By BJC Staff Reports
The Baptist Joint Committee is bringing an in-depth discussion of religious liberty and the black church to Washington, D.C. On Nov. 10, the Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock will give a lecture and participate in a panel discussion with a variety of voices, all on the campus of the Howard University School of Divinity and School of Law.
“Throughout the history of the black church, pastors and leaders have strived to deliver the prophetic word while also trying to adhere to the principle of church-state separation,” Warnock said. “I am honored to partner with the Baptist Joint Committee to explore the dynamic relationship between the black church and the state.”
Warnock is the senior pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, which was the spiritual home of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Active in the community, Warnock is the recipient of numerous honors and awards and a frequent commentator in the national media. He is the author of The Divided Mind of the Black Church: Theology, Piety, and Public Witness.
The Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Haggray, executive director of American Baptist Home Missions Society, will moderate a panel discussion as part of the symposium, which features Warnock, Dr. Barbara Williams Skinner and the Honorable Judge Alex Williams Jr. Skinner is the president of Skinner Leadership Institute and a former director of the Congressional Black Caucus, where she helped found the annual Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Prayer Breakfast. Williams served as a federal judge in Maryland for two decades, and he teaches at the Howard University School of Law and School of Divinity.
Dr. Harold Dean Trulear, a professor at the Howard University School of Divinity, will offer a response to the first lecture. Trulear is also director of the Healing Communities Prison Ministry and Prisoner Reentry Project of the Philadelphia Leadership Foundation.
The symposium begins with Warnock’s lecture at 11:30 a.m., followed by a response from Trulear. The panel discussion will be a “lunch and learn” session, beginning at 1 p.m. in the dining hall.
Both the lecture and the panel discussion are free and open to the public, and they are also part of the Howard University School of Divinity Centennial Alumni Convocation. For full details on the event, visit BJConline.org/HowardSymposium.
From the September/October 2016 edition of Report from the Capital. You can also read the digital version of the magazine or view it as a PDF.
