By Chris Hughes
Rev. Dr. Wayne M. Weathers, Philadelphia pastor, organizer and activist, has been named a recipient of the 2024 Dr. Emmanuel McCall Racial Justice Trailblazer Award by the Pan African Koinonia and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
The McCall Racial Justice Trailblazer Award honors CBF individuals and ministries who recognize unequal and unjust areas of life and initiate proactive resolutions for communities in the form of policies or practices resulting in greater equity, opportunity, impact and outcomes for all. The award is named in honor of Dr. Emmanuel McCall, the first African American to serve as CBF moderator and a widely respected pioneer for racial justice and equity in Baptist life.
“To God be the glory for all of the great things he allows us to do,” Weathers said as he accepted the award in June at the 2024 CBF General Assembly in Greensboro, N.C. Weathers recounted how eight years ago in Greensboro, together he and the church he helped plant were commissioned by CBF. “I never imagined that eight years later, back here in Greensboro, that I would be receiving the prestigious Emmanuel McCall Racial Justice Award.”
Weathers said it was with those who practice injustice and oppression, who discriminate and who put up barriers, that he has a purpose. “Thank you for allowing me to be on the front line. I leave today knowing there is more work to be done,” Weathers told the banquet room of Cooperative Baptists.
Weathers is the pastor of Vision Baptist Church in Philadelphia, and also serves as the political action chair for the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Baptist State Convention. But his work as a justice-seeker stretches back more than 30 years when, as a sophomore at Virginia State University, Weathers participated in a nonviolent civil rights march sponsored by the Petersburg Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Colonial Heights, Va. While marching, students encountered residents waving Confederate flags, stuffed gorillas hung on nooses and racial slurs along the two-mile demonstration. This transformative experience was where Weathers says he became “determined to pursue racial justice to better our communities.”
Weathers followed that calling to Duke University Divinity School, Durham, N.C., where he served as the president of the Black Seminarians Union and the pastor of the Morehead Baptist Church. He graduated with a Master of Divinity degree in 1999 and would later earn a Doctor of Ministry degree from Lutheran Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pa., in 2009.
On Nov. 30, 2014, Weathers felt called to launch and organize Vision of Hope Baptist Church in Philadelphia—a church that describes itself as being born out of the “pain of the inability to fit in and the inability to please everyone.” The church was started in the multipurpose worship room of Prince of Peace Baptist Church in North Philadelphia before finding its own home in Jenkintown.
Both inside and outside the church, Weathers has maintained a steady drum beat for justice. From 2019 to 2022, he was involved in a protest against Temple University, opposing efforts to build a new football stadium in North Philadelphia, which would disrupt a historic African-American community. Weathers joined a group of clergy in a nonviolent march on campus to express their opposition to the new stadium, as well as meeting with leaders for the school and city to hold them accountable.
“Dr. Weathers became a prophetic voice for residents in North Philadelphia while raising opposition to Temple University leadership’s attempt to build a stadium that would cause the gentrification of a historic African-American community,” said Rev. Robert L. Johnson, senior pastor of Messiah United Methodist Church, Lafayette Hill, Pa., who has known Weathers for 20-plus years.
“He met persistently with various administrators, fought to ensure the voices of community members were heard, conducted community meetings and a nonviolent protest march to ensure the stadium was not built.”
Weathers was also involved in organizing faith leaders and communities for “Protect My Right to Breathe,” a nonviolent protest over the police killing of George Floyd in July 2020. The purpose of the march was to push for justice for George Floyd, oppose police brutality and protest the practice of “stop and frisk.” The one-mile march drew more than 100 attendees and culminated at the Philadelphia City Hall.
The Baptist pastor continued to organize people of faith in the public square with “Collars to the Polls,” a nonviolent march in Nov. 2020 to oppose the disenfranchisement of minority voters and ensure all votes were counted in the contentious presidential election that year.
Weathers’ work has continued on the local level, organizing opposition to Pennsylvania State Bill 140, a law that opponents say undermines the authority of District Attorney Larry Krasner to prosecute crimes in the county, which they believe undermines the votes of the African-American population that elected him.
As the political action chair for the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Baptist State Convention, he has organized efforts for voter registration drives, developed strategies for responding to injustices and built relationships with congregations, elected leaders and community members.
In his work at the intersection of faith and the public square, Weathers has blended the prophetic, the pastoral and the political to help address longstanding injustices in the community and work for positive change, something that is evident to those who know him well. “He has used his role as pastor to both spiritually lift and challenge communities of faith to be activists against racism and the systemic forms in which it manifests itself,” said Grace Martino-Suprice, CBF staff member and former coordinator of the Baptist Fellowship of the Northeast.
“Rev. Weathers’ service as a leader within our region and in CBF life as a church starter has demonstrated his remarkable ability to create an environment that values diversity, bridges differences and fosters collaboration,” she added.
In addition to his roles as pastor and organizer, Weathers also serves as an educator and theologian, teaching classes at the Center for Urban Theological Studies at Lancaster Bible College, Lancaster, Pa.
Weathers says that embracing love is his guiding principle. He is the husband of Minister Benita Weathers and father to three children and a godson.
This story is from the most recent edition of Fellowship! magazine. To read more stories like this, or receive a print copy of the issue, please visit https://cbf.net/fellowship-magazine