Joanna Shenk with Aljosie and Vincent Harding at the Historic Roosevelt Center in Elkhart, Ind. Joanna is on the national staff of Mennonite Church USA.
By Joanna Shenk
Last evening I received a phone call from Aljosie Harding to tell me of the passing her beloved spouse Vincent Harding. Soon after, this note came from Dr. Harding’s niece, Gloria Smith.
Dear Beloved Community,
At 5:11pm this evening [May 19], with the spirit of many ancestors surrounding him, the Great Soul, Dr. Vincent Harding, left this world. There are no details at this point. The family will post an update in the coming days.
The family expresses gratitude for the outpouring of love as you have prayed and sang, shared memories and love, Please keep Aljosie, Rachel, Jonathan, and all those who called Vincent, teacher, friend, brother, and uncle in your prayers.
Deeply grateful for his life.
Profoundly grieving for this loss.
As I grieve this loss, along with other Mennonites and so many others around the world, gratitude is profoundly present. Dr. Harding, or Uncle Vincent as he invited me to call him, was a mentor and teacher to me. He challenged me to tell my story and speak up with courage about movement building. He also connected me to a network of passionate and fierce activists, who continually enrich my life.
Over the past 60 years, Dr. Harding has also been a prophetic voice, teacher and mentor within the Mennonite church. He co-pastored Woodlawn Mennonite Church in Chicago for a few years in the late 50s. He was one of the first African American pastors in the General Conference Mennonite Church. In the early 60s, he and his late spouse, Rosemarie, moved to Atlanta to lead Mennonite House, an interracial Mennonite Voluntary Service unit. It was the first interracial voluntary service unit and the first interracial household in Atlanta.
They lived around the corner from Martin and Coretta King and became good friends. The Hardings were deeply involved in the Southern Freedom Movement, including Dr. Harding drafting King’s famous “Beyond Vietnam” speech, which King delivered at Riverside Church in New York City. The Hardings also spoke at Mennonite churches and conferences about issues of race and Christianity.
In 2011 I interviewed Dr. Harding for the book I was editing, Widening the Circle: Experiments in Christian Discipleship. As Dr. Harding reflected back on the 1950s and 60s, he shared that Mennonites gave him his first public platform from which to talk about the church and social change. Find an excerpt from our interview here.
We miss you Dr. Vincent Harding, and we will carry on, creating the Beloved Community that you spoke of with such passion. As you taught us, we continue to sing:
We are building up a new world
We are building up a new world
We are building up a new world
Builders must be strong!
