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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
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