What is the meaning of Faith in the global society as we approach the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century? What is the meaning of Faith post 2016 U.S. Presidential Election? The Tuskegee University Faith Week 2017 will offer the local and national community an interactive opportunity to take a critical look at the meaning of Faith in a world of racism, poverty, climate change, militarism, sexism, xenophobia and religious intolerance in America and around the world.
Faith Week 2017 at the Tuskegee University Chapel begins on Sunday, January 15 on the actual birth date of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and ends on Sunday, January 22. In honor of Dr. King’s legacy for social justice, students, faculty, and staff will worship in the place of their choice on Sunday, January 15.
On Monday, January 16, in observance of the Martin Luther King national holiday, Tuskegee University will present Roland S. Martin as its Lyceum Series Speaker. Martin is a broadcast journalist, senior analyst for the Tom Joyner Morning Show, civil rights activist and author of Speak Brother! A Black Man’s View of America and Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith and The First; President Barack Obama’s Road to the White House. He is a commentator for TV One and host of News One Now, a one-hour weekday morning news show. He was also a CNN contributor, appearing on a variety of shows, including the Situation Room, Anderson Cooper's AC360, and many others.
On Saturday, January 21, Tuskegee University welcomes Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie as the Sustaining and Maintaining the Tuskegee University Chapel Legacy Banquet Speaker, which will be held at 6:00 p.m. at the Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center. Bishop McKenzie serves as the 117th elected and consecrated Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Her historic election in the year 2000 represents the first time in the over 213-year history of the A.M.E. Church, that a woman had obtained the level of Episcopal office. Bishop McKenzie is a prolific author of books which include the titles, Those Sisters Can Preach, Not without a Struggle, Strength in the Struggle, and Swapping Housewives. She is also the National Chaplain for Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and Huffington Post has honored her as one of the 50 Powerful Women Religious Leaders. Tickets for the banquet are $50. Money raised from the banquet will be used to help refurbish and purchase a new piano for the M.L.K. Room and hymnals for the historic Tuskegee University Chapel. Please click here to purchase your tickets online or dial 334-727-8322.
On Sunday, January 22, Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., Ph.D., will be the George Washington Carver Convocation Speaker at 9:30 a.m. at the Tuskegee University Chapel. Regarded as one of the nation’s leading African American intellectuals, Glaude is chair of the Department of African American Studies and the William S. Tod Professor of Religion and African American Studies at Princeton University. He is the author of Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul, African American Religion: A Very Short Introduction, Exodus! Religion, Race and Nation in the Early 19th Century Black America, which won the Modern Language Association’s William Sanders Scarborough Book Prize; and In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America. Glaude edited the anthology Is It Nation Time? Contemporary Essays on Black Power and Black Nationalism and co-edited African American Religious Thought: An Anthology with Cornel West. Glaude has written op-ed columns for the New York Times and has provided commentary on PBS News Hour, The Majority Report, CNN, C-Span, and MSNBC.
Students, faculty, staff and community leaders will engage in a panel discussion and interactive dialogue about “The Faith Community and the Trump Presidency” on Tuesday, January 17 at 4:00 p.m.
On Wednesday, January 18, Tuskegee University students, faculty, and staff interfaith community will have a Mid-week Prayer Break at 12:30 p.m.
The Oprah Winfrey’s “Belief” series will take place on Thursday, January 19. The transforming video series will feature; Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims and people of other faiths talking about how they overcome hatred and other societal injustices.
The Tuskegee University Golden Voices Concert Choir will present its annual gospel concert on Friday, January 20 at 7:00 p.m. in the University Chapel. Admission is free.
Historically, the Tuskegee University Chapel has been the center for religious, cultural and intellectual dialogue since the historic Tuskegee Institute was founded in 1881. One hundred and thirty-five years later, the Tuskegee University Chapel continues to offer a sacred space to critically investigate how faith intersects with culture, art, music and public policy in America and around the world.
Click here to download the List of Events for Faith Week 2017.