Rev. Andrew L. Simpson, Jr.

Presiding Elder – Rocky Mountain District

African Methodist Episcopal Church

I am grateful for this opportunity to greet each of you comprising the body of this essential organization who strive to live in unity while working for justice.

On November 4, 2008 I stood in my living room watching the National Presidential Election results and the faces in the crowd gathered at Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois for an anticipated victory rally.  It was not long before the newscasters made the early call that Senator Barack Obama had won the Presidency of the United States of America.  At that historically significant moment my knees buckled and I was on the floor weeping like a child.  My tears were of joy and relief over being a living part of a moment in history in which something so powerfully right and long-awaited had just happened, and the significance of it I would not outlive!

I believe in that moment, all that was happening to me physiologically, psychologically and spiritually was the result of a very real “generational connectivity” in which I, as a part of this generation of great potential and possibility, was touched with the silent affirmations of many past generations who, guided by unrelenting hope and extraordinary courage, pressed on, thus making possible this very real moment of reconciliation and transformation for a nation and the world.

On November 6, 2008, at Calvary Baptist Church, Denver, Colorado, just two days following this powerful transformational experience, your vote resulted in another historically significant moment in which I became the first African-American President of The Colorado Council of Churches. I will be the first to admit that my joy, happiness, enthusiasm and excitement probably greatly exceeded what was deemed “reasonable and acceptable” for such an occasion.  After all, we had just witnessed the really “Big Moment” in history that would surely have long-lasting national and global implications.  How important could any post 11-4 moment be?  For me it was and still is very important!  I consider it an honor and a privilege to have been chosen to step into the deep and chilly, yet beckoning waters of this time in history. 

But at the same time, I find myself humbled, somewhat anxious (actually in a state of trepidation) over the fact that I have entered the very same manifest river of “collective reconciliation” that I witnessed the forty-fourth President of the United States of America officially enter in January.  I have watched his struggles and know that in this river, transformation is an ongoing reality, unstoppable by time or obstruction.  But let me assure you that I’m glad to be in the water and I’m also ready for the journey!

The work of The Colorado Council of Churches over the next several years will not be easy.  The issues challenging us as a nation and globally around the world very often will involve economics and finance, peace and justice.  Throughout these challenges our faith must remain visible, vocal and compassionate as we engage those things that result in devaluation, dehumanization and marginalization of people everywhere; whether by outward design, more subtle institutionalization, or from unintended consequences.  Our faith must continue to affirm the dignity and worth of every human being and the Imago Dei in which all have been created.

My vision for the Colorado Council of Churches is inspired to a great extent by our Mission Statement/Motto:  Living in Unity-Working for Justice!  It is a vision that calls us:  to be in celebration over the richness of diversity, to speak the truth to power, and to be the Praise of God who makes us all one.  This vision also calls on each of us to seek new contextual forms to demonstrate God’s Inclusive Love.

“We are the ones we have been waiting for, to be the embodiment of the change

 we are seeking!”  Senator (President) Barack Obama – 2008 Democratic National Convention, Denver, Colorado-Invesco Field.

On Journey – In Service

Andrew L. Simpson, Jr.