Minister to devote sabbatical to worthy cause By Rhett D. Baird

Posted on Sat, Oct. 13, 2007

We announce who we are, give shape and meaning to our lives, in part, by the institutions and organizations we support and for which we claim some sense of ownership. These groups are the bearers of values that are important to us. They are created and sustained through the days and nights by every person who supports them.

This kind of giving shape and meaning to our lives is as religious and spiritual as any formal sacred ritual. For me, one such institution is the Tubman African American Museum. The Tubman celebrates courage. It celebrates perseverance. It celebrates strength and creativity. It invites us into a deeper understanding of black history. It also invites us into a richer awareness of what it means to be human, how we humans draw strength from community and overcome adversity through the arts.

The new facility near the foot of Cherry Street in Macon yearns to be funded and finished. It deserves local, state and national support. With this support, it can become one of the jewels, not just of Macon, but of the South and the country. It will provide us all with a living history of black people and the inextricably intertwined nature of their history with hope and a determination to prevail arising out of the crucible of slavery, oppression, discrimination and segregation.

As a gesture of support of the Tubman, I have arranged with Dr. Andy Ambrose, executive director, to work during my three-month sabbatical from High Street Unitarian Universalist Church for the Tubman in whatever ways might be helpful beginning on Martin Luther King's birthday on Jan. 15. I am grateful to my congregation for partnering with me and the Tubman to make this idea come to fruition.

It is hoped that this kind of sabbatical might be a model that will encourage an academic or corporate person or institution to step forward and lend a hand dedicating a sabbatical to this worthy cause: perhaps a professor from Morehouse or Mercer, Harvard or Howard, Spelman or Wesleyan, Emory or Atlanta University, Tuskegee or Tufts. On the corporate side, I believe that a corporate sabbatical would be a win-win for everyone. A loaned executive could bring private sector skills to bear and help bring to fruition the completion of this crown jewel in our midst.

What an extraordinary gift of time and talent this would be. What a wonderful opportunity to be a part of the creation of something that will outlive all of us and benefit untold generations to come.

I believe someone is reading this column today who would be interested in such a sabbatical ... perhaps a pastor, a Fortune 500 executive, a professor or someone who is not in any of those categories but who is retired and has skills that could help make the Tubman dream become a reality.

In a stroll through the Tubman, I carefully read about Lewis Latimer, one of the world's 10 most important black inventors. Among many others things, he invented a device for manufacturing the carbon filaments used in electric lamps, and he supervised the installation of electric street lights in New York City, Philadelphia, Montreal and London. I am proud he was also a founding member of the First Unitarian Church in Flushing, N.Y., in 1908.

The Rev. Rhett D. Baird is a minister High Street Unitarian Universalist Church in Macon.