When Advent Expectations Are Met

Rev. Dr. Angelique Walker-Smith

as irreversible, the deep involvement of the Roman Catholic Church in ecumenism, especially in responding to the challenging issues for the church in the world.”

The condolences were shared by WCC central committee moderator Bishop Dr. Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, who emphasized:

“I share my heartfelt condolences about the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI with Pope Francis and his whole church. When I followed his life, I have often thought of the words that he spoke on his 85th birthday on 16 April 2012 in the Pauline Chapel of the Vatican. Together with a Bavarian delegation, I had the privilege to participate in this small and very personal service.”

At that time, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI stated: “I am now facing the last chapter of my life, and I do not know what awaits me. I know, however, that the light of God exists, that he is risen, that his light is stronger than any darkness, that the goodness of God is stronger than any evil in this world.”

Bedford-Strohm reflected on those words: “He probably didn’t dare to think that he would live on another full ten more years. I am, however, sure that he now experiences the truth of these words spoken then.”

Reprinted with permission from the World Council of Churches.

“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. Hosea 11:1

One of the greatest joys of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany is the feeling and promise of expectations that become realized. Every year we look forward to the divine cycle of remembering and celebrating the anticipated birth and re-birth of Jesus coming into our lives anew. But this promise, foretold for centuries by prophets like Hosea, did not come easily.

The struggles that accompanied Jesus’ arrival were perilous—just as they are today for so many affected by hunger, poverty, and historic inequities. Jesus and his parents found refuge in Egypt on the continent of Africa when the government of King Herold ruled Palestine and sought to take and kill baby Jesus. After Herod died, the holy family returned to Nazareth. In so doing, the prophecy and season of expectation was fulfilled as recorded in Matthew 2:1-15, “To fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son.’”

For people of African descent, the struggles to find a formal place of refuge and authentic sharing—while systematically addressing their struggles and hopes—have also been going on for an exceptionally long time. After centuries of being divided by colonialism, war, racism, and many other inequities, we now have a new global space for multi-lateral engagement with the nations of the world at the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent. Through this advisory body, their voices will be heard, and perspectives will be shared.

This renaissance of renewed Pan-African identities and celebration of our diversities will occur without the limitations of nation-state perspectives where these voices have been often muted or marginal. Just like the UN Permanent Forum of Indigenous Peoples, the UN Permanent Forum of People of African Descent will provide leadership in civil and UN member spaces when it comes to Pan-African issues. It launches this year during the Advent season, December 5-8.

Africa, Jesus’ place of refuge, is also a critical refuge for those who share African roots. The UN can now play a stronger role in engaging with people of African descent alongside the African Union, which welcomes the African Diaspora as the sixth region of the Union. May the vision of people of African lineage—who have been advocating for this moment for so long—find this new consultative mechanism impactful “as a platform for improving the safety and quality of life and livelihoods of people of African descent.”

“Dr. Hurley’s service in the National Capital Region is immeasurable,” said Chief Executive Officer Ms. Cassandra McCullough of ABC. “She continues to exemplify outstanding leadership in health promotion and is a valued resource to faith-based, community, and public health organizations. Throughout the pandemic, she has maintained her usual highlevel engagement in support of the health and well-being of communities of color. I am proud to congratulate Dr. Hurley on this well-deserved recognition,” McCullough added.

Love AME Church is in the Second Episcopal District, the Washington Conference, where Bishop James L. Davis is the presiding prelate, Mrs. Arelis Beevers Davis is the Episcopal supervisor, and the Rev. Dr. Ronald E. Braxton is the presiding elder. A third-generation AME, Dr. Hurley is the oldest daughter of Presiding Elder Kenneth White (deceased) and the Rev. Pauline L. White Thurston (deceased). She is the oldest sister of the late Rev. Dr. Henry Y. White, former pastor of Campbell AME Church, Washington, District of Columbia.

About Taking Effective Action, Inc.

Taking Effective Action, Inc. (TEA)© is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization committed to advancing, supporting, and promoting the health of families, women, men, and youth in the greater Washington, District of Columbia and Maryland areas and beyond. Through its outreach programs and publications, TEA has significantly impacted people’s lives by inspiring and encouraging them to “Take Effective Action” for their health. To learn more, visit www.t-action.org.

Liturgical Colors 2023

Dates Color

Jan 1 – 6

Jan 7

Jan 8 …(Baptism of the Lord)

Jan 9 – Feb 18

Feb 19 …(Trans guration Sunday)

Feb 20 – 21

Feb 22 (Ash Wednesday) — Apr 6 . .

Apr 7 – 8 …(Good Friday/Holy Saturday) . .Black

Apr 9 — May 27 …(Easter)

May 28 …(Pentecost Sunday)

May 29 — June 3

June 4 …(Trinity Sunday)

June 5 — Oct 31

Nov 1 …(All Saints Day)

Nov 2 – 25

Nov 26 …(Christ the King Sunday)

Nov 27 — Dec 2

Dec 3 – Dec 23 …(Advent)

Dec 24 - 31 …(Christmas Eve/Christmas)

Compliments of the AME Sunday School Union and the Christian Education Department

It’s Prayer Time, AME Church!

April 12, 2023, is just around the corner when we will all come together for the Connectional Day of Prayer. We have been agree ing in prayer on this day for over a decade, and we will not come down from the wall. As we approach this special day, we ask that you prepare by praying. Pray that God will draw thousands to the gathering, pray that we all will be excited to be a part of such a sacred occasion, and pray that God will meet us with his saving, healing, delivering, anointing, and resurrection power.

The Bishop Sarah Francis Davis Covenant Keepers and Intercessors Prayer Team invites everyone to be a prayerful part of the virtual Connectional Day of Prayer. We are asking the episcopacy, all general officers, all clergy, all laity, and all youth and young adults to share in the prayers for our global Zion. We will also be praying for the church universal, current events around the world, governments, and peace and harmony for the world.

The Bishop Sarah Frances Davis Covenant Keepers and Intercessors began in 2007 and was formally recognized in the 2016 DoctrineandDisciplineofthe AfricanMethodistEpiscopalChurch (the Discipline). Our leader is the first lady of St. Paul AME Church, the Rev. Dorisalene Hughes of the 5th Episcopal District in Berkley, California. The mission of this ministry is “to conduct spiritual mapping, domestic and international intercession regarding our various bishops, councils, general and connectional officers, events, and issues of our Zion.” [ Doctrine and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 2016, p. 213-214.] For more information on the ministry, please see the DDAMEC pages 213-214.

The Connectional Day of Prayer is in accordance with the Discipline, which says to pray for all aspects of our church connection. As such, we will be praying for our bishops, Connectional officers, presiding elders, pastors, other clergy, lay leaders, and all the laity of our church. We will be in special prayer for our children, our Episcopal and presiding elder districts, annual conferences, all local congregations, the growth and development of the church, the continuous movement of God’s Holy Spirit throughout our Zion, and continued provision of financial resources needed to further God’s kingdom work through us.

Prayer is always needed to cover all aspects of our church, and your prayers are needed before, during, and after this special time set aside for the AME Church to touch and agree for God’s Spirit to abide with us and in us with continued love, grace, mercy, and peace.

We look forward to your presence with us on April 12, 2023, for our AME Church Connectional Day of Prayer. Save the date! May God bless and keep you all until we meet on our day of prayer. ❏ ❏ ❏

A Grant of $1 Million From Lilly Endowment

A grant of $1 million from Lilly Endowment Inc. will help the Department of Research and Scholarship of the African Methodist Episcopal Church establish the Compelling Preaching in the 21st Century Project - The Power of a Thinking Church!

Under the leadership of the Reverend Teresa Fry Brown, Ph.D., this grant will assist the Department of Research and Scholarship of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in exploring, enhancing, and expanding the gospel with a balance of bibliocentric, ethnographic, and exegesis of the biblical text, and quarterly learning labs.

Activities in the new program will engage participants in reviewing the basics of preaching, expanding the repertoire of the forms of preaching, learning to use social media effectively, participating in small group and peer group interaction to practice preaching, engaging congregational studies regarding the efficacy of preaching, writing assignments to include scholarly articles, and forming reading groups on contemporary forms and styles in sermon construction, and community engagement and activism. In addition, this project will build an intergenerational colloquium of scholars, activists, practitioners, and laity to address relevant topics and enhance writing, publication, collaborative research, and scholarship to advance the art of practical, compelling preaching in the African Diaspora.

The department’s grant writer, Richelle Fry Skinner, and evaluator, the Reverend Dr. Cynthia McDonald, were strategic in capturing Dr. Fry Brown’s vision to use its multi-generational, multi-ethnic, culturally responsive approach to engage clergy and lay ministers in activities that will identify and

About Lilly Endowment

expand compelling preaching in the 21st Century.

The Compelling Preaching in the 21st Century Project - Power of a Thinking Church is funded through the Lilly Endowment’s Compelling Preaching Initiative. The Department of Research and Scholarship of the African Methodist Episcopal Church is one of 32 organizations receiving funding in an invitational round of grants for the initiative, which is designed to help Christian pastors strengthen their abilities to proclaim the gospel in more engaging and effective ways.

“We are excited about the work that these organizations will do to foster and support preaching that better inspires, encourages, and guides people to come to know and love God and to live out their Christian faith more fully,” said Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for religion. “Their programs will serve a significant number of aspiring and current preachers who are working to reach and engage increasingly diverse audiences both within and beyond congregations.”

The Compelling Preaching Initiative is part of the Endowment’s longstanding interest in supporting projects that help to nurture the religious lives of individuals and families and foster the growth and vitality of Christian congregations in the United States.

Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly, Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K., Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff, and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education, and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. The principal aim of the Endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. In addition, the Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of diverse religious traditions by supporting fair and accurate portrayals of the role religion plays in the United States and across the globe.

Contact: Reverend Teresa Fry Brown, Ph.D. • amehistoryinthemaking@gmail.com

Black Women Ministers Get Affirmation That God Sees Us at D.C. Event

Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service

In a ballroom in the nation’s capital, with many dressed in gowns and heels, black women were hailed for their ministry work, known and unknown.

“There are women here who have labored 20, 30, 40 years and nobody ever said ‘Thank you’; tonight we’re saying thank you,” said the Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook, the co-leader of the R.E.A.L. Black Women in Ministry THRIVE initiative. “We’re saying thank God, and we’re saying thank you.”

The Friday (Dec. 2) evening gala at the National Press Club marked a continuing effort to provide black women ministers with affirmation and acclamation through a program that pairs five dozen women in mentee-mentor duos. The initiative’s R.E.A.L. acronym stands for relationship building, equipping and expanding, access and leadership, and legacy development.

The Rev. Gina Stewart, who became in 2021 the first woman president of a U.S. Black Baptist organization, said in a keynote speech that the initiative and the dinner showed the work of black women in ministry had not gone completely unnoticed.

“It’s not difficult to be in a body suit like this and be overlooked, despite your gifts, despite your commitment, despite your anointing, despite your years of service, despite the fact that you show up when others don’t,“ said Stewart, president of the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Society, who was recognized as a trailblazer during the gala.

“Sexism, misogyny, and patriarchy are deeply embedded not just in the church, but in the culture and in society. But tonight, Ambassador Cook and the R.E.A.L. Black Women in Ministry send to us a resounding affirmation that God sees us.”

The Lilly Endowment has given two grants, a $1 million initial grant in 2019 and a $500,000 sustaining grant in 2022, to support the initiative that is linked to Harlem’s Union Baptist Church, where Johnson Cook — who later became the U.S. international religious freedom ambassador — was ordained 40 years ago.

The Rev. Brian D. Scott, the church’s current pastor and the co-leader of the initiative, said at the event that he viewed the women in the room as the people who can lead the church into the future.

“I pray that God uses you to do what the elders say: ‘This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine,’” Scott said. “Would you go back and take a spark from this and build a fire when you get back home?”

Throughout the event, the women were encouraged through speeches, song lyrics, and poetry.

Accompanied by the recitation of Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise,” the faces of two dozen women flashed across the screen and were praised as trailblazers and “unsung she-roes.”

The women were noted as senior pastors, ministry leaders, music and dance officials, business people, and community servants responsible for pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinics at churches or food distribution to the needy.

The Rev. Caretha Crawford, an honoree, mentor, and pastor of Gateway to Wholeness Church Ministries in Largo, Maryland, said her involvement in the initiative was a sign that “the Lord is smiling on me” after more than 30 years of ministry.

In an interview before the banquet got underway, she said the program allowed black women like her “just to know that somebody is seeing and recognizing what you’re doing and taking some of the load and the burden off of you. Because ministry can be very burdensome.”

The Rev. Ammie L. Davis, installed early this year as president-dean of Turner Theological Seminary, the African Methodist Episcopal institution that is part of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, was another honoree.

She said the occasion started her on a new road of networking among black female ministers, which often occurs informally but is formalized through Johnson Cook’s initiative. In an interview as she arrived, Davis noted that though she is a trailblazer as the first woman president of her seminary since its founding in 1894, she was an admirer of others who had gone before her, including Stewart.

“It’s a unique opportunity to be recognized as a trailblazer when you see yourself more as an ambassador and servant of God,” said Davis, who said she’s excited about becoming more effective as a mentee and mentor. “I’m the novice that’s at the table.”

The event also focused on women who are not in top roles but who nevertheless serve in ministry in ways they feel called to pursue.

“If I had a dollar for every time somebody asked me, ‘When are you going to get your own church?’” said the Rev. Gloria Miller Perrin, who has served the last 20 years as an associate pastor of First Baptist Church of Glenarden in Maryland. “But I knew what God had called me to do. And I am so glad that I have followed the Lord’s direction in my life.”

Johnson Cook pointed out another honoree and mentor, Pastor Carla Stokes, who had worked out of the limelight developing The King’s Table outreach ministry at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in the Atlanta area. The ministry recently served its one millionth person. But Stokes also led the megachurch after the death of Bishop Eddie Long and before the arrival of the Rev. Jamal Bryant.

“We didn’t see in the headlines that there was a black woman, Dr. Carla Stokes, who was the interim pastor for that congregation, keeping those 20,000 members together — teaching, preaching, Bible study,” she said. Stokes, when she came to the stage, said the event had inspired her to do more.

“I grew up in a church that didn’t acknowledge women as ministers. I grew up only being able to stand on the floor and not on the pulpit. I grew up teaching Sunday school but never in a pulpit,” she said. “But I came to tell you when God calls your name, you got to answer and do what he says.”

Another honoree, the Rev. Ayanna Mishoe-Brooker, associate pastor of a Baptist church in Dover, New Jersey, acknowledged her husband, the church’s pastor, who welcomes her as a co-leader.

“He allows me to be his rib; he allows me to be at his side; he allows me to minister,” she said. “We have some pastors who don’t allow that. They tell you to sit down, but I don’t get that from him. So thank you for allowing me to operate with my gifts.”

Though more than 20 took the stage, one of the honorees, the Rev. Sheila McKeithen, senior minister of the Universal Centre of Truth for Better Living, a New Thought congregation in Kingston, Jamaica, made a point of honoring those who were not there.

“For the women whose names won’t be called: They’re laboring. They’re doing the work. They’re not getting an award,” said McKeithen, one of several honorees ministering internationally.

“But tonight, I call your name. I call your spirit.”

At the conclusion of the event, Johnson Cook’s own name was called unexpectedly. Deborah Martin, dean of Students at Virginia Union University, a historically black institution in Richmond, announced that its new continuing education center for women in ministry would be named after Johnson Cook.

The former ambassador knew the center, a partnership with the BWIM initiative, would be announced but not that it would include her name.

A surprised Johnson Cook said after the event that the center is expected to open next year.

“It really means that for generations, not only my name but the work of black women in ministry will be able to carry on,” she said. ❏ ❏

Do you talk destiny talk to young people? Do you tell youth in your charge (and family) that their destiny is a gift and one mu st be willing to fight hard to keep and develop it? Be honest. Do you see young people with their pants sagging, their mouths cussing, their assets exposed, pocketbook snatching, the same way you view garbage?

I met a troubled young girl some 15 years ago. She had worn out several mentors by the time our paths crossed. Yet, for some reason, I stayed with her. I experienced firsthand the rollercoaster ride that was her life. I recall our intense conversation after she saw that I was not leaving. While I knew she was adopted, I never asked about her birth. One day she told me she was left in the park when she was a baby. Her adoptive mother saw the story on television and went to the precinct to claim the discarded child as her own.

Recently, I received a call from the young woman mentioned above. She was so excited. She told me that she achieved her lifelong dream by completing medical school. She was making rounds at her assigned hospital. The lead doctor told her that since she handled the patients so well that he would allow her to proceed the rest of the way on her own. She also mentioned that she bought a house. She was, by all measures, a “garbage child” in the eyes of mainstream society, born with every reason to fail. A heartfelt thanks to ALL of her mentors, even the ones who dropped out, for you knew deep inside destiny awaits.

“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

Bethlehem. We did not see him while he was walking on the dusty roads of Galilee. We did not see him on that terrible Friday when he hung nailed to a cross, nor did we witness his empty tomb three days later on Sunday morning. All of those events took place centuries before we arrived on the scene. However, we know that if we keep on believing and trusting in him, one of these days, we are going to see him for ourselves.

I wonder: do you, like me, want to see him for yourself? Jesus has made a difference in so many lives; I want to see him for myself.

Oh, I want to see him, look upon his face; there to sing, forever, of his saving grace. On the streets of glory, let me lift my voice, cares all past, home at last, ever to rejoice!

The Reverend Dr. Charles R. Watkins, Jr., is the pastor of James Chapel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina.