Black Ministries Consultation Plans Strategy
Episcopal News Service. November 29, 1979 [79365]
ATLANTA -- "There is serious concern with recruitment and deployment of black clergy in the Episcopal Church," the Rev. Frank Turner, Staff Officer for Black Ministries at the Episcopal Church Center, told some 65 participants in a consultation here Nov. 26-27.
Father Turner presented the results of a survey of bishops, black clergy, theological seminary deans and students which was conducted for the Episcopal Commission for Black Ministries by Dr. Adair Lummis of the Hartford Seminary Foundation, Hartford, Conn.
Participants at the consultation included a wide range of persons having to do with ministry -- seminary deans, faculty and students, college chaplains and presidents, parish and diocesan leaders, bishops, and Episcopal Church Center staff.
The two-day Atlanta consultation gave concentrated attention to recruitment, training and deployment of black clergy in the Episcopal Church. The format of the meeting moved from an overview of the role of the black clergy in the Church, to a consideration of the status of blacks today, and finally to suggesting a strategy for improving the recruitment, training and deployment of black clergy.
Dr. J. Carlton Hayden, chairman of the department of history at Morgan State University in Baltimore, traced the role of black clergy in the Episcopal Church in the 19th century until World War I. He reported that his recent study of this period reveals that black clergy were largely recruited from cradle Episcopalians, families which had clergy members, students at Church schools, and from other denominations, mostly Methodist. Training was primarily for the diaconate as "the normal ministry for blacks" while the priesthood was held out for the gifted few.
The seminaries gradually began to open their doors to black students, especially the Philadelphia Divinity School. King Hall at Howard University and the Bishop Payne Theological Seminary in Petersburg, Va., developed during this period.
Dr. Hayden pointed out that seminary training made it very difficult for a black man to become a priest.
Historically, opportunities for black clergy to fulfill their ministries have been limited, he said. Black congregations have been small and salaries have been inadequate. There was very little upward mobility with resulting long tenures where the clergy were lonely and isolated. By and large black clergy were excluded from the mainstream of the Episcopal Church, he said, and they occupied a marginal status.
The black clergy in the Episcopal Church today, the recent survey reveals, are generally American-born with college and seminary training and degrees. They tend to be Anglo-Catholic in persuasion with a moderately liberal outlook. They are committed to a vocation in the ministry. Only 8 percent indicated that they are dissatisfied with their present position while 49 percent said they were quite satisfied, with 21 percent indicating that they have little opportunity for the expression of their talents for ministry.
While the seminaries generally rate well as training places for ministry, the black clergy tend to feel that the curriculum does not provide all that is needed in a predominantly black setting.
The survey reveals that bishops and black clergy feel that recruitment is not primarily the function of the seminary, but they do not have definitive answers about the best way to recruit. Seminary deans do not know at all how to recruit and attract black students to their programs.
Father Turner said that today black clergy come to their ministry primarily through the family, the church, and a priest who is a strong role model.
Black clergy tend to prefer to serve black congregations, according to the survey, and Father Turner said they seemed to feel that it is "foolish to think otherwise." He said it is easier to place white clergy in black congregations than it is to secure the reverse. The black clergy expressed the feeling that bishops should accept black clergy even if there is no place for them to go.
During the consultation two participants presented models of recruitment and training in which they are engaged. Dr. Joseph Pelham, dean of students at Colgate Rochester/Bexley Hall/Crozer, Rochester, N. Y., told of the development of a black studies program at the ecumenical school, of which the Episcopal Church's Bexley Hall is a part. That program, he said, seeks to respond to the special needs of those preparing for a black ministry but also exposes all students to the richness of the black religious experience. He said the seminary has been more successful with black students than in its second focus.
Dr. Pelham said, "Numbers are terribly important. There must be enough black trustees, faculty and students to constitute a viable scholarship setting. Not every seminary can do it."
The Rt. Rev. Bennett J. Sims, Bishop of Atlanta, reported on his program for an "interracial pluralistic Church, not a white Church with a few blacks." There are 11 predominantly black congregations along the inner-city expressways in downtown Atlanta which provide the core of the diocese's black ministry. The diocesan subsidy for these programs has risen from $42,000 in 1972 to $124,000 in 1979.
He said that Atlanta's population will become more black in the next few years. He said that the bishops and black leadership are working together. He said that no blacks have been recruited for seminary training since he came to the diocese in 1972.
The latter part of the consultation was spent working on a strategy for recruitment/training/deployment of black clergy. A third of the participants worked on each of these areas of concern and reported back to the plenary session on a suggested strategy: what it will look like, how to do it, who will do it, and by when each step will be completed.
The suggested strategy for recruitment includes an emphasis on increasing the number of blacks in the Church, on improving opportunities for effective entry and support, employing past successful sources -- family, local church, aggressive black clergy as role models -- offering new forms of ministry, attractive seminary curricula, and raising the consciousness of congregations to ministry as a vocation.
The report suggested that vocation to ministry, not merely recruitment, be encouraged.
The training strategy, the group report said, might include equipping for diverse forms of ministry, pre-theological training, an internship program in the context in which ministry is to be exercised, training for probable isolation, and training for total ministry. A goal of 50 black students in training by 1982 was suggested."
This group suggested that a task force be set up to identify the needs and to develop alternative models. This program should be developed by January 1981 and financing arranged. The proposed strategy would be completed by September, 1982, when the General Convention meets.
The goal of the deployment strategy would be to have an open system without regard to sex or race. More blacks should be considered for parish and diocesan staff positions, the group proposed. A national staff person who would direct the recruitment/training/deployment work was also suggested.
The group suggested that the Union of Black Episcopalians might consider initiating equal employment suits against those in the church leadership who discriminate against black clergy.
The proposed strategy involves especially the Board for Theological Education, the Union of Black Episcopalians, the Episcopal Commission for Black Ministries and the Executive Council.
In the Episcopal Church there are about 400 predominantly black congregations, with 150,000-200,000 communicants, 350 black clergy (including retired), and 28 seminarians.
Agencies and organizations sponsoring the consultation are the Episcopal Commission for Black Ministries, the Council of Seminary Deans, the Board for Theological Education, the Council for the Development of Ministry, the Absalom Jones Theological Institute, the Union of Elack Episcopalians, and the Church Deployment Office.