DARREN SANDS

The Rev. Jennifer Susanne Leath poses for a photo at Tanner-Price AME Church in Windsor, Ont., Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Dax Melmer)
Black denomination upholds stance against same-sex marriage. A gay pastor in its ranks seeks change
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, one of largest Black Protestant denominations in the world, has been wrestling with whether to change a policy that threatens to punish any of its clergy who recognize same-sex marriages.
 
Reggie Cunningham, top, and his wife Ferguson activist Brittany Packnett-Cunningham pose for an image while holding a handkerchief with picture of her father Rev. Ronald Packnett and Brittany, Saturday, Sep. 7, 2024, in Mount Rainier, Md. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)
Ferguson activist raised in the Black Church showed pastors how to aid young protesters
When the Black religious establishment arrived on the scene in Ferguson, Missouri, after the 2014 killing of Michael Brown Jr., protest organizer Brittany Packnett quickly realized something.
 
The Rev. Boise Kimber, at podium, president-elect of the National Baptist Convention, USA, addresses the group's annual meeting at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Md., on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. The Rev. Jerry Young, outgoing NBCUSA president, stands at foreground right. (Adelle M. Banks/RNS via AP)
Connecticut pastor elected president of nation’s largest Black Protestant denomination
A Connecticut pastor will be the new president of the largest Black Protestant denomination in the U.S. His election brings to an end a leadership election that stirred division among members. The Rev.
 
FILE - Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., speaks at Triumph Church, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2020, in Southfield, Mich. Black clergy marvel at the fusion of traditions and teachings that have molded Kamala Harris' religious faith and social-justice values. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)
Kamala Harris: A Baptist with a Jewish husband and a faith that traces back to MLK and Gandhi
Black clergy who know Vice President Kamala Harris, now the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, marvel at the fusion of traditions and teachings that have molded her religious faith and social justice values.
 
President Joe Biden, right, and pastor Dr. J. Louis Felton pray at a church service at Mt. Airy Church of God in Christ, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Pastors see a wariness among Black men to talk abortion politics as Biden works to shore up base
Pastors see a wariness among Black men to discuss abortion restrictions, which have become a key issue in the 2024 presidential campaign.
 
Rev. Dr. Kevin R. Johnson is pictured in this undated photo provided by Brian Communications. After a year-plus search, Abyssinian Baptist Church – the nation’s premier, Black Baptist Church founded in 1808 – has voted to name Rev. Johnson as the new senior pastor, following a rigorous search process and a final vote by the congregation on Sunday, June 23, 2024. (Karim Muhammad/Brian Communications)
Philadelphia pastor elected to lead historic Black church in New York City
The Rev.
 
Associated Press reporter Darren Sands, right, reads the names of United States Colored Troops regimental soldiers, including his great-great-great-great grandfather Hewlett Sands, at the African American Civil War Memorial as part of Juneteenth commemorations on Wednesday, June 19, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
On Juneteenth, a journalist honors ancestor at ceremony for Black soldiers who served in Civil War
Darren Sands, now a reporter for The Associated Press, was researching his family history three years ago when he found a riveting missing piece.
 
Reverend Matthew L. Watley delivers his sermon during Sunday service at Kingdom Fellowship AME Church, Sunday, June 2, 2024, in Calverton, Md. The suburban Maryland congregation, led by Rev. Watley, has landed at the top of a list of the fastest-growing churches in America. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)
How this Maryland pastor ended up leading one of the fastest-growing churches in the nation
The Rev. Matthew L. Watley says it’s not happenstance his suburban Maryland congregation landed at the top of a list of the fastest-growing churches in America. Today, Kingdom Fellowship AME Church’s average weekly attendance is 2,500.
 
The Rev. Brandon Thomas Crowley speaks during Sunday service at Myrtle Baptist Church Sunday, May 5, 2024 in Newton, Mass. In 2015, Crowley, the senior pastor of the church, one of America's oldest Black churches, announced to his congregation, “I am a proud, Black, gay Christian male.” (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
He feared coming out. Now this pastor wants to help Black churches become as welcoming as his own
The Rev. Brandon Thomas Crowley had always loved the Black Church, and developed an ambition in his youth to become a pastor even as he realized he was gay.
 
Rev. Gina Stewart preaches during church service at Rankin Chapel, Sunday, April 7, 2024, in Washington. Throughout its long history, the Black Church in America has, for the most part, been a patriarchal institution. Now, more Black women are taking on high-profile leadership roles. But the founder of Women of Color in Ministry estimates that less than one in 10 Black Protestant congregations are led by a woman. “I would hope that we can knock down some of those barriers so that their journey would be just a little bit easier,” said Stewart. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)
Obstacles remain as women seek more leadership roles in America’s Black Church
Throughout its long history, the Black Church in America has – for the most part – been a patriarchal institution, with men making up the vast majority of its ranks of clergy.
 
In this 2013 photo provided by Regina Fleming Photography, Kevin R. Johnson, founding pastor of Dare to Imagine Church in Philadelphia, poses for a portrait in Philadelphia. Johnson has been selected by a pulpit search committee to lead Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York, known by some as the flagship of the Black church in America. Before he can be hired, the congregation will need to approved his candidacy. (Regina Fleming Photography via AP)
Prominent New York church, sued for gender bias, moves forward with male pastor candidate
A search committee previously sued for gender discrimination over its hiring process has announced its pick for the next senior pastor of a prominent New York City congregation. Kevin R.
 
Rev. William H. Lamar IV, top, and Rev. Cozette Thomas, right, pray with a parishioner during Palm Sunday services at the Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, Sunday, March 24, 2024. Lamar says their churches are still feeling the pandemic’s impact on attendance, even as they have rolled out robust online worship options to reach people. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)
Black pastors see popular Easter services as an opportunity to rebuild in-person worship attendance
As Black Protestants prepare for Easter this year, they hope to welcome more people to church than since the COVID-19 pandemic began four years ago. Black clergy like the Rev.
 
Adam Alcodray stands outside Dearborn High School on Wednesday, March 13, 2024 in Dearborn Mich. Alcodray, 14, is a 9th grader at the school which makes certain allowances for students observing Ramadan. Alcodray says Ramadan carries more significance this year given the plight of people in Gaza. “When you look at what the children are eating in Gaza, you appreciate what your mom makes,” he said. “When you’re having a bad day, realize what they are going through.”
Fasting at school? More Muslim students in the US are getting support during Ramadan
While Muslim students remain a rarity in many U.S. school districts, they are a major presence in some communities.
 
Jessie Wooden, owner of the Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery, sits on a crypt, Monday, Feb. 26, 2024, in the Brownsville neighborhood of Miami. Wooden bought the cemetery after finding out that his mother, who died when he was an infant, was buried there. “All my life I didn’t know her. All I knew that mom was gone,” he says. “For me to be able to come where she’s resting at and be able to just to say a little prayer and talk to her, oh, that means so much to me.” (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
As threats to Black cemeteries persist, a movement to preserve their sacred heritage gains strength
As the national debate over Black history continues, one aspect of the legacy of race in America is undergoing something of a rebirth: Black cemeteries that were established in the era of segregation.
 
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., records a welcome message for an upcoming conference of preachers at Cornerstone Baptist Church in New York, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. For Jeffries, 53, his leadership in the House traces back to his formative days growing up and serving at Cornerstone, a historically Black congregation which he still attends. “It certainly was an important part of my mother’s life, and therefore my younger brother’s and myself,” he said during an interview. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
How Hakeem Jeffries’ Black Baptist upbringing and deep-rooted faith shapes his House leadership
Hakeem Jeffries’ Black Baptist upbringing has shaped his role as House minority leader. Jeffries, a liberal Democrat, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, a conservative Republican, recently took turns reading Scripture at the National Prayer Breakfast.
 
Duke Divinity School celebrate its 90th Baccalaureate service, May 14, 2016, in Duke Chapel with Eboni Marshall Turman, then a professor at Duke and now a professor at Yale Divinity School, preaching. Marshall Turman filed a lawsuit in December 2023 accusing Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York of sex discrimination for rejecting her application to become Abyssinian's senior pastor. (Duke Divinity School via AP)
Prominent Black church in New York sued for gender bias by woman who sought to be its senior pastor
A Yale professor has filed a federal gender discrimination lawsuit against a prominent Harlem church after it did not hire her for its senior pastor job.
 
FILE - Bishop Carlton Pearson speaks at a news conference accompanied by several other clergy members, April 4, 2013, in Chicago. Before his peers would label him a heretic, the late Bishop Carlton D. Pearson was once one of the best known preachers in the nation. In the 2000s. Pearson underwent a cataclysmic theological shift that altered the course of his life – and his legacy among the canon of American Christian leaders. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, file)
Send-offs show Carlton Pearson’s split legacy spurred by his inclusive beliefs, rejection of hell
Before his peers would label him a heretic, the late Bishop Carlton D. Pearson was once one of the best known preachers in the United States.