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Allen Temple Baptist Church Welcomes 1st Woman Pastor in History in Its Centennial Year

Published

7 years ago

April 29, 2019

A message from The Reverend Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Sr., Pastor Emeritus, Allen Temple Baptist Church, Oakland

At last, Baptists in the Bay Area have broken the glass ceiling that has prevented women from serving as Senior Pastors.

Baptists have joined the ranks of Shiloh Christian Fellowship, Patten Christian Cathedral, Center of Hope Community Church and Oakland East Bay Church of Religious Science, all of whom blessed the East Bay with women pastors in the late Dr. Violet Kitely, Dr. Bebbe Patten, retired Bishop Ernestine Cleveland Reems, and most active, the Reverend Elouise Oliver.

Each of these pastors distinguished themselves as compassionate servants, eloquent speakers, talented teachers, spiritual trailblazers, peacemakers, and examples of unselfishness and bold justice advocacy, whose churches continue to impact the city and the nation with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

With the confirmation of the Reverend Dr. Jacqueline A. Thompson as Senior Pastor, both my son and I have retired and welcome her leadership from Allen Temple’s pulpit.

A growing grass-roots opinion in the membership led by strong women and non-patriarchal men who were concerned that Jesus affirmed the equality of the sexes realized that the search community should give first consideration to their first woman assistant pastor. Dr. Thompson was already in great demand nationally as a preacher in multi-ethnic, multi-racial and multi-cultural settings and had won the hearts of her audiences with her charismatic preaching style that reached the Ph.D.’s and the “no D’s.”

On Sunday, April 7, 2019, more than 2,000 members stood in line around the block and more than 90 percent cast their votes for Dr. Thompson to be the Senior Pastor.

I thanked God, most merciful and most benevolent, for allowing me to live long enough to have helped in a small way to prepare a biological son and a spiritual daughter to serve as Senior Pastors of 100-year-old Allen Temple Baptist Church of Oakland, California.

What a way to celebrate this 100th year of our church anniversary.

The Allen Temple members had heard justice issues raised for generations from a prophetic pulpit. They read Luke 4:18 and Isaiah 58. They are not rigid fundamentalists.

The justice-minded members realized that an Affirmative Action program for women should exist in their own church, starting with their own home-grown candidate reared by a single mother who supported her studies at the University of California, Berkeley, which had few Black graduates.

Pastor Thompson earned her Master of Divinity at Howard University in Wash., D.C., where she was a teaching assistant to the renowned New Testament scholar Cain Hope Felder. She earned the Doctor of Ministry degree at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA. Her post-doctoral work was conducted in Israel with Jewish and Arab scholars.

In 1976, Rev. Dr. Ella Pearson Mitchell, Rev. Dr. Malvina Stephens, and Josephine Kulhman were the first women ordained in Allen Temple.

May Rev. Dr. Thompson be blessed with good health and many years to serve as the Senior Pastor of a strong Allen Temple Baptist Church, pregnant with positive possibilities, and may she be warmly welcomed with open arms by the clergy groups in the City of Oakland.

May we work with Pastor Thompson in the ministry of love, respect, and forgiveness; and may

God grant us the courage, unity, and energy to struggle and resist the local and global issues of white supremacy, the criminal injustice system and exclusive health care for the rich, societal blindness to homelessness and poverty, and bold indifference to the inequitable distribution of wealth.

May we become students of economic justice that resists the building of walls at borders, that preaches rugged individualism for the poor and socialism for the rich who pay little or no taxes.

May we who know little about the “sweet bye and bye,” but much about the “nasty and now,” preach about life after birth on an Earth that is abundant and full for all human beings, especially for those of us who have been denied our humanity and dignity.

May the aging clergy in our Baptist ranks embrace a collaborative relationship with Rev. Dr. Jackie Thompson, who is gifted in intergenerational relationships with the large number of young adults who have no ties to the church; who have cut the umbilical cord that tied them to the survival institutions that saved their elders.

Any technocratic culture without spiritual grounding is like a plant uprooted from the soil and its life-giving nutrients.

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IN MEMORIAM: Longtime OUSD Employee Debra King-Cooper, 73

Longtime OUSD Employee Debra King-Cooper, 73 Caption: Debra King-Cooper. Courtesy photo. Special to The Post Debra King-Cooper, a beloved mother, grandmother, queen, sister, church member, caregiver, and matriarch, transitioned peacefully on May 20 surrounded by family and love i

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Debra King-Cooper. Courtesy photo.

Special to The Post

Debra King-Cooper, a beloved mother, grandmother, queen, sister, church member, caregiver, and matriarch, transitioned peacefully on May 20 surrounded by family and love in the comfort of her home. To her children, she was royalty, grace, strength, and unconditional love embodied.

Debra Diane Edgar was born on May 28, 1952, in San Francisco, California, to Charles Edgar Sr. and Mamie Arthur Edgar. She was raised alongside her younger brother, Charles Edgar Jr., affectionately known as “Little Brother” or “Lil Bruh.” She also shared close bonds with her older siblings Carol Edgar-Lang, Maryann Edgar Calloway, and Lonnie Lewis Sr.

A proud product of San Francisco’s historic Fillmore District, Debra attended Andrew Jackson Elementary School, where she met her lifelong best friend and adopted sister, Lynn Green, in the fifth grade. She later attended Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary School, Roosevelt Junior High School and Thomas Jefferson High School.

Debra’s mother transitioned when she was only 17 years old, and her father transitioned when she was 23. Despite these profound losses, Debra remained grounded through the love and support of extended family and lifelong family friends,

In 1971, she married Harold King. On Sept. 24, 1972, they welcomed their first son, Dajuan Artese King, affectionately called “Pop” or “Poppa.” On Aug. 5, 1976, they welcomed their second son, Dante Dupree King, affectionately called “Tay” or “Taboocoo the Baby.”

After her divorce in 1982, Debra assumed full responsibility for raising her sons.

She supported Dajuan’s passion for football by purchasing sports equipment and attending games faithfully. She supported Dante’s love of music by enrolling him in the San Francisco Boys Choir, Oakland Boys Choir, and the Castlemont Castleers.

Professionally, Debra built an exceptional career. She worked at Blue Shield of California from 1973 until 1994, earning multiple promotions.

She later joined the Oakland Unified School District, initially in a temporary role before being promoted into management within the Labor Relations Department. She retired from OUSD in 2015 after years of distinguished service. During her years at OUSD, she built meaningful friendships with her colleagues.

Faith was central to Debra’s life. During the 1980s, following personal hardship, she joined Love Center Church under the leadership of Bishop Walter Hawkins, where she brought her children regularly. She later became a member of Triumphant: A Church Without Walls Ministries under Pastor Dr. Larry Short, who became a beloved spiritual mentor.

After Triumphant closed in 1992, Debra joined Cosmopolitan Baptist Church in Oakland under the leadership of Pastor Larry Ashley, where she remained for the rest of her life.

At Cosmopolitan, she worked in numerous ministries. She served on the usher board, sang in the choir, participated in the AIDS ministry during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, helped feed and support unhoused community members, and mentored and supported a group of young girls.

After retirement, she cared for older adults in her church community, driving them to appointments, cleaning their homes, managing finances, preparing meals, and helping families navigate funeral arrangements after loved ones transitioned.

Even while battling Stage 4 cancer herself, she continued caring for others.

Debra was preceded in death by her parents, Charles Edgar Sr. and Mamie Arthur Edgar; her brothers, Lonnie Lewis Sr. and Charles Edgar Jr.; her sisters, Maryann Edgar Calloway and Victoria Stephenson Knight; and her adopted mother, Clara Oliver.

She leaves to cherish her memory her beloved sons, Dajuan King and Dante King; grandson, Tiyler Dajuan Artese King; sister, Carol Edgar-Lang; goddaughters Monique Belle and Ricketa Matthews Jones (Leonard); daughter-in-love Quiona Sullivan; son-in-love Marcel Walker; sister-in-law Delores Lewis; adopted sisters and lifelong friends Lynn Green, Barbara Stephenson Hill, and Sarah Fine; a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, great-nieces, great-nephews, extended family members, her church family and dear friends.

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The post Celebrating Juneteenth – Frederick Douglass on education and resistance appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

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The content highlights how education and active resistance are intertwined, drawing parallels from historical movements to contemporary challenges. This exploration of Frederick Douglass’s teachings offers valuable insights into the spirit of Juneteenth and its relevance in today’s fight for justice and human rights.

The post Celebrating Juneteenth – Frederick Douglass on education and resistance appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

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