms. Diane A. Ellis

Mr. James Hall and Ms. Lois Hall Rev. Douglas E. Hess and Ms. Rebecca Hess

In Honor of:

Baptist Missionary Training School Ms. June E. F. Jacobson

Rev. James L. Cherry, Sr. and Ms. Eunice Cherry Rev. Lawrence Hargrave and Ms. Brenda D. Lee

Mr. Edward Hess and Ms. Theresa Hess Rev. Douglas E. Hess and Ms. Rebecca Hess

Dr. Kenneth L. Smith Rev. Warren O. Shields

Dr. H. Darrell Lance Mr. Scott W. Anderson and Ms. Sue A. Anderson Rev. Deborah L. Hughes

Rev. Dr. James A. Braker Rev. Dr. Donald F. Wheeler

In Memory of: Dr. Charles Thurman Ms. Mattie Thurman

Horizon Society

Patricia (“Pat”) Doolittle Tingley, BMTS ’52

Alumna makes strategic investment in school’s future

at Tingley completed a charitable gift annuity with CRCDS that provides the school with essential support for its students and its future. The annuity supplies Pat with annual payments to supplement her income while also generating valuable tax deductions. Pat has peace of mind knowing she is upholding the values she cares about with a gift that also provides her with income and benefits.

“CRCDS stands for what I care about most — an education committed to social justice and to people. Supporting the school just makes sense.”

Join the Horizon Society t o d ay by i n c lu d i n g C R C D S i n y o u r e s tat e p l a n n i n g . For more information about charitable gift annuities or other planned gifts at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, please contact Tom McDade Clay at (585) 340-9648 or tmcdadeclay@crcds.edu.

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Faith. Critically engaged.

“The schisms that we’re experiencing across political divides, socioeconomic divides, race, gender and geography obscure the urgency and the cooperation that is required to work together to solve some of our most pressing global problems. In order to transform our world, we have to transform how we engage with each other.” ~ Simran Sethi, Sustainability journalist, in her July 2012 TEDx talk, “Why and How Do We Engage?”