Dr. J. Alfred Smith, the original chair of the Council of Elders for Oblate School of Theology’s Sankofa Institute for African American Pastoral Leadership, challenged the audience at the Institute’s 5th anniversary dinner to do whatever was necessary to help it grow to maturity.
Speaking Sept. 28 at the dinner in OST’s Whitley Theological Center, Dr. Smith, Pastor Emeritus of the Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, Calif., introduced members of the Council of Elders and Mrs. James Noel, whose husband, a member of the Council, died in January 2016; Professor Yolanda Norton, who succeeded Noel as the H. Eugene Farlough Chair on the San Francisco Theological Seminary faculty; and Mrs. Nettie Hinton, a local supporter of the Institute who in 2017 was awarded a Sankofa Excellence in Education Award.
Dr. Smith began by quoting from the poet John Greenleaf Whittier: “We troll the world for truth; we search the world for good…from graven scrolls and written stone; and weary seekers of the best come back heavy laden from the quest, to find that all the sages said is in the Book our mothers read.”
He noted that Oblate School of Theology “didn’t become the matriarch of Sankofa Institute by turning the roulette wheels of theological innovation or by the celestial caprice of inventive musings of gifted faculty and administration. By no means are we denying that Oblate School of Theology is light years ahead of many institutions in vision and ecumenism.”
However, he said the School’s academic excellence “is bathed in prayer, has rejected speculation to be true to her tradition and embraces the mystery of the Incarnation, for ‘by Him all things were created, both in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible.’ Christ is the founding, originating, continuing, sustaining Creator of the Sankofa Institute. Only Christ could have brought together such divided, diverse Protestant groups that had trouble getting along with each other into a harmonious five-year relationship in this Catholic community,” Dr. Smith asserted as the audience applauded warmly.
He said the School has taken seriously Jesus’ prayer in John 17:20: “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that all may be one in us.” He also said that the Sankofa Institute has made its own St. Augustine’s prayer, “O Father, our hearts are restless unless they rest in Thee.”
Dr. Smith observed that during the past five years, the Sankofa Council of Elders has kept the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. “The uniqueness of the Sankofa Institute is that all students learn to see the beauty of blackness and its historic role in liberating and humanizing justice and the justice-empowering message of Jesus,” he said.
“I’m talking not about an abstract Jesus created into an American Christ, a right-wing Evangelical; I’m talking about the Jesus who was born poor – not only was he born poor, but he was born an immigrant, running from terrorism, looking for refuge in Egypt. He came back to Judah, and moved on up to Galilee. One day he stood up in the Temple and turned to Isaiah 61: ‘He has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor.’” Jesus also died poor, the minister said, adding that God raised Jesus up and gave him a name above every other name.
“I’ve been touched by the Sankofa Scholars,” Dr. Smith commented. “They are all gifted people, and they’re learning how to introduce this Christ, who called humanity from the captivity of evil and the dehumanization of society. Yes, we’ve become members of the Beloved Community, committed to reconciling action for an unreconciled world. The students graduate equipped and prepared for a prophet’s ministry, as in Ephesians 4:12: that the Body of Christ may be built up so that we all reach unity; we’re not there yet, but we’re on our way,” he said.
Using analogies to childbirth, Dr. Smith said called OST President Fr. Ron Rolheiser, Academic Dean Dr. Scott Woodward, then-Associate Dean for Continuing Education Dr. Rose Marden and Sankofa Director Sr. Addie Lorraine Walker “the obstetricians in the delivery room when the Sankofa Institute was born. The excellent Oblate faculty and the premier visiting faculty were the pediatricians.” He also paid tribute to the Sankofa Council of Elders, chaired by the Rev. Dr. Stephen Reid, and to the Rev. Dr. Dwight Webster and Mrs. Thelma Chenault, Dr. Walker’s administrative assistant.
Dr. Smith likened the Sankofa Institute to a five-year-old child. “Were you a happy five-year-old?” he asked. “What fears did you have? Did you want to grow up? At five years old, I was in kindergarten; I wanted to grow up to be a first-grade student. When you were five years old, who loved you, who nurtured you, who picked you up when you fell and hurt yourself? Whom could you really depend on?”
He then asked listeners, “Whom can the Sankofa Institute depend on to love, cultivate and nurture her? What can you do to help her? She’s five years old, on her way to becoming six years old. What commitment can you make to help her grow up and become mature? Are you prepared tonight to commit yourself to tireless efforts against injurers and theological malpractice? We’re engaged in a never-ending war against miseducation and missed education. Too many so-called clergy are trying to spell ‘God’ with the wrong alphabet,” he asserted.
If the Sankofa Institute is to prepare women and men for excellence, he warned, its leaders must do a robust job in recruiting freshmen, funds, friends and loyal alumni to make the School greater. “You ask me, Can we do this? I say to you that in the lexicon of the Gospel, there is no such word as ‘I can’t.’” He used the African impala a metaphor, noting that, standing on two legs, can jump 15 feet straight up and can jump 30 feet forward, but said, “If you bring a baby impala to America and put it in a zoo with a five-foot restraining wall around it, the impala will grow to maturity not knowing its jumping potential. Shall we be like the impala, or shall we take seriously the words of Ephesians 3:20 that God is able to do exceedingly all we ask. How high can we jump for the Sankofa Institute for African American Pastoral Leadership?”
Through the Sankofa Institute, scholars are able to pursue any degree at Oblate School of Theology with an emphasis in African American Pastoral Leadership. All Institute programs foster an understanding and appreciation of African Americans’ contributions to Christian faith, life, and witness in North America and the world. The concept of “sankofa” is derived from the Akan people of West Africa, expressed in the Akan language as “se wo were fi na wosan kofa a yenkyi.” Literally translated, it means “it is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot.” The symbol of the sankofa concept is a mythic bird flying forward while looking back and holding an egg, which symbolizes the future.