By Rev. Ellis I. Washington, 1stEpiscopal District
On April 17, 2019, students, faculty, and members from the community filed into the Memorial Church on Harvard’s Campus to hear Bishop John Richard Bryant present on “Religion and Public Life in Africa.” The retired senior bishop indicated that there are at least 10 major religions in Africa, excluding the indigenous faiths. He, therefore, spoke with a focus on “Christianity in Africa through the Lens of One of Africa’s Diasporic Sons.”
Bishop Bryant, a renowned preacher, pastor, author, and ecumenical leader, provided the Inaugural Lecture of the Folorunso Alakija Distinguished Lecture series, presented by the Harvard Center for African Studies. The series is named for a Nigerian billionaire businesswoman and benefactor. Prior to the keynote address, the Aeolian Choir of Oakwood University, the 2017 Choir of the World winners, performed several selections, including a powerful rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
During the lecture, Bishop Bryant spoke of his experience in Liberia, West Africa, while he served in the Peace Corps prior to attending seminary as urged by the late Rev. Dr. Samuel D. Proctor. Bryant said, “Africa literally saved my life!”
Based upon his Peace Corps training to become immersed in the country of assignment, he attached himself to the family of Dr. J. Benedict Mason, the pastor of Eliza Turner AME Church in Monrovia. Due to the training emphasized that volunteers discover the history, economy, people, and family-life of their location, Bishop Bryant intoned, “I never experienced Africa as a tourist.”
The former senior bishop recounted attending a Sunday School Convention while in the country. In doing so, he reflected on the Gospel narrative of the four friends who carried a cripple man to Jesus who was surrounded by a crowd so thick they could not get in the door. Bishop Bryant related that to the physical and spiritual atmosphere in that host church. “It was on fire!” he said and continued, “Young people were excited about Jesus Christ!” “That day, the New Testament came alive!” He was invited to address the Convention and tell them how to have a Convention like they do in the United States. He told the crowd, “I have never seen anything like this in my entire life!” It was also in that context that the young Bryant predicted that one day Africa will send missionaries to the United States to draw us closer to God.
During his introduction, Bryant was referred to as the father of neo-Pentecostalism as noted in the book, The Black Church in the African-American Experience, by C. Eric Lincoln. It was during the lecture that he explained the impact of religious life in Africa upon his ministry. He noted that while serving West Africa as Bishop, one church in the Ghana Conference operated a prayer hospital that attracted people from Europe, Asia, the Americas, and across Africa. “And people who came sick, left healed!” he said. Bishop Bryant included his personal testimony of being sick and losing weight while there as a volunteer. Although he continued to visit the doctor, he remained ill until he visited one of the medicine men of the interior and was healed.
“Worship in Africa is very lively and preaching of the Bible is central,” said Bryant. “Healing, deliverance, signs, and wonders are anticipated,” he added. He offered that the Potter’s House would not make the list of the top 10 largest churches in Africa, the largest of which boasts 65,000 worshipers per week.
Bishop Bryant closed the lecture with a critique of the present-day African church that focuses on personal salvation but has no public position on the major issues impacting people such as sex trafficking, rape culture, and dire poverty. He offered, “How will this new reality impact Christianity worldwide? How will it impact Africa? I’m praying for Africa!”
