NYC Congregation Taps Virginia Leader
By Robin Farmer, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.
Aug. 5–A search committee has unanimously selected a minister ordained in Salem as its choice to lead the renowned Riverside Church in Manhattan.
If Dr. Brad R. Braxton, 39, is confirmed by the congregation next month, he will be the second African-American senior minister of the church built by John D. Rockefeller Jr.
Riverside Church is an interdenominational, interracial and international church known for its activism. The 2,400-member church has gained prominence throughout its 75-year history with its opposition to the Vietnam and Iraq wars.
It has also served as a stage for world leaders, including Nelson Mandela and former U.S. presidents. The last senior minister addressed the Democratic National Convention in 2004.
Braxton, an associate professor of homiletics and New Testament at the Divinity School at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., is the son of a Baptist pastor from Salem. Braxton was ordained in the First Baptist Church in Salem in 1991.
A religious scholar, he graduated from the University of Virginia as a Jefferson scholar, studied as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University and earned a doctorate in New Testament studies from Emory University. He served as senior pastor for Douglas Memorial Community Church in Baltimore from 1995 to 2000.
Members of the church, which is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches and the United Church of Christ, learned of his selection on Sunday. Braxton was selected from 65 candidates.
Braxton could not be reached at home or work yesterday for comment. In an interview with The New York Times, he said he is honored at the prospect of becoming part of a church with such a “noble legacy.”
“Part of what religious communities do in their best moments is to seek after the truth with a sense of humility and a sense of openness for the sake of the common good,” Braxton said.
“So I certainly would hope to continue in that marvelous legacy of congregational care internally, and bold, courageous, prophetic action externally, for which the Riverside Church has been known now for so many years.”
Braxton is the author of three books and is part of a team of scholars creating an online, ecumenical African-American preaching lectionary, according to his Web site at Vanderbilt University.
Tinoa Rodgers, director of media for Riverside Church, declined to comment about Braxton’s selection.
“The church has to vote and that won’t be until September, and I don’t want to second-guess them,” Rodgers said. But “the fact the selection committee voted for him unanimously is a good sign.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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