Excerpt: She tells this story of how she got her start. “It was the summer of 1980 and I’d just moved to Georgia,” she said. “There was a big church around the corner, Mount Paran Church. My husband said we’ve got to get you to do a concert there.” At the time she already had one album out. The head pastor was a very busy man, there was a 90-day wait to see him, she said. She called it a mega church back before there were mega churches. Being persistent they ask to see a music minister and others. Finally the singles minister saw them. “He took my album and I kind of had the feeling ‘don’t call us, we’ll call you,’” she said. “But I noticed there was a big piano in the hall and I asked him if I could play just one song for myself. He agreed. He came out of his office and said ‘What are you doing tomorrow night?”, I said ‘nothing’,” he said ‘Come play for the singles meeting.’” At that meeting she met a man who owned a coffeehouse, that man asked her to play at his coffeehouse. A pastor heard her play at the coffeehouse and ask her to play at his church. She says that’s how it has all happened for 32 years in ministry. See more at: yourhoustonnews.com.

6. “Mattiwilda Dobbs, Pathbreaking Operatic Soprano, Dies at 90” by Emily Langer

Excerpt: Like many African-American opera singers born in the early part of the 20th century, she was first fully recognized for her talent not in the United States, but rather in Europe — an ocean away from the Jim Crow South where she had grown up singing in her First Congregational Church choir in Atlanta and listening to the black contralto Marian Anderson. Ms. Dobbs’s father, an organizer of early voter-registration drives for blacks, saw to it that she and her five sisters attended college. A series of scholarships helped finance her musical training and took her to Europe, where, while singing as a concert recitalist, she won the International Music Competition in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1951. See more at: washingtonpost.com.

7. “Alva James-Johnson: Preserving Black Institutions”

Excerpt: The next day, I was even more inspired as I stood at the ribbon cutting for a brand new media center that was built for the communications department. The center is named after Leroy and Lois Peters, a black couple who donated $1.2 million for the project. When it was over, I spoke briefly with Lois, thanking her for her sacrifice. She told me it was something she and her husband never thought they could do. But they prayed for God to bless their Maryland-based home health care business, and it all came to pass. Prior to the Oakwood project, the couple also helped build a music education center at another university with a $1 million contribution. See more at: ledger-enquirer.com.

8. “God Is a 24/7 Personal Trainer” by Erin Beresini

Excerpt: “Amen!” say the women who just sat down in the front row. By the time Dan’s done introducing himself, keynote speaker Pastor Debra B. Morton of New Orleans’ Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church arrives with an entourage. Pastor D, a local celebrity looking trés on fleek in a grey dress, black pumps, and big gold hoops, ascends the stage and tells a story about how her 65-year-old husband runs an hour a day. Because he exercises, his cancer surgery (type unspecified) went much better than it would have otherwise, and now he’s seven years cancer-free. “God just kept saying to us how important health and fitness was,” she says. “I felt a commitment to the African American community—our church is 90 percent African American—and I just saw people who couldn’t walk to the altar for prayer.”  See more at: outsideonline.com.

9. “‘Stained-Glass Ceiling’ For Women Clergy” By Leoneda Inge

Excerpt: Chaves says only about 11% of congregations are led by women.  He’s been looking at this issue since his first study in 1998. “But I would have thought that the groups where there are more women, basically a mainline protestant groups, also black churches where there is an increase in women ministers, I would have thought those increases would be enough to move the needle in the national scene, but they’re not,” said Chaves. See more at: wunc.org.

10. “Standing in Solidarity: A Faith-Rooted Call to Action With and for Black Women and Girls” by Andrew Wilkes

Excerpt: For communities of color and of faith, standing with black women and girls is more than a desirable ideal — it is a moral obligation and sacred opportunity. Last weekend, a national planning team launched a campaign to stand with black women and girls under the organizing hashtag of #StandwithBWG. This networked undertaking of public education is a month-long effort of using liturgy, advocacy for equitable public policy, and digital engagement to prioritize the well-being of women of color. It is an effort designed to support, not supplant, the existing leadership and advocacy of black women and girls on their own behalf.

The call to action is for black congregations of faith to move beyond special occasion advocacy — wherein Women’s Day, Mother’s Day, or a publicized crisis generate temporary support — to sustained advocacy for black women and girls that situates their health, happiness, and wholeness within the sediment and sinews, the pulpit and pews, of our sanctuaries. See more at: huffingtonpost.com.

If you know of any black Christian women bloggers and or writers, please e-mail me at jacqueline@afterthealtarcall.com as I’m always interested in expanding my community of black Christian women blogs and websites. As I noted before, while this is a roundup of interesting blog posts and or articles for black Christian women, you don’t have to be one to appreciate these pieces :).