Staff photo by Wyatt Massey / Participants in the LDR weekend gather in the sanctuary New City Fellowship – Glenwood to worship on August 30.Hundreds of Christians from across the country gathered this weekend in Chattanooga and North Georgia for a conference on Christian love across racial lines.
The annual LDR weekend – standing for leadership, development and resource – was an opportunity for African Americans in the Presbyterian Church in America to spend time in fellowship and rejuvenate. The participants are often the only black people in their churches, which often includes the double burden of being looked on to speak for their race and lead diversity efforts in their houses of worship, along with their own journeys as Christians.
The sessions, along with the multiple opportunities for communal worship, centered on the theme of redemptive love and were designed to create a space for African Americans in the PCA, said Carl Ellis, provost of theology and culture at Reformed Theological Seminary. It is an opportunity to learn from one another and explore topics that are not always possible in other gatherings.
“In a society, you have a dominant culture and some subcultures,” Ellis said. “Society tends to address the needs of the dominant culture.”
The same is true in religious bodies, Ellis said. Members of the PCA are 80% white, 6% black, 6% Latino and 3% Asian, according to the Pew Research Center. The PCA is in the middle of U.S. religious groups in terms of diversity, according to an analysis by Pew. Participants in the weekend were predominantly African Americans.