Dean of Howard University School of Divinity pledges to continue, strengthen ties to UCC

Deeming shared mission with the UCC “critical” for the spiritual health of Howard University School of Divinity (HUSD) community, the dean of the school will bring a message of “visionary faith” and collaboration to Cleveland this week.

Dean Alton B. Pollard III will serve as guest preacher June 13 at the UCC’s weekly worship service in the Amistad Chapel of the UCC’s Church House, 700 Prospect in downtown Cleveland.

“It is of critical and faithful importance to the School of Divinity community that we strengthen and renew our common commitment to visionary faith and academic freedom with the UCC,” said Pollard. “You have partnered with us from our historic beginnings to the present day. Our relationship is deep and of longstanding.”

“Even more enduring is the Amistad legacy of freedom that pervades and unites our respective institutional endeavors,” said Pollard. “From the UCC’s support of the defendants in that stirring 1839 uprising called Amistad until this very present moment, the social justice witness of the UCC has inspired us.”

In 2002, the relationship between the school and the UCC was born anew. Under Dean Clarence G. Newsome and in partnership with the UCC Friends of HUSD (“The Friends”), the first James Floyd Jenkins Pillar of Faith Award Luncheon was held.

“The United Church of Christ has always been a ‘friend of our mind,'” said Pollard. “The UCC and our Pillar of Faith honorees have helped us to gather the many theological pieces of faith seeking understanding in this world and put them in the right order.”

Pollard specializes in African-American religion and culture, the sociology of the Black church, southern African studies, Pan-Africanist religious thought, American religious cultures, and the sociology of religion. He is author, co-author, editor and consulting editor of several books and is former associate editor of the “Black Sacred Music Journal.”

An ordained Baptist minister, Pollard is former pastor of John Street Baptist Church (Worcester, Mass.), New Red Mountain Baptist Church (Rougemont, N.C.) and Bell Buckle and Hopewell A.M.E. churches (Tenn.). He is a former associate minister of Trinity Tabernacle Baptist Church in Mableton, Ga., and a board member and consultant to numerous organizations.

Pollard served as director of the Program of Black Church Studies at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta and has held faculty appointments at St. Olaf College and Wake Forest University.

He earned a bachelor’s degree with honors in religion, philosophy and business management from Fisk University; an M.Div. degree from Harvard University Divinity School; and a Ph.D. from Duke University’s Department of Religion.

Learn more about the Howard University School of Divinity.