Praying with African-American Spirituals
March 23 | 10:10 AM - 11:00 AM
In the sacrament of Holy Eucharist as we share in the Body and Blood of Christ, we always say words akin to these: “do this in memory of me.” To sing Spirituals is to sing in memory of the Slaves and their faith, to recall these songs sung for centuries and handed down to us today as part of the legacy of the African American culture.
In this class, the Rev. Dr. Mark Bozzuti-Jones, respected author and public speaker and Director of Spiritual Formation at the Trinity Retreat Center, asks us to consider spirituals in the light of psalms of suffering created by people who never lost their faith that God was with them, was one of them, and wanted them to be free. He discusses spirituals as cries of suffering, as statements of powerful faith in the face of the worst kind of oppression, and as calls to action.