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April 2, 2008
Conference seeks to strategize ways to tap next generation of African-American leaders
May event dovetails with Blount’s inauguration at Union-PSCE
LOUISVILLE – Brainstorming the best ways to tap into and prepare the next generation of African-American leaders for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will be part of an upcoming conference at Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education (Union-PSCE).
“Calling for the Order of the Day: Pedagogies of African American Presbyterians — Implications for Theological Education” will take place May 5-7 in Richmond, VA. The event dovetails with the historic inauguration on May 7 of Union-PSCE president the Rev. Brian K. Blount, the first African-American president of a PC(USA) seminary.
Conference organizers recognized Blount’s presidency and inauguration “was a historical moment,” said the Rev. Katie G. Cannon, co-convener of the conference and the Annie Scales Rogers Professor of Christian Ethics at Union-PSCE. The idea was to do the event “in tandem.”
“Calling for the Order of the Day” will bring together a range of leaders, including professors, clergy, church educators and seminarians, to “think critically with each other about strategies for identifying, recruiting and training the next generation of effective and informed ministers to serve the black church community,” according to conference materials.
Grants from the PC(USA)’s Committee on Theological Education, the Black Congregational Enhancement Office and the Office of Congregational and African American Leadership are helping to sponsor the event.
Cannon said about 800 invitations have gone out for the gathering, which is the first of a four-year cycle of study. The conference will include sessions on topics ranging from “Lessons in Homiletics for Contemporary Preachers” to “Evangelism among African-American Presbyterians.”
The schedule also includes a “Festival of African-American Rhetorical and Performative Arts Banquet,” featuring the Rev. James Noel, the H. Eugene Farlough Jr. Professor of African American Christianity at San Francisco Theological Seminary.
Cannon, the first African-American woman ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament in the PC(USA), said many current African-American denominational leaders are aging and readying to retire.
“Now it’s time to replenish,” she said of individuals who can help lead. “To pass the baton forward as we prepared to retire.”
How do you begin to tap such new talent?
“Their horizons need to me expanded,” Cannon said. “Plant the seed that there is a possible calling on your life and it won’t hinder your life.”
For more information about the conference, call or email the Rev. Katie Cannon at (804) 278-4331. |
