I don’t read the Bible. To be honest, a lot of it doesn’t make sense to me. When Reverend Angie explains Bible passages from within her own understanding and shared experiences, I can begin to understand some of it.
My mother, Haruko, born and raised in Okinawa, Japan, has been a Southern Baptist evangelical Christian for the past thirty-five years or so. She holds regular Bible study classes for Okinawan and Japanese women in her home. Until I became a member of Beloved Community Church, my mother and I would have constant arguments about whether or not I was a Christian or believed that Jesus Christ was personal Lord and Savior.
I don’t have the same certainty about Jesus Christ being my personal Lord and Savior as my mother does, but I do believe that God and the spirit of Jesus Christ is within me and every other person and being that walks, flies, crawls and grows on this planet.
The church my mother has attended for over thirty years is predominantly white. No matter how many of her Japanese-Okinawan friends that she brings in to attend, it is and will always be a Southern Baptist Church with a predominantly conservative white congregation.
Beloved Community Church offers me sacred space, gathering, communion, reflection whether or not I show up for church service. I feel I can be myself and offer whatever I can to help and be part of the congregation and community.
Beloved Community Church
A Beacon of Hope that Shines in Every Direction
Matthew 5: 13 – 16
13: You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its salt be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men.” 14: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.” 15: “Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house” 16: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
Sincerely,
Neko Linda
Category Archives: Get to know Beloved
Meet our Beloveds: Denyse Thornley-Brown
Above: Denyse Thornley-Brown (second from left) with other Beloveds at an Immigrants’ Rights Demonstration
Many roads lead into and out of the sweet spirit that resides at Beloved Community Church. A long-time church leader, Dr. Denyse Thornley-Brown, is a perfect example.
Denyse, a native of Montreal, Canada, is a citizen of the world and sees her mission at Beloved as a way to serve people from all cultures. Her parents were Jamaican immigrants and her childhood in the melting pot of Montreal made her interested in cultures from all over the world. Her education took her from McGill University to medical school at Howard University in Washington, D.C. She furthered her training with her residency in Atlanta and ultimately ended up in Birmingham at UAB Medical School. She is a nephrologist (kidney specialist) treating patients throughout the UAB system.
Not only has Denyse lived in many places, but she has an insatiable travel bug. Among other places, she has traveled extensively in Europe, Africa, Mexico and Nepal. She even ran a marathon in Paris last year.
Denyse also comes from a diverse religious experience. Her parents were conservative Presbyterians who attended church every Sunday. Denyse was searching for a less formal worship and even visited fundamentalist protestant churches. Ultimately, she left seeking a theology that was less “harsh and judgmental.”
Denyse was among the first members of Beloved. A friend of hers who attended First Congregational Church, told her about Beloved. She visited and, as she says, she “never looked back.” Denyse found her home in a church we all know is the epitome of human diversity. Denyse explains, “At Beloved, there is a group of people whose paths would not ordinarily cross, but when we get together, it works so well. You find all walks of life, diversity of class, education, and life experience. That’s the beauty of Beloved – its diversity. You lose out when you just associate with people like yourself.”
Since she came to Beloved ten years ago, Denyse has served the church in many roles. She has served as Church Moderator. She presently volunteers with the church’s language class (Denyse is fluent in Spanish and French). She attends the “Race Matters” book club and “Spiritual Cinema.” She assists every Sunday in running the sound system during worship service.
Denyse would like more people to discover Beloved like she did. “I would like more people to know about the church. It is a well-kept secret. And I would like to see more children and youth active in the church.”
Yes, Denyse has traveled many roads on her way to Beloved. Since she arrived, she’s been paving the way for others.
Where are we in the UCC?
By Dick Sales
Of course the biggest reason to be a part of Beloved Community Church is to be found right on 41st Street and 2nd Ave. South, and that is how it should be. But Beloved is what we are in part because we are also part of a larger group of churches known as the United Church of Christ, one of the newest and oldest denominations in America.
In the next few issues I’ll suggest some of the perks that we enjoy as part of UCC. First, did you know we are the direct descendants of the Pilgrims who came in 1620 to America in search of freedom to worship as they felt called to do rather than conform to the Church of England? And one of their ‘mottos’ was “God hath more light to unfold from the scriptures.” That doesn’t shock you because we today have modernized the old motto when we say “don’t put a period where God has put a comma.” The UCC encourages innovative ministry (did I hear somebody say ‘amen’?).
Those Pilgrims also pioneered. Through voluntary associations they started schools and colleges, missions to Native Americans and world mission based in America. The Pilgrim churches became the Congregational Churches and spread through the northern states true to their name as each local church was responsible for its own life and the local churches gathered together to do things that one group couldn’t do alone. In the years before the War Between the States, many Congregational Churches were staunch abolitionists and, after the war, the American Missionary Association started hundreds of schools for the freed slaves, sometimes at great risk to the teachers.
When I came on the scene in 1956, I worked for a year in a church in Connecticut that had been in existence since 1679 before I went overseas to work in Africa where our missionaries had served African people since 1835. So we have one tap root that goes back four hundred years!
