Rev. Brown, a chairman of the Bay Area Ecumenical Pastors Conference who has served as pastor of San Francisco’s Third Baptist Church since 1976, was the guest speaker at the Lovin’ Life Ministries Bay Area’s Jan. 28 prayer breakfast in San Leandro, California. Terry Watters, a member of the San Francisco Peninsula CC, offered the opening prayer at the event.
A former student of Dr. King’s who received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Ministerial Award for outstanding leadership and contributions to the Black church in America, Rev. Brown echoed King’s messages of nonviolence and engagement with the world during his remarks at the Bay Area breakfast.
“On the issue of race, on the backdrop of slavery, Martin Luther King, Jr. did not turn to a militaristic approach, but he turned to non-violence and love,” Rev. Brown told the more than 100 people in attendance. “Most of the evils of this world come from scarcity, those who don’t have enough and try to get it by whatever means they can; greed, those who have enough and cannot be satisfied; bigotry, when you are mad at other people because they are different; and indifference, to see all what’s going on and say absolutely nothing about it, but to wait and look the other way. Martin Luther King was a drum major for justice.”
Rev. Brown also drew on the message of South African leader Nelson Mandela in asking his audience to help create a diverse community of goodwill.
“As did Nelson Mandela, it is time for us to plant a garden, a garden with three rows of peace,” said Rev. Brown, a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. “We need to plant a row of turn-ups – turn up for meetings, turn up for city council and stand up for justice, turn up wherever people of decency and goodwill are working peacefully to create a better world. And I will plant another row, a row of squash: squash gossips, squash bitterness, squash indifference, squash meanness.
“And we will have a beautiful garden, and we will have a beloved community,” Rev. Brown continued. “With all of God’s children – black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants, Buddhists and Hindus, and every one will say ‘I am somebody, I am God’s child.’ ”
The monthly prayer breakfast also included opening remarks by Pastor Kevin Thompson and a performance by the church’s Japanese choir, led by Mrs. Yukiko Zinke. The event took place at the Bay Area Family Church, a Unification Church congregation in San Leandro.
