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Learn more about the African American Congregational Support Office
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
(1 Corinthians 12:12-13)
Theological context
The universal unconditional love of God as known in Jesus
Christ empowers Black Presbyterians to be prophetic witnesses
of the power of that love to transform people, history, cultures
and institutions. The Black Presbyterian legacy of prophetic
leaders for justice and a culturally plural society has been
transformational for the church and the world. Black Presbyterian
congregations will proclaim the gospel from an Afrocentric
Christian spirituality that will liberate people to be disciples
of Jesus Christ. |
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C.N. Jenkins Presbyterian Church Youth Group. Photo courtesy of PC(USA) Media Services.
Historical
context
African Americans have been members of the
Presbyterian Church since 1747. The Rev. John Gloucester formed
the first African-American congregation in 1807 in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. The founding leaders named the congregation, “First
African Presbyterian Church.” Three additional churches
were developed between 1824-1849. African-American membership
in the Presbyterian Church grew steadily until the later part
of 1960s or early 1970s
when it began to decline. The African American Congregational Support
Office was created in the 1996 PC(USA) Mission Design to
provide leadership for increasing new church developments,
congregational transformation in existing churches, evangelism
and community outreach ministries and other program development. |
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