The Rev. William J. Barber II has stopped doing active church work at Greenleaf Christian Church, Disciples of Christ in Goldsboro, N.C.
CNN says that during his last service on June 18, Barber told his congregation, “I have no reason to be standing here except by the grace of God.”
During his lecture, Barber talked about the health problems he has been having, including ankylosing spondylitis, a type of arthritis that makes the joints and ligaments of the spine swell and hurt.
“Many people with ankylosing spondylitis have mild back pain and stiffness that come and go,” says the National Institute of Health. But some people have serious pain that lasts for a long time and makes their spine less flexible. The disease may also cause other symptoms, based on what other parts of the body it affects.
In 1993, Barber took over as the leader of Greenleaf Christian Church. His work has mostly been about dealing with things like poverty, injustice, and racism.
His bio says that he was the leader “of the Forward Together Moral Movement, which gained national” attention in 2013 for “its Moral Monday protests at the North Carolina General Assembly”.
Tens of thousands of North Carolinians and other moral witnesses showed up every week for these events at the state house. Over 1,050 innocent protesters were taken into custody, put in handcuffs, and put in jail.
From 2005 to 2017, Barber was the head “of the North Carolina NAACP, which was the biggest state conference in the South”. He also “served on the National NAACP Board of Directors”.
CNN got a news release from the church that said President Joe Biden sent Bishop Barber a video message congratulating him. “Thank you for showing us all how to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly,” Biden said in the letter. I’ll never forget your sermon at my first prayer service as president, when you told us to heal the soul of the country and mend the cracks.
Greenleaf Christian Church said in a press release that Bishop Barber will keep working for civil rights even though he is no longer in the pulpit. They said, “He is dedicating his next season to continuing to build a moral movement that can redeem the heart and soul of this nation, usher in a third reconstruction, and train a new generation of moral leaders through his role as founding director of the recently opened Yale Center for Public Theology and Public Policy,”