December 2002 Call to Action News

Brown: Thea Bowman still walks with us

Though grieving the recent unexpected death of his brother, Jesuit Fr. Joseph Brown brought Sr. Thea Bowman's comforting presence into the room as he related stories from her life while linking them with his brother's life and his own. He spoke of Thea's love for Black Sacred Song composed by Africans "in the fields, in the woods, and in the cabins of slavery."

The music contains sophisticated biblical commentary as well as strains of liberation and mystical theologies, which Brown believes have much to offer today's church reformers. Used by women and men in situations of oppression and abuse all over the world, the songs speak of God's power being poured forth to lift up the lowly and bring them "'way up in the middle of the air,' where they can meet Jesus face to face and find respite for their tired and abused souls."

At the 1989 summer meeting of the U.S. bishops, Sr. Thea challenged the bishops by singing "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" as a preface to her remarks about what it means to be Black and Catholic. Several months later, shortly before she died of breast cancer at 53, Sr. Thea called a group of children around her wheelchair and began to sing a favorite song. Though her body and beautiful voice were weakened, Brown said "she used her physical condition to teach a truth about the imperishable quality of 'soul' that sustained her: 'Done made my vow to the Lord, And I never will turn back. Oh I will go, I shall go to see what the end will be.'"

As Brown said in his essay about Thea in the FutureChurch/CTA Celebrating Women Witnesses packet , "There is no end to her story. There is no turning back . . . She calls her friends, still, to stay 'on the journey.' To be family." .