Church Folk - Michele Andrea Bowen [120]
Chapter Twenty-eight
ESSIE SAT DOWN JUST AS THE ORGANIST STARTED UP a somber march to herald the entrance of the bishops, candidates for bishop, and prominent ministers.
This would be the last session before the final vote was cast to elect the new bishops this evening. The first three of the four voting sessions had eliminated all but ten of the sixty candidates. And this was the day the bishops would do their most ferocious politicking to get their choice man into one of those four seats. It was the last day to help or oppose any man you wanted to have a lifetime job of running your church.
The first candidate for bishop in the procession was Ernest Brown, who was marching next to his son. Ernest was stepping boldly and with great pride, like he had already been elected a bishop. But Marcel was dragging and looking battered, as if he had gotten into some kind of brawl. But that wasn't likely, Essie thought. Marcel Brown was too cowardly and stuck on himself to fight somebody straight-up.
Ernest Brown was wearing a pale purple shirt with a matching tie under his robe, forgoing his black clerical shirt for one that would give the impression that he was a shoo-in for a bishop's seat. The sight disgusted Susie James, who was sitting next to Essie. She couldn't understand how men like him always managed to get away with so much dirt. And it was taking too long for them all to march up onto the stage— and not because the processional was so large. It was because they were all marching slowly, to make sure that nobody missed them and who they were walking with. In fact, before the session started, groups of bishops had held court in the gymnasium with the candidate of their choice. A couple of bishops had even taken turns walking around the building with a hand on the shoulder of the man they wanted to occupy one of those four coveted episcopal seats.
Essie looked around the room for Theophilus and was relieved to see him standing with Eddie, Johnnie, and Willis. She was worried about him, and it showed on her face. Lee Allie reached across Susie James and squeezed her hand.
"Essie Lee, Theophilus is gone be just fine."
"I know, Mama. But I hope he knows that he's going to be all right."
"He does. Not up in his head, where he running down a list of everything he got to worry about, but deep down in his heart, where he can feel God pulling at him and nudging him to take this stance this morning. Rev. James is right that Theophilus got a whole lot to offer this church. But it ain't gone do nobody a bit of good if he don't learn to stand up for what's right. Just think about what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., must be feeling every time he got to face those evil white folks in all those places he go to, to protest for our rights. I'd bet some money that he has been real scared a many a day. And this thing that Theophilus got to do, ain't nowhere close to the danger Dr. King facing just about every single day."
The men finally made it up onto the stage, and Bishop Giles walked to the microphone just as everybody took their seats. He opened the large Bible lying on the podium and turned it to the chapter selected for the morning's scripture reading. But before he had a chance to open his mouth, Bishop Jennings came up over to him.
"Sit down, Lawson," he said.
Bishop Giles looked at Bishop Jennings like he was crazy.
"I said sit down, Lawson. You don't have a right to stand up here in front of all of these people."
Bishop Giles stepped back from the podium and said indignantly to Bishop Jennings, "What do you mean I don't have a right to stand here? I think, Bishop, that you owe me an apology."
"No," Bishop Jennings said slowly, beckoning Theophilus to come up and join him. "No, I don't owe you a thing. Sit down. Rev. Simmons has something to tell us. Rev. Simmons, come up here, because as the senior bishop in this denomination, I have just exercised my administrative privilege to take over this session so that I could turn it over to you."
Bishop Giles stepped away from Bishop Jennings. What could