For 37 years, Ralph Johnson has met with fellow members of his National Baptist Convention, USA. There are several African-American Baptist denominations, representing more than 15 million believers, but for the most part, they have kept to themselves.
On Jan. 26, things were different. Johnson and members of three other black Baptist denominations gathered for a historic four-day meeting designed to find common ground on social issues.
For Johnson, however, there was value in just coming together under the same roof. “I’m sure a lot of persons have died before this could come about,” said Johnson, pastor of a Johnstown, Pa., church, as he took a break between sessions addressing health and education.
The four denominations severed ties decades ago over a variety of issues, including disputes over leadership, civil rights and a publishing house. But church leaders have high hopes for future unity, estimating that 10,000 people will attend at least part of the four-day gathering.
“One of the affirmations of this gathering, to me, is that the things that divided us were not things that were really central to who we are as bodies in Christ,” said William J. Shaw, president of the National Baptist Convention, USA.
The meeting had members of Shaw’s denomination joining others from the Progressive National Baptist Convention, National Baptist Convention of America and National Missionary Baptist Convention of America.
As they consider unity — but not merger — representatives of the denominations see a need to move beyond the issues that prompted them to form separate organizations since the early 1900s.
“The problems we face as a people are not peculiar to some of us,” said Major L. Jemison, president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention. “They are the same for all of us. A collective voice is better than an individual voice.”
The meeting attracted the attendance and the interest of observers from outside the gathered denominations.
The joint meeting was preceded by other, smaller attempts to reconcile some of the groups. For example, Jemison joined Shaw at the podium of a National Baptist Convention, USA meeting in 2002. Denominational leaders also have spoken at one another’s meetings and conventions.
Clarence Newsome, president of Shaw University, a historically black university in Raleigh, N.C., called the meeting “a happening.” He said leaders are determined to accomplish new strategies for addressing some of the most serious problems facing African-Americans.
“Black Baptists will point to this as an ultra-high watermark in the life of organized religion among black Baptists,” said Newsome, former dean of Howard University Divinity School in Washington.
Share with others: