Paul Bryant-Smith is pastor of the First Congregational Church of River Edge, New Jersey, United Church of Christ, and is spending his sabbatical with AMISTAD America as a continued expression of the Congregational Church’s historical role in the 1839 Amistad incident and the United Church of Christ’s continued commitment to equal justice for all people and support for AMISTAD America.  Over the past five years, he has spent several weeks as a volunteer crewmember aboard Amistad.  When not volunteering aboard, he enjoys reading, playing guitar and clawhammer banjo, and sailing his own sloop, Boojum. Paul joined the crew in late December 2007 in Freetown.

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Mad Dogs and Englishmen (and Americans) Go out in the Midday Sun

"You can see how Amistad's presence makes an impact on Freetown, visually as well as spiritually," says the Rev. Paul Bryant-Smith, a UCC minister who is working aboard the Amistad Freedom Schooner during its cross-Atlantic voyage. Paul Bryant-Smith photo.
 
The UCC Website published recently a long article written by Joanne Griffith Domingue about Rev. Bryant-Smith's connections to Amistad explaining  also the historical links between UCC and The Amistad Incident of 1839.
   
'Floating icon' in midst of Atlantic Freedom Tour

Christmas day was different this time around for the Rev. Paul Bryant-Smith. Instead of a leisurely day celebrated with his family, he was catching a plane to Sierra Leone, on the western coast of Africa.

There he joined the Freedom Schooner Amistad, where he began a three-month sabbatical on board as a volunteer deckhand and educator.

At Christmas, the ship already was seven months into its 17-month Atlantic Freedom Tour. Bryant-Smith, pastor of First Congregational UCC in River Edge, N.J., is sailing the infamous Middle Passage, the second leg of the old slave route where captives from Africa were brought to the Americas to be sold as slaves. Along the way, Amistad is stopping in Dakar, Cape Verde and Barbados before Bryant-Smith returns home in time for Easter.

"It's fabulous that he can do this," said the Rev. John Deckenback, the UCC's Central Atlantic Conference Minister. "Amistad is a floating icon for those in this area. It's a beloved symbol. You cannot understand the mission of the UCC without knowing the Amistad influence." Read more...

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