Newspaper Page Text
Black Methodists
moving toward
3-way merger
Page 1
Vol. 9 No. 42
A.M.E. Bishop kills
man in hold-up attempt
PHILADELPHIA - His
friends describe Bishop Alfred
Dunston Jr. of the African
Methodist Episcopal (AME)
Church as a “gentle giant” who
would defend himself if
provoked.
So, when confronted by two
would be holdup men - one
allegedly carrying a gun - the
pistol-packing deric did not
turn the other cheek. Instead
he pulled his own 38 and fired
twice for effect.
Police said Theodore
Spraggin 18, was pronounced
dead on arrival Feb. 19 at
Misericordia Hospital. The
other suspect escaped.
Bishop Dunston, 64, had
just parked his car in a garage
Clarence Mitchell gets
■»
Hubert Humphrey award
Clarence M. Mitchell Jr.,
former NAACP leader who
spearheaded the drive for
passage of the major civil rights
legislation of this century has
received the Hubert H.
Humphrey Award for his
“selfless and devoted service in
the cause of equality.”
Mitchell, brother of Rep.
Parren Mitchell (D-Md.) and
father of two Maryland state
legislators received the award
named in honor of the late,
liberal vice-president from his
widow, Sen. Muriel Humphery
(D-Minn.) and former Sen.
Edward Brooke (R-Mass.), the
first black U.S. senator since
Negro Ensemble Co. in Columbia
“Nevis Mountain Dew” one
of the Ten Best Plays of 1978
will be presented at Drayton
Hall Theatre on the University
of South Carolina Campus in
Columbia, by the famed Negro
Ensemble Company of New
York in just two weeks for 3
performances from March 21.
Curtain time is 8:00 pan.
The company’s appearance
in Columbia win be sponsored
by Nefertiti, Inc., The
University of South Carolina
Department of Theatre and
Speech, The Links, Inc. and
the Kitani Foundation. “Nevis
Mountain Dew” is the name of
a West Indian rum which the
family drinks on the household
head’s 50th birthday. The play
is set in Queens, a part of New
York City, and as the birthday
celebration grows looser under
the influence of the rum.
truths come spilling out.
The Negro Ensemble
DEADLINE WEDNESDAYS
Airniuita NraiH-Setiittn
by his home in West
Philadelphia at 10:40 p.m. Feb.
19 when he was accosted by
the suspect. The bishop told
the police Spraggin said
something and then produced a
gun.
At this moment, the bishop
pulled his own revolver and
fired it twice into Spraggin’s
left chest. The other suspect,
who was across the street
apparently acting as a lookout,
fled.
A police source said Bishop
Dunston told detectives he
carries the gun for protection
because he travels extensively.
He has a license to carry a
concealed firearm.
Police said no other gun was
reconstruction over 100 years
ago. President Jimmy Carter
attended the affair and paid
tribute to Mitchell.
The presentation was made
during the recent two-day,
30th anniversary celebration
and annual meeting of the
Leadership Conference on Civil
Rights (LCCR) at the Capital
Hilton Hotel. The LCCR is
coalition of some 150 civil
rights, religious and labor
groups, regarded as one of the
most influential organizations
in the nation.
The late George Meany,
pioneer president of the
AFL-CIO labor union, also
Company’s resident company
is cast in this great play about a
devoted black family by Steve
Carter. Included are: Graham
Brown, Frances Foster,
Barbara Montgomery/ and
Samm-Art Williams. South
Carolina’s own Horacena J.
Taylor directed.
The Negro Ensemble
Company is making its first
Southeastern tour since 1968.
The company has won
numerous national and
international awards including
two Tony Awards for its prize
winning work.
Call now for your
reservations, don’t be
disappointed by waiting until
the last minute to decide to
come see this fabulous
company. It is a once in a
lifetime opportunity. Tickets
are $8.50 perpperson. For
more information call (803)
799-8428.
Boggs Academy
to hold
Alumni Weekend
Page 1
found at the scene, but
Spraggin had what they
described as a “box knife” in
his pocket.
The Rev. K.O. Grannum, a
colleague, described Bishop
Dunston as being 6- foot - 3
and weighing 200 pounds, and
a “ gentle giant” who would
defend himself if provoked.
Another friend said the
bishop is a “very gentle man,
but a man who would defend
himself.”
Bishop Dunston was for
many years pastor of the
Wesley African Methodist
Episcopal Church in
Philadelphia and pastor of
Mother Zion AME Church in
New York City. As a bishop of the
received the A. Philip
Randolph Award
posthumously at the dinner.
The President then described
Mitchell and Meany as “two
great men” who personified
the spirit of LCCR.
Mitchell is affectionately
known as the 101st Senator of
the United States.
Mitchell’s lobbying efforts in
Congress resulted in passage of
such major laws as: The Civil
Rights Acts of 1964 which
outlawed discrimination in
public accommodations, all
federal programs employment
and education; the Voting
Rights Act of 1965 which
i
I rliaßßiW
The Negro Ensemble Company of New York
production of Steve Carter’s “Nevis Mountain Dew”
featuring (left to right): Barbara Montgomery and
Graham Brown.
AME Zion Church’s Southern
Conference, his district
includes Alabama and North
Carolina, although he lives in
Philadelphia.
According to neighbors,
Bishop Dunston had recently
returned home to Philadelphia
after a trip through the south.
He is also responsible for AME
affairs in Africa.
One of Philadelphia’s earliest
civil rights advocates, Bishop
Dunston was appointed to the
city’s Human Relations
Commission in 1963 and also
served as a member of the
Mayor’s Advisory Committee
on Civil Rights under
Philadelphia Mayor James
H J.M. Tate. (UPI)
provided “one man (and one
woman) vote in tire south”;
and the Fair Housing Act of
1968, which provided equal
housing opportunity in all
areas of the nation.
A member of the Maryland
Bar and an active partner in the
family law firm in Baltimore,
Mitchell directed the
Washington Bureau of the
NAACP for over 30 years,
retiring in 1978. He is
currently chairman of the
Leadership Conference which
seeks to advance the civil rights
of all Americans through
enactment and monitoring of
federal legislation.
March 8,1980
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CENTER OF CONTROVERSY - This Mini Park -
one of three to be* built in the Bethlehem Community -
is 95 percent complete. Area residents are in an uproar
since the park is to have no playground facilities, no
Not since 1939 have three
major Protestant
denominations merged into
one body all-at-once. If present
trends continue, however, a
similar three-way merger could
occur again soon, this time
among black Methodists.
A 1978 general conference
of the Christian Methodist
Episcopal Church has already
voted to unite with the African
Methodist Episcopal Zion
Church. Before the year is out,
proposals for union will also
come up at the general
conferences of the AME Zion
Church (in Greensboro, N.C. in
May) and the African
Methodist Episcopal Church
(in New Orleans in June).
“We want to see an organic
union of black churches take
place as soon as possible,” said
Dr. John H. Satterwhite,
Boggs to hold
Alumni Weekend
The Boggs Academy
National Alumni Association
will hold its third annual
Alumni Weekend on Sat.,
March 8 at the school’s campus
in Keysville.
The event will begin at 10
a.m. with a choir rehearsal for
all former Boggs choristers.
The rehearsal will be followed
by a luncheon and the annual
alumni meeting.
Morehouse president
to speak here Sat.
S.W. Walker 11, president of
the Augusta Morehouse Club,
announced recently that The
Southeastern Alumni
Association Conference will
convene in Augusta March 7th
and Bth.
Dr. Hugh Gloster, president
Negro
Ensemble Co.
in Columbia
Page 1
Black Methodists moving
toward three-way merger
Beginning at 3 pan., the
Association will sponsor three
programs which are opened to
the general public. They
include a rally at the C.W.
Francis Community Center, an
alumni vs. students basketball
game, and a dance. The dance
will be held at 9 p.m. at the
American Legion Post 270 in
Waynesboro.
Less Than 75% Advertising
executive secretary of the
Center for Black Church Union
in Washington, D.C. Dr.
Satterwhite, an AMEZ minister
and official of the World
Methodist Council, believes
that “if we can get the three
major black Methodist
churches united, this will
hasten the larger union process
among all Christian
denominations.”
To that end, tire center is
conducting a series of
week-long workshops on
merger in black churches
nationwide to sensitize
members and conferences. The
latest occurred in Washington,
D.C. last month; future
workshops are slated for
Norfolk, Va., Kansas City, New
York, Boston, San Francisco,
and Los Angeles.
The D.C. seminars rotated to
of Morehouse, will be the
keynote speaker at the public
luncheon on Saturday at 12
noon.
All meetings will be held at
Holiday Inn West on
Washington Road.
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Morehouse pres.,
to speak here
Pagel
supervision, water or toilet facilities. They say it will be
a haven for crime, and will be equipped onlv with
benches and tables. To top it off, they sav that $40,000
was ailoted for the Mini Parks.
a different congregation every
night (as is the custom); and
black United Methodist and
United Presbyterian churches
joined the three black
Methodist groups in an unusual
ecumenical thrust.
‘ ‘ Black Methodist for
Church Renewal (the ‘black
caucus’ within United
Methodism) has shown a keen
interest in these merger
workshops,” noted
Satterwhite, who is also
professor of ecumenics at
UM-affiliated Wesley
Theological Seminary (and
visiting professor at Princeton
last year).
“It would not surprise me if
some congregations within the
United Methodist Church
attempted to withdraw to join
a united black church,” Dr.
Satterwhite added. The center
does not encourage single
congregations to join, though,
“We hope to get groups
denominationally.”
Two other small black
denominations (which refused
to join Richard Alien’s
founding AME Church in
1816) have also sent bishops to
participate in the workshops.
These are the African Union
Methodist Protestant Church
and the Union American
Methodist Church.
These bodies enroll only a
few thousand members, while
the AME has 1,250,000; the
AMEZ, another million; and
the CME about 500,Q00
members.
The three major black
Methodist groups already are
members of the Consultation
on Church Union (COCU), an
ambitious attempt to combine
23 million members of nine
denominations, which some
claim has “lost steam” in
recent years.
Mutual exchanges of clergy
(without jeopardizing
credentialing) already occur
between the black Methodists
already, and a joint lenten
devotationai booklet is
published each year.
Dr. James Cone, the highly
respected black theologian
from Union Theological
Seminary and a speaker at tire
workshops, said, “Unity is
always a possibility when the
ecumenical struggle is related
to the political struggle.” He
referred to the success of the
civil rights movement in
rallying together Baptists,
Methodists, Pentecostals and
others.
“We are always being asked,
‘Wiry haven’t we joined with
white denominations?’ And we
have legitimately answered,
‘Because of racism.’ But we
must also consider why we
haven’t gotten together among
ourselves - both as
denominational families and as
a whole.”
Most attenuing the
workshops feel the priority
should be on a three-way black
Methodist merger now, but
some disagree on timetables.
Bishop Clinton Coleman of
the-AMEZ Church, who also
was a workshop speaker, favors
“taking union stages,” First
joining the AMEZ and CME
churches. He thinks these then
would be in a better bargaining
position relative to the large
AME Church.
An even smaller number
prefers joining together on
specific projects for now, such
as uniting publishing efforts or
seminaries.
But Dr. Satterwhite is afraid
that uniting services agencies
without denominational
merger will prove “a slowing
down process” which may
never lead to organic
ecumenism. “We haven’t felt
too comfortable with this
approach,” he said.
All seemed to agree on one
thing, however: “While
See “Churches”
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