Former Rep. Stacey Abrams, author and voting rights advocate, brought the gospel imperative of saving democracy to the pulpit Sunday afternoon at First AME Church of Los Angeles, presenting her ten steps for defeating authoritarianism (check them out here: https://10stepscampaign.org/) in the light of Trump’s crackdown in Minneapolis. Noting that he started in Los Angeles last summer, she predicted he’d be back and called on us to be ready.
Celebrating the AME’s annual Founders Day and the segregation-battling ministry of Richard Allen late in the 18th century, the Rt. Rev. Francine A. Brookins (daughter of a bishop and former First AME pastor), host pastor the Rev. Dr. Timothy Tyler (who told me his mother was a pioneering bishop herself), the magnificent First AME choir, and a fired-up SRO congregation turned the former Georgia congresswoman’s ten steps up to 11.
Thanks to Sister Jacquelyn Dupont-Walker, I was along in prayerful thanksgiving for Richard’s friend and colleague Absalom Jones, the first person of African descent ordained in The Episcopal Church. It was great to see Pastor John Cager, former pastor at Ward AME Church, who now oversees AME parishes in the Midwest.
The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles will have our own roof-raising celebration of Absalom Jones and the Rt. Rev. Barbara Harris, the first woman bishop in the Anglican Communion, on Sunday, Feb. 15 at 4 p.m. at Holy Faith Episcopal Church in Inglewood, organized by the Program Group on Black Ministry.
