Content provided in partnership with
Spreading 'the word' on campus: African-American chaplains take the lead in the Ivy League
Ebony, Oct, 2005 by Joy Bennett Kinnon
WITH little or no fanfare, African-American ministers, male and female, have moved into major leadership roles in the spiritual hierarchies of prestigious Ivy League universities. Five of the eight Ivy League schools--Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania and Yale--have Black university chaplains.
And other Black individuals lead the chaplaincy at Dartmouth and are assistant university chaplains at Brown and Princeton.
It is unprecedented, observers say, to have eight Black clergy serving the spiritual needs at highly selective institutions, which were once bastions of White, male Christianity.
- Most Popular Articles in News
- The Ten Best Laptop bags
- Tata plans cheapest-ever car for Indian market
- GLOBALIZATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT OF THE THIRD WORLD
- Corn is good for you; Corn is not only a tasty treat, but also a cereal that ...
- THE 50 BEST STYLISH HANDBAGS TO CARRY
- More »
The new ministers are reinterpreting some aspects of traditional theology. They still serve as role models and pastoral counselors; they still conduct chapel and worship services, and offer prayers at commencement and other university functions. They provide counseling and pastoral care, but they are also involved in a range of complex and, as one chaplain says, "contentious local, national and global issues" such as diversity, racism, sexism and conflict between religious and secular values.
"Nearly all of us have diplomatic responsibilities on campus," says the "dean" of the Black Ivy League ministers, the Rev. Dr. Peter J. Gomes of Harvard. "I think of myself as the Secretary of State for Religion [on campus]," he says.
Most colleges and universities have denominational chaplains on campus who are employed by their denominations, i.e., Baptist, Methodist, Catholic and Jewish. The denominational chaplains usually fall under the supervision of the university chaplain.
Columbia University chaplain, the Rev. Dr. Jewelnel Davis, says there are about 17 different religious life advisors who report to her--including spiritual leaders from the Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist traditions. One of the great strengths of the African-American clergy, she and others say, is their experience working with a variety of religious groups.
All follow the inclusive, cutting-edge tradition of the Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman, who became the first Black university chaplain at a major White institution when he assumed the position at Boston University in 1953.
"We bring with us a sense of the rich prophetic and redemptive traditions of Black religion and spirituality," says the Rev. Dr. Frederick J. Streets, Yale University chaplain. "In our role as university chaplain, our constituents are influenced ... by these dimensions of our experiences which contribute to our students' intellectual life, spiritual formation and vision of society."
In addition to Dr. Streets (Yale), Dr. Gomes (Harvard) and Rev. Davis (Columbia), the other university chaplains include the Rev. William C. Gipson (University of Pennsylvania) and the Rev. Kenneth I. Clarke, Sr. (Cornell). In addition, the Rev. Dr. Stuart C. Lord oversees the Dartmouth College chaplaincy office and the assistant university chaplains are the Rev. Deborah K. Blanks (Princeton) and the Rev. Sakena De Young-Scaggs (Brown).
In Thurman's seminal book Meditations of the Heart, he wrote, "This is the first miracle, a man becomes his dreams; then it is that the line between what he does and is and his dream melts away."
These Ivy League chaplains, recipients of Thurman's mantle, are living out his dream and their own.
THE REV. KENNETH I. CLARKE SR. was selected as director of Cornell United Religious Work in 2001. He is responsible for the administration and coordination of religious affairs, and the administration of the campus interfaith center and Sage Chapel. Rev. Clarke works with more than 20 full-time chaplains and 25 religious and spiritual organizations.
THE REV. JEWELNEL DAVIS has been the university chaplain and the director of the Earl Hall Center at Columbia University since 1996. A Baptist minister, Rev. Davis was recently appointed associate provost. She became interested in university chaplaincy while studying Judaism. During her more than two decades in the ministry, she has held several faculty positions, including higher education administrator.
THE REV. DR. PETER J. GOMES has served as the Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church at Harvard University since 1970 and as the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals since 1974. A Baptist minister, Dr. Gomes is in charge of the university's chaplaincy, and has also published 10 volumes of sermons, and numerous articles and papers.
THE REV. DR. FREDERICK J. (JERRY) STREETS was appoint ed chaplain of Yale University and senior pastor of the Church of Christ in Yale in 1992. A Baptist minister, Dr. Streets is also a member of the faculty at the Yale Divinity School, a senior consultant with the Harvard University Program in Refugee Trauma, and he is the author of the recently released Preaching in the New Millennium.
THE REV. WILLIAM C. GIBSON has been university chaplain and special advisor to the president at the University of Pennsylvania since 1996. He also serves as interim pastor to two New Jersey congregations, New Salem Baptist Church in Trenton, N.J., and First Baptist Church in Princeton, N.J.
