Bricks Without Straw
By Dr. Melinda Contreras-Byrd, Contributing Writer
I am often reminded of the story in Exodus 5 when God faces off with Pharaoh by requiring the Israelites to meet in the wilderness in order to attend to the work of their spirit. Pharaoh, however, sees this as a waste of valuable work time and not only forbids them to leave but—in anger—also orders them to make the same amount of bricks without the benefit of having any straw.
Like those before her, the work of Bishop Anne Henning Byfield, the presiding prelate of the 16thDistrict, embodies this same dynamic. Our brothers and sisters in many international districts battle physical and political needs as they struggle to live each day.
Bishops in these districts are faced with a mammoth challenge. They travel to these countries to care for the souls of God’s people, souls that are attached to human bodies. There are places without running water or medical supplies. There are people without adequate food or health services.
Yet, there are also those with “ministry callings” who express a need for their spiritual lives to be cultivated, challenged, and expanded in order that they might gain the wisdom, stamina, and vision to transform the communities into which they have been placed. In September 2017, under the leadership of Bishop Henning Byfield, the Dominican Republic (DR) realized this and opened its first AME Ministerial Institute.
With very little available funding and limited Dominican clergy who were seminary graduates, I joined the vision and set out to fulfill a seemingly impossible task that the presiding elders, the Rev. Abraham Rodriguez Jones and the Rev. Leoncio King Fermin, and I had prayed over and accepted. Our institute was to offer two 10-week online semesters and one week of face-to-face summer intensive classes.
Most pastors did not own computers and there were technological challenges. Nevertheless, people donated and refurbished computers, gave up their second computers, or even bought new ones.
We needed books written in both English and Spanish. The Rev. Elisa King, a clergyperson from the DR residing in the First District, translated Richard Allen Apostle of Freedominto everyday Spanish.
As the summer drew near, money was needed to pay for travel, room, and board in addition to a translator for the summer intensive classes to be held in the DR. Princeton Theological Seminary (PTS), under the leadership of its vice president, Dr. Shane Berg, joined as a partner with the Institute, funding the first year’s summer session. PTS alum, Presbyterian social activist and pastor, the Rev. Lukata Mjumbe, was also willing to teach Cultural Hermeneutics, without charge. Ms. Enercida Rodriguez Jones, a DR recording artist and the daughter of Presiding Elder Abraham Rodriguez Jones, served as translator.
Other joined in the vision as served as instructors, including Presiding Elder Manolin Nunez and Professor Itumeleng Mothoagae of the University of South Africa. The Rev. King served as a translator.
Old Testament, African scholar, and former ITC Provost, Dr. Temba Mafico is slated to teach. A well-known writer, preacher, and PTS professor of Hermeneutics, Dr. Cleophus LaRue, is also on board.
The vision for an AME Ministerial Institute began to blossom into a vision of an ongoing educational program that will not only ready AME pastors for ministry but will also offer a uniquely culturally-based theological education that will prepare Black and Latinx pastors of all denominations to teach, preach, and embody a liberating word in their churches and communities.
Bishop Henning Byfield has provided ways in which these brave pastors are affirmed and celebrated. God has given the vision to the 16thDistrict to assist in the raising up of pastors who are culturally-based, politically-astute, and spiritually-grounded enough to continue undaunted by the unjust requirement that they make bricks without straw.
Melinda Contreras-Byrd is a New Jersey state-licensed psychologist and owner of the Generations Center. The Center specializes in meeting the psychological and spiritual needs of all women, and both men and women of color. She has worked as a school psychologist in urban and suburban districts. She is a graduate of Rutgers University, The Graduate School of Applied & Professional Psychology, and the Princeton Theological Seminary. She is a published writer and poet, an ordained itinerant elder of the AME Church, and joins her husband, the Rev. Vernon R. Byrd, Jr. in pastoral ministry at St. Matthew AME Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
