Epiphany Book Club from the Zachariah Walker Racial Justice Initiative!
Facilitated by: Rev. Cean James and Rev. Dr. Steve Ohnsman

Afro-Christian Convention: The Fifth Stream of the United Church of Christ, Yvonne V. Delk ed.

Requirements: Purchase of the book and pre-registration AND read through the book’s introduction.
Link to book on Pilgrim Press.

Laypersons are welcome to join the book study.

Dates: January 21 – February 25th

Times: 1:00 – 2:00 pm on Zoom

Cost: Free

Tuesdays from January 21 thru February 25

TO REGISTER, click here.

A Study of the Afro-Christian Convention

The holy stream of African spirituality that flowed across the Atlantic Ocean, up into the tidewaters of Virginia in 1619, the same stream that overflowed into the worship and work of the United Church of Christ, is celebrated and given its long-overdue place in the canon of UCC history.

The story of the Afro-Christian Convention is the story of faith, survival, and empowerment in the hostile environment of racism. From 1892 to the 1960s, the Afro-Christian Convention was composed of 150 churches and 25,000 members, located primarily in North Carolina and Virginia.

In June 1957, when the founding/merging leaders of the new United Church of Christ processed through Cleveland, representation of the Afro-Christian Convention churches was folded into the representation of the Convention of the South—a 1950s initiative of the Congregational Christian denomination to fold Black churches of the South into a single conference.

But the spirit, worldview, worship, and impact of Afro-Christian Convention churches are not appropriately represented under the banner of the Congregational stream of UCC history, a stream informed predominantly by white perspective. The Afro-Christian Convention, born from the wellspring of independent Black churches with deep African rootedness, is rightly understood—and at last shared—as a unique stream.