Osagyefo (oh-sah-GEE-fo)  Uhuru (ooh-WHO-roo) Sekou (SAY-koo)

Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou is the Associate Minister for  Missions, Social Justice and Community Action at the Middle Collegiate Church.   

He is responsible for carrying out Middle’s mission in the social justice and community action arena.  He comes to Middle Church with a wealth of both street level and academic experience that is a perfect fit for Middle Church.

Rev Sekou is widely published on religion, race, sexuality, social justice and contemporary politics and is a contributing editor of The Fellowship Magazine He is the author of the forthcoming, Gods, Gays, and Guns:  Religion and the Future of Democracy  (Ig Publishing, 2009). 

He authored the critically acclaimed urbansouls, which takes a refreshing approach to the spiritual crisis in America. Hip-Hop, religion, homophobia, sexism, race, and politics are delved into with an organic insight. Princeton Professor of Religion Cornel West penned the preface, writing: "Rev. Sekou has the most in depth and concise analysis of youth that I have ever heard."

Rev. Sekou has given over 1000 lectures through the country and aboard, including Harvard Divinity School, Princeton University, University of Virginia, and the University of Paris IV- La Sorbonne.  He has appeared on the Fox News O’Reilly Factor, NPR’s News and Notes, WBAI’s Beyond the Pale,  Air America’s The Laura Flanders Show, CSPAN, and CNN.  His work has been covered in the New York Times and the Washington Post. 

Academically, he studied continental philosophy at the New School and systematic theology at Union Theological Seminary.  Recognizing his distinguished work as public scholar, the Institute for Policy Studies-the nation’s oldest multi-issue progressive think tank in Washington, D.C. appointed Rev. Sekou as the first Associate Fellow in Religion and Justice in July 2006.

Rev. Sekou is a Professor of Preaching at the Seminary Consortium of Urban Pastoral Education in the Graduate Theological Urban Studies Program in Chicago, IL.  For seven years, he has taught “The Art of Preaching in the Urban Context” and trained over 100 clergy.  He is a third generation ordained elder in the Church of God in Christ (Pentecostal).  He is the special assistant to the Bishop of New York Southeastern District of the Church of God in Christ.  He has served as youth pastor in inner cities of Saint Louis, MO, Atlanta, GA,  Washington, D.C., and Harlem, New York.   At Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village, Rev. Sekou was Senior Community Minister.

But he is not just an academic or public speaker, but an activist.  In response to the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina, Rev. Sekou moved to New Orleans for six month and founded the Interfaith Worker Justice Center for New Orleans, opening a Worker’s Rights Legal Clinic and working with organizing labor toward the unionization of the hotel workers.  Rev. Sekou was the founding national coordinator for Clergy and Laity Concerned about Iraq (CALC-I). CALC-I represents over 300 faith based institution and organization around the country working to end the war and occupation in Iraq. On September 26, 2006 CALC-I led a civil disobedience action opposing the war and occupation of Iraq at the White House. Over 370 people were arrested including sixty religious leaders.

Rev. Sekou is the former co-coordinator of the Democracy Action Project (DAP) housed at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. In the aftermath of the 2000 Elections, Democracy Summer (now DAP) trained a multi-racial group of over 100 youth activists from around the country in Tallahassee, FL. He served on platform committee for the National Political Hip Hop Convention.  He led the effort to organize 18-24 year olds and served as Senior Advisor on urban public policy for the Kucinich for President 2004 Campaign.  Rev. Sekou directed a community center in the notorious Cochran Housing Project in St. Louis, MO. 

He is the proud father of four boys and little girl.  

- bmotta@middlechurch.org