Last September, just about the time of his 88th birthday, the Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr., had a transformative experience. It was so life-changing that he wasn’t sure the people present at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. as well as many more online would want him to deliver his planned talk, “How Can We Heal Our Nation?” as part of the McClendon Scholar Program.
The Rev. Adriene Thorne, leader of First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, has been voted in by the congregation of The Riverside Church in the City of New York as the eighth senior minister in the church’s history. Thorne is the first African American woman to serve as senior minister. She will begin her post on Oct. 1.
The Rev. Dr. Donald W. Shriver Jr., acclaimed ethicist and president emeritus of Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, died July 28 at 93.
Last weekend, the New York City chapter of the National Black Presbyterian Caucus was privileged to hear the prophetic voice of the Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes Jr. You too can hear Forbes’ talk here.
On the second night of a lecture series sponsored by Union Presbyterian Seminary and the Center for Social Justice and Reconciliation last week, the Rev. Dr. James Forbes spoke on the George Floyd protests, asking if they are a “temporary uprising, a movement or a miracle.”
When African American activist James Forman presented The Black Manifesto in 1969, calling for $500 million in reparations for injustices against black people, he made it clear that he thought Christian churches were partly to blame for the oppression of his people.
The Rev. Bertram Johnson has joined Union Theological Seminary in New York City as a new interfaith minister and will be training and mentoring a newly-forming student peer spiritual care team this semester. He began his work last month.
