We Welcome Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr. to Our
Pulpit This Sunday, July 14, 2019
Following his graduate studies at Union Theological
Seminary, Forbes returned to Raleigh, North Carolina, where he worked briefly
in his father’s church, Providence United Holy Church. In 1962, Forbes became a
student intern at Olin Binkley Memorial Baptist Church in Chapel Hill, North
Carolina and went on to pastor Holy Trinity Church in Wilmington, North
Carolina; St. Paul’s Holy Church in Roxboro, North Carolina; and St. John’s
United Holy Church of America in Richmond, Virginia.
After earning his Clinical Pastoral Education Certificate from the Medical College of Virginia
in Richmond, Forbes worked as campus minister for Virginia Union University in
Richmond. In 1973, Forbes became a director of education for Interfaith Metropolitan Theological
Education Inc. in Washington, D.C. In 1976, Forbes joined the faculty at Union
Theological Seminary as its Brown and Sockman Associate Professor of Preaching.
Forbes became the Union Theological Seminary’s first Joe R. Engle Professor of
Preaching in 1985. In 1986, Forbes
gave the Lyman Beecher Lectures at Yale University, informing his 1989 publication, The Holy Spirit & Preaching. Union Theological
Seminary named Forbes the first Harry Emerson
Fosdick Adjunct Professor of Preaching in 1989, the same year he was installed as fifth
senior minister of Riverside Church in New York City. His installment rendered him the first
African American senior minister of one of the largest multicultural and interdenominational congregations in the United States.
Following his address
at the 2004 Democratic National
Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, Forbes led an interfaith rally and
demonstration at Riverside Church as part of the Church’s Mobilization 2004
campaign. In 2007, he formed the Healing of the Nations Foundation, a
non-partisan, non-profit, national ministry of healing and spiritual revitalization.
That same year, Forbes retired as senior minister emeritus of
Riverside Church. He authored Whose Gospel?: A Concise Guide to Progressive
Protestantism in
2009.
Forbes was the recipient of fourteen honorary degrees,
including D.D. degrees from Princeton University,
Trinity College, Colgate University, and University of Richmond. In 1996, Newsweek recognized
Forbes as one of the twelve “most effective preachers” in the English-speaking world.
Forbes and his wife, Bettye Forbes, have one son,
James A. Forbes III.
(Reverend Dr. James A.
Forbes, Jr. was interviewed by The History Makers on September
21, 2016)