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Education:
Rev. Freeman is a graduate of
Franklin County High School and
agraduate of Piedmont College of
Demorest, Ga. She is presently
completing her theological stud
ies through the I.T.C. theological
studies program offered at the
Beulah Grove Resource Center of
Augusta.
Years in ministry:
Seven years.
Ministry:
I preside over youth and elderly
Sunday School and the Bible stud
ies program. I also am very in
volved in the prison ministry.
Ours is an inclusive ministry, we
always make a point of visiting
the sick and shut-in. I minister
mainly in Glynn, Lee and
Franklin counties but I mostly go
Universal Wnistries * :
Ohristian ge//owsfil)o
* A Dynamic Spirit Filled Church
* Positive & Practical Biblical messages
* Uplitting Gospel Music
* Certified Bibie Studies
* Warm & Friendly Atmosphere
* Family Centered - Non Traditional
* Spirit & Truth Worship
* Developing Children’s Church
* Accurate Biblical Interpretation
For Successful Christian Living!
e SUNDAY WORSHIP 10:45 a.Mm.
* BIBLE STUDY, THur. 7:00 p.m.
* WKZK - 1600 AM, Sun. 8:30 - 9 A.Mm.
* WIIZ - 97.9 FM, Sun. 7:30 - 8 A.m.
M
Services HeLo At: Tobacco Rd. Elementary School Auditorium * 2397 Tobacco Rd.
Mail Address: P.O. Box 1461 * Augusta, GA 30903-1461
‘ Ph: (706) 828-0066 ¢ 1 (800) 731-2310 * E-Mail: umin@ntelcom.com <
We are reaching out.
Come and worship with us.
° ® ®
Antioch Missionary
Baptist Church
1454 Florence St. (706) 724-2809
Rev. Kenneth B. Martin, pastor
Sunday School—9:3o a.m.
Sunday Worship—ll:oo a.m.
Wednesday Worship—l2:oo noon
Wednesday Praise and Bible Study—7:oo p.m.
1550
'AUGUSTA’S GOSPEL ALIVE
Serving the CSRA with
Soul Stirring Gospel Power
All Day, Every Day!!!!!
++ttttttt e+ +
®
Minister
of the
Week
++4++ttttb b+t
Reverend
Marion Denise
Spencer Freeman
(Daughter of the House)
Kings Branch Baptist
Church
Franklin County, Ga.
where I am needed.
Goals:
To be a minister that is acces
sible, as opposed to simply being
a pastor in one place. And also to
be a bearer of the word and a
listener of people. Not to be puffed
up because I am here to serveand
not just to lead. I am not here to
judge but to assist people in find
ing the light, because we are all
sinners saved by grace.
Goals for the next 12
months:
To complete my ministerial
studies. I will also continue my
ministerial duties. I will be con
vening area workshops in order
toempower my people with knowl
edge for my people perish for lack
of it.
it 1 !
Dr. REGINALD D. StMMONS
SEnior Pas Tor
WTHB
All-white Mount Pleasant church
easily accepts black minister
By Eric Frazier
The Charleseton Post and Courier
CHARLESTON, S.C.
This is a story about peace on
earth, and good will among men.
M?‘:t it's not exactly ab:hut am
in a r, or shep
watching t}l;:rnfi:ch by night, or
wise men coming from the East.
This is the story of a large, all
white suburban church, of the
black minister who came to lead
them and of how they all simply
went on with their lives as if noth
ing could have been more normal.
The congregation and the
preacher agree: Theirsis a parable
about how easily folks of different
backgrounds can live together in
harmony when they put their
minds to it.
The story began six months ago,
when United Methodist church
leaders appointed the Rev. H.
Samuel Johnson, a 56-year-old
preacher whogrew upin the mostly
black Neck Area, to lead Mount
Pleasant’s Hibben United Meth
odist Church, a booming all-white
suburban congregation of 1,200
souls.
J.O. Shuler, a retired veterinar
ian who has attended the church
for some 40 years, admits he had
reservations at first.
But no fireworks went off, no
tempers flared, no ugly prejudices
seeped out. :
It turned out that the new
preacher wasn’t all that different
after all.
He wasjust goingabout his busi
ness, same as any other preacher,
same as any other man trying to
his job well.
“He’s not controversial at all.
He’s just one heck of a good man,”
Shuler said. “I personally am tick
led to death with him, and every
body in the church seems to be.”
Ditto for Mrs. J.O. Shuler, the
church historian.
“There are lots of people like me
(in the church) who are from the
Old South,” she said, “but most of
these people you couldn’t runthem
We Invite You To
BAPTIST CHURCH
Dr. Sam Davis, pastor
1434 POPLAR STREET
AUGUSTA, GEORGIA 30901
TELEPHONE: (706) 724-1086
Baptist Training Union (BTU) at 6:00 p.m. Sunday
Sunday School at 9:30 Sunday mormning
Bible Study 7:00 p.m. Wedne.sdag.aand 9:30 a.m. Saturday
Prayer Service at 11:00 Saturday morning
85 Christian Ministries
All Services Are Bible-based and Holy Spirit-led
out of this church with a stick no
madtm who you mn:t as pastor,
and we've got a pastor.”
Johnson, who had spent the past
eight years as superintendent over
Charleston-area United Method
ist churches, doesn’t seem the least
bit surprised.
Since coming to Hibben, he has
baptized babies, counseled mem
bers, led fund-raising for a new
family life center and accepted
about 30 new families into the
church.
Far as he can tell, he’s not rein
venting the wheel here.
He’s just doing his job, same as
he’s done all 29 years he’s been
preaching.
“Allpeoplearealike. We're more
alise th;ne we are difl'er;ant," he
said as he prepared to lead the
Christmas Eve services. “When
people need help, when they need
someone to hear them, they just
need someone to hear them. Once
they get to know you, it really
doesn’t matter what color youare.”
There have been other cross
racial appointmentsin local Meth
odist churches.
Some have worked. Some
haven’t.
Jodie T. Morgan heads the com
mittee that unanimously agreed
to take Johnson as the new minis
ter. She can’t say for sure that
everyone at Hibben is 100 percent
convinced about this appointment.
Now, several black couples have
been visiting the church. She’d
love to see them join. Maybe they
will. Maybe they won't.
But one thing she does know for
sure is this: There’s a lesson here
for everyone.
A lesson that seems especially
important here in the South, a
lesson that seems especially rel
evant at Christmas.
“Too often people are too quick
to judge people,” she said. “Christ
didn’t discriminate. He embraced
and loved all people, and I think
the church should be the first place
to do that.”
Bringing good into the world:
The practice and
promise of Kwanzaa
BY Dr. Mavlana Karenga
SPECIAL to the NNPA
Theessential and enduring value
of Kwanzaa rests unavoidably in
its principles and the practice of
bringing and enjoying good in the
world which these principles in
spire and sustain. Certainly,
Kwanzaa's stress on the harmoni
ous ingathering of the people; spe
cial reverence for the Creator and
the creation; reflective commemo
ration of the past; ongoing recom
mitment to our highest cultural
ideals and joyous celebration of
the good speak to Kwanzaa’s con
cern with the cooperative creation
of good and its collective sharing.
Indeed, thisyear’s Kwanzaa theme
is “bringing good into the world.”
It is taken from the ancient Afri
can moral teaching that the fun
damental meaning and mission of
human life is to constantly bring
good into the world and that this
good is always ashared good, which
enriches those who give it as well
as those who receive it.
As a harvest celebration,
Kwanzaa's central metaphor and
model for bringing shared good
into the world is the harvest itself.
Indeed, the harvest is not only an
example of this shared good in its
process and product, but also a
model of the practice of the Nguzo
Saba (The Seven Principles) in
achieving it. The project calls for
Umoja (unity) in purpose, plan
ning and pursuit of the harvest;
for Kujichagulia (self-determina
tion) in unique contributions from
each and all to the harvest and in
doing so, the defining of them
selves uniquely as persons and
collectively as a community; for
Ujima (collective work and respon
sibility) in accepting the obliga
tion to complete the tasks in a
cooperative spirit and effort; for
Ujamaa (cooperative economics)
in the sharing of the wealth of the
harvest that disciplined and coop
erative work produces; for Nia
(purpose) in the will, the deter
mined choice to plant, cultivate
and bring the good of harvest to
completion; for Kuumba (creativ
ity) in the conscious decision to
produce the good of harvest with
out damaging the good of earth
and environment which make the
harvest possible and for Imani
(faith) inthe people’sbeliefin their
capacity to create and preserve
good in community, family, field
and world and in the essential and
enduring value of good itself.
The particular wording of bring
ing good into the world is taken
from the sacred text of the Yoruba
people, the Odu of Isa. The Odu,
titled “Irosu’ wori,” says, “Let us
do things with joy .... For surely
humans have been chosen tobring
good into the world.” This concept
of chosen is rare, beautiful and
inspiring, not only because it is a
selection by the Creator and thus
carries with it a sacred signifi
cance, but especially because it is
inclusive of all humans and thus
reaffirms the unique and special
dignity and value of each and all of
us as human beings. In fact, the
word for human beings in the
Yoruba language is enmiyan which
literally means the chosen ones.
This ancient African moral teach
ingis also valuable in its assigning
each of us a clearly active and
unmistakably positive mission of
bringing go6d into the world from
which we derivr our fundamental
meaning and Ly extension our
mission as a pecple.
And so we are all chosen, each
and everyone of us, divinely se
lected tobring good into the world.
But as the philosophy out of which
Kwanzaa is created and developed,
teaches, we are not only chosen by
heaven but also by history. The
modal periods of our history —the
DRUGS
11, )
WORK
AUGUSTA FOCUS
JANUARY 1, 1998
classical civilizations of the Nile
Valley, the Holocaust of Enslave
ment and the Reaffirmation of our
Africanness and social justice tra
dition in the struggle of the 60s —
all bear witness to this. Heaven,
then, has chosen us as human be
ings to bring good into the world,
but history has chosen us as a
people to do likewise.
Ours, then, is both a moral and
spiritual vocation — an historical
one. This is the meaning of the
Fifth Principle, Nia (Purpose)
which is traditionally translated
as meaning “to make as our collec
tive vocation the building and de
veloping of our community in or
der to restore our people to their
traditional greatness.” And great
ness in the African sense is always
morally grounded. Thus, the an
cient Egyptian Seba Ptahhotep
says, “the wise are known by their
wisdom but the great are known
by their good deeds,” i.e., speaking
truth, doing justice, resisting
wrong, creating beauty and prac
ticing loving kindness. The resto
ration to greatness, then, is the
creation of goodness in the world
that honors our ancient moral and
spiritual teachings and teachers
and leavesalegacy worthy of them
and us for countless generations
to come.
The ancient Yoruba sage
Orunmila, witness to the wonders
of creation, tells us in the Odu
cited, that the good we are chosen
to bring in the world is the condi
tions of the good life: Full knowl
edge of things, happiness every
where, life without anxiety and
fear of enemies, attacks, death,
disease, evil spirits, misery or pov
erty. In a word, knowledge of the
good, the right and the possible,
human happiness, world peace,
human well-being and the mate
rial basis for a decent and digni
fied life. Moreover, Orunmila,
revealer of the good, tells us that
to achieve the historical quest for
a good life, we ourselves must take
responsibility for building the
world we want and deserve to live
in. And he tells us that to honor
our mission of bringing good into
the world, we need several quali
ties. Among these are: Internal
strength, good character, wisdom
for good and for governance, a
morality of sacrifice, the disposi
tion to do good for everyone, espe
cially the needy and a commit
ment and ongoing effort “to in
crease good in the world and not
let any good be lost.”
May we be blessed with the
strength, will and wisdom to do
these things so that we honor the
central mission and meaning of
human life — to create, nurture
and harvest the good. And may we
in doing this, in the words of the
ancestors, “be granted all things
good and pure, which heaven gives,
the earth yields and the waters
bring forth from their well
springs.”
Dr. Maulana Karenga is the
creator of the holiday of Kwanzaa;
professor and chair of the Depart
ment of Black Studies, California
State University at Long Beach;
chairmaun of The Organization Us
and The National Association of
Kawaida Organizations; and au
thor of the definitive text on
Kwanzaa, Kwanzaa: A Celebra
tion of Family, Community and
Culture, Commemorative Edition.
For Dr. Karenga’s newly re
leased book on Kwanzaa, contact:
University of Sankore Press, 2560
West 54th Street, Los Angeles, CA
90043 ; (213) 295-9799 or (800)
997-2656. For press information
contact: African American Cul
tural Center (US), 2560 West 54th
Street, Los Angeles, CA
90043;(213) 299-6124; Fax: (213)
299-0261.
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