Search the Episcopal Press and News

President of the House of Deputies Speaks of Harlem

Diocesan Press Service. February 25, 1969 [74-19]

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The Rev. John B. Coburn, president of the House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church and former dean of the Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, Mass., is now a teacher of English in a store-front school in New York City's Harlem.

A holder of several doctoral degrees, Dr. Coburn left the "ivory tower" of the seminary to go to the streets of the ghetto, because he believes that for the Church "this is a time for turning. "

His resignation from ETS was effective last June, and since September he has been a teacher in the "street academy" program of the New York Urban League. His students are mostly Black, mostly male, between the ages of 16 and 26, who are dropouts from high school. As a result of the "street academy" program 90 percent of them are now heading for college.

Dr. Coburn describes what he has done as "a symbol of a spirit."

" It is time for the Church to turn," he says, "in response to this spirit which I believe is God's spirit. The task of the Church is to turn from pre-occupation with itself to seek ways to strengthen man's spirit to help make this society the society it is, under God, meant to be. "

In a recent talk to the Church Club of New York Dr. Coburn gave his impressions of the task of the Church in today's world and the conditions which it faces in making the Gospel a "part of the fabric of our society. "

Following are excerpts from his talk:

Of Harlem: "I don't know Harlem. I just work there from 9 to 5, Monday through Friday. And of all the things I don't know about Harlem the two most mysterious are why anyone brought up in that society where there is such dilapidated housing, unstable family life, poor job opportunities, where drugs are just as much a part of life as bread and butter, pop music and TV shows, where education is impersonal and where garbage is strewn on the streets -- a ghetto which has arisen as though American society had determined to create a section that would be deliberately set against everything that is human and where the well being of the human spirit might flourish -- I do not understand why any young person brought up in that society ever wants to make anything of himself. Everything, it seems, is set against him.

"And the second thing I do not understand is why the place hasn't blown sky high a long time ago.

"It is a great mystery -- the human spirit. It refuses to be trampled on and trampled out. And it would rather create than destroy. That is a miracle.

"Now the task of the Church is to support miracles. It doesn't have to make miracles, just support them -- just support the greatness of the human spirit that is struggling to make it possible for Black men to be men. And White men, men. "

Of the Life of the Spirit: "Therefore, I am concerned about the Church, for the central task of the Church in its response to the Gospel, is to deal with the spirit of men and how they deal with one another. It is this life of the spirit which provides the life blood of any society and holds that society together.

"Now it requires no discerning eye to see that the place of the Church in contemporary society is not in any significant place of leadership. The forces of religion are not the forces providing society with the goals and the strength to reach those goals. There is a diminishing place for the Church in providing moral leadership for the life of our country. This is, I believe, simply to state the obvious.

"One of the reasons for this, of course, is the belief that the business of the Church is to do business with God and not with man; that to be 'spiritual' is to withdraw from the facts of life -- business facts, racial facts, social facts, the facts of sex and politics.

"The truth is that just the opposite is the case; that the Christian spirit is to help men deal with those facts with compassion and concern. It is the cultivation of that human and humane spirit which is the essential business of the Church; to make it possible to have different opinions about society but always to deal with them with the same spirit -- the spirit of Christian man."

Of the General Convention Special Program: "The Presiding Bishop has described this program as one way by which the Episcopal Church 'can take its place . . . for the healing of our national life.' Then he has gone on to say:

'Unless our men and women, and young people, enlist in patterns of Diocesan, parish, and mission engagement, which involve them personally as well as financially, even the best efforts at this level will prove fruitless. What is before us is not primarily a matter of money. Money can help if we take our hands off its control, giving it because we realize that it is God's and not our own. But if we attempt to use money to buy our way out of responsibility, the less credible we will appear to men and women struggling with their misery, and the less likely we are to build our part of a bridge between our alienation.'

"That presents the challenge as clearly as it can be presented. The Church can build bridges over alienation In our society in the long run only by people touching people. Money is important; people are essential. That is the bedrock fact in American society, and it is the bedrock fact in the Gospel. The purpose of the Church is to bind these two facts together by adding its fabric of money and people to bridge building.

"The Lord knows I have no easy solution to the race problem or to any of the problems that beset our social structure. But I do have the conviction that at the very foundation of all social, financial, employment, housing, educational structures, there is the human condition. And if we do not pay central attention to that foundation all the other structure built on top of it will collapse."

On Person-to-Person Relationships: "I believe this with all my heart. If there are no person-to-person relationships over the alienations in our society there won't be any society.

" It's quite an experience to be a White man on 8th Avenue in Harlem. You are for many 'the invisible man.' You are looked through. Life goes on as if you weren't there. You are ignored. It's a properly humbling experience to have your students with whom you have just had a good session in the classroom walk by you in the street as though you didn't exist.

"One of them came to talk just before Christmas. He said he wanted to talk 'issues.' So we spent a lunch hour together. We didn't agree on all issues, but some. Then he went to get his hat and coat and came back.

" 'Mr. Coburn,' he said, ' I owe you an apology. I was hostile to you when you first came. Perhaps you sensed it. I was wrong, but I hope you understand why I felt that way.' I replied: 'I could not understand any reason why you would not feel utmost hostility to me or any White man. ' Then I said: 'I congratulate you. You didn't have to say that to me. That took real courage.' 'Well,' he replied, 'that took real courage to say what you did.'

"The point is not a personal success story -- and it doesn't come from all students. The point is that without the element of this spirit in our society there will be no society."

On Theological Education: "The primary focus of theological education today is meant to be upon the central task of understanding what it is to be a man . . . This question can be answered more intelligently by men who have been involved in a variety of human experiences than by those who have narrow or limited human experiences. To help men preparing for the ministry to do just this is my concern.

"The central human issues are: money, jobs, education, housing, transportation, sex, movies, family life, drugs, alcohol, the draft, the war, peace, love, joy, fulfillment of the spirit. Theology rises out of dealing with these human factors. Without these roots to nourish theology it becomes dry and withers away. With them it becomes possible to examine our historic faith and then cast its light on our human situation.

" It means that if men are to be prepared for the ministry to men they must have some understanding of those men. What they do, how they work. In a word, know what it means to earn a living. Is there anything more ludicrous than a clergyman passing judgment about rent control when he has never paid rent in his life? Or talking about racial injustice when he doesn't know a single Black person? Or preaching about the poor when he has never walked through a ghetto? Or arguing about employment policies when he has never had a job where he worked from 9 to 5 five days a week? Or protesting against militarism when he has never faced a draft board much less a staff sergeant?

"Therefore, before a man is permitted to attend seminary and begin formal theological education he should, I believe, either (1) have earned his living in secular society, just like everybody else; or (2) have had to face the draft, just like everybody else; or (3) have served a moral equivalent for two years in meeting human need, such as Vista or the Peace Corps or in any situation that provides face to face participation in human suffering.

"I have gradually come to the conviction that except for rare exceptions it is impossible for a young man who grows up in Short Hills, New Jersey, goes to Exeter, graduates from Princeton, then ETS, and becomes curate in Scarsdale, to minister significantly to those of his generation, in the Church; and to those outside the Church he will probably not minister at all.

"The symbol of this separation is the exemption of young men preparing for the ministry from the draft -- with a IV-D classification. The establishment of this by society illustrates how society would like the clergy not to be involved in the crucial issues of society. And the complacent acceptance of this by the Church is in my judgment a moral cancer which makes it almost impossible for the Church to exercise any moral leadership in the other issues of society."

On the Future of the Parish: "The day of the parish Church is not over, but it needs to be complemented. The local congregations -- the gathered community -- the family coming together largely on a geographical basis are the foundation stones of the Church, of the contemporary Church as of the historic. It is only these congregational person-to-person meetings which make it possible for individuals and families to know that the Gospel is borne by people and where a hand can touch with compassion another hand. Grace is personal.

"But the parish Church needs a larger vision than the local one, so it needs to be complemented. Of course, it always has. In the Medieval period it was complemented by the Cathedral and for some in Reformation times by the University. So to say that the parish life may be too parochial is to say nothing new.

"For our day the forms of the Christian life will, I believe, take place as Christians are more conscious of this life in their ordinary secular life: as businessmen, professional men, housewives and in every way by which they earn a living.

"The ordained ministers of the Church will continue to minister in traditional parochial forms but more and more will they be involved in ministering to the community beyond the Church. Therefore, we may expect to see some clergy holding secular jobs and many clergy serving in community positions as well as ecclesiastical. The strongest men going into the ministry will not be content with a pastoral ministry but will want to carry on a secular ministry as well.

"The more the clergy can themselves build and walk over some of the alienations in our society -- between the Church and the world -- the more will all Christians be encouraged to do the same and the more the Gospel will be part of the fabric of our society. "

(A photograph of Dr. Coburn is enclosed.)

[thumbnail: ]