In 1956, Martin Luther King Jr. noted: "You must face the tragic fact that when you stand at 11:00 on Sunday morning . . . you stand in the most segregated hour of Christian America." Little has changed since then, according to Jack Marcum and Ida Smith-Williams: "racial ethnic diversity within Presbyterian congregations is relatively rare; most of the racial ethnic diversity in the PC(USA) is found between congregations" (Monday Morning, March 20, 2000).
In an attempt to address this situation, Commissioner's Resolution 99-9 proposed an "annual opportunity for congregations to hear from racial ethnic minority preachers." The Resolution was approved by the 211th General Assembly, and "urges all local Presbyterian Churches (U.S.A.) [sic] to invite racial ethnic ministers to preach during their Sunday worship services at least annually." How are we doing in meeting that goal?
A question on the Congregational Annual Report form for 2000, a two- page questionnaire that the Office of the General Assembly (OGA) distributes to all congregations as a supplement to the Session Annual Statistical Report form, asked about that. The results show that only 29 percent of congregations actually heard from a racial ethnic guest preacher in 2000, virtually the same as the previous year, when 28 percent reported doing so.
Of those congregations that did invite a racial ethnic minister to preach, 52 percent heard such a preacher for only one Sunday. The mean (average) number of Sundays that racial ethnic guest preachers were present in these congregations was 2.6 which was slightly lower than for 1999 (in 1999 the mean was 2.8).
What types of congregations heeded the GA's suggestion? Congregations with larger numbers of racial ethnic members were more likely to have invited a racial ethnic minister to serve as guest preacher. Two-thirds of congregations with more than 50 percent racial ethnic members invited such a speaker (67 percent) compared to 45 percent of congregations with between 10 percent and 50 percent racial ethnic members and 25 percent of congregations with less than 10 percent racial ethnic members.
Large congregations with more than 600 members were more likely to have invited a racial ethnic minister to serve as a guest preacher (43 percent did) than medium-size churches with 251 to 600 members (35 percent) or small churches with 250 or fewer members (26 percent). Although large congregations were more likely to have invited at least one racial ethnic guest preacher, small congregations tended to have invited such speakers more often. Small congregations reported having such guest preachers almost twice as often as large congregations (3.0 Sundays in small congregations; 1.7 in large congregations).
While it might be tempting to view these findings as evidence that many congregations have failed in the challenge set before them by the General Assembly, perhaps we should see them as a baseline measure instead something against which we can measure progress in the future. It's likely that some (perhaps many) congregations are as yet unaware that they have been encouraged to invite racial ethnic minorities into their pulpits each year. Let's take another look in a year or two with the expectation that we'll see a different picture.
Note. Olga Mayorova worked in Research Services during the Summer of 2001 before beginning a doctoral program at the University of Arizona.
Email the author: Deborah A. Bruce
Research Services