Black History Month 2021: A dialogue about "Black Preaching" - Introduction

A black preacher at St. Giles-in-the-Fields, 1860

Black men and women have long been active in British church life – much longer than many realise. Indeed, with Africans and those of African descent being present at least since Roman times in these British Isles, it stands to reason that their presence and participation in worshipful congregations may very well go back to the earliest days of British Christianity. Never-mind reasonable conjecture, by the late seventh century, Hadrian of Canterbury – described by the monastic historian Bede as “a man of African race” - had left a legacy of formally trained church leaders, better equipped churches, as well as a generally more literate and better educated populace.

The Tudor period saw the increasing immigration and advancement of black people in British society, prior to the Transatlantic Slave Trade, but with the rise of trading in African bodies came increasing prejudice and racialized thinking – it is after all difficult to traffic people without first dehumanising them and treating them as “other”. Nonetheless, against social tides, we see black men and women enduring the hostilities of their xenophobic neighbours and continuing to live their lives – what historian Peter Fryer has called "Staying Power". This included the worship of God and the preaching of the gospel. The earliest reference I have found to a black person being admitted into membership in a white-majority church, comes from the late 1640s where a woman named Frances joined a congregation that would eventually become Broadmead Baptist Church in Bristol (I hope to write about this later in the month). The first record I have located for a black man being ordained to Christian ministry comes over a century later, in 1765. 

Others who came before them either went unnoticed, unrecorded, or their stories are, for now, sadly lost to us. With increasing anti-slavery sentiment rising at a grassroots level led by British Christians, black voices were increasingly published and platformed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Indeed, it has been said that during this period, "Black preachers abounded" and many churches would have for the first time encountered what has come to be called “Black preaching.” 

Over the next several days, I am going to post an exchange I have had with my friend, Olawale “Wale” Akinrogunde about Black preaching. ‘Wale is the Nigerian-born pastor of Grace Church Walthamstow, a replant of what has been called “London’s Oldest Baptist Church”, with a history dating back to 1633. The format is simple: for the most part, I simply ask and Wale answers! You are welcome to listen in and learn by reading our conversation. I will post a question or two a day.

Ryan: ‘Wale, never-mind Black preaching. Define preaching.

Wale: Preaching is the proclamation of the Scriptures, done by a God-gifted and local church-recognised man to teach the whole counsel of God, centred on the incarnation, ministry, suffering, death, resurrection, ascension and exaltation of Jesus Christ as Priest, Prophet and King sat at the right hand of God the Father in heaven as the God-Man. This local church-recognised man weaves a fine thread of Biblical Theology marinated in Systematic Theology from the Old Testament into the New Testament so that his listeners may have a clearer understanding of who Jesus Christ is, all that he has done, is doing, and will do, and thereby see the urgent need for Jesus Christ in our lives as the Way, the Truth, and Life.

Ryan: Can we speak of such a thing as “Black preaching”?

Wale: Yes. Black preaching is valid phraseology.

Ryan: In which case, how would you define or describe Black preaching?

To read 'Wale's answer, return tomorrow for the next post – “In praise of Black preaching”.

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