Continue reading »]]> “One Nation, One Dream”

Wilmington NAACP

47^th Annual Freedom Fund Awards Banquet

October 8, 2011

Dear Friend and Supporters,

The Wilmington NAACP cordially invites you to the 47^th Annual Freedom Fund Banquet Awards on Sunday, November 20, 2011 at the Downtown Doubletree Hotel, 8^th & King Streets, Wilmington. The Social Hour is 4:00 PM and the Banquet begins at 5:00 PM. We want you to be part of this memorable occasion, so please help to make it a success by attending.

Our 2100 Freedom Fund Award Recipients work around the clock to bring peace, hope and justice to the community by promoting and cultivating programs to advance Humanity, Education, Healthcare, Youth Advocacy, and Community Service.

Ruth Anne Burton and Doris Wiggins, recipients of the Martha Evans Education Award Boys and Girls Clubs of Delaware,

George Krupanski, Jr. Executive Director for Youth Advocacy Food Bank of Delaware,

Patricia Beebe, CEO. Pres. For Humanitarian Efforts

LaVaida Owens White, MSN, RN for Outstanding Health Advocacy

Gregory T. Chambers for a lifetime oif diversity employment awareness and affirmative action work.

Michael Begatto, Executive Director of Delaware Council 81, AFSCME, AFL-CIO

Belvedere Volunteer Fire Company for Community Service

Simpson United Methodist Church Family for Religious Affairs

Please help by purchasing a ticket (s) and/or placing an ad.

Please download the ad form here fill it out and mail it in.

Continue reading »]]> TUESDAY, JULY 5, 2011 – 7:00 PM

Freedom In Christ Revival

Location:

Mother African Union Church

9th and Franklin Streets, Wilmington, DE 19806

Rev. Dr. Lawrence Livingston, Host Pastor

Worship Leader: Rev. Aaron R. Moore

Special Guest Preacher:

Dr. Christopher Curry, Ph.D.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 6, 2011 – 7:00 PM

Freedom In Christ Revival

Location:

New Destiny Fellowship

906 E. 16^th Street, Wilmington, DE 19802

Apostle Thomas W. Weeks, Sr., Host Pastor

Worship Leader: Apostle Thomas W. Weeks, Sr.

Special Guest Preacher:

Rev. Natalie Alford

THURSDAY, JULY 7, 2011 – 7:00 PM

Freedom In Christ Revival

Location:

Ezion Fair Baptist Church

1400 B. Street, Wilmington, DE 19801

Rev. Dr. Christopher Curry, Ph.D., Host Pastor

Worship Leader: Rev. Teresa Hicks

Special Guest Preacher:

Apostle John T. Graham

Continue reading »]]> On Tuesday, May 24th,  New Castle Presbytery, the Presbyterian judicatory covering Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland, commissioned me as an interfaith peacemaker. 

In my denomination, the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., when a person feels a call from God to minister in a special way he or she may request to be commissioned for that  work.  Through a ceremony of commissioning the governing body (local church or regional body) blesses the ministry.  Commissioning always takes place in a worship service, and establishes a two-way covenant :  The commissioned person is held responsible to fellow church members in the performance of his/her specified duties; and the governing body is held responsible for reviewing the work periodically and supporting the commissioned person through prayer, collaboration, and often funding.

The picture below was taken during the commissioning service on Tuesday.  That old guy with the white hair to the left is me, and to my left is Elder Tyrone Johnson, President of the Interdenominational Ministers’ Action Council of Delaware. Tyrone is working with other interfaith activists in Wilmington, Delaware to establish a statewide office for interfaith affairs.  He graciously made the long trip with me to the Presbyterian Church of Easton, Maryland, and offered the concluding prayer.  To the right is the Reverend Tom Stout, presiding.

To my knowledge no one else in my denomination has requested to be commissioned as an interfaith peacemaker.  Perhaps the job description which New Castle Presbytery approved might be useful to persons in other communities of faith.   I append it below, with wording changes so that it may be used in diverse communities of faith:

A Job Description for Interfaith Peacemakers

  1. Serve as interfaith ambassadors to local congregations. Make friends across faith lines.  With the invitation of your new friends, attend worship and other activities in their communities of faith. Report back to your own community about your experiences., and encourage your community to show similar hospitality.

2. Plan and lead interfaith educational events along with the interfaith friends you have made.

3. Assist local clergy and laity in the planning and resourcing of interfaith worship services, educational events, and service projects.

4. Assist local interfaith activists to establish a chapter of the Interfaith Youth Core.

5. Act as thought-leaders in the area of interfaith relations. Write reflective blog articles and news reports about interfaith events.

6. Act as liaisons to local TV and radio stations and the press, in order to interpret and promote local interfaith events.

7. Encourage communities of faith in your locale to appoint volunteers with duties similar to those listed above, in order to build strong local interfaith leadership.

Continue reading »]]> IMAC, the Interdenominational Ministers’ Action Council is all about helping people of faith organize and advocate, and better their lives that way.  People all over our country are coming to realize that one way to organize for better living is to grow their own crops–yes, even in the city! They can enjoy the delicious taste and nutritional benefit of fresh vegetables, and also thrive from the outdoor exercise and peace of mind which gardening provides.  With perseverance and practice, they can even earn a living by urban farming.

Wilmington’s first urban farm, located at the corner of Thirteenth and Brandywine Streets on the East Side, is tended by Alice Davis, the wife of Tom Davis, co-chair of IMAC’s Communications Committee.  In the video below, which Tom filmed at Wilmington’s urban farm, Alice gives a lesson on planting radishes.

You also might want to check out an article  by CNN’s Dave Matthews, about the accelerating urban farm movement across America.  He writes:

"It’s a reawakening going on. It’s almost like it’s a renaissance," says Cashawn Myers, director of HABESHA Inc. http://www.habeshainc.org/ "There’s a Ghanaian proverb that says Sankofa. Sankofa means return to your past so you can move forward. Even if you look at coming over here during our enslavement, we were brought here to cultivate the land because that’s something we did on the continent. So really, that’s what many of the people are doing now," he said.

Myers believes urban farming is a way for many African-Americans to reconnect with their past. iReport.com: Show us your urban farm

"They are going through a process of Sankofa and going to what they traditionally did, which is connect to the Earth so they can move forward and grow," he says.

Many churches in the greater Wilmington area are starting community gardens.  The difference between a community garden and an urban farm is that urban farmers seek to produce income from the crops they grow.  Urban farming can be surprising lucrative, even on a small plot of land.

If you would like to learn more about Wilmington’s urban farm and the community gardening programs run by the Delaware Center for Horticulture, give them a call at 658-6262.

Continue reading »]]> IMAC President, Ty Johnson, says " I am excited about March being Women’s Month….We honor all women and look forward to the March 19TH when Bishop Aretha Morton will surprise us with her salute to Women. IMAC welcomes all to 5th & Washington Street at 8 am."

Here’s why Bishop Aretha Morton is an excellent speaker for IMAC’s salute to women:

Bishop Aretha E. Morton  is the pastor of the Tabernacle Full Gospel Baptist Cathedral in  Wilmington Delaware and  currently serves on the College of Bishops as the Delaware State Bishop for the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International. This fellowship is one of the first Christian fellowships with an inclusive nature. It encompasses the scope of the Pentecostal movement for its spirituality, the Baptist Church for its structure, and the Word Church for its emphasis on the Word of God. A  truly international movement, with churches in Africa, Asia, the Bahamas, Germany, India, Canada, Great Britain, Italy and of course North America. The Fellowship consist of over 2,500 churches with approximately one million members under the leadership of  the International Presiding Bishop Paul S. Morton, Sr.

Bishop Aretha   Morton has been preaching the Gospel for fifty-twoyears.  She is regarded as a trailblazer for women in the ministry.  In 1983 upon accepting the call to pastor Tabernacle Baptist Church, Bishop Morton made history becoming the first female to pastor a Baptist church in the state of Delaware. Since the church’s establishment in 1919 she has served as the pastor longer than any previous pastor in the history of the church. Bishop Morton has spent her life serving the community and it is evident that her work is greatly recognized and appreciated through the vast number of board appointments, awards and honors she has received.  In 1993 she again made history becoming the first female and the first African-American to be appointed Chaplain of the Wilmington Fire Department. She held the rank of Deputy Chief, thus being the highest-ranking female within the department. 

Continue reading »]]> A local not-for-profit, Career Insights for Teens, has asked me to prepare video interviews of persons in various careers, to give website visitors an idea of what it’s like to be employed in a certain line of work, what it takes to train for it, and what  the job’s advantages and disadvantages are.  So, I’ve been working on the best way to conduct video interviews solo, that is, without anyone to help me with lights, sound, etc.  Shooting video can get complicated. To do it well takes pricy equipment, considerable learning and practice, and careful planning.  I’m still working on all these challenges.

I realized, though, that the interviews in this particular case will  probably involve more telling than showing.  And since talking heads don’t make exciting video , I began to consider whether audio interviews might be better .

Recently I attended a  talk by Terry Gross, the renown host of NPR’s interview show, "Fresh Air."  I’m a fan of Terry’s.  She has inspired me to imagine how I might use audio interviews in my work with local communities of faith and other not-for-profits.

Although it sounds like Terry is sitting side by side with her interviewees, this is almost never the case.  Instead, she speaks from the WHYY radio studio in Philadelphia, and her interviewee sits in a similar studio somewhere else in the world.  How convenient! How economical! 

That setup got me to thinking about a similar interview method using Skype, a free Voice Over IP software.  I’m very fond of Skype because I use it to talk for free to my son and his family in London.  We talk for as long as we like, and sometimes we use Skype video to see each other too.   I wondered whether it might be possible to record a Skype conversation. After Googling I discovered, yes indeed, no problem!  If you run a Mac, my research says that Audio HiJack Pro will do nicely.  If you run Windows, you might try the basic free version of Pamela.

Once I had downloaded and installed the basic Pamela app, I noticed that that free version has a limit of 10 minutes per call.  So then I set about to devise a free way to record Skype calls without time limits. 

After some experimenting, here’s what I came up with:   Set up a recording device, say, a tape recorder or digital sound recorder, half way between your computer’s speaker and the microphone you are using for the Skype call (in my case, the mouth mic of my USB headset).  One of my computer speakers is right beside my monitor.  I set up my digital recorder about a eighteen inches from that speaker, and the same distance to the mouth mic  .

I adjusted my audio settings so that the Skype call playback comes through the speaker, not the ear pads on the headset.  So now, when I have a Skype conversation my own voice is recorded by the nearby digital recorder and the responder’s voice comes through the speaker and is recorded likewise. 

Since there is no time limit on Skype calls, the length of a recorded conversation with this method is limited only by the storage capacity of my digital recorder.  And that’s huge!

Now, imagine what you could do with this free method of recording an interview with someone anywhere in the world!  With that person’s permission, of course, you could use it to share your conversation as an educational podcast.  Or, if you are on a search committee to fill a  vacant position you could interview candidates and then share the recorded sessions with all members of your committee.  Or, let’s say you’re on a small committee and the committee’s members reside hundreds of miles from each other.  Instead of spending the time and gas money to meet in person, hold a free Skype conference, each of you calling from the comfort of your own home.   Record that conference and you’ll have something better than a verbatim transcript, because you’ll have pauses, intonations, laughter, groans,  not just words.   The uses of this technology are limited only by your imagination.

Continue reading »]]> This post and seven more in the series at CyberKenBlog will cover website tips for congregations who lack the funds required to retain the services of a professional webmaster. By in large these are smaller congregations.

This post, Part 1, covers personnel issues related to establishing and maintaining an effective Web presence. The remaining seven posts will cover the following topics:
Part 2: The Importance of a Speedy Broadband Connection
Part 3: Deciding What Your Congregation Wants to Do on the Web
Part 4: Sketching the Structure for Your Congregation’s Website
Part 5: Selecting Suitable Editing Tools for Your Congregation’s Website
Part 6: Using Pictures, Videos, and Sound Files to Get Your Congregation’s Message Across
Part 7: The Importance of Writing Well for the Web
Part 8: Promoting Your Congregation’s Website

………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Part 1: Personnel Issues Related to Establishing an Effective Web Presence for Your Congregation
The chief challenges to acquiring and maintaining an effective Web presence for your congregation have to do with people, not technology. Your most difficult tasks will be convincing your congregation that Web ministry is important, and then, selecting and training people to lead your congregation’s telecommunication efforts. Here are some tips for the personnel aspects of the endeavor:

Elect or appoint a telecom team and inaugurate their work with a brief ceremony recognizing the importance of their leadership to your congregation’s internet outreach.

A team of at least three persons is recommended, because the long-term maintenance of a website can be tedious, and teamwork will lighten the load and also provide backup in case of the illness or temporary absence of team members.

Cross-train the members of the team. Each member should be able to perform the duties of the others so that he/she can fill in temporarily if needed.

Trust your Telecom team to post timely material for the site without getting permission from higher up. The team members should fully understand and endorse the mission of your congregation, and possess the good judgment to discern what kinds of information will promote or hinder that mission.

Encourage the Telecom team members to keep learning about Web resources, so that they can take advantage of new and better tools. Much can be learned on the Web for free, so a continuing education budget is not absolutely necessary. However, your congregation will want Telecom team members who are willing to spend time learning new skills. Don’t overburden them with other congregational duties. Give them the liberty and prayerful support they need to maintain a high skill level.

Celebrate and give thanks for the Telecom team’s accomplishments. Inevitably the team will have to solve problems when things don’t go just right . They will likely have to respond to complaints. This is part of their job. But make sure that the feedback from your congregation occurs not just in those instances when problems arise. Celebrate successes!

–TCDavis, IMACDE Communications Team member