A SERIES: MAPPING THE FUTURE OF BLACK METHODISM
“COVID-19 AND THE BLACK CHURCH”
By Betty Holley, PhD, Contributing Writer
Payne Theological Seminary became the recipient of a $1,000,000 dollar grant from the Lilly Endowment for the Thriving Congregations Initiative. This grant is to help organizations work with congregations to strengthen their ministries to thrive so they can better help people deepen their relationship with God, enhance their connection with each other and contribute to the flourishing of their communities and the world. In writing the proposal for this grant, Payne’s President, Michael Joseph Brown, Ph.D. stated, “If our Black Methodist congregations expect to be relevant in the 21stcentury and beyond, our congregations must continue to refine their ministries to thrive, to meet the needs of their local communities through their respective ecclesial voices.”
To help congregational leaders prepare to combat the coronavirus pandemic, that is running rampant in the African American community and people of color, Payne seized the opportunity to present its inaugural webinar, “COVID-19 and the Black Church.” Due to the disproportionate attack of the pandemic on communities of color, the Black Church can only thrive when given an arsenal of correct information from persons with respected expertise.
The presenter for Payne’s inaugural webinar, “COVID-19 and the Black Church” was the Reverend Doreleena Sammons Hackett, SM, CPM. Reverend Hackett has a MS Degree in Public Health Nutrition from the Harvard School of Public Heath, Boston, MA and a BS Degree in Pre-Medicine from Bennett College, Greensboro, NC. She is a Certified Public Manager, having trained at Rutgers, the State University in New Brunswick, NJ, and a Certified Master Trainer in Chronic Disease Self-Management, having trained at Stanford University Education Research Center. Since 2011, Reverend Hackett has served as Associate Minister at the First Baptist Church in Highland Park, Largo, MD. Reverend Hackett has over 30 years of experience in chronic disease and health promotion program development and implementation; including nutrition, cardiovascular disease prevention, gerontology, injury prevention, women’s health, HIV/AIDS awareness, health education, physical activity and program integration. She is presently the Project Director for the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) Program Federal Cooperative Agreement; a nationwide community-based program to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities in cooperation with the CDC Division of nutrition, physical activity and obesity.
The webinar: “COVID-19 and the Black Church” covered the following areas:
- Epidemiology of COVID-19
- How did we get here?
- To vaccinate or not to vaccinate
- Sociology of COVID-19
- Blacks and Covid-19
- Hispanics and COVID-19
- The Elderly and COVID-19
- A Social Distance Praise
- Social isolation of members
- Getting our “Praise” on
- Opportunities to serve
- Giving back to your community during the pandemic
- Revisioning our return to our physical church building
Reverend Hackett, through her vast health expertise, extended to the participants a valuable and thorough knowledgebase about COVID-19 that was user-friendly for their churches and communities; the needed arsenal of information to survive this COVID-19 challenge. Mr. Kim King, Payne’s Executive Assistant to the President and Director of Institutional Development, moderator for the webinar, stated in his concluding remarks, “COVID-19 might be challenging churches, but has no power over ministry.” In other words, ministry can still thrive given the correct in-depth information from the health and science experts during this coronavirus pandemic.
