White Church Educators Focus on Education from Black Perspective
Diocesan Press Service. November 24, 1975 [75411]
The Rev. Bernard E. Michel Bethle, Editor, The North American Moravian
DAYTON, Ohio -- The majority of participants were white but the motif was black at the Joint Educational Development (JED) Consultation on "Black Perspectives in Church Education " held at Dayton, Ohio, October 30 - November 1.
It may well have been the first time that white church educators found themselves in a three day seminar where black church leaders were in charge of the agenda. Some sixty lay and clergy leaders in Christian education from nine communions, including the Episcopal Church, were present for the event held at the Bergamo Center, a Roman Catholic retreat house on the edge of Dayton.
The selected key persons came from the JED churches as national staff members, middle judicatory staff, and local church educators such as pastors, directors of Christian education, and educational leaders in voluntary positions.
Attending from the Episcopal Church were: Ms. Frieda Carnell, Albany, Province II Religious Education Coordinator; Mrs. Russel Hargate, editor of the Episcopal section of JED's publication, SHARE; Ms. Connie Ottley, Ohio; and Ms. Dolores L. D'Agostino, national staff of the Office of Religious Education.
Promoters and programmers of the event were the members of the JED Black Church Education team headed by Dr. Percel O. Alston and the Rev. Yvonne V. Delk of the United Church of Christ Board for Homeland Ministries. The team has been active for the past three years in providing resources and foundation papers, as well as regional workshop experiences for the black constituencies of the ten JED churches.
The Bergamo retreat was aimed at sensitizing white education leadership to some of the educational and theological concerns of black educators. What could have been a very tense dialogue proved to be a dynamic experience set in a context of love by the leaders and participants.
Input for the discussion at the consultation came from the JED Black Church Education team and three major presentors who are black leaders in theology, history and education.
Dr. James Cone, leading exponent of black theology and professor at Union Theological Seminary, New York City, gave the theological perspective.
Dr. George B. Thomas, project director of Religious Heritage of the Black World at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Ga., provided the historical perspective.
Dr. Grant S. Schockley, professor of Christian education at Candler School of Theology at Emory University, Atlanta, put it all into an educational perspective. He is a former professor of Cone and paid high homage to his student's rise to theological fame. He is president-elect of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta.
The white educators were rocked most by James Cone's forthright enunciation of his Christian theology as "God's liberating activity in the world for the oppressed. " Cone set forth six theological presuppositions that he says are vital in his Christian theology:
1. With the assumption that the Bible is the primary source for theology, it is self-evident that Christian theology must begin with the Scriptures.
2. The central message of the Bible is first and foremost a story of the Israelite people who believed that God was in their history and that God's salvation is revealed in the liberation of slaves from bondage.
3. Because Christian theology begins and ends with God's liberation of the weak, it is also Christological in its language. God's victory in Christ is the victory of the poor.
4. Because Christian theology is more than retelling the biblical story, it also must do more than just exegete the scriptures, it must relate to the world.
5. Christian theology is inseparably connected with an oppressed community. It can only arise from the praxis of victims toward freedom. The central message of scripture is that "God has chosen to disclose divine righteousness in the oppression of the poor."
It is here where Cone sees that the white church has attached heresy to word rather than action, and suggests that it is necessary for him to state his final presupposition:
6. The limitation of Christian theology to thE oppressed community not only helps to identify the heresy of the past, but also helps to identify the sources from the theological perspective.
"The difference between liberal theology in general and Christian theology," Cone says, " is the way it is derived from the words and deeds of the poor, " Cone said the test of theology for the black people is not whether the scriptural faith is infallible, but is it real for the black people.
In providing the historical perspective of the black heritage, Dr. George Thomas traced the transition of his people from being categorized as negroes, to a consciousness of being Black, to a new search for identity as Africans with a national heritage not unlike that which European peoples claim in boasting of their homeland parentage.
He outlined five approaches to reality: (1) reactionary, which pulls into the shell of the status quo; (2) conservative, which is an accommodating peripheral approach; (3) liberal, which seeks to fit in or fit others in; (4) militant, which reforms by patch and change; and (5) radical, which seeks to transform the situation by making a new approach.
In dealing with the educational perspective, Dr. Grant Schockley challenged the church educators to deal honestly with what it means to be the church in the world.
" Christian education is no longer a student sitting at the feet of a teacher, " Dr. Schockley stated. "It must existentialize the faith in a radical discipleship of what the gospel means in any community."
Noting that poverty is the serious problem of the day, he said the church must identify with either the oppressor or the oppressed, and that there is no question on which side the gospel would place the church.
Dr. Schockley called on the church educators (1) to discover the radical historicity confronting them in the Bible; (2) to gain a radical awareness of what needs to be liberated; (3) to critically analyze the alternatives available; (4) to have a Utopic conceptualization of the future; (5) to work from an educational praxis through ad hoc cadres of people who engage theory in practice; and (6) to be an empowering community with a strong commitment to the church's task.
In forum dialogue with the three presentors, the church educators saw how these three black perspectives fit into the process of curriculum development, parish programming and community action.
The final day was spent in denominational dialogue to translate these perspectives into attitude and concrete changes in church educational systems. Most denominational feedback admitted that racial overtones are found in all aspects of denominational life, some subtle, some blatant. The church educators vowed to make some changes.
The commitments were to provide similar sensitizing experiences at all levels of the church's life for consciousness raising to the black perspective. Workshops were called for and serious monitoring of resources was suggested to be sure that the black perspective is not left out in any design of church school curriculum.
A very vital part of the Bergamo experience was the worship led by Grayson Brown, a worker in the New York City school system who is a leader of the Roman Catholic Church in liturgical worship.
Accompanied by Anthony Booker, Brown led the group in various worship periods with the accent on black music. The solid beat of an oppressed people was balanced by the joyous affirmation of such songs as "There ain't nobody gonna do me like Jesus, he's my friend!"
Participants also learned to sense the rhythm of the African dance as led by Joe Nash of the National Council of Churches staff. Nash heads a Black Resource Center at the Interchurch Headquarters in New York City which is funded by the Council and by the JED churches. Various resources which present the black perspective were on display.
Ms. Willie Dell, JED team member and member of the Richmond, Va., City Council, skillfully helped the group to become a community. She provided several helpful exercises to facilitate the community building process.
The churches participating in the JED consultation were: Cumberland Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, Presbyterian Church in the U.S., the Reformed Church in America, the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., the Moravian Church, the Episcopal Church, Disciples of Christ, and the Lutheran Church.
Members of the JED Black Church Education Team are: Mrs. Mary Adebanajo, Dr. Percel Alston, Miss Mildred Artis, Ms. Dixie Baker, the Rev. Yvonne Delk, Mrs. Willie Dell, the Rev. Lloyd George, Miss Faraja Araba Nkrama, and the Rev. Stanley Wood. They were assisted by these persons on the steering committee for this particular event: the Rev. Leonard Boswell and Ms. Delores Malone.