pat loughery

I blogged a bit about race here last week as I began to read “United by Faith: The Multiracial Congregation As an Answer to the Problem of Race”. Here is my summary of Section 1 of the book.

Section 2 is “Multiracial Congregations in the United States”.

Chapter 3 – Congregations and the Color Line (1600-1940)

British colonists evangelized Native Americans but did not integrate them into their churches. Instead, they established “prayer villages” for Christianized natives who then were removed from their own tribal culture, and not assimilated into the British Christian culture. (44)

The institution of slavery in the American colonies was the result of a growing capitalist economy and “required the creation of the philosophy and the practice of white supremacy” (44). This philosophy was justified by whites who trumpeted the benefit of African slaves becoming Christians in the New World, ignoring the possibility that Christianity had been in Africa for centuries.

As African-Americans were evangelized, biracial congregations grew. In the second half of the 1700s, congregations were blended – African Americans and whites worshiped together; they “even addressed each other as family using the terms ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ (46).

Even more startling was the fact that African Americans served in pastoral roles at some biracial congregations. [….]

When the pastor of a mixed-race Baptist congregation in Virginia resigned from leadership the church invited an African American man to preach for them. The church was so delighted with his sermons that they paid for freedom for the man and his family.” (46-47)

However, by the late 1800s, biracial congregations had failed. Congregations separated the races by different pews, different entrances, and even at times erected dividers between white and black sections so that whites would not have to see blacks when worshiping.

In response, African Americans formed their own religious communities, precursors to African American congregations and denominations. (49).

In parallel with what occurred in the Protestant churches, the Catholic church also failed to reconcile the races. In addition to separate seating and doorways for African Americans, African Americans were not invited to enter the priesthood. In the Catholic view, the priest is the mediator between God and humanity, and ordaining blacks to the priesthood would “trumpet the moral and intellectual equality of blacks and whites” (50).

Various opportunities for racial reconciliation occurred in the years head. After the Civil War, white racism and the African American desire for freedom quashed meaningful reconciliation. (53) A promising movement, the Church of God, practiced racial unity but resulted in separate congregations for whites and blacks. The Azusa Street Revival in the early 1900s, pastored by an African American, showed promise for several years until white racism made reconciliation difficult. (57-59)

Although there were “brilliant moments when reconciliation was being practiced” (60), “the history of the church in the United States leads one to believe that sustaining multiracial congregations is a near impossibility due to racism.” (61)

Chapter 4 – The Emergence of Multiracial Congregations (1940-2000)

Mystic theologian Howard Thurman became the foremost proponent of racial reconciliation in the United States from the 1940s through the 1970s, in response to a trip to India in which Thurman was repeatedly asked, ‘Why is the church powerless before the color bar?’ (62).

In response, Thurman established The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco, California, which he co-pastored with a white man, Alfred Fisk. They “alternated their preaching in order to maintain an interracial character in the pulpit” (64).

As Thurman stated, ‘Fellowship Church was a unique idea fresh, untried. There were no precedents and no traditions to aid in structuring the present or gauging the future.’ yet Thurman felt he had two insights from his experience to aid him: ‘a profound conviction that meaningful and creative experiences between peoples can be more compelling than all the ideas, concepts, faiths, fears, ideologies ,and prejudices that divide them; and absolute faith that if such experiences can be multiplied and sustained over a time interval of sufficient duration any barrier that separates one person from another can be undermined and eliminated. (64)

Fellowship Church was rare in the 1940s and 1950s, but there were others. The Catholic church began also to integrate its congregations in the 1950s. (67) The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s did much to provide congregational ground for racial reconciliation, and the Pentecostal movements from the 1970s onward have had strong multiracial components.

The 21st century “holds the potential to be the century of the multiracial congregations, despite the relatively small percentage such churches represent among total congregations” (74).

Chapter 5 – A Closer Look at Four Multiracial Congregations

Four multiracial congregations are now examined. A multiracial church for these authors is

a congregation in which no one racial group is 80 percent or more of the people. We use the cutoff of 20 percent of the people of a different race or races because this is the point of critical mass. (76)

These congregations have “a history of being multiracial for a number of years and through mroe than one pastoral administration.” (76) Therefore, they have remained multiracial through shifting sociological trends in their neighborhood, and through more than one leader’s vision.

The first congregation examined is The Riverside Church in New York City. Riverside is an interdenominational, liberal, mainline Protestant church. It is a racially integrated church whose members tend to be middle class.

It was at Riverside church in 1969 that James Forman delivered the “Black Manifesto”, calling or reparations for slavery from white churches (80).

Current pastor James Forbes has intentionally fostered reconciliation between blacks and whites in the church , and states a “75 percent” philosophy on compromise and on the comfort level at a church:

A truly diverse congregation where anybody enjoys more than 75 percent of what’s going on is not thoroughly integrated=. So that if you’re going to be an integrated church you have to think, “hey, this is great, I enjoyed at least 75 percent of it,” because 25 percent you should grant for somebody’s precious liturgical expression that is probably odious to you; otherwise it’s not integrating. So an integrating church is characterized by the need to be content with everything. You have to factor in a willingness to absorb some things that are not dear to you but may be precious to some of those coming in. (82)

“The Riverside Church is an example of a “successful multiracial congregation that is bound together by theological liberalism, a legacy of tolerance and inclusion, a tradition of community outreach, a conscientious leadership, and a healthy sense of compromise for the sake of unity.” (82)

The next church examined is The Mosaic Church of Los Angeles, California.

Mosaic’s major goal is to evangelize the urban areas and the arts and entertainment district. It is now pastored by its second pastor, Erwin McManus, a Hispanic born in El Salvador. His philosophy of ministry emphasizes evangelism, cultural relevancy, and artistic creativity.

One of the lessons to learn from Mosaic is that a multiracial congregation possesses the potential for drawing individuals who are comfortable with a multiracial social atmosphere and individuals from a uniracial social atmosphere who become interested in surrounding themselves with people of other races. (86)

Mosaic has been successful at developing a highly multiracial Christian community of mostly young adults.

The authors next examine St. Pius X Catholic Church of Beaumont, Texas.

St. Pius has been racially integrated for at least forty years, and has done so quietly without grand communication outside its community or even among its own members. As a congregation, it has been on the leading edge of innovations within the Catholic community.

It was the first to adopt changes from the Second Vatican Council, the first congregation to hae a full-time social worker; the first to use lay people to distribute Communion at Mass and for home visitations, and Father Perusina was the first priest to join the Beaumont Ministerial Alliance. (88)

Members have forged deep bonds across racial boundaries, and members who were interviewed for the book repeatedly spoke of the joy of their shared life across races.

The fourth congregation is Park Avenue Methodist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Begun as a white congregation, it is now mixed between whites, African Americans, Latinos, Asians and Native Americans. Its early integration came as a result of a thriving youth ministry to the neighborhood.

Robert Stamp, the pastor beginning in 1988, recognized the need to bring on board an African American pastor who would share preaching duties with him in order to facilitate racial reconciliation. He also placed into leadership worship leaders who would blend a wide range of musical styles.

After Stamp’s departure, Mark Horst became Park Avenue’s pastor. The picture painted of Horst as a leader is powerful:

Even though he had a background in urban and multicultural settings, he made himself vulnerable at many points to grow in his leadership abilities. He even invited one of the leading African American preachers in the area to critiique his preaching and coach him in ways to connect with his diverse congregation. (93)

As the surrounding community is becoming more populated with Latinos, Horst chose to go to a language immersion program in Guatemala.

Each of these four congregations is intentionally multiracial. Each congregation got there by a different path, and each has different theological traditions and leadership styles. But each proves that multiracial churches can happen, and are powerful expressions of Christian reconciliation.