The purpose of this forum is to facilitate communication and mutual support and edification among those who strive toward gender justice in Churches of Christ. If you would like to join the forum, send an e-mail (including your first and last name) from your primary address to forum@gal328.org.
Thanks so much Wiley. My e-mail address is iriesession@yahoo.com
Blessings,
:::posted by Irie on 1/31/2005 11:20:09 AM
Chad and anyone else who is interested.
I'm at work right now but if you will send me an email to wclarkson@clarksons.org, I will send you all the info on ordering Sylvia's song book and a cd that goes with it. It is available direct from Sylvia.
:::posted by Wiley on 1/29/2005 08:55:29 PM
That would be great. If you like, you can fax the resource list to me at (214) 965-9561. By the way Teresa, what graduate school do you attend? I also found another great resource. Its a Dissertion by Sheila Hope Gillam, a gradute of Union Theological Seminary. I'm not sure if she is in the Church of Christ or the Disciples of Christ. It is called "Principle and Practice: The Quandry of African American Restorationist in the History and Theology of the Church of Christ 1850-1950."
Finding it was like searching for a needle in a haystack. It's a good thing I enjoy doing research. I had to purchase a copy of the Dissertation and should have it in two or three weeks.
Blessings,
:::posted by Irie on 1/27/2005 09:55:18 PM
Irie,
Our professor gave us a long list of resources for our research papers. If that would be helpful, I can pass it along.
I'll be giving a short talk in a class next week on "The Importance of Gender Justice in Speaking to Women." Would appreciate prayers.
:::posted by TKP on 1/27/2005 07:10:41 PM
Chad,
Many African-American CofC's have a copy of the actual hymnal or a plazerized version (it kills me to say that, but it's true). I too tried to find one on-line (right now, I'm not at an AA CofC), but no such luck! If I can get my little hands on one, I'll be sure to let you know. If any of you are familiar with the song Holy Spirit, that is one of Sylvia's songs.
:::posted by Irie on 1/26/2005 11:52:32 AM
Chad,
Most African-American churches of Christ should have either a copy of the hymnal or have plagerized it in one way or another. If you're familiar with songs like, Holy Spirit, and Mansion Robe and Crown, these were written by Sylvia. If I can get my hands on one, I'll let you know.
:::posted by Irie on 1/26/2005 11:47:24 AM
Yes, I know for a fact that African-American churches are not even bringing up the rear in dealing with the Gender Justice Issue. If they were bringing up the rear that would at least mean "some" forward progress. Can you sense the frustration. I know there are many reasons for this which I am presently researching.
Teresa, God is sooo good. You are exactly who I need to talk to. I'm taking History of Christianity in America and doing a research paper titled: The Legacy of Racism and Sexism: An Examination of the Oppression of African American Women in Churches of Christ. Needless to say the resources are sparce. I have found an interesting correspondence called The Negro in Church-A Correspondence date 1907. It's a dialogue between two white male CofC members concerning the presence of an African American girl in worship service.
If you have any other resources that might be helpful to me, please, please pass along.
Thanks so much.
:::posted by Irie on 1/26/2005 11:33:41 AM
Irie,
Is there a way to get a copy of Sylvia's hymnal? I tried googling it a few different ways and didn't come up with anything. I'm a hymnbook collecter.
Jen raises an interesting point on this thread - Sylvia's exclusion from mainstream hymnals likely has as much, if not more, to do with race than gender in this case. In fact, if we went through the books currently in use by most CoCs, there would likely be few (if any?) African-American songwriters included. It's a reminder we still have a long way to go on many fronts.
Chad
:::posted by Chad on 1/25/2005 10:20:01 AM
Irie,
It's interesting that you note Sylvia's story because I am taking a course on African American Restoration History. I'll let you know if we cover Sylvia when we go over significant women in class.
Blessings,
Teresa
:::posted by TKP on 1/24/2005 07:13:13 PM
Has anyone counted up the number of Fanny J. Crosby songs in their songbooks lately? Now, how is it that Fanny gets away with it and Sylvia doesn't? ...Oh, yeah, Fanny's dead now--not around to be so offensively female in everyone's face like that...
:::posted by Jennifer on 1/24/2005 10:37:33 AM
Irie, thanks for sharing that with us. How many women could tell that same story? and are we crazy for hanging in there and hoping it changes? I would love to hear her whole story...all the little stuff and the big stuff. So many of our stories are so similar. Do you think that women have a longer journey still in the black Churches of Christ than the white ones?
grace, Julie
:::posted by julie on 1/21/2005 10:51:28 PM
Hi all.
Just got off the phone with a friend of mine in Monette, Arkansas. He is the minister at the Monette Church of Christ. He told me that they have made some progress in the area of gender equality in that church. They now have women serving with the men as "special servants", which is what they call their deacons. He also told me that his wife has led the devotional in the Sunday evening service four times in recent months. So add another church to the slowly growing list of churches that have women serving in ministry or service and leading in the worship assembly. He then told me that they still have a ways to go but they are working on it!
:::posted by Wiley on 1/21/2005 09:43:53 PM
Today while shopping at an area bookstore for one of my textbooks, I "happened" upon a book by Sylvia Rose. If the last name sounds familiar it's because she is the sister of Floyd Rose, an African American minister for churches of Christ. The title of the book is "Rise Up: A Call to Leadership for African-American Women."
When I saw the name of the author I wasn't sure if it was the Sylvia that I knew, so I asked the salesperson to get me a copy to see if there was anything written that could identify her as the Sylvia Rose I knew. Indeed it was. Sylvia is no longer a member of the Church of Christ denomination, which is such a sad commentary for us. She is a gifted songstress and writer and has made significant contributions to not only Black churches of Christ but all COC's. She wrote a hymnal for churches of Christ, Songs of Faith, that is being used all over the world.
She was forced to leave her faith tradition because there was no room in African American churches of Christ for her to use her gifts thereby fulfilling God's purposes for her life.
As I was reading some of her book, I ran across the following excerpts that I thought you might find interesting.
Sylvia Writes:
"In 1985 God used me as a vessel to infuse new music into my church: I composed a small hymnal of songs to specifically suit the worship needs of its people. I had been born into and raised as a member of this denomination and loved it dearly. In my travels throughout the country in my position with a college, I had studied the musical preferences of this church. Years after leaving that position I quietly worked on this project without letting anyone know what I was doing. I remember the day I told my husband that I had something in me that simply had to come out and that I needed to stop teaching and devote myself to it full time until I brought it to fruition. For fear of the discouragement that I felt would certainly come to me, I told no one else about it.
Once the hymnal was completed, it became something that African American churches, in particular, embraced on a widespread level throughout the country. But whereas the music was met with open arms, the vessel through which it had come was not. At a national conference, I was approached by a man who held up one of my books and startled me with the question, "Who do you think you are and what made you think that you should do something like this?" I stammered until I spit out the worst answer I could give to him: "I was just a vessel...being used...by God." He tossed the book on a table and said, "God doesn't use women!"
(pages 17-18)
She further writes:
"A friend said to me recently that whereas he missed my being in the denomination of my youth, he had to admire my courage to leave it. He said, 'The fact that you could walk away from something that you had known for all of your life is amazing and I know that it took courage.' It did indeed, and I was able to do it only because I considered it a necessary step for me to take in order to survive. It took three years before I got to the point where I had the courage to make that change, but I knew I would never know the promise or potential that God placed in me until I courageously--and blindly, I might add-walked in the direction of where he wanted be to go." (pages 68-69)
:::posted by Irie on 1/21/2005 03:57:28 PM
Joe, there was a man named Kirk Imoto posting a while back who is in the Chicago area worshiping with a Disciples church he really, really likes. Get your computer to display several hundred blog entries and then search for Chicago.
peace -- Katie
:::posted by Katie on 1/05/2005 09:29:56 PM
Does anyone know of a good church in north Chicago? It doesn't have to be a Church of Christ. I have a friend who just moved there and wants some input on this matter.
:::posted by jch on 1/05/2005 01:52:22 PM
archives
