Reflections on the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference
By Ashley Renée Johnson, STH ’18
On the 20th of February, eight STH students, all of whom were students of color, traveled to Richmond, Virginia with Dr. De La Rosa, Dr. Zuill, Dr. Lightsey, and Dr. Fluker for the 14th annual Samuel DeWitt Proctor Clergy and Lay Leadership Conference, a conference that has become a place of pilgrimage for African American faith leaders from all over the United States. The conference was inspired by the life of the late Rev. Dr. Proctor, who received his doctorate from BU STH in 1950, and aims to promote social justice by providing churches and their leaders with the resources that are needed to educate, nurture, and mobilize faith communities. While at the conference, it quickly became clear that this effort was evidenced in everything: everything from the sermons that were grounded in hermeneutics of liberation, to the redemptive and insistent telling of African-American history during plenary sessions and lectures, to the spirit-filled worship services.
This theme of this year’s conference, “The Inward Journey: Return, Remember and Renew,” invited attendees to engage in reflection and to retreat from a chaotic world in a restorative space so that they would be strengthened and able to continue doing the necessary work of social justice in their communities. For the STH students that attended, being surrounded by and learning alongside so many other scholars of color was one of the most revitalizing parts of the conference. It was this incredibly valuable experience that many would say gave them the strength that was needed to journey on especially because this dynamic is not one that is present at STH.
Make no mistake about it, by the end of this four-day conference plus a guided experience on the Richmond Slave Trail, and a trip to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C., the group was tired. But, spirits had been fed, minds had been intellectually challenged, and the group returned ready to continue addressing the critical needs in their communities in order to promote human flourishing.