Dick to give reparation lecture at Oxford
THE REV Dr Devon Dick, immediate past president of the Jamaica Baptist Union, will deliver a lecture on Reparation and Restoration on Saturday, at the Oxford University, United Kingdom.
The one-hour lecture, which takes place at the Regents Park College, Oxford, will present the Bible as the blueprint for the tone, nature and scope of the agitation of reparation.
Dick, who is also pastor of Boulevard Baptist Church, will use the story of Zacchaeus, corrupt chief tax collector-turned-Jesus follower, to provide the biblical basis for reparation. He will further illustrate the lessons for reparation from the witness of the runaway enslaved person as recorded in the Book of Philemon and the beheading of the outstanding prophet, John the Baptist, by King Herod.
The lecture will also examine the atrocities committed during chattel slavery, including the economic exploitation, flogging, imprisonment and killing of the enslaved who dared to pray to God, the rape of women and senseless slaughter of the enslaved people. The lecture concludes with recommendations on reparation.
BOOK LAUNCH
Dick’s lecture forms part of a series of activities centred on Black History Month, February. The series, dubbed ‘Baptist on the Journey to Justice, History and Prospect’, will also see the launch of the book, Journeying to Justice, Contributions of the Baptist Tradition across the Black Atlantic, edited by Anthony Reddie, Gale Richards & Wale Hudson-Roberts.
There will be other presentations on the role of Baptist women in empowering women during the period of slavery and Apprenticeship.
During his visit to England, the Boulevard Baptist pastor will also meet with the first female general secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Lyn Green. This meeting is of significance to Dick, since his successor, the Rev Karen Kirlew, is also the first woman to lead the Jamaica Baptist Union.
Dick will also pay a courtesy call on George Ramocan, Jamaica’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, and will meet with the first Asian to head the Baptist Missionary Society. He will also preach at the John Bunyan Church in Oxford on March 18.