Black Baptists take step toward reconciliation

Philadelphia – Forty-two years after this city was the site of the start of their bitter split, leaders of two of the nation’s most prominent black Baptist denomination shared a podium Sept. 3 in an emotional and historic act of reconciliation.

Major L. Jemison, new president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, gave the keynote address at a banquet during the annual session of the National Baptist Convention, USA.

In an impassioned sermon, Jemison urged delegates to the denomination from which his was birthed to find ways to work with leaders of his religious body for the greater good of African- Americans and the nation as a whole.

Many of the more than 1, 400 attending the banquet  – who applauded Jemison’s words – credited William J. Shaw, president of the NBCUSA, with having the vision to make the historic invitation to Jemison. But Shaw said the credit belonged to a higher Authority.

“I think that the pretense of Dr. Jemison here tonight is a matter of providence,” said Shaw, a longtime pastor in Philadelphia, the city where he said a “major break” occurred in the denomination in 1960.