October 21, 2002
African-American Baptists set aside 4 decades of division to reconcile
___By Adelle Banks
___Religion News Service
___PHILADELPHIA (RNS)--Forty-two years after this city witnessed their bitter split, leaders of two of the nation's most prominent black Baptist denominations shared a podium this fall in an emotional and historic act of reconciliation.
___Major Jemison, new president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, gave the keynote address at a banquet during the annual session of the National Baptist Convention USA.
___In an impassioned sermon, Jemison urged delegates to the denomination from which his was birthed to find ways to work with his religious body for the greater good of African-Americans and the nation as a whole.
___"More than any other time, we must plow this field together as conventions and as Christian people whose aim it is to build up the kingdom of God," said Jemison, an Oklahoma City pastor who rose to the rank of his denomination's presidency in August.
___"I certainly believe that God has not fixed us so that the best has been. ... It is clear to me that our unified effort is an idea whose time has come."
___Many of more than 1,400 people attending the banquet--who applauded Jemison's words--credited William Shaw, president of the National Baptist Convention USA, with having the vision to extend the historic invitation to Jemison. But Shaw said the credit belonged to a higher authority.
___"I think the presence of Dr. Jemison here tonight is a matter of providence," said Shaw, a longtime pastor in Philadelphia, the city where he said a "major break" occurred in the denomination in 1960.
___After that meeting, in which there was a verbal dispute about the denomination's leadership, the 1961 gathering escalated to a physical confrontation that left one delegate dead.
___Although a struggle for leadership was the driving force that led to creation of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, the undercurrent was differing views on the civil rights movement. While leaders of the newer body were interested in a movement of direct action led by Martin Luther King Jr., officials of the National Baptist Convention USA were more inclined to seek equal rights in other ways, such as through the courts.
___Although not an officeholder, King was a featured speaker each year the convention was held during his lifetime.
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