PYM participates on the board of the National Council of Churches. We’ve written before about their activities; traveling to the Middle East, and convening an event on the mall in Washington, DC to address racism in America. This week we are sharing Christie Duncan-Tessmer’s trip to the Conference of National Black Churches (CNBC). During this trip, PYM will be posting stories about the CNBC conference, sharing how their unified voice is speaking to religious and secular communities today. The CNBC’s goal is to improve the quality of life for African Americans through their unique perspective on faith, and channel that energy into advocacy efforts.
There is a growing friendship between the Conference of National Black Churches (CNBC) and the National Council of Churches (NCC), and board members of NCC (like me) have been invited to attend CNBC’s annual conference. Our nation’s Black Churches gather annually at the CNBC to shape a united voice of Black religious bodies, and as PYM’s General Secretary, I’ve had the privilege of attending these for the last several years.
One of the things I’ve enjoyed so much about attending CNBC is the preaching. That’s what everyone here loves. Those who CNBC invites to preach are pastors with a reputation for powerful vocal ministry.
Bishop John Bryant of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) kicked off Wednesday morning with a sermon about fear with a focus on one of Quakers’ favorite bits in the Bible – the still small voice.
He preached that fear takes away memory, so you don’t remember that you–and your people–have been in this place before, and that you know how to handle it. You don’t remember you’re a child of God. He said “fear is a terrible master that can make you close the windows when you pray and make you afraid to expose your spirituality”. Later he said, “Just when you get your shout on, at the moment of praise, fear will step in.”
Bishop Bryant told all of us in the room to turn to each other and look one another in the eyes and say “Chill. We can handle this.”
The point was that the still small voice of God is “steady” and is “there for us in the wind and fire of the fear” raging around us. He offered up the resources of rest, exercise, eating right as antidotes to the power of fear. But added, “And then you need a teacher. You can’t do this by yourself: Church of AME,” he said, “or the Baptists, or the Church of God in Christ – we all need each other to be our teachers.”
So, “be one with another,” he said; “be rested, and be listening to the still small voice that says: GET UP.”
That message of “GET UP” was woven through the rest of the day with speakers and information sessions on environmental justice, criminal justice, and ways to respond to the Palestinian crisis. There was a strong focus on the specific ways these issues deeply affect the black community in America, but each of these ministries are high impact ones that could also be featured at a Quaker yearly meeting session.
Following Bishop Bryant’s talk, I spoke with him to tell him how much I appreciated it. I introduced myself as coming from the Quaker community and, as so often happens, his face lit up.
Bishop Bryant told me that after the Emanuel Nine shootings, the Quakers in Charleston were the very first to call him to offer spiritual and material aid. This made a huge impact on AME. He said it was especially meaningful because of the history—Quakers were closely involved in the birth of the AME church in Philadelphia. I told him I’m from Philly, expressed my deep respect for that history, and we took a moment to appreciate our shared ‘spiritual family’ connection.
I also shared that we Quakers have a history of faithfulness and bravery that means so much to us—but that living in these times we can see ‘up front and close’ how those stories got made, and we realize there must have been both fear and missteps throughout.
We had another moment of connection – and then took a not-very-good selfie before heading off to our next commitments.
Tomorrow’s agenda is about a Call to Action with a short morning session. As interesting content is shared with us, I’ll be writing about it for the Quaker community through this news feed.
Christie Duncan-Tessmer, General Secretary
