Rev. Jeffrey L. Brown, M.Div., is co-founder and past chairperson of the Boston Ten Point Coalition, an ecumenical group of Christian clergy and lay leaders who mobilize the community around issues affecting black youth, especially those at-risk for violence, drug abuse and other destructive behaviors. In April 1999, he founded Ten Point International, a resource for churches around the world interested in overcoming violence in their communities. Brown is the author of articles on religion, youth and violence; a columnist for the Cambridge Chronicle; and a contributor to the Boston Globe's op-ed page.
Min. Tracy Gibbs Only an awesome God like ours could take a filthy feminine vessel, draw her to new birth and sanctification; equip her with multiple gifts, talents, and knowledge, fill her with His Spirit and His love, and bring her to be used for His honor and His glory.Minister Tracy Gibbs was born on March 18, 1962, in Brockton Massachusetts. She is the third child of 4 children born to Henry Gibbs Sr. and Dorcas Crane. After graduating from Brockton High School she moved to Corsicana, Texas to pursue a degree in Journalism at the Navarro College and to minister in song with the New Generation Singers under the anointed leadership of Rev Dr. Wesley McLaughlin and His wife Min. Pamela McLaughlin.
Minister Gibbs has a long history of working in the community where she serves on many boards and advisory boards. Formerly she served as a television news producer for WLVI-TV and WBZ-TV and as Director of Public Relations and Community Outreach at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. She is the proprietor of Heavenly Communications a non-profit consulting firm, where she consults in the fields of non-profit management and fundraising.
Minister Tracy accepted the Lord at the age of 13, and grew up under the spiritual leadership of Pastor Eugene Neville at Messiah Baptist and Mount Moriah Baptist Churches in Brockton where she was baptized. Her ministry service there included: youth and young adult choir director, Sunday School teacher, and assistant youth leader. In 1998 Min. Tracy was called to Union Baptist Church in Cambridge, MA to work under the anointed ministry of Pastor Jeffrey L. Brown as Union works to lift up the vision of being a lighthouse to the community.
Current ministry assignments include Associate Minister, praise and worship leader, Sunday School Superintendent and she serves as the spiritual advisor to the young adults "Anointed".
In the Spring of 2000 she was called to preach the word of God and delivered her initial sermon on Father’s Day in June of 2001 at Union Baptist Church. Minister Tracy is currently seeking her Master’s of Divinity at Andover Newton Theological Seminary.
An anointed gospel singer Min. Gibbs has been performing and singing the Good News since the age of three. Not afraid at a young age to stand-up and sing anywhere at anytime Minister Gibbs began traveling across the country as a teenager. Her musical gifts and talents have won her many awards and accolades from well-known musicians and her peers. She is the award recipient of numerous talent shows and contests. She has ministered through many gospel concerts in the New England area.
Minister Tracy has accepted her calling to sing and to preach the word of God to people who are broken, depressed and wounded and to be used of God to mend, deliver, heal and empower others to the glory of God through Jesus Christ. Seeking to be a true worshipper, she has claimed as her personal scripture:
"One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple." - Psalm 27:4
Rev. Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, (Pronounced "Jillks"), is an Assistant Pastor (for Special Projects) of the Union Baptist Church (Cambridge, Massachusetts) and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of African-American Studies and Sociology at Colby College (Waterville, Maine). She holds degrees in sociology from Northeastern University (B.A.,M.A., Ph.D.) and has pursued graduate theological studies at Boston University's School of Theology. Her research, teaching, and writing have specially focused on the diverse roles of black Christian women in the twentieth century. Some of her essays on black Christian women are gathered in her recent book, If It Wasn't for the Women: Black Women's Experience and Womanist Culture in Church and Community (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2001). She has published in several social science and religious studies journals. A recent article, "'Go and Tell Mary and Martha': The Spirituals, Biblical Options for Women, and Cultural Tensions in the African American Religious Experience," was published in Social Compass: International Review of Sociology of Religion and is part of her book-in-progress, That Blessed Book: The Bible and the African American Cultural Imagination. She has also contributed chapters to several anthologies on religion and on African American women's lives. She has also lectured and presented papers at colleges, universities, and scholarly conferences in the United States, Canada, Germany, England, and South Africa. However, it is her love of the Bible -- the Word of God -- that is at the heart of her teaching ministry in churches and at conferences.
After answering her call to the preaching ministry in 1981, Rev. Dr. Gilkes was licensed (1982) and ordained (1986) through the Union Baptist Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in association with the United Baptist Convention of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. She is active with the United Baptist Convention of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire and its Congress of Christian Education. She teaches and serves on the Board of the Congress and she is the parliamentarian for the United Baptist Convention. Rev. Dr. Gilkes has served as a volunteer chaplain at the Suffolk County House of Correction in Boston, Massachusetts, conducting Bible Study in the Women's Units. Rev. Gilkes is a member of the Cambridge (MA) Branch of the NAACP and received the organization's Education Award in 1997. She is also a Golden Life member of Delta Sigma Theta, Inc. and has been privileged to preach for the Ecumenical Service at the 1997 Eastern Region Conference and for the service commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Boston Alumnae Chapter. To the radio audience of central Maine, Rev. Gilkes is “Dr. Cheryl,” the host of a weekly gospel music program titled, “The Uncloudy Day” on WMHB, Waterville, Colby College’s station. She loves the Lord and is always "glad to be in the service."
Minister Ed BernardEd was born in Worcester MA. Following a 35 year career as an Economist and housing specialist with the U. S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), he joined the UBC ministerial staff in 2008. Ed continues his studies at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Center of Urban Ministerial Education (CUME), Boston Campus, with a focus on hospital chaplaincy.He is a graduate of Stonehill College and the University of Connecticut, with degrees in Economics.