Wednesday, October 14, 2009

White Church Calls Black Pastor


Dr. Jeffrey Haggray

This week historic First Baptist Church of Washington, DC (FBC DC) took a bold step across the racial divide when the traditionally white congregation that once had slaves as members called Dr. Jeffrey Haggray as its first African-American pastor. (Presidents Truman and Carter both attended the church while in office.) In a previous post I summarized lessons learned from Dr. Ed Pruden’s memoir A Window on Washington in which the author recounts his long tenure as pastor of FBC DC. One take-away from the book was that “racial integration took a long time, even in the nation’s capital.” Now the church and capital are once again setting an example of racial reconciliation. I applaud FBC DCs membership and congratulate Dr. Haggray on this happy and momentous occasion.

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