Woman's Christian upbringing brings unforeseen blessings

TEMPLE TERRACE --
Bernice Powell Jackson was born and raised in Washington, D.C., where she and her African-American family attended a Congregational Church, a longtime Christian ministry she said was known as a body of progressive believers.
In fact, it was the same church in which the Rev. Antoinette Brown was formally ordained in 1853 as the first woman minister of a major Protestant denomination in America.
As a youngster, Jackson was proud to be associated with a church that sanctioned Brown's milestone achievement, but little did she realize that one day she would be on the receiving end of an award bearing that pioneering woman's name.
"When I was a child, I had no idea I would be so involved in the church as an adult," Jackson said.
And this July, during a Tampa general synod assembly of representatives from the United Church of Christ into which her childhood church merged in 1957, Jackson, 62, will be presented with the 2011 Antoinette Brown Award.
It's an honor recognizing ordained women in the UCC ministry who provide outstanding service to their parishes or in other church-related institutions.
Jackson qualifies on both fronts, first as pastor of First United Church of Tampa-United Church of Christ, and secondly as president of the North American Region of the World Council of Churches, a position she's held since 2004.
The WCC is a fellowship of 350 UCC churches from 110 countries that formed in 1948 to combat violence and serve as advocates for peace and justice throughout the world. The nonprofit organization is headed by a general secretary who oversees its eight regional presidents scattered throughout the globe.
Her elected position has enabled Jackson to travel to more than a dozen countries and worship with like-minded people from many nations.
Prior to entering the seminary, she earned a bachelor's degree at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pa., and taught sociology for a couple of years before enrolling in Columbia University's School of Journalism in New York City, where she received her master's degree.
Jackson then went to work as a writer for the National Urban League and later became a writer in the office of then-New York Gov. Hugh Carey.
During that time, she also met and married an Episcopal priest who took her along on several of his mission trips to South Africa. It was there she became acquainted with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who founded the Tutu Scholarship Fund to help female South African refugee students.
As a result of the association, Tutu named Jackson director of the program that gives disadvantaged students four-year scholarships to colleges and universities throughout the United States.
Not long after her appointment, Jackson found herself a widow at age 32.
"When you have a shock like that, you do a lot of reflection to figure out where God is in your life," said Jackson, who then decided to enroll in Union Theological Seminary in New York City where she earned her doctorate in theological studies in 1991.
Her 20 years of service to the UCC, headquartered in Cleveland, began while she was still in seminary.
Jackson was the founding executive minister of Justice and Witness Ministries and has served as executive director of the UCC Commission for Racial Justice.
Following her move to Florida and before becoming pastor of the Tampa church at 7308 E. Fowler Ave., Jackson was an interim pastor in New Port Richey and in New Orleans during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. She lives in Trinity with her husband, Franklyn Jackson, a retired school administrator.
"This is a justice church," said Jackson, noting that the Tampa congregation's core values are peace with justice and being open and affirming to people regardless of their sexual orientation or their racial or cultural backgrounds. The church also embraces working toward building a sustainable and peaceful global society.
"Our congregation is kind of a good mixture of how God made us," she said.
Jackson said she's blessed to be able to serve in two different areas of ministry, one at the local church level and one that encompasses national issues.
"It's not what I thought I was going to do when I was 15 or 20 years old," she said, "but it is what God wanted me to do."