I Am Episcopalian
What Can We Bring to the Table?...
Being Black is hard enough, as the people in the world see me for my color first, but it is even hard in the church. I was on a commission in the Diocese where an event was being planned. One thing that was wanted for this event was for each of the ethnic groups to something to be part of the event. As we went through this planning, and those of other races brought forth things, I wondered what could come from the Black community as it seemed that because of history we have become “assimilated” into society and the church. The planning was done, then I realized what we do have something to offer, that being music. I brought it up and said that all of the music will be from the Afro-Anglican community. The others were happy with this idea, and I was asked about one song to use, but another song had popped into my mind, and I said what it was. Suddenly the others in the group started coming up and inserting songs from other ethnic groups. All that I could do was to ‘throw my hands up’; as I knew that I would hear excuses as to why we must include these other songs from other cultures and ethnic groups.
“The day of the event comes, and we have a guest facilitator. We started with the only African-American song, and after we sang it, the facilitator criticized the song once he came up to the podium. At the end of the day I hear people talking about how great the other songs that we sang we, but nobody said anything about the one song that was criticized.
“I wonder to this day what we Blacks in this diocese need to do so that we can feel as though we have brought something to the table.
Being Black is hard enough, as the people in the world see me for my color first, but it is even hard in the church. I was on a commission in the Diocese where an event was being planned. One thing that was wanted for this event was for each of the ethnic groups to something to be part of the event. As we went through this planning, and those of other races brought forth things, I wondered what could come from the Black community as it seemed that because of history we have become “assimilated” into society and the church. The planning was done, then I realized what we do have something to offer, that being music. I brought it up and said that all of the music will be from the Afro-Anglican community. The others were happy with this idea, and I was asked about one song to use, but another song had popped into my mind, and I said what it was. Suddenly the others in the group started coming up and inserting songs from other ethnic groups. All that I could do was to ‘throw my hands up’; as I knew that I would hear excuses as to why we must include these other songs from other cultures and ethnic groups.
“The day of the event comes, and we have a guest facilitator. We started with the only African-American song, and after we sang it, the facilitator criticized the song once he came up to the podium. At the end of the day I hear people talking about how great the other songs that we sang we, but nobody said anything about the one song that was criticized.
“I wonder to this day what we Blacks in this diocese need to do so that we can feel as though we have brought something to the table.
61-69, M
