Student Loan Debt Joins Conversation About Strengthening Black Churches
Share this:
For heads of Black religious institutions, sustaining a pipeline of quality church leaders requires strengthening ties between historically Black theological institutions (HBTIs), churches and those aspiring to assume leadership roles in the future.
Student Loan Debt Joins Conversation About Strengthening Black Churches
Earlier this month, a group that includes HBTIs and Black denominational leaders convened a two-day meeting where participants committed to attracting more institutional support for HBTIs and conveyed the urgency of the student debt grappling so many seminary students.
We have to assist church leaders to understand the burden of debt. They agreed to take the message back to their congregations, said Delores F. Brisbon, leader of The Gift of Black Theological Education & The Black Church Collaborative (also known as The Collaborative).
The Collaborative held a two-day discussion about student loan debt at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), Feb. 9-10, which brought together students, deans, presidents and a denominational representative from each of the five participating HBTIs. It preceded a four-day conference scheduled for April during which church and seminary leaders will further explore how to prepare the pulpit for social action.
The Collaborative is a project to realign the schools with their denominations because enrollment in the past came from those churches, Brisbon said. We want to strengthen the pulpit to heal the trauma of the Black experience. It’s a movement to see social change through the lens of faith.
The Collaborative came out of a prior six-year assessment of the six historic Black theological schools, including Howard School of Divinity. It currently includes: Samuel Dewitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University; Hood Theological Seminary in Salisbury, North Carolina; Shaw University Divinity School in Raleigh, North Carolina; Payne Theological Seminary in Wilberforce, Ohio; and Interdenominational Theological Center [ITC] in Atlanta.
