"Membership Handbook"
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
Alpha Alpha Lambda Chapter, Inc.
Founded October 13, 1926
Do your best to present
yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be
ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
2 Timothy 2:15
Historical Moments
READ IT, SAVE IT, COPY IT, FILE IT, FORWARD IT, DISCUSS
IT
AND BE RENEWED IN THE SPIRIT OF THE FRATERNITY
#6
VOL. 1, NO. 6 - APRIL 21, 1999
"Finding the Good and Praising It!"
REV. A. WAYMAN WARD:
THE AUTHOR OF THE FRATERNITY PRAYER
and the AME Church Connection with Alpha Phi Alpha
By Skip Mason
While there are many differences with regards to chapter traditions
in Alpha there is one thing for certain. At the end of the singing of the
fraternity hymn, the fraternity prayer will be spoken. Those 27 words were
divinely crafted by Rev. A. Wayman Ward with the assistance of fellow clergy
Charles H. Wesley (then General President) at the 24th General Convention
of the fraternity in St. Louis, Missouri in 1934.
Ward, the son of Rev. A. Milton Ward, a minister in the African Methodist
Episcopal Church followed his father into the ministry. The young Ward
attended historic Wilberforce College where he was initiated into Xi Chapter
in 1912. He graduated and continued at Yale where he obtained his Master's
of Divinity degree. (It is interesting to note that author and composer
of the fraternity hymn also were also initiates of Xi Chapter at Wilberforce.)
Rev. Ward became well known in the AME circuit, pastoring several churches
including Shorter A.M.E. and Bethel A.M.E. in Chicago. Ward was known
as the "Dollar Money King" of the A.M.E. Church from 1928-1938 because
of his ability to raise effectively funds for the church. One of
the Bishops of the AME Church in the 1920s was Bishop John A. Gregg who
inspired Ward to seek the episcopacy. In 1940, at the Quadrennial Conference
of the AME Church in Detroit, Michigan, Ward lost an unsuccessful bid for
Bishop. He returned to Chicago pastor the Metropolitan A.M.E. Church
in Chicago. He remained active with the Xi Lambda Graduate Chapter
in the "windy city and served for many years as the National Chaplain of
the fraternity.
Ward was Vice President of the Chicago Federation, Chairman of the Inter-Racial
Commission, Representative of the Federal Council of Churches in America,
a member of the Masonic Lodge, a Shriner. He held memberships in the Chicago
Branch of the National Urban League and the YMCA. Rev. Ward and his wife
were parents of five children. His exact date of death has not been located.
DID YOU KNOW THAT...
Historian and the 14th General President of the fraternity, Dr. Charles
H. Wesley was also an ordained minister and Presiding Elder of all
of the A.M.E. Churches in Washington, D.C until he accepted the presidency
of Wilberforce. Wesley was also a candidate for Bishop in the A.M.E. Church
but lost.
-Several AME Bishops were members of the fraternity: Bishop Henry Murphy,
John Hurst Adams, Frederick H. Talbot, Frank Madison Reid, Donald George
Kenneth Ming, McKinley Young
Known denominations of the Jewels.
Callis-AME Zion
Chapman-Unknown
Jones-Baptist
Kelley-AME Zion/Presbyterian
Murray-Unknown
Ogle-Congregationalist
Tandy-Episcopalian
Not AME related but thought that you would like to know:
Jewel Nathaniel Allison Murray served as the first chaplain of Mu Lambda
Chapter in Washington, D.C. and always opened the chapter meeting with
the Lord's prayer.
"These seven young men who founded the fraternity were like other young
men in college. But perhaps we had a deeper feeling of our obligation to
God, family and race because of existing conditions than seven other
youth would have under the same conditions."
Jewel George Biddle Kelley, 1956
"Personal Growth is the Mother of Greatness,
but its price is pain and perseverance."
Bro. Paul Robeson
******************
CORRECTION
From Vol. 4 ( Delta founder Vashti Murphy had five daughters, only
four were Delta's not five as listed). Thanks Delta's for bringing this
to my attention. As I told you it is printed incorrectly in the book
"In Search of Sisterhood"
