The Reverend Peter W. Clark
Sweet Preacher and Steadfast Reformer
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Rev. Peter W. Clark was an impressive and persuasive sermonizer--a "sweet preacher." He had a sonorous voice, a studied vocabulary, along with a gift for word play. As a follower of Wesley, he felt challenged to go beyond making his congregants feel good. He was capable of piercing their hearts, bringing tears to their eyes, and summoning their fervent song, but this was not enough. His fundamental task was to help them redirect their lives towards the pursuit of eternal salvation. Praise for his sermons was only partial recompense for him. He expected a commitment of the soul.
For Clark, the authority of his words beckoned reform of the sinner. His definition of reform was a positive one, focused on changing a person or situation into an improved state, rather than expelling evil. He gathered the members of one congregation that had weathered the wind and rain in an arbor and with them built a warm and comfortable church and school. Thus was an illiterate rural black community reformed. He roused the unchurched poor and needy in the ghettos of New Orleans and gathered them under a tent to bind their tattered spirits. Thus did he reform the city missions.
Clark displayed many virtues throughout his life. Fortitude was prominent among them. With courage, he faced the formidable obstacles and heart wrenching adversity that existed in post-Reconstruction Louisiana. Without complaint, he accepted and excelled in the many challenging assignments of his ministerial career. His work covered most of the state of Louisiana. He pastored in six of the seven current districts of the Louisiana Conference of the United Methodist Church. Moreover, Clark urged the formation of the Lake Charles District to serve that community better and became the first presiding elder/district superintendent in the Louisiana Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
From the Afterword, Rev. Peter W. Clark: Sweet Preacher and Steadfast Reformer, by Elaine Parker Adams
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About the Book
“Peter Clark’s ministerial journey provides an in-depth understanding of the sacrifices and hardships faced by black Methodist preachers as they spread the gospel and expanded Methodism in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. It provides deep insight into the racial attitudes and economic conditions that prevailed in post-Reconstruction Louisiana.”
- Angella Current-Felder,
author, Breaking Barriers: An African American Family & the Methodist Story
“I could feel the story better than most because I had been down some of the same roads Peter Clark traveled, although a hundred years later and under more comfortable circumstances.’’
- Rev. James L. Killen, Jr.,
author, Pastoral Care in the Small Membership Church
“We sensed Peter Clark’s strength and leadership throughout this very turbulent and racially charged time in our history. He would have been honored to have his life written about with such loving care.”
- Rev. Cindy Foster Serio,
spiritual director and retreat leader, Mosaic Spiritual Formation Ministry
“The information regarding tuberculosis is insightful. The biography walks the reader through some very important points and offers some food for thought on the thinking at the time and implications for the race, the individual and the family unit.”
- Dr. Lisa Armitige,
medical consultant, Heartland National TB Center
About the Author
Elaine Parker Adams is the great-granddaughter of Rev. Peter W. Clark. She shares his esteem for education and social justice. In 1991, she was the founding president of Houston Community College-Northeast. Earlier, she served the State of Texas as assistant commissioner for educational opportunity planning, coordinating statewide efforts to diversify enrollment in higher education. Retired, she resides with her family in Houston, Texas.