Leaders of churches in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) can be pastoral, intercultural and even fun — but it’s rarely spontaneous. Those sought-after qualities normally require careful planning and even some buy-in from the targeted audience.
Born in 1946, the Rev. Nibs Stroupe, now retired after serving for 34 years at the intercultural Oakhurst Presbyterian Church in Decatur, Georgia, grew up “in a totally segregated society” in Helena, Arkansas. He said he saw Black folk “all the time” while growing up, but “they didn’t feel like people” until he did some work in Brooklyn, New York as a young adult.
A nearly hour-long plenary to cap the second week of the Intercultural Transformation Workshops focused on the pain and trauma clergy and lay people alike have been carrying for the past six months during the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and racial injustice, including the killings of African Americans at the hands of police and Wednesday’s grand jury decision on the role of police in the killing of Breonna Taylor of Louisville, Kentucky, on March 13 in her apartment.
Coming from Lebanon to the United States, Rola Al Ashkar knows a little something about intercultural ministry. As a pastoral resident in multicultural ministry at Parkview Presbyterian Church in Sacramento, California, she understands what it’s like to be a stranger in an intercultural church.
Leaders of churches in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) can be pastoral, intercultural and even fun — but it’s rarely spontaneous. Those sought-after qualities normally require careful planning and even some buy-in from the targeted audience.
The Revs. Kate Murphy and Eulando Henton have been friends and colleagues in ministry in Charlotte, North Carolina, for more than a decade. They speak to one another each week about the joys and challenges of leading intercultural congregations — Murphy has for almost 12 years been pastor of The Grove Presbyterian Church and Henton was called three years ago to be the first African American pastor at a historically white congregation, Derita Church.
