"Other Sheep I Have" The Autobiography of Father Paul M. Washington [Paperback]

Paul Washington (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 12, 1994

Father Paul M. Washington rose to local and nation prominence as an unflagging supporter of civil and women's rights. One of a handful of black priests in a traditionally white church, he fought for understanding among all people, eventually serving twenty-five years as the Rector of the Episcopal Church of the Advocate in an inner-city Philadelphia neighborhood. Though his ideas about equality often went against the views of the Episcopal church leadership, he rejected threats of withdrawn funding or retaliation to follow his heart and his theology. Father Washington's story is a window of insight into the struggles for justice and dignity in the latter half of the twentieth century. In the tumultuous 1960s he supported the Black Power movement, the Black Panther Party, and many other groups working for peace and justice, providing meeting places and guidance. He often found himself in the midst of racial disturbances the riots on Susquehanna Avenue in 1963 and on Columbia Avenue in 1964, in front of the Board of Education where high school students protested the Eurocentric curriculum, and outside the walls of Girard College where citizens and civic leaders demonstrated against the school's exclusion of black children. In the 1980s, he helped Philadelphia city officials negotiate with MOVE members and was a vocal supporter of Ramona Africa, fighting for her release from prison. It was in his church on the corner of 18th and Diamond Streets that women were first ordained a priests in the Episcopal church. And it was one of his congregation, Barbara Harris, who became the first female Episcopal bishop. In his evocative voice, Father Washington describes the pivotal events of his life and how each impacted upon his evolving ideas of the relationship between religion and justice. Spanning seven decades, his account is at once an insightful and unique historical account of political action, of the reformation of the church, of the changing urban landscape, and of a life graced by leadership and spiritual enlightenment. David Mcl. Gracie is Peace Education Director of the American Friends Service Committee. For twenty years he served as a priest of the Episcopal church in several Philadelphia and Detroit parishes and has been a friend and colleague of Father Washington's since 1967.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

From 1962 to 1987, Washington, an Episcopal priest, served as rector of the Church of the Advocate in the north Philadelphia neighborhood known as "the Jungle." Acting as prophet and healer, he called his church to action in the struggle against race hatred and poverty. Under his leadership, the church offered support for the Black Power Movement, the Black Panther Party, and many other groups working for peace and justice. It also hosted the controversial installations of the first women priests and first woman bishop in the Episcopal Church. Washington describes the players in these historic events with the intimacy of a co-participant and confesses his own inner struggles with humility and candor. This work is history as well as inspirational reading; highly recommended for U.S. history and religion collections.
Linda V. Carlisle, Southern Illinois Univ., Edwardsville
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"Washington describes these historic events with the intimacy of a co-participant and confesses his own inner struggles with humility and candor. This work is history as well as inspirational reading."
—Library Journal

"[E]asy, enjoyable, and provocative...Washington offers insight into the experiences of an African American pastor whose ministry emanated from within the structures of a white church."
—Sojourners

"Paul Washington is a man of deep compassion and commitment to humanity based upon a profound understanding of Christian faith."
—William H. Gray, III, President and CEO, United Negro College Fund, and former congressman from Pennsylvania

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Temple University Press (May 12, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566391784
• ISBN-13: 978-1566391788
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,923,148 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars wonderful portrait of a man and his time, December 20, 2008

By 

R. SINKLER - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: "Other Sheep I Have" The Autobiography of Father Paul M. Washington (Paperback)

Reading Father Paul Washington's self=portrait was an eye-opening experience for someone who lived in PHiladelphia during Washington's most active life, and who knew little about what he was accomplishing. What an extraordinary person he was -- charismatic, inspired and most of all, courageous. This is a fine history of the civil rights movement in one city, written by a man with national and international connections and reputation.

4.0 out of 5 stars Other Sheep I Have The Autobiography of Father Paul M. Washington, April 1, 2006

By 

James Generic - See all my reviews

This review is from: "Other Sheep I Have" The Autobiography of Father Paul M. Washington (Paperback)

"Other Sheep I Have.... The Autobiography of Father Paul M. Washington" is the story of Philadelphia's legendary Father Paul Washington, the reverend of the Church of the Advocate. Writing in the early 1990s after his retirement, he recounts three decades of being a force of social change in North Philadelphia. Being a Black clergyman in a predominantly WASP Episcopalian Church, he flings open the doors of the huge Cathedral doors to the events of the 1960s thru 1980s. Father Paul Washington stood side by side with Cecil B. Moore during the pickets of Girard College. He refused to back down during the many times the police brutalized young black high school students trying to better a rotten public school system. He let the Church of the Advocate be used for a Black Power conference in the 1970s, as well as a Black Panther Party conference.

He butted heads with members of his own church about the direction that the Advocate was allowed to take in the struggles for Black self-determination. Paul Washington refused any other post in the Episcopalian church structure, even turning down the chance to be a Bishop or to go to New York City, instead staying in the impoverished neighborhood of North Central Philadelphia near Strawberry Mansion, at 18th and Diamond streets. Later, he recalls the bombing of the MOVE house in 1985, and while not entirely sympathetic to MOVE, he believed that the city overstepped their bounds extraordinarily. He expressed disappointment with how Wilson Goode, who many Black clergy had hoped would be a new wave of Black Power politicians who would finally bring the city to help the impoverished Black neighborhoods, turned out to be just as bad as other mayors.

Today, there has been a proposal from community activists in North Philly to rename Diamond streets "Paul Washington Street" in the same as Columbia Ave was renamed Cecil B. Moore avenue. It makes sense. When you talk with people in that neighborhood, or you visit the Church of the Advocate, you can see the effect Washington had on the people who's lives he touched. Across the Advocate are paintings of biblical scenes transferred into Black Power messages. They are quite stunning, and I'd never seen something like that in a Church, but there they are. I first saw the Church on a class field trip across the neighborhoods of Philadelphia, and later went to it again at a Jazz and Art event.

To view the paintings and an explanation of them, please go to: http://www.churchoftheadvocate.org/paintings2.html

For anyone living in Philadelphia, visiting the Church of the Advocate should be a priority at some point. A huge gothic cathedral built in the 19th century by Scottish stonemasons, there are what appears to be angel faces carved all over the building. However, in reality, they are the faces of the Stonemason's children, since they were homesick for Scotland. Fast forward to the early 1960s, when Paul Washington become the Rector at the Advocate. The neighborhood, traditionally a upper middle class neighborhood, is quickly changing as many white families flee to the suburbs and many poor black families from the south arrive, philly's "white flight." As such, Paul Washington encounters a congregation of racially mixed members, with the white members slowly dwindling and the black members being finally welcomed into a church that had turned them away.

From here, he transformed the church into a haven for Black Empowerment activists. Washington strikes several times on the theme of balancing Martin Luther King's rhetoric of "turn the other cheek" non-violent protest with Malcolm X's "by any means necessary" Black empowerment for the improvement of African-Americans in the white supremacist United States. This debate continues today for people trying to change the world, and probably will continue for quite some time.

To see the Church of the Advocate and to donate to help them with their work, please go to: http://www.churchoftheadvocate.org/