Divinity School Inaugurates Summer Leadership Institute

By Holly J. Lebowitz

Special to the Gazette

The role of churches in urban economic development was the theme of the Divinity School's first Summer Leadership Institute, a two-week continuing education program for community and church leaders that met in June under the auspices of the Center for the Study of Values in Public Life.

Forty clergy, lay leaders, and community activists from more than a dozen states gathered in Cambridge for lectures on management, finance, real estate, and how theology relates to all of these. Special case studies based on the experiences of pastors and churches involved in economic and community development formed the core of the interdisciplinary curriculum. Classes were taught by faculty from the Divinity School, the Business School, the Kennedy School, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and M.I.T., as well as business executives, financial professionals, and civic leaders from around the country.

"This is a moment of opportunity for the Divinity School to play an important role in the education of 40 urban leaders, and this is a program that can make a real difference," said Dean Ronald F.

Thiemann.

The Institute builds on two decades of collaboration between the Divinity School and its African-American alumni at meetings and

conferences held in black churches around the country. These efforts

culminated in 1994 in a national conference in Cambridge on the black church's economic responsibility for a new urban agenda.

African-American Christianity "has its own traditions and sets of institutions, and these institutions are doing the majority of the

self-help work that goes on in the African-American community," said Preston N. Williams, Houghton Professor of Theology and Contemporary Change and director of the Institute. "But because of the changes in federal programs and support, these institutions not only have to be recognized. They also have to be given some assistance in carrying out their responsibilities. Harvard can provide them with the knowledge and understanding that will make their task easier, and the Divinity School also needs to assist them. The Center for Values has given us an institutional home for this kind of activity."

Cornel West, Alphonse Fletcher Jr. University Professor, delivered the Institute's keynote lecture and reminded participants of "the moral genius of the Black church at its best" and the need to "fuse spirituality and intellect with discipline."

Sociology Professor Lawrence Bobo lectured on wealth and race. Mark Willis, president of the Chase Manhattan Foundation, led a session on expanding access to credit and raising private capital, and Kennedy School professor Christine Letts spoke on the performance of nonprofit organizations. There were sessions on real estate finance and development, management, and entrepreneurship with Business School professors Edward Marchant, David Thomas, and Howard Stevenson, and Harvard Associate Vice President James Hoyte spoke on community-based action in urban neighborhoods faced with environmental problems. Professor Marchant also led participants on a series of visits to local housing development projects that were the result of community and city partnerships.

Former U.S. congressman Floyd H. Flake, pastor at Allen Avenue African Methodist Episcopal Church in Jamaica, N.Y., spoke on the role of religious leadership in society. His church-based housing

corporation, credit union, senior citizens center, and neighborhood

preservation efforts were also the subject of one of the Institute

case studies developed by program coordinator D. Pulane Evans, MBA '91, MTS '94.

The Rev. Charles Adams, BD '64, pastor at Hartford Memorial

Baptist Church in Detroit and a member of the Institute's advisory

committee, said the two-week program represented "a ground-breaking effort to bring together diverse elements of the urban church community to focus on their opportunities and responsibilities for economic development." This responsibility has fallen to faith-based organizations, he said, "because it's been dropped by the government and the corporate world, leaving the church as the only viable source of urban renewal today. Faith can not only move mountains," he observed. "Faith can build cities."

The Institute concluded with the presentation of action plans that participants created for their communities and the awarding of

certificates at a Faculty Club luncheon, with closing remarks by Earl

Graves Sr., publisher and CEO of Black Enterprise magazine.

"This Institute is vital to the continued growth of our communities," said Graves. "I know that no long-term gains can be made in our communities without the church. If the Black community is ever to be saved, it must happen through the Black church. If the Black community is to be saved, the salvation is in this room."

The Summer Leadership Institute was partially funded with grants from Time Warner Inc., Lilly Endowment Inc., the Florence and John Schumann Foundation, and the Henry Luce Foundation.