As I’m getting settled at Berry Temple, I’m struggling to explain the two churches to folks. I find it very easy to describe Berry Temple because it is an historically African-American congregation. That’s a term that people know. I can’t figure out, however, how I’m supposed to refer to Oakley. Our culture doesn’t really have a good way to distinguish Oakley as a predominantly white congregation from Berry Temple as a predominantly African American congregation.
When I traveled in South Africa ten years ago, I was impressed that no one seemed to just be a South African. There was an descriptive word attached to South African for each person or group of people. There were white South Africans and black South Africans and so on. It was the first time I’d given any real thought to how we fail to do this in America. We use the term American and pretend that its generic. It is most often used, however to describe folks from the dominant culture. Every other group of people in our country get a descriptive word attached to designate them as African American, Native American, Mexican American, Korean American, etc.
So, I’m really wondering how to name the congregation at Oakley when I’m explaining to people the contexts in which I serve? Any ideas?
