Word From Our President

September 7, 2009

Dear Brothers’ on the journey,

            Grace and peace be with you in this time that our Church calls ordinary, but we continue to see extraordinary things occurring. All is well with you and your ministry, I pray. This is just a quick note to introduce the NBCCC’s Board for the 2009-2011. Also we must give an updated schedule and place for our annual meeting in July 2010.
            These are exciting times in the illustrious life of our organization. In New Orleans this year we have elected new officers that will with your assistance lead our organization, our individual ministries, the Black Catholic community, and the entire Church into a renaissance that will be a leaven to our world! Included with this letter is the new board and contact information. Please call with problems, queries, suggestions, or just to find out what is going on around the country. We the members that make up your board are committed to follow the great work of our immediate counterparts as well our illustrious work of our founders on whose shoulders we stand!
            Brothers’ we need your assistance. We see even with the election of President Barack Obama there are a myriad of issues that face our people that we as a Caucus must embrace. The most pressing is to stop the “blood letting” of our folk leaving the Church that as Africans in the Diaspora we assisted Christ in building! We are asking for volunteers to become Regional Coordinators. This will enable us to ensure that all communications are disseminated to the membership. Also we your board can gain a better grasp on what is happening with the membership around the country. It would be beneficial for the members of a region to have at least 2 gatherings between now and our annual meeting as a Caucus.
            We are also creating a media response team. Utilizing our various talents and expertise to answer pressing issues with the appropriate response to issues that challenge our community. This will assist us to regain our prophetic voice nationally. If anyone would like to join this team, please contact Father Victor Cohea or I, and tell us your area of expertise. We will contact you to assist us in the proper response to pressing problems.
            Our annual meeting location has changed. The sisters are having their Women’s Conference the second week in August. Most of us have obligations (i.e. schools) that require us to be back in our ministries by that time. Sister Roberta Fulton, SND the new president for the NBSC has asked that we meet at our regular time as a Joint Conference (last full week in July) in 2011 & 2013. Congress XII will convene in 2012 in Indianapolis and we want to meet just as a Joint Conference 1 day prior to the start of Congress. Information will be forth coming soon with particulars about next year’s meeting. Please make plans to “meet me in St. Louis!” July 26-28 in St. Louis, MO!
            Thank you in advance for your prayer, time, and assistance as we together answer our call to share the Good News as a caucus. Please pass this information to a brother who is in the vineyard that has not received this message.
            If there is anything that any member of the board or I need to do to assist you and our mission, please do not hesitate to contact us. We will be contacting you!

Always in Christ,
Father Anthony M. Bozeman, SSJ, President NBCCC

May 1, 2009

Dear Brothers,

This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. I hope that this Easter season continues to truly a blessing for us all. This is a very busy time for the church. It is a time for new beginnings. It is a time that we baptize and bring newly professed Catholics into full membership into the Church of Christ. This is always a time of joy and celebration and a time for us to renew our calling and commitment to go to all nations and preach the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is a wonderful thing to be called by God. It is a wonderful thing to be called to serve. Sometimes we get so busy doing the Lord’s work that we need to take the time to remind ourselves why we do what we do.

Four things are keeping the NBCCC board busy during this season in addition to their normal day-to-day activities. I want to take this opportunity to thank the board for all the hard work that they provide on behalf of our organization. First, we are busy preparing for our annual meeting in New Orleans at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside hotel from July 27th thru the 29th. Registration forms are included in May’s newsletter and they are posted on our web site http://www.nbccc-us.com/. We understand the awful economic times that we all are struggling with and we being as frugal as possible as we plan. Second, the local committee, chaired by Fr. Anthony Bozeman, is doing everything possible to make this a wonderful meeting. Third, we are preparing the organization for a smooth transition in leadership since this is an election year. Nomination forms are included in the newsletter and will also be posted on the web site. We need to elect 3 new officers and 3 new board members. Fourth, we are actively pursuing the Summit as we approach our annual meeting. Much of our meeting time will be dedicated to the Summit.

The main reason that we chose New Orleans the site for our 2009 annual meeting was because the Knights of Peter Claver are celebrating their 100 year as an organization and many of our membership are knights and we want to encourage as many as possible to support them. Many of our membership will not be able to stay for their entire meeting which starts on July 31 thru August 6 but some may be able to participate in the opening ceremony and liturgy that be August 1st. This is a time for us to celebrate and be proud of this milestone in our African American Catholic history.

Peace,
Dunn

November 11, 2007

Greetings to my brothers in Christ,

It seems like only yesterday that we were in New Orleans. I am evidently at that point of my life where left reminds me of a roll of toilet paper, the closer you get to the end, the faster it goes. I want to take this time to thank the members of the local committee that worked so hard to help make our meeting a success. I thank God for sending the members that attended the meeting in New Orleans. Our being in New Orleans was a very positive statement of our brothers and sisters that suffered and are still challenged two years after Katrina. I want to thank the members for raising $15,000 that we presented to Norman Francis, the president of Xavier University of Louisiana, to be used by the Campus Ministry department at Xavier. I received a thank you letter from Fr. Jeffery Ott, the chaplain at Xavier, for the donation. We should all be proud of what we can accomplish when we work together.

The dates for next year’s meeting are July 27 – August 1 in Montgomery, Alabama. During next years meeting we will celebrate our 40th anniversary an organization. This will be a time for us to look back and celebrate our history and also look forward to the challenges that we will face as we go forward as an organizational serving the children of God. It is my hope that we can do something special for the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University as we celebrate our 40th anniversary. The Institute was birthed from the efforts of the NBCCC.

In October the board met in Montgomery and began to plan for our next annual meeting. During part of our meeting we met with the National Black Sisters Conference’s, NBSC, board. I would like to thank Sister Barbara Spears, the president of the sisters’ organization, for working with us to make this joint board meeting possible. This was the first time that our two boards have met together in many years. I hope that we can continue to meet together.

Our previous two board meetings were held in Atlanta. We met there in order to meet with Archbishop Wilton Gregory to discuss the concerns that have been voiced by African American Catholics around the country. Please pray for Archbishop Gregory’s continued recovery from recent surgery. He was very gracious and candid when we met with him. He recommended that we approach the NBCC and request that they appoint a committee to study the effect of the GIRM and the new Sacramentary on African American Catholics. I made this request to the NBCC and was informed that the NBCC does not have the authority to “appoint” committees, which impact the liturgy of the Church.

The board decided to approach the Black Catholic Theological Symposium (BCTS) to study these two documents. Fr. Cyprian Davis took our request to the BCTS and they decided to create a subcommittee to study the two items. They will discuss the findings at their next meeting in Chicago next October. I am very pleased that the BCTS decided to take this on as a project and we are looking to hearing from our Black Catholic Theologians on these issues.

Progress is being made on a new web site for our organization. Our new board member Fr. Roy Lee is working diligently on this project. Dues statements will be sent to all the members for 2008 dues before the end of this year. This is the first time that this has been done. The board made this decision at our recent board meeting and it will allow the organization to function better as we plan for next year and especially as we plan for our 40th anniversary meeting and celebration. Efforts are being made with the sisters’ organization to select sites for our annual meeting for the next three years. We want to get back to the point where we know where we will hold our annual meetings at least three years in advance.

Peace,
Dunn