Presbyterians urged to mine 'mother lode'

by Corey Schlosser-Hall

Cannon is the first African-American woman ordained in the Presbyterian church, who said her family has been Presbyterian "since we arrived as Africans."

"We (African-Americans) know our hope is in the struggle," she said.

Cannon, the Annie Scales Rogers Professor of Christian Ethics at Union Theological Seminary/Presbyterian School of Christian Education (Union-PSCE) in Richmond, spoke to an audience of about 250 men and women on "The Power of Ontological Blackness in the Presbyterian Tradition." (Ontology is the study of the nature of being.)

Her address incorporated her personal experiences, African-Americans' historic struggle for justice and civil rights, and the current struggles in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

"I wanted to inspire the Witherspoon Society, encourage them not to quit," she said after the meeting. "Quitting is not an option."

She told the largely white audience that her African-American "sisters and brothers . have known from the get-go, from the beginning," how to stay the course.

She spoke of an incident that took place shortly after her 1974 ordination (in the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America) when she attended a conference of women of color at a hotel. She said a hotel attendant "looked at my clerical collar, slammed me into a wall, and said, 'How dare you defy Jesus Christ?'"

She said she shared that story with a reporter years later, and the reporter turned it over to a fact-checker who refused to publish it, saying that it could not have happened.

"There was no evidence that the hotel was there," she said, because it has long since been torn down - "but that did not mean my truth was a lie."

She said fear is not "a luxury we can afford . even when the truth of our private experience appears stranger than public fiction, even when people slam us into walls.

"We need to read and write, even when the lights are out," she said. "Study the life lessons handed to black Americans . body slam after body slam. And walk to freedom, taking a bunch of folks with us."

The audience erupted in a standing ovation.

Catherine Stegall, an African-American from Milwaukee, WI, said Cannon had "put words and ideas to feelings that I have," and "helped me affirm my commitment to the Presbyterian Church."

"She raised the energy for commitment," said Barbara Smith, of Lathrop Village, MI.

The Witherspoon Society presented its annual Whole Gospel Church Award to Richmond's All Souls Presbyterian Church, for its role in the Civil Rights movement and its continued commitment to the "whole gospel" The church's pastor, the Rev. Ulysses Payne, led a delegation that was present to accept the award.

The Rev. Douglas F. Ottati, a professor at Union-PSCE and an author, received the society's annual Andrew Murray Award, which honors an individual for Christian service and witness reflecting the society's commitment to justice and peace. The presenter, the Rev. Trina Zella, of Tempe, AZ, credited Ottatti with putting the "bounce back into Barthes, sizzle into Schleiermacher and capaciousness into Calvin."

The Witherspoon Society says in its mission statement that it responds to "God's call to do justice . and to work with hope for healing and wholeness in a world increasingly broken."