The African American Church Growth Strategy Committee and the Princeton Theological Seminary School of Vocation and Christian Mission will co-sponsor a leadership seminar involving a discussion of the mission of the black church on Saturday, January 29. Reverend Cornell Edmonds, a resident of West Windsor, has been part of the design team that has planned this event and launched a “virtual leadership academy” designed to make web based training available for leadership in the faith community. The seminar is focused on recent articles and web blogs suggesting that “The Black Church is Dead.”
Edmonds has been active in community affairs and youth sports in West Windsor since his family’s arrival to the area in 1997. His wife, Barbara Ingram-Edmonds, is active in the WW-P African American Parents Support Group and the West Windsor Human Relations Council. Their children, Cortne’ and William, are graduates of High School South, and their son Isaiah is a junior at South.
Edmonds was born in Richmond, Virginia, and raised in New York City. He graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor of science degree in 1979. He later earned a law degree from NYU in 1984.
He is also a graduate of the Princeton Theological Seminary. Currently he is an ordained Presbyterian minister serving as the clerk for the Presbytery of New York City, resourcing its nearly 100 congregations.
In West Windsor Edmonds has been involved in events with the Human Relations Council and the African American Parents Support Group. He is a former West Windsor Little League baseball coach and coached West Windsor recreational, travel, and AAU basketball.
The training event includes a panel discussion with Rev. Dr. Peter Paris, a recently retired theology and ethics professor from the Princeton Theological Seminary; Rev. Dr. Gloria Tate, a parish pastor and former president of the Board of the Interdenominational Theological Seminary; Rev. Dr. Lonnie Oliver, a retired pastor and denominational official; Elder Barbara Flythe, an active elder in the Presbyterian Church and a member of the Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church in Princeton; Angelina White, a seminary student at the Gorden-Cromwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts; and Joshua Narcisse, a high school student from Queens who is active with the Dunton Memorial Presbyterian Church. The panel will discuss the mission of the church and the role of leadership in its mission.
African American Church Leadership Academy, Princeton Theological Seminary, Erdman Center, 20 Library Place, Princeton, 347-427-7150. www.ptsem.edu. Register. Free. Saturday, January 29, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
