by Shane Whisler

Cannon had told the story of a great organist who abused the African-American man who pumped the bellows for him for having excitedly used the pronoun "we" in talking about a great performance. The black man refused to go on until the self-important organist had apologized publicly.

"Before you leave the room," she said, "if there is a black Presbyterian who pumped up air for you to be here - thank them."

Cannon, a professor at Union Theological Seminary/Presbyterian School of Christian Education, said, "We should listen to the story to

see what clicks for us." Remembering the ancestors who lifted you up is a reincarnation of the spiritual kind that makes audible the ancients' long-silent heartbeats.

She remarked on the location of this year's Assembly, where a General Assembly of the Presbyterian church was last held in 1864, asking the crowd to think about how they have arrived in this time and place.

"What do we need to do in a various fields of vision and ministries so that we can hear . and resonate with the life memories of enslaved women, enslaved men and enslaved children who served as the capital on which capitalism was built?" she asked.

She reminded her listeners that they are called upon to make "breathing room" for themselves and others by deconstructing the systems of privilege of the past - but must not create new "-isms" that might prove to be stumbling blocks in the future.