Al Winn Sunday - Isaiah 61:1 - 3; Luke 4:14 - 19, 28 - 30
A Sermon by Alex Evans, Pastor
Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA
Texts: Isaiah 61:1-3; Luke 4:14-19, 28-30
Al Winn Sunday – July 12, 2020
in Celebration of Second’s 175th Anniversary
On the night of February 11, 1944, white and black Christians gathered in this very sanctuary for a significant event. The speaker was Dr. Howard Thurman, Professor at Howard University in Washington, DC, a very distinguished African- American educator, writer, poet, and theologian. About this momentous event in the life of the church – a mixed congregation of blacks and whites with such a renowned guest speaker – the Blanton book, which records the first 100 years of this church’s history, says this: “to those who know the history of Second Church, it must seem that this meeting of inspiration was the culmination of a hundred years of kindly feeling.” (Blanton, p. 324)
Why was this visit to this pulpit by Dr. Howard Thurman so significant?
It was 1944 - 99 years since the founding of Second Church – and a large inter-racial gathering was happening in this sanctuary – which we would consider commonplace today; but that was 1944, in still segregated Richmond.
There are parts of our congregation’s history of which we can be proud, . . . and not so proud. Certainly, that evening in February 1944 with Howard Thurman in this pulpit, remains one of the very proud moments in the life of this church.
That event was also historical because of a certain individual present among the congregation: one Albert Curry Winn, who would become, 30 years later, the 10th pastor of Second Presbyterian Church.
Here is how Al Winn describes that evening in this sanctuary in 1944: I was “a young seminary student from South Carolina, whose mind was convinced that race prejudice is a sin, (he was already ahead of his time – trying to be guided by faith, not his white-privileged culture). (I was convinced, he says) that a segregated society is an unjust and de-humanizing society, but (he says, his) emotions from the neck down were full of prejudices bred into me and conditioned into me from my earliest childhood. Those prejudices were fully inaccessible to reason. But they were accessible to Howard Thurman. As I looked into his great and luminous eyes, (Winn says) and heard the cadences of his voice, and felt the power of his mind and spirit, all my stereotypes were shattered. My hidden assumption that every white person was bound to be superior to every black person was shaken and challenged. Here was a man superior to me and to just about everybody I had ever known.” (Winn, Sermon at Second Pres RVA, Psalm 139, February 5, 1978)
Today, as part of our 175th anniversary as a congregation, we, at Second Presbyterian Church Richmond, celebrate Al Winn Sunday and the transformational ministry of the church’s 10th pastor. Al Winn served as Pastor from 1974-1981. Al Winn was a person with an amazing and great faith in God, and that faith – not culture – shaped everything about him.
Two passages of Scripture illumine our reflections on Al Winn and his ministry at Second Church. First, listen to Isaiah 61:1-3:
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; 2to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3to provide for those who mourn in Zion— to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.
And then hear this passage from Luke 4:
14Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. 16When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read,17and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 18“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” . . . . 28When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Al Winn graduated from Union Seminary in 1945 – a year after that providential visit to this pulpit by Howard Thurman. Al served God for a short time as a Navy chaplain following World War II. He then taught Bible at his alma mater, Davidson College, before going to serve at Potomac Rural Parish, in rural King William County, VA. Filled with the Spirit – as the Scriptures say - chaplain, teacher, and small, rural church preacher.
But then in 1953, this young pastor, raised in segregated SC, and enlightened by his faith, moved with his wife Grace and children to Tuscaloosa, AL, where Al became a Bible professor at historically black Stillman College. Instead of floating along in a culture of southern Presbyterianism, Al and Grace, were led by faith, and a calling from God, to teach and serve at historically black, Stillman College. It was there that he also got connected with the Civil Rights movement which was gaining traction as people like Rev. Fred Shuttesworth, and Andrew Young, and others, were taking on racial injustices in Alabama. Al Winn was all of 32 years old, and standing tall as a person of faith and justice, he invited black clergy from the Tuscaloosa area to gather at his house for study and conversations on Sunday afternoons. He did this knowing full well that the KKK was taking down license plate numbers of all who attended. (See Winn’s Obituary, RTD, 7/21/2012)
There is a strong sense that those words from Isaiah kept playing in Al’s mind and heart: “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,. . . he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, . . . to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.”
These words – and others from the Scriptures – would shape everything about the life and calling of Al Winn.
After 7 years in AL, in 1960, Al and Grace moved to Louisville Seminary, in Louisville KY, where he became professor of theology. He served at Louisville Seminary for 13 years, the final 6 of those years as the Seminary’s President.
Following his time as Seminary President, Al thought he wanted to get another teaching position, but God called him back to the pastorate - specifically this pastorate. He had a growing passion for urban ministry. He felt he had gifts to offer the urban church – a downtown church that had decided to stay downtown. What was God calling and expecting from the urban church – this peaked his interests and gifts. How could an urban church embody the ministry of Jesus?
Second Church, in 1973, had a Pastor Nominating Committee of 40-50 people. Yes. 40-50 people! The congregation wanted to be sure that every faction in the church was represented. I guess there were a few factions. They had a traveling group of 8-10 people. The PNC went to Kentucky to hear Al Winn preach. His sermon was on change and resistance to change. One strong woman on the search committee – I think I know who - thought his sermon was great and pushed for Al to be considered by the whole committee. Some on the committee thought Al was too liberal – worried that he would be demonstrating and protesting and bringing negative attention to the church. When asked about protests and demonstrations, Al told the committee that he did not have any plans to protest or demonstrate, but he also “didn’t think you should give away your conscience ahead of time.” (see Memoirs, chapter 15) Somehow, the committee reached a consensus and called Al Winn to be the 10th pastor of this church. He and Grace arrived in 1974.
The first challenge confronting the new pastor involved the church’s manse, located in a swell section of town – but a neighborhood that prohibited Jews. Al says, “I did not want to live in an exclusive neighborhood, and the house was too big for me and Grace.”
Imagine those words playing in his mind and heart: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, . . . to bring good news to the oppressed, . . .They shall be called oaks of righteousness.” Al sought to be shaped by faith, and his sense of ministry, with integrity, striving to follow Jesus.
He and Grace bought a house in the North Side, near the Seminary, and he says, “it’s not the slums, but it is not where ‘the best people lived’ – as he was told, . . .and (as he says in his memoirs) . . . he recognized that it was going to be a challenging pastorate.” (see Winn, Memoirs, chapter 15).
The challenges continued to emerge because Al Winn, led by faith, seeking to follow Jesus, committed his time to building urban ministries in this urban church. Al Winn sought to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted of downtown Richmond. There were some allies ready and excited and primed for this kind of ministry – and some of whom continue to give love and energy to the urban ministries of this church. The church started the Child Care Center – for people who worked in the center city. The church started trying to serve the community. Assisting Families of Inmates – with strong lay leadership from current member, Tom Edmonds - began for families of prisoners, mostly blacks, but also whites, to keep families connected to their loved ones in prisons way out in the country. Al Winn also got the downtown churches together, to organize a system where each church took one day of the week to provide a hot meal, a hospitable place of welcome. This is known today as Downtown Community Ministries – an alliance that continues to be so important in our city as we seek to feed the hungry, assist the needy, give them garland instead of ashes, for more than 40 years now. (I hope you have read about these ministries in a document written by Tom Edmonds in the July Newsletter)
Al Winn also helped prepare the way for the establishment of CARITAS – the community’s attempt to help the homeless. Al convinced the Session to call an Associate Pastor – not an Assistant Pastor hired by the Session which had been the practice - but an installed position, called by the congregation. David Morgan came to Second and helped so much with the homeless and outreach ministries.
Al Winn recognized something very important about urban ministry and built it out in the life of this church. The downtown church really has two constituencies. There is a constituency that the urban church serves – the needy, the homeless, the hurting of the city. That ministry of outreach and mission, of compassion and justice and mercy, attracts a second constituency of people, following Jesus, people in the church who want to do something about the city. People who live in the suburbs are not going to drive past two or three Presbyterian churches just to come downtown – even if the music is better and the preaching is better. But if they are motivated, Al knew, to do something for the city as a whole, and they find a church that is doing that – serving God, bringing good news to the poor, and release to the captives – the people will come downtown. The service to the community, to living out the good news in tangible ways, makes a church. Al writes this: “We did have good music, and I hope we had good preaching, but Second Church was where you went if you cared about the city.” (ibid) This is, thankfully, still the case.
The Child Care Center, the Assisting Families of Inmates program, the weekday lunch program – Walk-In – and Downtown Community Ministry, and our compassion for the homeless – all reflect Al Winn’s energy and commitment to turn this urban church to urban ministries, to turn this glorious building to serve God’s people, to make this sacred space accessible and attentive to the poor, the needy in this city and world. He was a person of deep and abiding faith in God – and that faith led him, empowered him, sustained him in created lasting ministries in this church that continue to define who we are and what we seek to be about as God’s people in downtown Richmond and beyond.
But this journey of turning the church outward – bringing transformation - was not easy. There were significant members in the church for whom this involved too much change. In writing about those who opposed him, Al says “the motto of this large group in the church when I first got there was “Forward Into Yesterday.” (I think we have some people in our society still pushing for something like that – Forward into Yesterday). This group remembered when Second Church was the refuge of wealthy families – it was less a place to serve God and more a place to be seen. All of this opposition created for Al Winn what he describes as the “dark side” of his seven years as pastor. He did so much, turning the church to the world. But change is hard, and taxing. After only seven years, seven challenging years, he felt he had done all he could at Second, and moved on – to Atlanta, for a short stint at another church before an active retirement of preaching, teaching, and encouraging others.
The work of ministry in Jesus’s name can become quite difficult and get you into trouble. Jesus certainly encountered this – the people wanted to throw Jesus off the cliff. And Al Winn discovered this – the preaching of good news, binding up the broken-hearted, seeking to spread righteousness – is often not well received.
It was in Al’s retirement that he had a direct impact of my life and ministry.
During Al Winn’s time in Richmond, he began to work in the area of Spirituality. The Dean at the Seminary approached Al about teaching a course in spiritual classics. Take note – the Dean did not ask Al to teach a class in urban ministry; he did not request a class in social justice, or prophetic witness. He asked Al to teach on Spirituality. Remember – he had been a Seminary professor and President already. Al jumped at this idea. Well, I was fortunate to take his class – and many students across the south were fortunate because he was invited to teach and speak on this topic all around well after he retired.
Here is what I learned so clearly from Al Winn: the passion to bring good news to the oppressed, to serve God in the world, to turn the church to the city, is absolutely rooted in the spiritual classics and disciplines of prayer, Scripture reading, meditation, and more. Without the connection to God, we will not get very far in the world. Without prayer and Scripture, we do not really know what we are doing or why we are doing it. Without a tradition of faithful piety, we are just protesting. Al embodied this throughout his life. Life is rooted in God; and life is about moving the world toward God’s purposes. Al Winn’s whole life was shaped in that way. I still have all the books and the notes from that class.
And I have this formative experience. On a Monday, we gathered for class with Al Winn, probably to talk about a certain spiritual classic – maybe St Teresa, or the writings of Howard Thurman (one of Al’s great heroes). Dr. Winn started the class by asking us that Monday what we did over the weekend, and why we were not in Washington, DC. There was a big protest event – I think it was a protest against the US troops fighting the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. I think Al Winn had gone to Washington and gotten arrested at the US Capital that weekend. He asked us in the Seminary classroom why we weren’t there too. We said we were studying, doing our course work, trying to graduate. He said, you can’t just study and ignore the big things going in the world. You read Howard Thurman to connect to God AND to justice. God calls us to carry out the purposes of God. We said, “we didn’t know you were going. We wish we had known.” He said, “you got to pay attention to these things.” And then he turned to teaching again about the spiritual classics. Al Winn – anointed to bring good news to the poor, garland instead of ashes, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit - had a way of making a deep impression on faith, life, discipleship, and ministry. This was his life and calling.
About a year after I arrived as the 12th pastor of Second, I got a hand-written note in the mail from Al Winn. He knew me from that Seminary class. He also knew both my father and Ginger’s father well from their years of serving in the church. And he knew that I had come to be pastor at Second. The note that I received touched me so much. Al had received the church’s newsletter at his retirement community in Winston-Salem. He said that he had come to Second in 1974 with a passion to establish a vital inner-city ministry, to help transform the church and community, including the homeless, the hurting. He said that many members bought into his vision. But many did not, so he felt it best to move on. Then he said in the note, “now, it is clear that Second is fulfilling his dreams of what this church should and could be.” He concluded, “I am profoundly grateful and will hold you in my prayers.”
We continue – at Second - to be inspired and transformed by the faith and work of Al Winn who sought to follow Jesus, proclaiming good new to the oppressed, binding up the broken-hearted, giving garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning. This is the work of God. Al Winn keeps
challenging us – to find the good and faithful road toward the promised reign of God. May we keep on that good road. All glory and honor, thanks and praise be to God. Amen.
Prayer of Commitment – Holy God, to turn from you is to fall; to turn to you is to rise; to be open to your Spirit, to proclaim good news to the oppressed, release to the captives, to offer garland instead of ashes – that way, O Lord, is to abide forever. We commit our lives to doing justice, loving kindness, walking humbly following Jesus. Amen.
Alex W. Evans, Pastor, Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA preached this sermon for Sunday morning worship, on Sunday, July 12, 2020 – Al Winn Sunday – as part of the church’s celebration of 175 years and in thanksgiving for the church’s 10th pastor. This is a rough manuscript.