Rev. Alberta Clark

The School of Theology at the University of the South will celebrate the life and ministry of the Episcopal denomination’s first ordained black priest next week.

But more than 250 years after the Rev. Absolom Jones’s birth, the denomination is one of several mainline churches in the South that continue to have trouble recruiting black clergy.

“It’s unfortunate,” said the Rev. Stephen Askew, canon to the ordinary and deployment officer of the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee. “It’s not something the church should be proud of, but it’s a reality. It’s something we face.”

Within Chattanooga area mainline churches, the Episcopal denomination has one black priest and the United Methodist Church has six black clergy.

The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church USA, the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and the United Church of Christ denominations, all of which have local congregations, have no black clergy.

SEGREGATED WORSHIP

“Sunday at 11 o’clock is still the most segregated hour in America,” said Stephen N. Benz, executive presbyter for the Presbyterian Church USA’s Presbytery of East Tennessee.

Outside the South, more black clergy serve in PCUSA churches, but in the South the churches are “very weak” and the clergy “recruitment pool is smaller” since the majority of black churches are Pentecostal, Baptist or independent, he said.

Most of the region’s black churches in the denomination are so small that, should there be an abundance of black clergy, they couldn’t afford to call a full-time pastor, Mr. Benz said.

“That’s a stumbling block in the Southern portion of the church,” he said.

The denomination only began serious recruiting efforts for clergy of all races in the past 10 years, Mr. Benz said.

Mr. Askew said the Episcopal Church offers minority scholarships and grants for all ethnic groups, but various circumstances prevent more black clergy — especially in the South — from offering themselves for service.

Historically, there are few churches in the denomination in the South with majority black congregations, he said. And students who graduate from denominational seminaries often have a huge burden of debt and can’t afford to serve a small church, he said.

The Rt. Rev. Arthur B. Williams Jr., assisting bishop for the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio and the preacher for the School of Theology service honoring the first black priest, said recruitment of blacks is “no doubt a high priority” for the church.

Ironically, he said, the civil rights movement, which allowed blacks to be considered for leadership positions across the employment spectrum, may have cut into the number willing to consider the clergy.

In addition, Bishop Williams said, the size and influence of many black churches within the denomination have decreased.

They are “not (the) places where young men and women are encouraged to move into ordained ministry as they were years ago,” he said.

LONGTIME TIES

The Rev. Matilda Dunn, the only black priest in the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee, serves as clergywoman for St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in

Copperhill, Tenn.

A “cradle Episcopalian,” she also was the first black woman to receive a doctorate from the University of the South’s theology school and the first ordained black woman to get a Master of Divinity degree from the university. She said she never considered changing her allegiance to a denomination with more blacks.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Dr. Dunn said. “I love the traditions of my church. I am committed to (its) mission and ministry.”

The Rev. Alberta Clark, pastor of Randolph United Methodist Church and Wells Chapel United Methodist Church in the Sequatchie Valley, said the United Methodist internship she served while attending Drew Theological Seminary attracted her to the denomination after she was raised in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.

But she said factors within the denomination, within individual congregations and within the clergy themselves, especially in the South, continue to be barriers to increasing the numbers of black clergy within the United Methodist Church.

“It may be due to do culture because the African American style of worship is different,” Ms. Clark said, “and it may be the uncomfortableness of (black) pastors to be in mainline denominations of white descent.”

All parties, she said, need to determine who they are within the body of Christ.

“We have to get past color before we’re able to worship together,” Ms. Clark said. “We’re still struggling badly with that in the South. It grieves me we haven’t done that in the past.”

In time, she hopes churches will better mimic heaven, where people will “not be separated like we are here on earth.”

“I hope we can come together and worship and not distrust one another,” Ms. Clark said. “I hope we’ll be able to share in the ministry God has created for all of us.”

LONG WAY TO GO

Mr. Benz said three of the five black congregations in the Presbytery of East Tennessee are not served by any clergy member on a permanent basis. Of the two others, one has a black pastor and one a white pastor. With the limited supply of black clergy, cross racial pastorates are hardly considered, Mr. Benz said.

“Some (churches) would embrace that,” he said. “Some would resist that. That has to do with each individual congregation. Some still haven’t ordained women.”

Bishop Williams said while the first black Episcopal priest would be “profoundly amazed at (how far) the Episcopal Church has come,” the willingness of congregations to call a woman priest — women were first ordained in 1976 — has surpassed their willingness to call blacks as rectors.

Mr. Askew said the Episcopal church must be intentional about recruiting more black clergy or they will not build on what Mr. Jones began.

“The bottom line for us to see real growth in that capacity,” he said, “is that we have to make it a priority or it will not happen otherwise.”

HONORING ABSOLOM JONES

The School of Theology at the University of the South will celebrate the life and ministry of the Rev. Absolom Jones, a former slave who became the first black priest ordained in the Episcopal Church, during a Holy Eucharist service on Wednesday at 11 a.m. CST in the school’s Chapel of the Apostles. The Rt. Rev. Arthur B. Williams Jr., assisting bishop for the Diocese of Ohio, will be the guest preacher.