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.

There is no independent accounting office. Do you think an audit covers this? General Board, which was to ostensibly Existing structures must emerge from Wrong! There is no performance or compliance review. If there is such, put a light level the playing field among bishops. the fog of dysfunction and accomplish on it and open the window. We do not even program enough time at the General It rendered the bishops as easy prey for their missions. Let me end this segment Board or General Conference to study, question, and advise…intentionally! the CFO. Most bishops still do not see with some concrete examples of

One person has charge of meeting arrangements for the General Conference, this, let alone agree. referenced abstractions. Council of Bishops, General Board, Convo, and almost anything else done by the Over the last 30 years, a methodical Why the circuitous replies to Connectional Church. One person decides on the loaning of tens of thousands consolidation of power has exchanged General Board queries regarding Payroll of dollars to institutions, Connectional organizations, and executives. One person one tyranny for another. No one cries Protection Program loans (PPP)? To chooses investments. One person guards reserves according to personal bias. One about the autocracy. The interest is paraphrase: “We don’t know. We will person makes decisions about spending and writes the check. in who will be the despot. We can do not know until May/June. ‘We’ have

Now, we have one person controlling everything from investments, litigation, and better. not decided how ‘we’ are going to use insurance policies to property management. We let it happen, and we cheer, bow, The church needs a Chief Operating the funds. We are waiting to see if we and support the office. or Executive Officer. It needs something must pay back the loan. We haven’t

There are others to blame for the travesty. Executives are culpable when they tell different than our current system where decided whether or not to apply for one person to “find the money” without following up on from whence came the the CFO is also the effective CEO a second-round loan.” Hello, hello, funds. They, too, wallow in ignorance of the complex institution they presume to without any entity stepping forward to Council of Bishops, Statistics and lead. One person may deserve the blame but our culture shares the guilt for corrupt supervise. Finance Commission, are you there?” and poor business practices. At the beginning of a discussion, Are all our dues to ecumenical bodies

Watch under which of the three shells we place the pea. Let’s shift the shells exploration should not stop because paid in full and on time? The budget is around for four years. General Conference, tell us under which shell is the pea? the CFO says “no.” Funds should not paid in full and on time.

Do you think the AME Church is a bishop-led church? Think again! Silence be moved among budgeted categories When funds are used to support and inaction from the Council of Bishops have been met with critical institutional according to the political whim of the unbudgeted items, where do they come decisions made by a CFO. The bishops may be the royal family but the church is run CFO. Have we given such discretion from and how are they accounted? Who by a lay prime minister with the occasional input of an oligarchy. regarding “our” money? (Shhhh! The reviews this?

The institution of a layperson heading limit other than the suffrage of benefactors are not complaining.) Why Which is “church” money and the Finance Department intended colleagues; no Board of Incorporators bother with a General Conference which is the AME, Inc. money? Who to depoliticize aspects of church until 1939, although there were Commission, other than a show and is really deciding the virtual or inadministration and begin to balance Trustees, existed. Then came the reforms patronage, if major decisions go from person question around the General the power of an autocratic Council of of 1952 and 1956. With the rise of the the CFO’s mouth to the ear of the Conference? There is so little discussion. Bishops. The world, and business of Judicial Council and General Board, church? What kind of church would we Such sheep-like responses to plans light the church, was less complex in the the authority of the bishops, and the have if “decent and in order” were more on facts. early 1900s. Moreover, there were other Council, was revised with little insight important than “how do I get control?” Several entities have contributed to powerful features that kept equilibrium. into symmetry in management. One A better definition of the role and the challenges of the office of CFO.

A weak retirement practice for example is rotating one-year terms for authority of the CFO in the 21st- Will we fix any of this amid personnel bishops; a Council of Bishops President the president of the Council of Bishops century church is essential if we are to changes or will we grin, bear, and enable who served multi-year terms without and two years for the president of the reform the culture of power-mongering. it? ❏ ❏ ❏

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

VALUABLE LAND

By Byron Washington, Columnist

J. Canfield said, “No one ever compares themselves to someone else and comes out even…comparison is the fast track to unhappiness.” Most people, consciously or subconsciously, are comparing themselves with the people around them. Social media has become the most significant catalyst in our lives for comparing and looking at the life we assume other people are living. People spend all day scrolling social media, looking at pictures and videos of people, many of whom they assume are doing better than them.

The enemy wants us to spend so much time looking at everyone else that we ignore what God has given us. That we devalue our life and what God has placed in front of us because it does not look like somebody else’s life is the objective.

Consider how land is valued. Land can be valued in three different ways. The first way is based on what is built on the property. You build a hotel or a resort or develop the land into a place that people can utilize and the land gains value.

The second way land is valued is due to its location or what is naturally on the property. If the land has trees for timber or is on a waterfront or beach., the land has value.

Lastly, land can have value because of what is under it. The property may not have trees or a great view, and it may be located in a terrible place; however, the value is under the soil. The land has minerals, natural resources, and precious metals, all of which cannot be seen by just looking at the ground.

Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” Some people have gifts and talents that are visible. Others have gifts that are hidden and not always easily seen.

The examples of land are valuable for different reasons. The same can be said about each of us. When we compare ourselves to others, we constantly misrepresent and undervalue how God made us.

When Moses sent out the spies to examine the land that God had promised them, some of them said that there was no way they could take the land because of the giants (Numbers 13:33). What they saw was true but the value of the children of Israel was not in what could be seen. It was in what was hidden in their relationship with God and His promises to them. Those spies who brought an unfavorable report did not realize that what they had in God was more powerful and valuable than what the giants had in size and statue.

Do not forfeit that which God has blessed you by trying to get what somebody else has. Where God has placed us has value and purpose; and if we follow the leading of His Spirit, we will see that some of our greatest assets are hidden beneath the surface of our life. ❏ ❏ ❏

GREATER IS COMING: A PROFILE OF THE REV. DR. CURTIS MARIE SMALLS

By Mary Frances Walton, Contributing Writer

A year ago, Bishop Harry L. Seawright, the 133rd Elected and Consecrated Bishop in the AME Church, appointed the Rev. Curtis Marie Smalls as the pastor of Saint Paul AME Church in Taylorsville, Alabama. The Rev. Smalls is the first woman to serve as the pastor of Saint Paul.

Shortly after her appointment, while reorganizing and restructuring the church due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the senior presiding elder, the Rev. Dwight E. Dillard, Sr. requested she preach during the opening session of the Northwest District Conference, comprised of Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, and Florence, Alabama.

The pandemic put everything, everyone, and every place on “lockdown. The mission of the Rev. Smalls remains in keeping Christians actively engaged through a virtual platform. The first gentleman, Dr. Morris Smalls, Jr., the Technology Team Chair; Steward Pricilla Chism, members of the Women’s Missionary Society, stewards, trustees, and the Young People’s Department collaborate and broadcast through Facebook Live every Sunday.

When you come to service on the second and fourth Sundays of each month, the youth and young adults, preside over every aspect of the church service. The youth and young adults of Saint Paul are becoming emerging leaders in music, scripture, and God’s Word. The COVID-19 pandemic virtually united all generations under one church, worshipping, praising, and fellowshipping together.

During this Lenten Season, Saint Paul hosted its first Good Friday Service, “Seven Last Words.” The Facebook Live platform provided pastors and preachers to exegete the seven last words of Christ with passion and hope. The Rev. Peggy Jackson Jobe, Minister to Women at Greater Mount Nebo AME Church in Bowie, Maryland, presented the first word in Luke 23:34. She preached, “Three nails Plus One Cross Equals Forgiveness.”

The Rev. Kurtis C. White, the pastor of Ebenezer Charlotte Hall AME Church Mechanicsville, Maryland, presented the second word in Luke 23:43. He preached, “It’s a Done Deal!”

The Rev. Stacy DeBose Dyson, the pastor of Saint Paul AME Church in Corydon, Indiana, presented the third word in John 19:26-27. She preached, “Those Who Hear the Word of God and Do the Word of God Are My Brother and My Mother.”

The Rev. Bernard Brisbane, the pastor of Long Point Missionary Baptist Church in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, presented the fourth word in Matthew 27:46. He preached “Defeat of His Humanity So that the Divine Plan of His Father Would be Complete.”

The Rev. Dr. Abdue Knox, the pastor of Greater Bethel AME Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, presented the fifth word in John 19:28. He preached “Jesus Was Not Requesting Physical Refreshment but a Spiritual Longing.”

Pastor Smalls presented the sixth word from John 19:30. She preached “Just Because You are Done Does Not Mean it is Over.”

The Rev. Gary Brisbane, the pastor of Central Baptist Church in Charleston, South Carolina, presented the final word in Luke 23:46. He preached “Put Your Life in the Hands of God! It’s Friday but Sunday is Coming.”

Facebook Live is the platform for Saint Paul until the doors are physically open for its congregation. Pastor and First Gentleman Smalls and the church members distribute produce and goods cautiously and safely, serving the church and community. The blueprint is set “Greater Is Coming with Great Expectations.” ❏ ❏ ❏

...From A Historical p4 staff were the Rev. Levi Gow, a graduate with a Bachelor of Arts with the Rev. G.Z. Lethoba, a graduate from Rhodes University having a Bachelor of Arts degree; the Rev. N.B. Sello, the Rev. G. Sedlai, and the Rev. D.S.J. Sebolao. degree, was appointed as the dean. He was joined by the Rev. Mbulawa, who also had a

The school continued to operate until 1948, when, during the Episcopal leadership Bachelor of Arts degree. of Bishop Frederick D. Jordan, a decision was made to close the school and transfer the Dean Lethoba laboured for nine years and resigned in 1969, taking a teaching post at staff and student body to Adams College, an institution run by the American Board of Jordan High School at Wilberforce. He was immediately succeeded as dean by the Rev. Missions situated in Natal. During that time, many students were trained there, including Mbulawa. It was not long before the Rev. Mbulawa skipped the country in mid-1970 the Rev. Poolo from Lesotho, the Rev. Moses Darkie Phetlhu, and the Rev. Peter M. Lodi. due to his political stance in the height of apartheid and went to Botswana where he Oral tradition reveals that the good thing about Adams College was the fact that married pastored churches until he was called home to be with the Lord. The Rev. M.D. Phetlhu couples were able to stay together on campus as there were cottages for them. acted in that role until the end of that year when the Rev. Dr. Andrew W.M. Makhene

When Bishop Francis Herman Gow was elected a bishop and assigned to the 15th was called by Bishop GD Robinson to take over the seminary. The Rev. Makhene took Episcopal District, he recalled the seminary to where it belonged, on the Wilberforce the school to higher heights and had the curriculum printed in a booklet and made it Campus. The Rev. Mdlulwa was appointed its dean. Among the first staff members available for all to see. The Rev. Makhene resigned in 1974 to take a job at an insurance joining him was the Rev. Daniel Seokamo Modisapodi. In 1960, the Rev. Mdlulwa retired company as a P.R.O. Following the Rev. Dr. Makene was the Rev.