Black Church events centered in Metroplex weekend of March 28

Fort Worth, TX

3/17/2008

Updated statement from TCU regarding Brite Divinity School’s event - March 18, 2008
 
The executive committee of TCU’s Board of Trustees today voted, and Brite Divinity School leadership agreed, to move the Divinity School’s Black Church Summit events off campus in light of security issues noted by Campus Police and the Fort Worth Police Department. The Divinity School will announce the new location of the event.

Luther King, chairman of the board, agreed that while the University should be a place where controversial opinions are freely expressed, the safety and security of students, faculty and staff are the primary concern of the Board.

Please refer to the Brite statement on their Web page, www.brite.tcu.edu.

Black church scholars, advocates, preachers, churchgoers and students are expected to convene in the Metroplex March 28-29 for a series of events honoring the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as the 40th anniversary of his death approaches. The Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright (recently retired from Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago where he was pastor to presidential hopeful Barack Obama and t.v. personality Oprah Winfrey) will be present to receive Brite Divinity School’s Black Church Leader Award during the weekend of activities titled “Saving Our Souls Without Losing Our Minds: Redeeming the Social Teachings of the Black Church.”

Schedule of events

Friday, March 28: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. National Black Church Studies Forum, Friendship West Baptist Church, 2020 Wheatland Road, Dallas. Community dialogue with more than 35 distinguished scholars and ministers, including Dr. Wright, Rev. Dr. Brad Braxton of Vanderbilt University, Rev. Drs. Henry and Ella Mitchell of the Interdenominational Theological Center, Rev. Teresa Fry Brown of Emory University, Candler School of Theology and Rev. Dr. Freddie Haynes of Friendship West Baptist Church. Topics will include the presidential election, prison industrial complex, Black youth and the hip-hop culture and the war in Iraq. This event is free and open to the public.

Saturday, March 29: 11:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. State of the Black Church Summit. Panel discussion with Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Dr. Brad Braxton and others from the NBCS Forum of the previous day. Moderator is Dr. Stacey Floyd-Thomas, director of Black Church Studies at Brite. Registration fee, including lunch, is $15.

Saturday, March 29: 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. Presentation of Brite Divnity School's Black Church Leader Award to Dr. Jeremiah Wright at Awards Banquet. Keynote speaker is Dr. Brad Braxton, associate professor of homiletics and New Testament at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. An ordained Baptist minister, he recently preached at Westminster Abbey in London as part of the bicentennial commemoration of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire. Cost of the formal dinner is $125 per person or $1,000 for a table of eight.

For more information or to make reservations, call 817-257-6996 or register online at www.brite.tcu.edu.