Episcopal leaders discuss ‘crisis in the Black church’ during annual African Descent Ministries conference

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal clergy and lay leaders gathered in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to share their experiences and resources at the third annual Diocesan Leaders for African Descent Ministries conference. They also discussed how to address the ongoing crisis in Black congregations as many of those churches have been forced to close over the last 15 years. 

“The wider church needs to understand the current state of the Black church, that it’s in crisis,” the Rev. Ronald C. Byrd, the church’s missioner for African Descent Ministries, told Episcopal News Service. “After George Floyd was murdered, many dioceses hired people on staff to do African descent or multicultural or inclusion ministries … but these folks had no roadmap for how to do their new ministry.”

The conference is designed for people who serve Episcopalians of African descent in their dioceses to not only network and share best practices, but also to discuss how to most effectively advocate for inclusion in The Episcopal Church beyond minimal leadership representation, Byrd said.

Twenty diocesan leaders attended the Oct. 1-3 conference at the Golden Nugget Hotel, which was hosted by The Episcopal Church’s Office of African Descent Ministries, which is active in 12 of the 22 countries where the church has a presence. Attendance was much smaller this year because of the 81st General Convention and the triennial International Black Clergy Conference earlier this year.

“We find that there is strength when we come together … so we gather here to get to know what everybody’s doing in their individual area and find common threads,” said the Rev. Kim Coleman, president of the Union of Black Episcopalians, who also provided an overview of UBE’s current work.

Joe McDaniel, a member of Executive Council and the House of Deputies from the Pensacola, Florida-based Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast, told ENS that church leaders coming together to share their experiences at such events is a way to highlight systemic inequalities within the church and inspire taking action to dismantle them.

“These gatherings serve as an educational tool, providing insight into the lived experiences of our different backgrounds,” he said. “They foster empathy, allowing us to understand and appreciate the complexities of each other’s lives. Through these exchanges, we build solidarity, drawing strength from shared experiences and creating a unified front and advocacy efforts as we listen to one another.”

The conference officially kicked off with worship and ice breaker activities, followed by presentations on topics ranging from Becoming Beloved Community grants to preaching in an election year. The Rev. Melanie Mullen, The Episcopal Church’s director of reconciliation, justice and creation care, also gave an overview of the Summit on Truth-telling and Reparations that took place last month at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria.

The two morning presentations on Oct. 2 addressed healing from conflict and youth and young adults. Myra Garnes, the church’s officer for youth ministry, explained her work around youth engagement and shared how to serve youth and young adult ministries from a diocesan context. That included strategizing around connecting with diocesan youth ministers and supporting justice and equity, as well as helping young people use their voices to “interrupt injustice and oppression” in both church and community contexts.

Afternoon presentation topics included work to make Episcopal schools more inclusive of Black and other students of color, and an update of the newly formed Episcopal Coalition for Racial Equity and Justice. 

Annette Buchanan, African Descent Ministries’ program coordinator and a member of Executive Council, led a group discussion on how church leaders can achieve and measure outcomes of goals pertaining to their ministries. She also led a talk on engagement within dioceses and the wider church.

“Black folks were one of the first people in The Episcopal Church … continuously since the 1600s. It’s our church, too,” Buchanan said. “We’re here; we’ve been here, and we’re not going anywhere. We need to be heard.”

Several conference attendees told ENS that discussions throughout the conference revealed a need for more communication and greater awareness about what The Episcopal Church is doing at an administrative level.

One common issue of concern, attendees told ENS, is little to no interest or action by dioceses and the wider church to invest in Black congregations until they close or are on the brink of closure due to dwindling membership, crumbling infrastructure, a clergy shortage and costly maintenance.

The Rev. Ricardo Sheppard, rector of The Episcopal Church of the Atonement in Washington, D.C., said the church tends to “do nothing but sit back and wait until a Black church is already dying before coming in like some saving grace.” He noted, for example, that Church of the Holy Communion in Washington, D.C., hasn’t had a full-time priest in more than 30 years.

“You can’t say you didn’t know. You helped get an air conditioner on the roof, but you didn’t get them a priest,” Sheppard told ENS. “That’s where the problem lies, equity and seeing value in those Black churches. It’s waiting until it’s too late versus respecting and valuing them as much as the predominantly white churches.

“Once we lose these Black churches, we also lose part of our history. We lose a part of our footprint in the communities, and I don’t think a lot of dioceses recognize it.”

Some conference participants said the wider church can help Black congregations and ministries thrive by immediately responding to issues that church leaders working in those spaces raise. This means listening with the genuine intent to act, not just listening for the sake of listening. In other words, according to the Rev. Ellis Clifton, rector of St. Mary the Virgin Episcopal Church in Virgin Gorda, Diocese of the Virgin Islands, “stop being racist.”

“Just asking how you can give support – and nothing else – creates a separation between African descent ministries and the Black community and the wider church versus blending us into one whole team,” the Rev. Toneh Smyth, canon for mission in the Diocese of Pennsylvania, told ENS.

“Listen, give us what we need – whether it’s financial or another resource – and then let us do our thing so we can all be able to live into the Gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,” Clifton said.

The participants also said that, while Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s historic nine-year term as The Episcopal Church’s first Black presiding bishop is significant, there still needs to be more Black representation in diocesan and churchwide leadership. They also said that the church’s racial reconciliation and justice work that started with Curry needs to continue after he retires.

“We as a church need to live into our Jesus identity that is not dependent on Bishop Curry’s tenure, or any particular individual,” said Alexizendria “Zena” Link, a former Executive Council member from the Diocese of Massachusetts. “It must instead be a fundamental of The Episcopal Church and who we are as a people of God.”

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.