The Pentecost Project

Bishops Richard Allen, Daniel Payne, Paul Quinn and Henry McNeal Turner are revered by some as “The Four Horsemen” of African Methodism. A believer’s review of their collective good works might identify these men of fairer clay as the ones whom the Lord has sent to patrol the earth" causing it to rest quietly— countermeasures to "sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague." 

By Eric Stradford, U.S. Marine Corps, Retired 

AMWS, May 31, 2020, Atlanta – Today, some 2.4 billion kindred spirits can celebrate victory over generations of exclusion.  Way too many have succumbed to fear, whether threatened by the latest global health crisis or leadership’s incapacity to access and deploy historically proven remedies. 

COVID-19 got a little too close over the 50 days between Easter and Pentecost.  But this week, grievers found comfort in the timely transition of their loved ones.  “Ascension Day is observed on the 40th day of Easter,” posted Reverend Dr. Calvin H. Sydnor III. “It commemorates Jesus Christ's ascension into heaven.”   

The occasion found the former Army chaplain ministering comfort through his own grief. “The Sydnor family has lost its matriarch, Harriett Elizabeth Gaymon Sydnor who was born March 13, 1922 in Sumter, South Carolina…”  At the same time, the colonel chaplain ministered power to grieving members of the Reverend James and Alma Stradford clan in the peaceful transition of their beloved sister Ida Mae Stradford Cain of Columbus, OH. 

Chaplains all around the world are poised for dunimis miracles through their fervent prayers for one another and for the special believers they serve.  “Praying for Bishop William DeVeaux and the DeVeaux family in the loss of the family matriarch, Dr. “Pam” DeVeaux.”    

Commander Glenda Jennings Harrison, CHC, U.S. Navy, retired, serves as Vice-President of the Henry McNeal Turner Chaplains Association.  Like many others, she has stepped up to a legacy of uniquely endowed chaplains dating back to 1863.   The Pentecost Project is well underway as chaplains prepare for service in today’s vision of the future. 

During the American Civil War, Henry McNeal Turner (1834–1915) served as the first Black chaplain of Colored Troops in the U.S.  He played a role in Republican Party politics and was later appointed to the Freedmen's Bureau in Georgia. He was elected to the state legislature in 1868 during Reconstruction and planted many AME churches in Post-Civil War Georgia. 

In 1880, Turner was elected as the first southern bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church after a fierce battle within the denomination. The church’s 12th elected and consecrated bishop is revered as one of the four horsemen of African Methodism.   

Turner was born free in Newberry, South Carolina, to Sarah Greer and Hardy Turner, both of African and European ancestry. He grew up under the protection of “Partus sequitur ventrem,” a legal doctrine concerning the slave or free status of children born in the English royal colonies. Turner’s paternal grandparents were a white woman planter and a black man. 

Some Black chaplains today still struggle to subdue an inherited warrior spirit, perhaps evident in Turner’s DNA.  According to the family's oral tradition, his maternal grandfather, renamed David Greer, had been enslaved in Africa and imported to South Carolina.  Traders subsequently noticed that Greer had royal Mandinka tribal marks, so they released him from slavery. According to the same family lore, Greer then began to work for a Quaker family.  

The Spirit of the Original Free African Society (FAS), sustained through Black chaplains, serves as a reminder that the best is yet to come. They represent a unique history.  The birth of the African Methodist Episcopal Church protested racial discrimination and slavery.   

Pentecost Sunday commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ.  In lessons learned during the formation of the Christian church, apostles had returned to Jerusalem for the Hebrew Festival of Weeks, also known as Shavot. This historically unique “Festival of Reaping” or “Day of the First Fruits” would usher in a new era for believers—an era when the modern church of the time received Holy Ghost Power. 

Any scholar worth their credentials can tell you, “dunamis” is not just any power. The word often refers to miraculous power or marvelous works.  Dunamis can also refer to “moral power and excellence of soul.”  Dunamis power is one under-utilized asset available to soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines served by a uniquely endowed corps of chaplains. 

One might ask, “What exactly are you expecting for the year 2021?”  Perhaps a prayer, a prayer for “inherent power, residing in a thing by virtue of its nature.  Up to now, your Mandinka warrior nature has been festering like a sore.  When the power comes, will if find you ready, or distracted by the problems of the day? 

The Pentecost Project 

Pentecost Sunday (May 31, 2020)  to May 31, 2021 – The Pentecost Project is a one-year planning project for a “Learning Journey” to Black Wall Street.  On Pentecost Sunday, 2021, the 21st Century Church of Jesus The Christ, through whom ALL THINGS are possible, shall decree and declare healing, IN THE NAME OF JESUS.  A LEARNING process is proposed for sustaining this decree and declaration. 

People Get Ready!

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? -- 1 Corinthians 15:55 King James Version (KJV)

By Eric Stradford, U.S. Marine Corps, Retired

AMWS April 2, 2020, Atlanta – People Get Ready! is a most appropriate dirge for two or more to gather, pondering the reality for today. This week, the death toll in the United States and across the planet prompts people with and without solutions to GET READY!  Even in the midst of global gloom and doom, any 2 in 2.4 billion Christians on the planet can choose to grieve or believe.

For the believers, the season draws one nearer to an uncommon reality. #HeGotUp! “The Lift” emboldens the next generation to “force the Spring.” It builds on a foundation of Seven Last Words to advance toward a better day. 

In 2020, “The Lift” needs to include some substantial stimulus to help counter survivor’s remorse.  If you own a business, let’s see if you’re ready to do business with government you don’t trust.  The Trump Administration has put a COVID-19 twist on the old SBA 7J loan program.  Back in the day, “minority owned enterprises” tapped into set-asides to help “level the playing field.”  Today, just about anybody can get a million dollars in working capital to keep 10 people employed.  Have you considered subcontracting with the Funeral Home Director as your primary contractor.

If you have set up your last will, living trust and health care power of attorney, consider yourself a prospective asset to a funeral director’s COVID-19 LEARN-2-EARN team.   Pastors are already factored in the undertaker’s business marketing plan.  The reality of the time is that some people will die this month.  Some will live. And way too many will worry themselves about stuff over which they have no control.

So why not take a few worries off our plates. Some enterprising baby boomers have considered three options on what to do with their remains.  In the past, most folks chose ritual over thrift.  More and more folks are considering cremation as an option, but then there’s that long-dreaded fear of burning in hell.  Fear not!  Now we can consider the cost saving alternative of donating a whole body for medical research. 

An anatomical body donation to science is often attributed with an unfair stigma, although the process of an anatomical full body gift is not much different than the process a mortician follows for a standard funeral.  What differs is that an anatomical body donation allows for the collection of viable tissues and specimens for important scientific study, before the remains are cremated.  The cremated remains can then be returned to the family if this is their wish.  The timescale for this will vary dependent upon the institution selected.

“Why choose body donation?” One might ask.  A full body donation can provide a compassionate and humane possible choice for a funeral.  Although full body donation is not as commonly known of as organ donation, it presents an opportunity to donate a greater gift to the future of humankind.