by Michelle Westlund ’83

“You can’t change your past, but you can change the meaning of your past,” U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry Black told a Bethel chapel audience recently, drawing on the biblical story of Joseph’s betrayal and reconciliation. Bethel Seminary brought Black to three Bethel locations this winter—Bethel University in St. Paul, Minn.; Bethel Seminary San Diego; and Bethel Seminary of the East’s Metro D.C. Teaching Center—as part of the Bethel Seminary Lectureship.

A consummate storyteller with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of life examples, Black challenged undergraduate and seminary students alike to persevere in times of trouble, “pressing toward the goal” (Philippians 3:14). He told how, while serving as a Navy chaplain shortly after the 9/11 attacks, he needed to minister to the crew of a ship on full alert—an anxious crew that received news updates only once a day. In the ensuing period of uncertainty and anxiety, Black ministered to his navy crew and practiced the lessons of “hanging on.” His message: Storms will come, and when they do, get to shore the best you can by hanging on to the broken pieces.

In a question-and-answer time with the audience on one visit, Bethel Seminary Provost Leland Eliason told a gathering that the chaplain knew all of Dr. Martin Luther King’s speeches by memory and asked if Black would share a word from the Civil Rights leader. Without a pause, Black preached King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” with full oratorical fervor.

A brilliant scholar with three master’s and two doctoral degrees, Black rose to the rank of Rear Admiral and Chief of Navy Chaplains during his 27-year Navy career before his election as the 62^nd Chaplain of the U.S. Senate. He is the first African American to fill that role.

Black’s visit to took place under the auspices of the specially funded Bethel Seminary Lectureship series.