1. Sankofa Calendar seeks to serve as an African American/African World cultural grounding ministry voice out of the Program Committee of the Chicago Chapter of the National Black Evangelical Association (NBEACC).
2. Accordingly, we move that the Program Committee recommend and the Chicago Chapter approve this blog as an official voice of NBEA Chicago Chapter programming inside and outside the Local.
3. Note: Not all blogs are public. Many are written for either personal or internal institutional use only. This Blog is experimental and not yet public. It is drafted for internal Chapter use exclusively. It is written in the spirit of a memorandum. Pending Chapter approval, we will seek to go public however-by way of unfolding strategically planned new media campaign.
4. Our rationale is that without an official program committee blog or internal/external voice of some kind, we cannot effectively initiate and sustain a viable, much-needed Chicago Chapter program, based on the historic African American cultural calendar.
5. We seek to stand on the Black Evangelical Christian Nationalist tradition of one of NBEA's founding forefathers the late Rev. Dr. William H. Bentley, former President and Board Chairperson of NBEA.
6. Indeed we learn from the back cover of Dr. Bentley's chapbook, THE MEANING OF HISTORY FOR BLACK AMERICA (1979), that Dr. Bentley originally understood himself as "A Black Evangelical Christian Nationalist."
7. More, Dr. Bentley's 1979 chapbook was advanced by him, complete with NBEA's evolving Cross of Christ umbrella logo, as "A BECN (Black Evangelical Christian Nationalist) publication #1."
8. In Dr. Bentley's path-breaking contribution, NATIONAL BLACK EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION: Evolution of a Concept of Ministry-Revised Edition-1979, he states, regarding the need to fuse Black History and Black Evangelicalism,
9. "NBEA's mission is to reach Blacks for Christ and his Kingdom. After that, our priority is 'other people.' For us this means also assuming a prophetic stance within our own communities, this time around not as outsiders who come to them in the name of others, as white-oriented schismatics.
10. "We must come as insiders, those who identify with our cultural heritage and therefore, not as Johnny-come-latelies" Dr. Bentley observes.
11. Carrying his exhortation forward, Dr. Bentley further adds, regarding the need of NBEA to 'earn the right to minister to our communities,' the following ministry charge: "It is time for us to return to our communities and to further enrich them with the gifts we have been privileged to have refined in the white educational instiutions of the land."
12. Dr. Bentley concludes his message to us on the need to fuse African American/African World history with the National Black Evangelical Association thrust as follows: "We must 'add' to what is already there--not minister from a posture that what has historically been there is not relevant to the needs that are there. We, like Paul, are debtors! So are all of us, white and Black."
13. The above said, SANKOFA CALENDAR (SC) begins where we are i.e. as a contribution to the NBEA Chicago Chapter's Program planning discussion on hosting what has been put forth by us as BLACK HISTORY MONTH-I (General Focus) Interview/Panel provisionally themed: BLACK EVANGELICALISM IN THE ERA OF TRUMP.
14. The above proposed discussion is advanced to include Rev. Dr. Walter McCray and Dr. Ruth Bentley interviewed by Dr. Margaret King, Pastor Joel Washington, Pastor Chris Butler*, Black millennial pastor of Embassy Church of God Chicago. We are also inviting Rev. Dr. Philip Craig*, Black millennial Co-Pastor of Chicago's Miracle House of Prayer to serve as our proposed discussion respondent.
*The addition of Revs. Chris Butler and Philip Craig were suggested by Bro. Clarence Hogan & Deacon Marsha Washington during their one-on-one phone conversation following the Chapter's phone conference call wherein it was decided in principle to go forward with hosting the above proposed Black History Month-I panel Saturday afternoon, February 17, 2017, in the Fellowship Hall of Garfield Park Community Worship Center.
Respectfully submitted: Rev. Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma), Pastor of Reformation African American Lutheran Mission Church Chicago ("Young Barack Obama's community organizing sanctuary"), 1-25-18, Updated: 1-27-18
Note: For more information about our African American/African World cultural grounding ministries and theology please go to: A) https://sankofalutheranchicago.com or B) http://imanievangelist.blogspot.com/2015/08/about-us-let-envoys-come-out-of-egypt.html/
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