Afro-Christian Convention  🔗 **Source:** [Afro-Christian Convention]() ## Highlights - White theology and white ecclesiology carried the sperm and egg of racism, granting spiritual anointing to white power and privilege. ([Location 336](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C3DNBWV4&location=336)) - Tags: aqua - Percel O. Alston describes this deep celebration in Afro-Christian worship: The preaching, singing, and shouting in the Afro-Christian churches were related to African experiences. The preaching and singing looked back to African chants, the shouting was close akin to African dance. The feeling aspect of religion dominated. One of the gifts that Afro- Christians brought to the United Church of Christ was their capacity to feel religion and express the same with fervor and great joy.9 ([Location 445](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C3DNBWV4&location=445)) - Tags: aqua - Our theology unfolds in the particularity of the place and time in which we find ourselves. We exist in an America that is built on racism and with a white church complicit in that racism. The Afro-Christian churches were places of resistance—resistance to enslavement in its beginning and to white supremacy today. Our theology helps people to find a sense of identity and purpose within a system meant to objectify them. An Afro-Christian identity is formed by reminding our people that God has a greater purpose for their lives than what racist societies offer them. The Afro-Christian Church gave us a place to educate ourselves and develop our gifts. It gave us a worship in which we could celebrate our blessings, gain comfort in our trials and tribulations, and take encouragement to face our challenges. All this flowed from a Word from God, expressed in prayers, songs, scriptures, and sermons. The Afro-Christian Church mobilizes the community of faith to fight for social justice and personhood. ([Location 1296](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C3DNBWV4&location=1296)) - Tags: aqua - Our theology was not born in slavery. It was tested in slavery. Our theology emerges from a belief system that began in Africa. Africa informed how we face the challenges of a new world to which we did not volunteer to come. It has been our understanding of a God we encountered in Africa that allowed the Holy Spirit to guide us to create community in a foreign land. Therefore, we are anchored in our African understanding of God while we encounter this nation with its Christian Church and its cardinal principles. Our faith would not let us forget Africa. It could not be beaten out of us. It could not be assimilated out of us. We hold fast to our African understanding of the God of our hope and deliverance. ([Location 1313](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C3DNBWV4&location=1313)) - Tags: aqua