Trinity United Church of Christ: "The Africentric Church"
Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, one of the largest UCC congregations in the nation, was profiled this week on PBS’ Religion and Ethics News Weekly:
LUCKY SEVERSON, guest anchor: In the eyes of some African Americans, the role of Christianity has not always been a positive one, especially in the context of slavery and the civil rights movement. And yet, before Africans became slaves in this country, many of them embraced the Christian tradition in their old country. Now, we see a trend that combines Christianity with the African-American identity. Kelly Hudson reports from Chicago.
KELLY HUDSON: Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's black South Side. More than 30 years ago, in response to the Black Power movement, Trinity decided to embrace its African heritage along with its Christianity. It called as its pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright, a young black activist from Philadelphia.
Reverend JEREMIAH WRIGHT Jr. (Senior Pastor, Trinity United Church of Christ): They said, "Are we going to be a black church in a black community? Or are we going to continue to be a white church in blackface?" I said, "The greatest need is for kids who have not been taught their story. To go back to Deuteronomy 6, you must teach your children their story. Who's doing it?" Nobody was.
HUDSON: So Wright started to teach what became known as "Africentric Christianity." Under his leadership, Trinity has grown to 5,000 members, the largest congregation in the predominantly white United Church of Christ.
Africentric Christianity is partly about identifying an African presence in the Bible, but it goes much deeper than that. Africentric Christians are seeking to affirm their African heritage in the context of Christianity.
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Trinity has a long and distinguished history of providing a prophetic voice to the community of Chicago and to the United Church of Christ as a whole. This is the home church of US Senator Barack Obama.
This story highlights the growing diversity in the United Church of Christ.
