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| Dr Donyelle McCray, Yale Divinity School |
Pauli Murray In and Out of the Pulpit.
The speaker
was Dr Donyelle McCray, Assistant Professor of Homiletics at Yale Divinity
School. She was brilliant. And the story about Pauli Murray was so interesting.
First of
all I have to confess that I had not heard of her. But now I have. She was an
activist before the civil rights movement really took off. She was also a
lawyer and a poet. Rather late she was also ordained in the Episcopal Church.
As the first Afro American Woman Priest.
Already as
a young person she described herself as inwardly male and outwardly female. She
liked to dress in male clothes and carry out traditionally male duties.
Dr McCray
painted a lively portrait of Pauli Murray. And she also introduced three of her
most important inspirations.
Cornelia Smith Fitzgerald (Her grandmother).
Langston Hughes (A famous Harlem renaissance poet).
James Cone (one of the most renowned proponents of Black Theology in the US, who died April 28 this year).
Her
grandmother was a preacher, but not in church. She held sermons to her neighbors
and that inspired young Pauli. From Hughes she learnt about poetry. Murray
meant that sermon and poetry are overlapping genres. I could not agree more.
This is partly what I said in my own presentation. I am aware that I only am in
the beginning myself.
Hughes also
stressed how important it is to use one’s voice in more than one way. On this
note I remember how we spoke about the grunting of preachers in Africa. A
connection to the traditional praise singer, in isiZulu called ‘ibongi’. Either
Hughes or Pauli Murray had said that
Language conceals the human voice
This means
that a preacher should use other sounds. Even weeping as a way of expressing
deep emotions. (This is far from our western preaching style, but in southern
Africa we experienced this a lot).
When the
address dwelled on Cone much was said about the role of anger in sermons. Anger
as something that should not be feared but something that is informative.
The address
was long but very inspiring. I want to learn more about this remarkable woman.
I have found a website but I cannot see that much about her sermons is being mentioned.
The link comes here.
Pauli
Murray was ordained in 1977 and died in 1985. At the General Convention of the Episcopal
Church 2012 her name was added to the Calendar of Commemorations of The
Episcopal Church, and thus to Holy Women.
Something that
especially spoke to me was her love for dogs. She liked to pray with her dog at
her side. This I have done a lot myself, especially early mornings in South
Africa.
