Rev. Traci Blackmon, pastor of Christ The King United Church of Christ in Florissant and a frontline Ferguson pastor, has been appointed the acting executive of UCC Justice and Witness Ministries.
Justice and Witness Ministries, one of four covenanted ministries in the UCC, “helps local congregations and all settings of the church respond to God’s commandments to do justice, seek peace and effect change for a better world,” according to the UCC.
Blackmon will be commuting in her new role, which she assumes January 1, spending two weeks a month in Cleveland, where UCC is headquartered, and two weeks in Missouri.
She will be responsible for staff at three separate offices: the headquarters in Cleveland, an advocacy division in Washington, D.C. and a retreat center in North Carolina. She told The American she has negotiated St. Louis as her home base through 2017, and though the decision is not hers alone to make, she would prefer to remain here.
“It is important that I stay connected to the heart of the people whose needs propelled me here,” she told The American.
Blackmon was a frontline Ferguson protest supporter who hosted Gov. Jay Nixon in her sanctuary on the day he first declared a state of emergency in Ferguson. Nixon later appointed her to serve on the Ferguson Commission.
“We need someone who puts their body on the line for others,” UCC Board member the Rev. Dwayne Royster told the UCC house publication. “Traci has become a voice for new civil rights in America.”
Her appointment was applauded at the top.
“Traci is a game changer. If we are talking about our promise to live out bold public witness, this woman lives that out to a level of which we can all be proud,” said the Rev. John Dorhauer, UCC general minister and president. “This is a woman who can make a difference.”
Blackmon is the 18th installed and first woman pastor in the 156-year history of Christ The King United Church of Christ, near the heart of the unrest in Ferguson.
“This is what I learned in Ferguson,” Blackmon told the UCC house publication. “That the church is not a static organization that is transported from place to place, but rather that church emerges to meet the present needs of the people. The conversation must begin with a determination to listen and a willingness to be changed.”
Blackmon was ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and served for several years in ministry before stepping in as pastor of Christ The King. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from Birmingham-Southern College (1985) and a Master of Divinity degree (2009), with a coursework emphasis in Womanist Liberation Theology, from Eden Theological Seminary.
At Eden, Blackmon studied under UCC General Minister and President Dorhauer, and is looking forward to teaming up with him in service to the national church, UCC reported.
“I met John while I was still in seminary,” Blackmon told the UCC. “John taught a White Privilege class, and I was one of his students. Our class was small, intense and, at times, uncomfortable, as stretching often can be. Yet, John stayed with it. And he pressed us. And he challenged us. He walked with us. And he was changed with us.”
Before seminary, Blackmon served as pastor of Simpson Chapel AME Church in Columbia, Missouri. She is the founder of the Sista SOS Summit, an intergenerational symposium designed to assist women toward spiritual and sexual wholeness, and is co-founder of “When Women Gather…,” a monthly ecumenical gathering committed to the spiritual growth and development of women. Blackmon has also ministered in a healthcare setting, as a licensed Registered Nurse with over 25 years of experience.
“I have chosen to accept the challenge of acting executive minister of Justice and Witness at this time,” Blackmon told UCC, “because I believe the United Church of Christ is uniquely positioned to reimagine the welcoming table of Christ in ways that create space for all voices to be heard.”
