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Dr. Jeremiah Wright receives a warm send-off following Sunday’s service. Photo by Wanda Camm

Rev. Wright Greeted Warmly During Norfolk Visit

By Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter
New Journal & Guide
 
      A month ago the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright created a fire storm of controversy when tidbits of past sermons which included allegedly anti-American and sexist remarks were broadcast on TV and the Internet.    Wright became an overnight sensation because of the most public member of his Chicago church: Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama..
      Senator Obama has since distanced himself from his friend and mentor,  Dr. Wright, now retired from the Chicago church, and  there is no clear indication that the national media’s exploitation of Wright’s comments has hurt Obama’s candidacy.
     Since then, Wright has been careful about not being a source of controversy and distraction for the senator or voters who support him.  The  media  and his chief rival Senator Hillary Clinton have been exploiting the controversy seeking to weaken Obama’s support not only among some African Americans, but Whites.
       So when the media converged on historic Bank Street Memorial Baptist Church last Sunday to report on Wright’s appearance at the 146-year-old institution, what they got was a church anniversary sermon without controversy.
       In fact, Dr. Wright never mentioned Senator Barack Obama’s name once. Nor did he make any references to the past weeks of controversy driven by the media.
      Bank Street Church held its traditional Sunday morning service, the only difference being the presence of Dr. Wright and his two daughters. Wright was there to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of the “Boosters Ministry” which raises money to support missionary travel of church leadership and other projects.
       Before Wright spoke, church officials asked that all media stand and be recognized. The day before during a funeral at the church from where he has now retired, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, national media sneaked into the sanctuary, Wright said, to listen for any controversial statements.
       Although print and broadcast reporters were inside the Bank Street sanctuary, cameras were barred from the building; so no images of Wright speaking or the audience’s reaction to his words were recorded.  

    There were some images broadcast by the local media of him being escorted into the church by security guards and church officials shortly before 11 a.m. and exiting the building after 2 p.m.
       Normally, according to one  of the ushers  at the church, the sanctuary is about 70 percent filled. So before Wright was introduced, the church’s interim pastor, the Rev. William K. Dixon, marveled at the fact that all the pews and additional seating were filled; a sight, he said. He had never seen it that full in the main sanctuary. One of the halls in the facility was used for the people who could not sit in the main sanctuary.

Posted April 16, 2008

 
       Days before, there were questions as to whether the church would cancel its invitation to Wright,  but Dixon, during his remarks from the pulpit noted that church officials had stood strong in their commitment to their decision.
So the  700-plus  people who attended received a very insightful and spirited sermon  on the virtues of faith and reliance on God during the many “storms” of life.
        Wright refused to grant interviews before and after his appearance.
       Wright’s only statement to the media  came from a press release indicating why he was delivering the keynote sermon for the Boosters Club’s anniversary. 
        In fact, Wright’s visit to Norfolk was more of a homecoming than an effort to continue any feud with the national media or embarrass his friend, Senator Obama. A good portion of the church’s congregation and  visiting clergy on hand were long time friends, college classmates of his at Virginia Union or other seminary schools. Many of them have worked with him on national church-based projects  or had attended services at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
       The Rev. Yvonne Delk of Norfolk, who sat in the pulpit during the service, said she met Wright shortly after he arrived at Trinity in the early 1970s.  Delk said she was named to a United Church of Christ committee on cultural diversity.
       “And Jeremiah’s church was one of them,” recalled Delk who still works with the network of 5,700 churches, which has 300 predominantly black churches.  “We want to address the needs of black people, and their families. We wanted to address the issues of discrimination and poverty and isolation through our ministries. We are still doing that now.”
       At the end of the program, a large group of ministers, including Delk, who sat in the front pews of the sanctuary, surrounded him to lay hands on him in a show of support, solidarity, and spiritual protection.
        In the press release, Wright indicated  that he was not a stranger to Norfolk or Bank Street which “represents  a large part of his personal history.  It is the home church of Wright’s mentor in higher education and theological studies, the late Rev. Dr. Samuel Dewitt Proctor and his family.
        Wright said during the  summer, as a child in Norfolk, he attended Bank Street  when it was located on Bank and Charlotte Street, which is part of the Scope Complex in downtown Norfolk now.  John B. Henderson, Wright’s late uncle, pastored at Bank Street.
       Wright said his classmates included Cecilia  Taliaferro Tucker, who is special assistant to the president of Old Dominion University. A childhood friend was Wayne Goss, the son of the late Jocelyn Goss, who died recently.

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