Activism

Pastors of Oakland, Chief LeRonne Armstrong Work Together Seeking Peace on the Streets

After Rev. Phyllis Scott appeared as the keynote speaker at a rally and march around Lake Merritt with Oakland Police Department Chief LeRonne Armstrong last year, she offered to help organize an academy to recruit and train 30 chaplains to help families, police and the Oakland community heal from the acts of violence.

Published

3 years ago

March 31, 2022

Oakland Post

Front left: evangelist Madlynn Johnson, Minister Willdeena White, Dr. Kathy Logan, Chief Leronne Armstrong, Pastor Gerald Agee, Evangelist Gwendolyn Perry, Rev. Yolanda McClarity, Rev. Antone Hicks, Rev. Ora Hicks. Back row left: Evangelist Bea Williams, Bishop Terrence L Millican, Rev. B.K. Woodson, Christin Dale esq., Pastor Phyllis Scott, Bishop Bob Jackson. Photo by Paul Cobb.

By Post Staff

After witnessing and grieving more than 130 homicides in Oakland, Rev. Phyllis Scott, president of the Pastors of Oakland, presented the class of 11 graduates from the Community Chaplain Program on March 19 at the All Nations Pentecostal Church.

After Pastor Scott appeared as the keynote speaker at a rally and march around Lake Merritt with Oakland Police Department Chief LeRonne Armstrong last year, she offered to help organize an academy to recruit and train 30 chaplains to help families, police and the Oakland community heal from the acts of violence.

The chaplaincy program was proposed in a meeting with Armstrong, the Post News Group, the Oakland Private Industry Council, the African American Sports and Entertainment Group and a formerly incarcerated leader and writer.

At the graduation on March 19, Armstrong thanked Scott for working to keep her promise to help the police.

“Community policing requires us all to work together to solve problems and to prevent violence from occurring,” Armstrong said.

Two previous presidents of the Pastors of Oakland — Bishop Bob Jackson and Rev. Gerald Agee — were in attendance and they pledged to work with Scott, the graduating chaplains and the Oakland Post to help OPD do their part to fight crime.