HAMPTON
The largest gathering of interdenominational African-American clergy of its kind in the world is meeting this week on the campus of Hampton University.
For the 105th year, the Annual Hampton University Ministers’ Conference convened June 2-7, along with the 85th Annual Choir Directors’ and Organists’ Guild Workshop.
This year’s theme is “A Call to the Church From a Community in Crisis.” The core Bible verse comes from Mark 9:29: “And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.”
Serving as the 2019 conference preacher is Rev. Dr. William Houston Curtis, Senior Pastor at Mount Ararat Baptist Church in Pittsburgh, Pa. Other nationally acclaimed speakers for the conference include Rev. Dr. Charles E. Goodman Jr., Senior Pastor/Teacher of The Historic Tabernacle Baptist Church of Augusta, Ga.; Rev. Dr. Robert M. Franklin Jr., James T. and Berta R. Laney Chair in Moral Leadership at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, Ga.; Rev. Dr. Jessica K. Ingram, Episcopal Supervisor for the First Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church; Rev. Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.; Bishop Frank A. White, Pastor Zion Cathedral Church of God in Christ in Freeport, N.Y.; Rev. Dr. Joseph D. Clemmons, Pastor of Historic First Church of God in Christ in Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Evangelist Vandalyn Kennedy, Youth Pastor of Mount Sinai Cathedral Church of God in Christ of Brooklyn, N.Y.
“Dr. Michael Eric Dyson and Dr. William Houston Curtis, both prolific and prophetic orators, will infuse the atmosphere of the 105th interdenominational gathering of clergy with the power to return their congregational contexts with a more informed theology and many additional skills needed to confront the challenges and the crises facing our communities and the world at-large,” said Dr. Debra L. Haggins, Conference Executive Director.
