CELEBRATING BLACK WOMEN

By George Pratt, Contributing Writer

Women’s History Month is a time for the country to commemorate the contributions of women to American history and society-at-large. The national celebration began when Congress passed a resolution in 1981 requesting the United States president designate the week of March 7 as “Women’s History Week.” The week-long observance was expanded to the entire month of March in 1987. Since then, the country has dedicated 31 days to highlighting the accomplishments and achievements of women. This year, there is a demographic of women who need a special spotlight: black women.

Black women have long demonstrated the best of humanity. Over the past year, the country has been bountifully blessed with “Black Girl Magic.” The free world witnessed, for the first time, a woman—a black woman, HBCU graduate, and member of the Divine Nine—ascend to the second-highest office in the land, the vice presidency of the United States of America. The Howard University alumna’s win was in part due to the efforts of her HBCU sister, Spelman College alumna, Stacey Abrams, in Operation Fair Fight, turning the once-Republican stronghold of Georgia blue!

The nation watched brilliant black women like the Honorable Val Demings and Stacey Plaskett hold the former president, Donald Trump, accountable in impeachment proceedings as house managers. Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, Isabel Wilkerson, delivered a reckoning truth to America in her book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Black women made strides in various fields and industries with Rosalind Brewer becoming the only black woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company (Walgreens) and Rashida Jones, the first black woman executive of a major cable news network (MSNBC). The lists of advancements black women have made are infinite!

The entire globe was stunned during the summer of 2020, at the largest social movement in U.S. history, according to the New York Times, the Black Lives Matter movement (BLM). A grassroots movement oriented toward a participatory democracy founded by three black women, two of which are queer. They are women who would have been excluded from public leadership in the Civil Rights Movement because of its male charismatic model. The inclusive nature of BLM is reflective of the hopes and visions of Septima Poinsette Clark, Ella Baker, Prathia Hall, Pauli Murray, and other heroines whose faces often remain hidden in the sphere of social change because of America’s glorification of the salvific black hero.

A group of women whose contributions often go unnoticed during Women’s History Month are black trans women. Rarely are names such as Marsha P. Johnson, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, Andrea Jenkins, Lucy Hicks Anderson, Mary Jones, and others spoken. These are women whose activism, public and military service, and philanthropy help support their communities. They too should be celebrated for their contributions in the fight for equity, justice, and liberation.

During Women’s History Month the roles black women have played in the country and world must be recognized and honored. They are the gifts and saving graces that continue to better the human experience. ❏ ❏ ❏

FINDING FULLNESS IN THE EMPTY

By Jarena Hooper, Contributing Writer

“You can’t pour from an empty cup” but you can preach from an empty sanctuary! This is what preachers from all across the world have realized in the 11 months that have come to be known as “the time of the pandemic.” During the pandemic, we have experienced too great of loss to number. From family members to church members and financial security to food security, we have started a new year with the same type of losses. This is horrendous! Honestly and frankly, it is downright hard. However, this is not the only hard season pastors have faced.

Pastors are faced with a loss of energy, esteem, love, relationship, trust, and happiness. These losses happen every Sunday morning inside of the very church building that is now empty. As a pastor, I must confess that I realized—after a few weeks with a bare minimum team within the sanctuary during worship—that I was actually emptier than the sanctuary.

Year after year of preaching while pastoring and pastoring while preaching empties the human body—no matter how spiritual one might be. Some colleagues have the benefit of serving in a space where paid sabbaticals or month-long vacations serve to refill the pastor. That is not the case for the majority of pastors. So, let us use this space to safely admit we were empty before the sanctuary was!

This is a hard truth to unpack. How did you and I get so empty? Church families can be the source of love, acceptance, and joy. For pastors, they can also be the source of criticism, misunderstanding, and complaints. When the pastor is faced with those factors within the same space where they are pouring out, it creates an emptiness. The organist not playing enough hymns or the choir not being robed is not a mountain, it is a molehill. These and other molehills dig out of the pastor the love, acceptance, and joy that we are supposed to find within our church families. Remember, the pastor is a part of the family.

Somehow, the empty sanctuary has created a small family unit within the extended church family. The worship and audio-visual team have the same goal as the pastor—to offer a virtual space of worship with excellence to the extended family. So, even though the sanctuary is empty, it is full! It is full of unity, love, and sincere worship that is not concerned with personality but praise. It is no longer concerned with traditions but the transcendence of the Holy Spirit across the worldwide web into the home sanctuaries of the worshippers. Suddenly, the pastor has found fullness in the empty.

The challenge is when we all get together, can it be a day of rejoicing? When we all get together, can the extended family put aside the poking of holes into the pastor to ensure the pastor leaves full with the rest of the family? ❏ ❏ ❏

AME PASTOR NAMED TO SENIOR POST IN THE NEWARK POLICE DEPARTMENT

On February 16, Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka Police Division and Newark residents. The deputy director will also act as a announced that the Rev. Dr. Ronald L. Slaughter a liaison to assist the Public Safety director with the Civilian Complaint Review had been appointed as deputy director of h Board (CCRB); assist with the continued implementation of the Consent Community Relations, a newly-created civilian C Decree; assist with the continued improvement of community policing by position within the Newark Police Division. As p helping to implement community-based policies and protocols including stop deputy director, the Rev. Slaughter will report d to the Public Safety director and help facilitate t and frisk, use of force, and bias-free policing; assist with implementing initiatives the Community Relations Unit. t to effectuate better community engagement and transparency; and establish

Slaughter’s primary focus will be improving a community committee consisting of two residents from each Ward to help a and fostering community relations between the improve the relationship with the community. ❏ ❏ ❏