MAY 2021
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The Christian Recorder
THECHRISTIANRECORDER.COM
AME STRUCTURES GONE WILD — THE TREASURER/CFO By Bishop Jeffery N. Leath
Be clear: all opinions refer to positions and structures, not individuals. Policy, procedure, and protocol, not the persons, are the issue. The people work a structure that impersonal assessment and reform ignored. The inequities and systemic abuse compounded for decades over multiple administrations. This is one reason for some immediate attention. When is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) acting for the Church and when for AME, Inc.? The distinction is not confusing. It is arbitrary. It is like asking if the bird I hold in my hand behind my back dead or alive. Why might it matter? The agency of the action would determine the presumed controlling (accountable) body. If the CFO acts as the Church, then the General Board’s Statistics and Finance Commission has input. If the CFO claims the aegis of AME, Inc., the Board of AME, Inc. has authority. No need to worry about such nuances if the desired end is accomplished: the CFO, structurally, avoids accountability to anyone except uninformed voters by picking and choosing which visor to attach to the same hat. The CFO, not just the current treasurer, has been borrowing and investing funds on behalf of the church for decades. The office entails more than writing checks according to the mandates of an approved budget. Much of that function is necessary for an institution like ours. However, this does not justify inadequate supervision. The Statistics and Finance Commission and AME, Inc. fail to monitor and inform on the activity of the Finance Department. They are the prey of political culture and obstruction. Existing structures must emerge from General Board, which was to ostensibly There is no independent accounting office. Do you think an audit covers this? the fog of dysfunction and accomplish level the playing field among bishops. Wrong! There is no performance or compliance review. If there is such, put a light their missions. Let me end this segment It rendered the bishops as easy prey for on it and open the window. We do not even program enough time at the General with some concrete examples of the CFO. Most bishops still do not see Board or General Conference to study, question, and advise…intentionally! referenced abstractions. this, let alone agree. One person has charge of meeting arrangements for the General Conference, Why the circuitous replies to Over the last 30 years, a methodical Council of Bishops, General Board, Convo, and almost anything else done by the General Board queries regarding Payroll consolidation of power has exchanged Connectional Church. One person decides on the loaning of tens of thousands Protection Program loans (PPP)? To one tyranny for another. No one cries of dollars to institutions, Connectional organizations, and executives. One person paraphrase: “We don’t know. We will about the autocracy. The interest is chooses investments. One person guards reserves according to personal bias. One not know until May/June. ‘We’ have in who will be the despot. We can do person makes decisions about spending and writes the check. not decided how ‘we’ are going to use better. Now, we have one person controlling everything from investments, litigation, and the funds. We are waiting to see if we The church needs a Chief Operating insurance policies to property management. We let it happen, and we cheer, bow, must pay back the loan. We haven’t or Executive Officer. It needs something and support the office. decided whether or not to apply for different than our current system where There are others to blame for the travesty. Executives are culpable when they tell a second-round loan.” Hello, hello, the CFO is also the effective CEO one person to “find the money” without following up on from whence came the Council of Bishops, Statistics and without any entity stepping forward to funds. They, too, wallow in ignorance of the complex institution they presume to Finance Commission, are you there?” supervise. lead. One person may deserve the blame but our culture shares the guilt for corrupt Are all our dues to ecumenical bodies At the beginning of a discussion, and poor business practices. paid in full and on time? The budget is exploration should not stop because Watch under which of the three shells we place the pea. Let’s shift the shells paid in full and on time. the CFO says “no.” Funds should not around for four years. General Conference, tell us under which shell is the pea? When funds are used to support be moved among budgeted categories Do you think the AME Church is a bishop-led church? Think again! Silence unbudgeted items, where do they come according to the political whim of the and inaction from the Council of Bishops have been met with critical institutional from and how are they accounted? Who CFO. Have we given such discretion decisions made by a CFO. The bishops may be the royal family but the church is run reviews this? regarding “our” money? (Shhhh! The by a lay prime minister with the occasional input of an oligarchy. Which is “church” money and benefactors are not complaining.) Why limit other than the suffrage of The institution of a layperson heading which is the AME, Inc. money? Who bother with a General Conference colleagues; no Board of Incorporators the Finance Department intended is really deciding the virtual or inCommission, other than a show and until 1939, although there were to depoliticize aspects of church person question around the General patronage, if major decisions go from Trustees, existed. Then came the reforms administration and begin to balance Conference? There is so little discussion. the CFO’s mouth to the ear of the of 1952 and 1956. With the rise of the the power of an autocratic Council of Such sheep-like responses to plans light church? What kind of church would we Judicial Council and General Board, Bishops. The world, and business of on facts. have if “decent and in order” were more the authority of the bishops, and the the church, was less complex in the Several entities have contributed to important than “how do I get control?” Council, was revised with little insight early 1900s. Moreover, there were other the challenges of the office of CFO. A better definition of the role and into symmetry in management. One powerful features that kept equilibrium. Will we fix any of this amid personnel authority of the CFO in the 21stexample is rotating one-year terms for A weak retirement practice for changes or will we grin, bear, and enable century church is essential if we are to the president of the Council of Bishops bishops; a Council of Bishops President it? ❏ ❏ ❏ reform the culture of power-mongering. and two years for the president of the who served multi-year terms without
A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE RR WRIGHT THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY By Rev. Thato Mere
The church, as a symbol of hope, is shaped by several things to sustain its standing in the community. Similarly, a denomination is shaped by the training of its ministers. Those who come through its doors leave as community leaders and theologians but above all, men and women who know God and go against all odds to preach this Gospel through the land and breadth of the country, sometimes the world. The RR Wright Theological Seminary, earlier known as RR Wright School of Religion, was instrumental in shaping the AME Church in the greater part of Africa as we see it today. The first time the idea of training ministers was in 1920 during the Episcopal leadership of Bishop William T. Vernon. He asked the Rev. Edward T. Maganya, who was the principal of Wilberforce Institute to start theological courses within the Institute. The first students enrolled were Mr. Charles Demas, Mr. P.A. Seleane, and Mr. I. Schors. During 1926-1934, when the Rev. Dr. F.H. Gow was principal of Wilberforce Institute,
the Rev. Olivier Maja from Lesotho was the sole theological student. Since the class could not be sustained, the faculty of theology was discontinued. When Bishop Richard Robert Wright, PhD, was assigned to the 15th District in 1936, he took the education of clergy seriously; and in 1938, took steps in establishing a training centre for the clergy. He then invited, from Atlanta, Georgia, the Rev. Josephus Rooseveldt Coan, who earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Howard University and Bachelor of Divinity and Master of Arts degrees from Yale University. Once the plans were concluded, the school was established with Dr. Coan as its first dean. The school was named RR Wright School of Religion after the founder, Bishop Wright. Joining Dr. Coan, the other members of the original ...continued on p5
