What Are Our ‘Ancestors’ Saying to Us?

AME pastor William H. Lamar IV writes about the ones who journey with us.

Ancestors: Those Who Bless Us, Curse Us, and Hold Us, by William H. Lamar IV / Broadleaf

WHO ARE THE ancestors shaping our lives, churches, and nations? And what are they saying to us? These are the questions Rev. William H. Lamar IV invites us to reflect on in Ancestors. Interweaving his personal story with commentary on the Bible, music, and contemporary events, Lamar brings our attention to the ancestors who journey with us. The ones who “beckon our limbs, our loves, and our very lives—sometimes for good and ... sometimes for ill.”

Ancestors live on as “human energy beyond time and space,” Lamar writes. They are a spiritual presence that we can feel and hear when we take time to listen. To Lamar, ancestors aren’t just blood relatives. They can also be found in the books we read, the music we listen to, and the buildings and statues that bear their names.

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