Celebration of Reconciliation
Continued from page 5
Today,
Spirit-baptized
believers constitute the largest
family of Protestants in the
world. This Spirit-empowered
river has touched virtually
every nation, race, and
language group, and today
numbers nearly 700 million
people worldwide. At Azusa
Street a spark became a prairie
fire, and today is recognized by
historians and scholars as one of the mightiest revivals
and missionary movements in the history of the Church.
In 1906, Seymour began holding services and
something supernatural took place in Los Angeles.
Services were generally unscripted with open prayer
for 30 minutes to an hour, everyone interceded at the
same time, in English and in tongues. There was robust,
expressive worship. People continuously repented and
were gloriously saved and healed. Crutches hung on the
walls, water baptisms were held in the Pacific Ocean. The
early negative press just served to spread revival far and
wide.
Sadly, as noted by Blake, the revival did not continue, as
American society bowed to the pressures of segregation.
Despite the effects of the civil rights movement and
federal legislation that helped overcome segregation
nearly a half century later, the Spirit-empowered church
still needed a breakthrough from walls of isolation,
separation, and segregation.
As a way to renew their commitment, Farmer led
the congregation in a unison reading of the 10-point
“Reconciliation Manifesto” drafted for the 1994 gathering.
Current Race Relations
Aaron Campbell, African-American chairman of the
PCCNA Race Relations Commission, noted that the PCCNA
has made great strides, but there are still challenges and
barriers to overcome. He sees the ultimate goal of the
commission to eliminate the need for such a panel.
“There should be no reason for us to have to talk
about race relations, we need to be able to focus on other
things,” Campbell stated. “However, until that happens,
the commission is providing helps and resources to help
whites and blacks understand how to be more in tune
with one another.”
Campbell stressed that we Christians of all races need
to be more intentional in efforts to connect, in love. “I can
talk Jesus, preach Jesus, pray to Jesus, but until I live Jesus,
I’m just making a lot of noise.”
Holy Communion
In the midst of presentations and reflections upon the
past and present issues surrounding racial reconciliation,
a special moment of partaking in Holy Communion took
place. Bishop Blake, Presiding Bishop of the Church of
God in Christ and the host, Assemblies of God General
Superintendent Doug Clay, and Samuel Rodriguez,
president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership
Conference, led the observance.
“May we who come to the table of the Lord as one
body do more than just talk the talk, but recognize that
we are brothers and sisters in Christ because of His shed
blood,” Clay said. “Communion reminds us that never
again does there have to be separation between God
and man. I pray that we will make a commitment that
there never needs to be separation in the body of Christ
because of the color of skin.”
Rodriguez presented the bread, noting a practice
in the AG church he pastors in Sacramento, California,
to exchange the bread with another person as a sign
of fellowship within the Body as a sign of unity (John
17:21, Ephesians 4:4). Congregants in Memphis were
encouraged to do the same.
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