The Rev. Dr. Beverly Wallace, an ordained rostered leader of Word and Sacrament in the ELCA for more than twenty-six years, was educated through the Lutheran Theological Center in Atlanta housed at the Interdenominational Theological Center. She received her Master of Divinity from Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina, and her doctorate in Family Social Science/ Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Wallace is a member of the Conference of International Black Lutherans (CIBL – USA), the Black teaching theologians of the ELCA and is also a member of the Society for the Study of Black Religion, as well as inducted into the Martin Luther King Collegium of Religious Scholars.
Dr. Wallace has taught at several Historically Black Theological Institutions including the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia and Shaw University Divinity School in Raleigh, North Carolina. She was an Associate Professor for Congregational Care at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and, more recently, the Director of Lifelong Learning at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary of Lenoir-Rhyne, University. Formerly the Assistant to the Bishop for the Southeastern Synod, Dr. Wallace is now the Manager for Academics for the Sankofa Theological Center for African Descent Studies of the ELCA, housed at United Lutheran Seminary.
Dr. Wallace is the co-author of the book “African American Grief”. Originally published in 2005, the book was re-released in the Routledge Mental Health Classic Series in 2022 and is used in seminaries and divinity schools around the country. Dr. Wallace has also authored several articles and book chapters including: “The Women Gathered – Stringing Beads of Resistance: Identity, Lament, and Hope”; “Narratives of Grieving African Americans About Racism in the Lives of Deceased Family Members”; “A Womanist Legacy of Trauma, Grief, and Loss: Reframing the Notion of the Strong Black Woman Icon” in Women Out of Order; “The Tragic Vision of Church in the Time of the Pandemic – Everything is Going to Be Alright”; “Absence and Presence – Living the Mystery: Conceptualizing a Model of Care for African American Women Using the Theory of Ambiguous Loss” in Black Women & Religious Culture; “She Had to Keep Him Hidden: Experiences of Trauma in the lineage of Moses” in The ELCA Connect Journal“; and “Hush No More: Constructing an African American Lutheran Womanist Ethic” in the edited volume Transformative Lutheran Theologies: Feminist, Womanist, and Mujerista Perspectives. She is also the contributor to “Luther’s Small Catechism with African Descent Reflections”.
As a creator of many projects for the ELCA, Dr. Wallace is the convener of the “Richard Stewart Life-long Certificate Program in African American Lutheran History, Theology, and Praxis” as well as the creator of the ELCA Womanist Initiative, designed to provide opportunities of learning in womanist theology for seminarians, laypersons and clergy with an expansive vision to work with girls from middle school through college age. She also manages the Eastern Cluster of ELCA Seminaries’ “Equipping the Saints” educational program for Synodically Authorized Ministers.
As part of her international work, Dr. Wallace is on the Educational Committee of the Lutheran University of Liberia and is a consultant to the Principal of United Theological College in Zimbabwe. She continues to work with Professor Selenir Kronbauer, expert in African Brazilian History, with Professor Kronbauer’s “Blackness in Church in Society Project” housed at Faculdades EST, in Sao Leopoldo, Brazil, where the late Dr. Peter Nash, a member of CIBL, established a center for Race and Diversity. Ecumenically, Dr. Wallace is also the co-creator of the “Internalized Oppression” curriculum for the office of Black Episcopalians, and has worked with the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (CME) in their “Faithful Parenting” project.
BEVERLY R. WALLACE
Abstract
This paper re-conceptualizes the theory of ambiguous loss to engage historical and contemporary realties of African American women’s lived experiences. Ambiguous Loss theory suggests that a family member can be emotionally or psychologically present but physically absent or physically present but psychologically absent. The paper asserts that African American women always have lived with ambiguity and suggests reclaiming tenets of the theory. As a case study, the paper uses the lives of women in Ava DuVerney’s Queen Sugar and lyrics of the series’ theme song to explore the dilemma of expected ways of being (“keep the color in the line”) alongside desire (“dreams never dying”) and hopes (“taking flight”). The paper encourages African American women to pursue healing while living the mystery while unapologetically reclaiming and reframing what it means to live with ambiguity. It proposes a model of care that centralizes spirit and spirit work, rituals and music and dance, radical socialization, creating a spirit space for inner well-being, using power from the periphery, reclaiming collective memories, and leaving a signpost for the generations to remember.
by Dr. Beverly Wallace
In this study, we are going to explore trauma in the story of baby Moses—the trauma of a mother protecting her son, the trauma of a child sister entrusted with watching over her baby brother, the trauma of being an orphaned son, the generational trauma of the descendants of Moses. But before we explore this scripture, let’s consider the effects of trauma on our physical bodies.