Center for the Study of Christianity and the Black Experience Hosts Launch Event

The King’s College held an online launch event for the Center for the Study of Christianity and the Black Experience on Tuesday, April 6.

Tim Gibson, President of The King’s College, started off the event by introducing Provost Mark Hijleh, who explained what the Center for the Study of Christianity and the Black Experience will focus around. 

“Through teaching, research, scholarly writing and public engagement, the center seeks to increase our knowledge of Black, Christian communities' influence on the faith around the globe with critical attention to the ancient modern and future roles of the Black church and its contributions to worldwide Christianity, including the civic dimensions of its work,” the center’s mission statement reads.

Hijleh introduced panelists Dr. David Tubbs, Director of the Center, Dami Kabiawu, Associate Director of the Center and the keynote speaker Dr. Jacqueline Rivers. 

“This passion for working on issues of racial justice from a Christian perspective really as a part of a black church has been a driving motivation in my life for the last 40 years,” Rivers explained. 

Rivers, who currently holds the position of Senior Fellow at King’s, discussed her early life in Boston, Mass. She moved there after graduating from Harvard and lived in a violent suburb of Boston with her husband, Eugene Rivers. They both felt like God wanted them to stay there, so they helped guide the people of the community academically and spiritually.  

“Reverend Rivers and I were part of a small intentional community that moved into a poor black neighborhood that turned out to be extremely violent,” Rivers explained. “But, we really felt that’s where God had called us to serve, and so as a result we had the faith to stay in the middle of that community and to really minister to young people who were caught up in violence, were caught up in dealing drugs, who were caught up in gangs, and we saw God did something amazing there in Massachusetts,” 

The Center for the Study of Christianity and the Black Experience is a mission-driven initiative that all students are welcome to be a part of. The initiative will focus on guiding the black community academically and spiritually.