A BREATH OF FREASH AIR!

The Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference just held its annual church leaders conference in St. Petersburg, Florida last month and what we experienced there is what can be called “a breath of fresh air!” 120 seminarians from 16 different seminaries attended this year’s conference.

“The next generation” of church leaders, pastors, ministers, seminary professors and church administrators shared the responsibilities of conducting worship, speaking as panelists, delivering homilies, presenting in plenary sessions and serving as workshop facilitators.

Their invaluable input and participation at this year’s Proctor Conference was a “breath of fresh air!”

Hearing young people’s perspectives is in and of itself an invigorating experience. Hearing from young church leaders who are committed to social justice and who are not falling for the ‘bling-bling,” personal advancement “hype” which is passing itself off as the Gospel of Jesus Christ is an inspiring experience and truly a “breath of fresh air.”

The sermons by Dr. Claudette Copeland, Father Michael Pfleger, Rev. Martin Espinosa and Dr. Renita Weems-Espinosa were not only powerful and prophetic. They were also challenging and life changing.

The plenary presentations of Dr. Stacey Floyd-Thomas and Dr. Clifford Jones and the two plenary panel discussions on Reclaiming our Youth (featuring Susan Taylor and Lezli Baskerville) and Intergenerational Prophetic Responses to the Katrina and Haitian Quake disasters (featuring Rev. Violet Dease of Abyssinian Baptist in Harlem and Eustacia Moffett of C.N. Jenkins Presbyterian in Charlotte, N.C.) were absolutely incredible.

To dialogue with the next generation of those who will be leading the Church in the 21st century and to hear their commitment to the poor, their passion for justice and their intolerance for the “pap” of the popular TV preachers put the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference “over the top” for me. It was a “breath of fresh air” and yet another example of God’s “Grace Notes.”

To see and to hear from a generation of young African American, European American and Hispanic seminarians who are serious about social issues, social policies and social justice makes those of us who have been “on the battlefield” for decades know that “our living has not been in vain.”

To stand with and publicly honor giants of the faith such as Dr. Jim Lawson, William “Bill” Lucy, Dr. David Goatley and the Lott Carey Foreign Mission Convention and Congresswoman Maxine Waters, while nurturing and admiring the “young warriors” who come behind us made us all feel the Presence and Power of God in a unique and awesome way.

For the breath of fresh air that blew through the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference’s annual gathering and blew on the conferees last month, I say “to God be the glory for the things God has done!”