Expounding and Imagining

 My last post was a bout a Center housed at my current church and imagining what that would offer. 

I'm attempting to list out my thoughts and questions I'd like to address.  This is different. I'm thinking of the way I'd write songs and how was used to sitting down and piecing everything together at once. It was later on that I engaged in a process where I'd write a little at a time and come back to it. Some songs came together better over time.  I bring all that up to give myself permission to not ideate everything all at once and be open to the process.

I want to start with the Black Church.

Personally, I'd like to explore the history and legacy as a Black institution. I'd like to explore the Black Church in the Cambridge and Boston area.  How the history of Pentecostal Tabernacle and the role that it has played in the community.  With this church at present being a multicultural and multiethnic church, how did it get that way? What influenced this shift?  How did this church get started? What circumstances brought the people together?  From what I understand this church was started by immigrants from Barbados.  I'm curious with how their experience overlapped with the experience of African Americans. I'm curious about how each nationality of African descended people came to this place. What should we know about one another and how do we understand ourselves as Black, what do we accept and what do we reject.  

I don't even know if these are the right questions however I'm curious about the legacy of the Black church in my local area, how my current church finds itself within that legacy and the histories of the different African descended nations represented within our institution.  I'm curious how PT situates itself within the larger legacy of the Black church in New England. I'd like to help to elevate these stories as a part of our everyday spiritual sense making.  From a church wide discipleship plan for its members make this understanding a part of our discipleship.  I'm not sure if I'm making sense but I'm piecing it together.

Who are the people to talk with about this?

What are the people to team up with on this?  What sources do I need to explore.

What I see is a curriculum across our church that offers learning that is multimedia, place-based and experiential and connects to arts and culture in the form of events that aren't one time but more programmatic. 

I have a side thought.  Does this, could this, and if so how does this connect with the focus of the A.I.M. Collective.

Wow, this evening I took a dive and found some fascinating things that open up more possibilities.

We have the Cambridge Black History Project which is right in PT's backyard.  Two people  affiliated with PT spoke for their oral history project.   This brought me to the Black History in Action Project based in Cambridgeport and looking to preserve St. Augustine's church which has a history of being a site for social action.  This brought me to Kris Manjapra. I'm amazed at the work coming out of his office at Northeastern and I wonder how to work with this office, if there could be a mutual partnership or something. As I'm imagining, I ask for guidance.


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