Young black clergy in Phila. pray for justice in Ferguson

On the summer Sunday after a white policeman killed a black teenager in Ferguson, Mo., the Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler climbed his historic Society Hill pulpit to introduce his congregants to a minister in Ferguson - via speakerphone.

"I thought it was important on that day they hear from someone on the ground," Tyler remembered. "They were angry, upset, confused."

In Oxford Circle, his friend and fellow clergyman Bishop Dwayne Royster was already making plans for how the two could travel to Ferguson.

This week, the faces and voices of Tyler, 48, pastor of Mother Bethel AME Church, and Royster, 44, founder of Living Water United Church of Christ, were all over the news, leading quiet prayer circles and boisterous protests in Philadelphia after a grand jury Monday declined to bring charges in the Ferguson shooting of Michael Brown.

Together, the two men represent a generation of ministers born after the civil rights movement, but aspiring to help lead a new one.

"They are what the African American community needs right now," said Rosalyn McPherson, president and chief executive of the Urban League of Philadelphia - "young, talented, smart activists who carry the message forward, who can be respectful and respected in different ways from those before them."

Both ministers are quick to point to the generation behind them as critical to any success, and like the marchers of that earlier era, most of the hundreds of protesters who flooded Broad Street on Tuesday were students.

Marching alongside - sometimes a few yards behind - were Tyler, sharply dressed in a black suit, not one to shout into a bullhorn unless it's handed to him, and Royster, the more vocal of the two, his big frame in a neon-pink shirt.

"There's anger across the country," Royster told a reporter as he and others rallied in front of City Hall. "There's a level of frustration that has occurred. People are feeling pain. There has been this notion since Obama got elected that we're in this postracial America, and I think people are waking up to realize we're far, far away from that today."

The Rev. Martini Shaw, pastor of the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in West Philadelphia, said that although there was a need for national voices such as Al Sharpton's and Jesse Jackson's, Tyler's generation knows how to "deal with social-justice issues both with protests, marches, and boycotts, as well as more scholastic, academic approaches."

Academic indeed: Royster has a master's degree, Tyler a Ph.D.

As head of Mother Bethel, which along with St. Thomas is among the nation's oldest black churches, Tyler, a father of four, is quick to point out correlations between past and present.

"When you think about black people in America, the only times that we can be guaranteed that we will have a fair trial is when the federal government gets involved. At the end of slavery, it was the federal government," he said Tuesday outside the federal courthouse on Market Street, where protesters from several groups briefly gathered. "In the civil rights movement, it was the federal government, and even today, with voting rights, it's the federal government."

He and others have urged the Justice Department, which is still investigating the shooting, to bring civil rights violation charges against the Ferguson Police Department.

Tyler, who grew up in Oakland, Calif., and was ordained in St. Louis, marched late into Monday night and joined the crowd on Broad Street the next day. He wanted protesters to think about more than just Ferguson.

"We want to make sure we connect this to the larger issue of institutional racism across our country," Tyler said in an interview. "In Pennsylvania, that's education cuts, the unemployment rate, incarceration rates that have all disproportionately affected blacks. This is part of a much larger narrative that needs to be addressed."

Royster is also executive director of Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower and Rebuild - POWER, an interfaith advocacy group that boasts 41 partner congregations in the area, representing more than 40,000 people.

"He's pulling together some of the most exciting organizing in Philadelphia that has happened in a long time," said the Rev. David Tatgenhorst, pastor of St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Bryn Mawr.

Tatgenhorst, who lives in the city and has worked with Royster on issues of gun violence there, said Royster was one of the few people he followed on Twitter. He especially appreciated updates Royster sent from Ferguson after the August shooting.

That visit was searing - Royster tells of dealing with tear gas and shock grenades, and of seeing a friend beaten by police - but he wants to return.

"We can't just get upset and forget. We cannot let this one slide, because it's not just about Michael Brown. It's much bigger," Royster said.

A native Philadelphian and father of two daughters, he has been deeply involved in pushes for equitable school funding, tougher gun laws, and higher wages for workers, particularly at Philadelphia International Airport.

Until 2001, Royster headed Way of Life Ministries in West Philadelphia's Mill Creek section. There, he helped a shocked and broken community heal after four robbers opened fired in a crack house on Lex Street on Dec. 28, 2000, killing seven people and wounding three.

Late Monday afternoon, before a single protest sign was raised and police had only just started assembling by City Hall, Tyler, Royster, and the Rev. Robin Hynicka gathered at Arch Street United Methodist Church, where Hynicka is pastor, to await the news from Missouri.

In a second-floor conference room, the clergymen from three denominations shared stories of how Brown's death had found its way into their sermons - through themes of hospitality, forgiveness, and inclusion.

Then they walked down to the church sanctuary, where, with about 100 people, they watched a live feed of the announcement - that no charges would be brought.

Tyler, arms draped over a pew, dropped his head. Royster shook his head slowly, then stood to speak.

"Let's have a moment of silence for Michael Brown, who jaywalked and got a death sentence," he said. "Let's pray for strength and for justice."

215-854-5506 @juliaterruso