Our 2006 Perkins Lecturer was the Rev. Dr. James Alexander Forbes, Jr., Senior Minister Emeritus of The Riverside Church and President of the Healing of the Nations Foundation.

Dr. Forbes has earned three degrees and has been awarded 13 honorary degrees. He earned a Doctor of Ministry Degree from Colgate-Rochester Divinity School in Rochester, NY, in 1975; a Master of Divinity Degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, NY in 1962; and a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Howard University in Washington, D.C., in 1957. He earned his Clinical Pastoral Education Certificate from the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, VA, in 1968.

Forbes, who was installed as the fifth Senior Minister of Riverside on June 1, 1989, and retired on June 1, 2007, was the first African-American to serve as Senior Minister of this multicultural congregation. He is an ordained minister in the American Baptist Churches and the Original United Holy Church of America.

Before being called to Riverside’s pulpit, Dr. Forbes served from 1976-1985 as the Brown and Sockman Associate Professor of Preaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. From 1985-1989 he was Union’s first Joe R. Engle Professor of Preaching. Union named him the first Harry Emerson Fosdick Adjunct Professor of Preaching in 1989, when he accepted the pastorate at Riverside. Dr. Forbes also serves on the Core Teaching Staff at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York.

In national and international religious circles, Dr. Forbes is known as the preacher’s preacher because of his extensive preaching career and his charismatic style. In their March 4, 1996 issue, Newsweek magazine recognized Forbes as one of the 12 “most effective preachers” in the English-speaking world. This Pastor, Educator, Administrator, Community Activist, and Interfaith Leader was designated as one of America’s greatest Black preachers by Ebony magazine in 1984 and 1993. He won the Alumni Charter Day Award of Howard University for Distinguished Post Graduate Achievement In Ministry. In 1995 he emerged in the Baylor University Survey as one of twelve remarkable and most effective preachers in the English-speaking world.  On December 26, 2003, Dr. Forbes was featured on Bill Moyers’ “Speaking to Power” where he shared his prophetic principles, which have become part of the Mobilization 2004 initiative at The Riverside Church.

Two of Dr. Forbes’ songs have been published in the Silver Burdett Songbooks for schools: “We Shall Overcome” and “Our Families Together.” Dr. Forbes has performed the narration for several large musical productions, including Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Riverside choir.

On top of all of this, Dr. Forbes is author of two books:

• Whose Gospel?: A Concise Guide to Progressive Protestantism, New Press, 2010
• The Holy Spirit & Preaching, Abingdon Press, 1989

Born in 1935 in Burgaw, North Carolina, Dr. Forbes is married to Bettye Franks Forbes, formerly of San Antonio, TX. They are the proud parents of one son, James A. Forbes III.

2006 Perkins Lectures Theme:

Let’s Talk About God!

Topics:

• Sunday, March 5, 2006 – 7:30pm:
  “God’s Response to Gideon’s Question”
  Judges 6:1-13
• Monday, March 6, 2006 – 11:00am:
  “God’s Concern for Our Satisfaction”
  John 4:4-15
• Monday, March 6, 2006 – 7:30pm:
  “God’s Expose of Counterfeit Religion”
  Isaiah 58:1-9
• Tuesday, March 7, 2006 – 11:00am:
  “Honesty in the Presence of God”
  Psalm 51:1-12
• Tuesday, March 7, 2006 – 7:30pm:
  “What God Has Done – What We Must Do”
  John 9:1-11

Dr. Forbes published these lecture titles in advance and made verbal amendments during the Lecture week.

Posted on March 8th, 2006 by tsims in Perkins Lectures