Yvonne V. Delk

Last updated
Yvonne V. Delk
Yvonne V. Delk in royal blue.png
Rev. Dr. Yvonne V. Delk in 2010
BornMay 1939 (age 84–85)
Norfolk, Virginia
Occupation(s)Christian minister, denominational executive, social justice activist
Known forAnti-racism and social justice advocacy
AwardsAntionette Brown Award, YWCA Sojourner Truth Racial Justice Award

Yvonne V. Delk (born 1939) is a leader within the United Church of Christ (UCC), a Christian educator and social justice advocate. She was the first Black woman ordained in the United Church of Christ, and the second woman to hold a national leadership role in the denomination, serving as the head of the Office for Church and Society. She later served as executive director of the Community Renewal Society, an organization focused on issues of racism and poverty in Chicago. [1] In this role, she addressed issues of homelessness, poverty, systemic racism, community health and affordable housing. [2] [3] She was the first woman and person of color to lead the organization. [4] In 1997, Delk was recognized by Ebony as one of the top fifteen Black woman preachers in the US. In 2023, she edited and contributed to Afro-Christian Convention: The Fifth Stream of the United Church of Christ (Pilgrim Press), providing history of a forgotten tradition in African-American history.

Contents

Biography

Early life and education

Yvonne Virginia Delk was born in Norfolk, Virginia on April 15, 1939, the third child born to her parents, Marcus Thomas Delk Sr. and Cora Elizabeth Chambers Delk. [5] [6] Delk recalls that her parents had lost a child prior to her birth and that her mother, Cora, experienced Delk's birth as a moment of rejuvenation. Delk credits this origin story of healing as a seed that fostered her focus on spirituality. In Norfolk, Delk's family experienced the impacts of Jim Crow laws, threats of violence, redlining, and other forms of anti-Black racism. Due to redlining, the family lived in the city's red light district. Although her father worked on the maintenance staff at Norfolk State College, he also took on additional jobs, including woodcutter, grave digger, and shipyard worker, in order to provide for the family. [6]

Delk was encouraged by her family members to lead a life of spiritual devotion. Her mother, Cora, fostered this devotion by saying "No matter where life takes you, Yvonne, remember who you are and whose you are." [6] Delk was also influenced by the example of her grandmother, Julia Anna Pope Delk, a minister in the United Holy Church and a co-founder of the church's Woman's Home and Foreign Missionary Department in 1917. [6]

Yvonne's religious education started in the home and at church, but she also attended a summer camp sponsored by the Convention of the South at Franklinton Center at Bricks in Whitakers, North Carolina. Franklinton Center, located on the grounds of a former college for previously enslaved persons, Brick Junior College, drew Delk toward an understanding of history, suffering, and spirituality and contributed to her focus on Christian education and the struggle for liberty. At Franklinton and in her home church, Delk met additional mentors that encouraged her to pursue training in Christian education. These mentors included Leila Waite Anderson, a traveling Christian educator, and Rev. Percel O. Alston, a superintendent of Christian education for the Convention of the South. Delk completed three Christian education programs prior to graduating from high school, served as a camp counselor at Franklinton Center, and taught Vacation Bible School and other Christian education programs in Black churches during her college years. [6]

Delk graduated from high school in 1957 and began attending an HBCU, Norfolk State College. While in college, she joined the NAACP Youth Council of Virginia. As a young activist, she participated in organizing 103 sit-ins in segregated businesses in Norflok, Virginia. Following the efforts of the Youth Council in Norfolk, the city's lunch counters were desegregated on July 23, 1960. [6]

Delk graduated from Norfolk State College in 1961, having completed a Bachelor of Arts in sociology. [7] She received a full scholarship to study Social Work at Atlanta University, but chose to pursue a master's degree in Religious Education at Andover Newton Theological Seminary in Newton, Massachusetts. Attending the predominantly white institution came with social and cultural barriers, but Delk persevered with the encouragement of her family and church. While studying at Andover, Delk joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee's Eastern Shores campaign in the Cambridge Civil Rights movement. [6] Delk completed her master's degree in Religious Education and graduated from Andover in 1963. [7]

Career

After graduating from seminary, Delk began working as a Christian educator in Atlanta, Georgia, at the First Congregational Church, an historic Black congregation. She served in this role from 1963 to 1965, during the time of the civil rights movement. Delk then moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where she worked as a parish minister at the First Reformed Church of the UCC, a predominately white congregation that sought to integrate as the inner city neighborhood changed. [6] Following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and related unrest in the city, Mayor Eugene P. Ruehlmann appointed Delk to a commission to focus on the economic and racial inequities in Cincinnati. That same year, she began working at the national level, as one of only a handful of women on the UCC's National Committee of Black Churchmen. [6]

In 1969, Delk left Cincinnati and joined the staff of the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries, thereby becoming the first Black woman to hold a national, program staff role in the denomination. [6] She was secretary for Urban and Black Church Education, and specialized in producing educational materials relevant for use in these church settings. [5] Her work called on her to travel throughout the United States to promote ecumenism and Afrocentric approaches to Christian education. It was through these travels that Delk met and worked with Jeremiah Wright and Barbara Jean Allen at Trinity Church UCC in Chicago. [6] (She worked in this role until 1977.) [7] She also led the Black Church Education Task Force for Joint Educational Development, an ecumenical Christian education program. [8]

While attending her first meeting of the UCC General Synod, Delk met William Land, a civil rights activist and a leader of the UCC's Ministers for Racial and Social Justice (MRSJ). Delk joined with the MRSJ and James Foreman in support of a Black Manifesto that called for increased influence over the direction of denomination's Interchurch Office in New York City. Although her participation in the protest, resulting in missing her formal introduction to the Synod members, her activism drew the attention of other church leaders. For example, the incoming Synod president, Robert V. Moss Jr., selected Delk to deliver the charge for the denomination's social justice mission. [6]

In 1970, Delk traveled to Africa and visited countries in both West and East Africa. She remembered the experience as a formative one that contributed to her focus on Black liberation and anti-apartheid activism. [6] For example, in 1973 Delk took the role as the leader of the Black Church Education Team of the Joint Education Development (an ecumenical organization of six denominations [9] ). In this role, Delk emphasized that Christian educators should seek to help Black children to see themselves a liberated, full human beings and not as objects of oppression. [6]

After many years of working as a church educator, Delk was ordained in the United Church of Christ on November 17, 1974. [10] Delk had struggled to become ordained because the process required a "call" from a local congregation, but due to her national activities she did not have many opportunities to establish local relationships. To remedy this problem, several Black churches in Virginia collaborated to advocate for her ordination. The ordination service was completed at Fellowship United Church of Christ in Chesapeake, Virginia. [6]

Although newly ordained and still completing graduate studies, Delk's reputation in the UCC resulted in the opportunity to provide the charge for the incoming president (1977) of denomination, Avery D. Post. In the charge, Delk called for Post to "Be a drum major for justice." [6] The following year, she completed a Doctor of Ministry degree in New York Theological Seminary. [7]

In 1981, she was chosen to lead the UCC's Office of Church and Society, becoming the first Black woman to lead a national department for the UCC, and only the second woman. [7] She had previously served as the affirmative action officer for the UCC, and before that she was an associate for constituency development in the Office of Church and Society. [7] In 1989, Delk was nominated as a candidate in the election for the General Minister and President of the UCC, becoming the first woman nominated to lead the denomination. [6] She lost the election to Rev. Dr. Paul Sherry.

Delk moved to Chicago to become the executive director of the Community Renewal Society, a UCC-affiliated non-profit organization that worked in the Chicago area to address poverty and homelessness. She was the first woman and first person of color to head the organization. [5] While in Chicago, Delk also served on the editorial board of Sojourners and contributed essays calling for racial justice. [6] After retiring from the Community Renewal Society, Delk founded the Center for African American Theological studies and taught classes affiliated with the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education in Chicago. [6]

Influence

Delk contributed to many programs that focused on ecumenism, racial justice, anti-poverty, and the full inclusion of marginalized persons in religious life. She mentored other women leaders and became an advocate for the LGBTQ participation in church leadership. [6] She served as the chair of the Programme to Combat Racism of the World Council of Churches and chaired the WCC's Convocation on "Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation." [8] While serving on the board of the Black Theology Project, an ecumenical Christian organization that pursued Black liberation theology, she worked with Cornel West to bring more women's voices the project. [6] She chaired the National Planning Committee on Children in Poverty and presented its findings to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1988. [6]

Delk's ordination and work for the UCC provided a pathway for the inclusion of other women in religious leadership. Her work on a Black church curriculum inspired others to pursue leadership positions in the UCC. And her efforts to combat injustice at local, national, and global levels encouraged others to work toward building a more inclusive church. [6]

Personal life

In retirement, Delk moved to Norfolk, Virginia, to be closer to her extended family. [5] Although retired and her eighties, Delk continued to preach and advocate for social justice in area churches. [6]

Awards

Delk received the UCC's Antionette Brown Award in 1979 for "trailblazing leadership". [6] [11] She was awarded the YWCA Sojourner Truth Racial Justice Award in 1994. [5] In 1997, she was named by Ebony Magazine as one of the "15 Greatest Black Women Preachers" in the country. [12] In 2020, the Virginia Council of Churches gave her a lifetime award in ecumenism. [6] [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)</span> Mainline Protestant (religious) denomination

The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the United States and Canada. The denomination started with the Restoration Movement during the Second Great Awakening, first existing during the 19th century as a loose association of churches working towards Christian unity, then slowly forming quasi-denominational structures through missionary societies, regional associations, and an international convention. In 1968, the Disciples of Christ officially adopted a denominational structure at which time a group of churches left to remain nondenominational.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ecumenism</span> Cooperation between Christian denominations

Ecumenism – also called interdenominationalism, or ecumenicalism – is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjective ecumenical is thus applied to any non-denominational initiative that encourages greater cooperation and union among Christian denominations and churches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Baptist Churches USA</span> Baptist denomination in the United States

The American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA) is a Baptist Christian denomination established in 1907 originally as the Northern Baptist Convention, and from 1950 to 1972 as the American Baptist Convention. It traces its history to the First Baptist Church in America (1638) and the Baptist congregational associations which organized the Triennial Convention in 1814.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Church of Christ</span> Protestant Christian denomination

The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a socially liberal mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Restorationist, Continental Reformed, and Lutheran traditions, and with approximately 4,600 churches and 712,000 members.The UCC is a historical continuation of the General Council of Congregational Christian churches founded under the influence of New England Puritanism. Moreover, it also subsumed the third largest Calvinist group in the country, the German Reformed. Notably, its modern members' theological and socio-political stances are often very different from those of its predecessors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African Methodist Episcopal Church</span> Predominantly African American Protestant denomination

The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Methodist Black church. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexional polity. The first independent Protestant denomination to be founded by Black people, AME welcomes and has members of all ethnicities.

The Confessing Movement is a largely lay-led theologically conservative Christian movement that opposes the influence of theological liberalism and theological progressivism currently within several mainline Protestant denominations and seeks to return them to its view of orthodox doctrine, or form a new denomination and disfellowship (excommunicate) them if the situation becomes untenable. Those who eventually deem dealing with theological liberalism and theological progressivism within their churches and denominations as not being tenable anymore would later join or start Confessional Churches and/or Evangelical Churches that continue with the traditions of their respective denominations and maintaining orthodox doctrine while being ecclesiastically separate from the Mainline Protestant denominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congregational Christian Churches</span> U.S. Protestant Christian denomination

The Congregational Christian Churches was a Protestant Christian denomination that operated in the U.S. from 1931 through 1957. On the latter date, most of its churches joined the Evangelical and Reformed Church in a merger to become the United Church of Christ. Others created the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches or joined the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference that formed earlier in 1945. During the forementioned period, its churches were organized nationally into a General Council, with parallel state conferences, sectional associations, and missionary instrumentalities. Congregations, however, retained their local autonomy and these groups were legally separate from the congregations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicago Theological Seminary</span> Christian ecumenical seminary in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

The Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) is a Christian ecumenical American seminary located in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of several seminaries historically affiliated with the United Church of Christ. It is the oldest institution of higher education in Chicago, originally established in 1855 under the direction of the abolitionist Stephen Peet and the Congregational Church by charter of the Illinois legislature.

The United Church of Christ is a Christian denomination. Periodically, bodies within the United Church of Christ issue resolutions for various reasons. These statements may or may not be representative of the United Church of Christ. This article documents notable resolutions from the various formal bodies of the United Church of Christ.

Justice and Witness Ministries (JWM) is one of five covenanted ministries of the United Church of Christ. JWM is responsible for national office ministries related to four areas: economic justice; "human rights, justice for women and transformation;" "public life and social policy;" and "racial justice".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yvonne B. Miller</span> American politician

Yvonne Bond Miller was a Virginia educator and American politician who became the first African-American woman to serve in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly. A Democrat, in 1983 Miller became the first African-American woman elected to the state house, where she served for four years before winning election to the state Senate, where she consistently won re-election until her death in office. Miller taught in the Norfolk Public schools, and later taught early and childhood education at one of her alma maters, which had become Norfolk State University during her lifetime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evangelical Association of Reformed and Congregational Christian Churches</span>

The Evangelical Association of Reformed and Congregational Christian Churches is an evangelical protestant denomination in the United States. It began as a fellowship of churches disaffected from the United Church of Christ due to that denomination's liberal theology. Churches of the Evangelical Association are free to hold dual affiliation with another denomination, as local churches observe congregational polity.

Alison Mary Cheek was an Australian-born American religious leader. She was one of the first women ordained in the Episcopal Church in the United States and the first woman to publicly celebrate the Eucharist in that denomination.

Gabriel Joseph Fackre (1926–2018) was an American theologian and Abbot Professor of Christian Theology Emeritus at Andover Newton Theological School in Newton, Massachusetts. He was on the school's faculty for 25 years before retiring in 1996. Previous to that he was Professor of Theology and Culture at Lancaster Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, teaching there from 1961 through 1970. Fackre has also served as visiting professor or held lectureships at 40 universities, colleges, and seminaries. His papers are housed in Special Collections at Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries, Princeton, New Jersey.

The Kansas City Statement of Faith is a 1913 confession of faith adopted by the National Council of the Congregational Churches of the United States at Kansas City, Missouri. This concise statement of Congregational beliefs restates traditional congregational polity and endorses ecumenism, while also displaying the drift away from Reformed theology that had occurred in American Congregationalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sharon E. Watkins</span> American pastor

Sharon E. Watkins is an ordained Christian minister who became the first woman to lead a mainline denomination in North America in 2005, when she was elected the General Minister and President of the Christian Church in the United States and Canada. She served two six year terms. She preached at the national prayer service on January 21, 2009, at the invitation of President Barack Obama, becoming the first woman to preach at an inaugural prayer service. In 2017, after stepping down from the role of General Minister and President of the Christian Church, she became director of the Truth and Racial Justice Initiative of the National Council of Churches of Christ, USA. She is currently the pastor of Bethany Memorial Church, in Bethany, West Virginia.

John C. Dorhauer is an American Protestant clergy member, author, and theologian who served as the ninth General Minister and President (GMP) of the United Church of Christ (UCC), a Mainline Protestant denomination, from June 30, 2015, through July 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel Henderlite</span> American pastor

Rachel Henderlite was an American religious leader who was the first woman to be ordained a pastor of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS), which later merged with the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (1983) to become the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. She held professorships at several American colleges and seminaries, wrote six books, and was active in various ecumenical efforts.

Carnella Barnes was an African-American ordained minister in the Christian Church denomination. She was one of the first women ordained in the denomination. She served as director of the Avalon Community Center, in Los Angeles, California, for thirteen years. She served as president of the Los Angeles Church Women United, and was the first black woman to be elected president of the International Christian Women's Fellowship in the Christian Church. She was also an advocate for senior citizens, and established the first AARP chapter in Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">W. Sterling Cary</span> American Christian minister (1927–2021)

William Sterling Cary was an American Christian minister. From 1972 to 1975, he was the first Black president of the National Council of Churches (NCC) in its history.

References

  1. ↑ "Community Renewal Society". Community Renewal Society. Retrieved 2021-11-19.
  2. ↑ Anderson, Rhonda (January 31, 1992). "Tearing Down the Walls of Society". Chicago Tribune.
  3. ↑ McCann, Herbert G. (July 21, 1992). "Service Agency in Right Direction". Philadelphia Tribune.
  4. ↑ Hirsley, Michael (April 20, 1990). "Her Life's Work a Symbol of Hope".
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Berger, Rose Marie (1999-05-01). "The World as God Intends". Sojourners. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Hamlen, Mary (2021-05-25). "Yvonne V. Delk: A "Soul on Fire" for Justice". In Hartung, Colleen (ed.). Claiming Notability for Women Activists in Religion | Books@Atla Open Press. pp. 97–122. doi:10.31046/atlaopenpress.40. ISBN   9781949800104. S2CID   241829807.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Rev. Yvonne Delk: UCC's Female Pioneer". New Pittsburgh Courier. June 6, 1981. p. 14 – via ProQuest.
  8. 1 2 3 Staff Reports (2020-12-08). "In her latest 'first,' UCC leader Delk receives ecumenist award from Virginia council". United Church of Christ. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
  9. ↑ "Episcopal News Service: Press Release # 74107". www.episcopalarchives.org. Retrieved 2022-11-20.
  10. ↑ "Ordination of Rev. Yvonne Delk". New York Amsterdam News. November 16, 1974. pp. B3 – via ProQuest.
  11. ↑ "Past Antoinette Brown Award Recipients". United Church of Christ. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
  12. ↑ Kinnon, Joy Bennett (November 1997). "15 Greatest Black Women Preachers". Ebony. p. 110.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.