Women, Writing, Theology: Transforming a Tradition of Exclusion

7. With Prayer and Pen: Reading Mother E. J. Dabney’s What It Means to Pray Through

115 7 WITH PRAYER AND PEN Reading Mother E. J. Dabney’s What It Means to Pray Through Michele Jacques Early It may not be your task to go In to countries far away; You can help the wanderer at your door You can read, write and pray. Some of the greatest needs in the ministry today Are for those who use their pen; For those who are prepared in every way To enlighten the hearts of men. Business is a part of a Christian’s life, How lovely when one can stand Free from self-righteousness and strife, And supply the church demands. It is right that a record be kept, In heaven they have the same. You will not be counted with those who slept If you continue in Jesus’ Name. Writing is wisdom from above It has been used throughout the years; It expresses our kind Saviour’s love, It has delivered many hearts from fears. 116 / Women, Writing, Theology His presence shall go with thee, He will help you to meet every test. He will pay you for working with me. Your aunt and sister are glad to know You made your life worthwhile. The staff, your friends, turn the green light Go! Your name is on heaven’s file. Some day we shall gather over there, In that city of your King; You will see added stars in your crown, You gained by using your pen. —E. J. Dabney, What It Means to Pray Through (1945)1 Elizabeth Jackson Dabney (1903–1967)2 was of that generation and ilk of women placed in the untenable position of mediating desire, fulfillment , and the call to a life of holiness, with what was then understood as the “proper place” of African-Americans and women. As such, she went where “free space”3 presented itself. Her ministry of prayer—the traditional ministry for women—became a sacral home, an altar where she welcomed any and all to join her in communion with God. She found her way forward by going back to prayer and wrote to the world for which she prayed. What It Means to Pray Through is the story of God’s leading and Mo. Dabney’s yielding, not so much in obedience, but to whom she was divinely called to be. It illustrates a life nuanced by suffering, faithful struggle, resistance, and reward, and the understanding that true empowerment is achieved when one appropriates the righteous and holy life. This essay discusses Mo. Dabney’s writing of her life, her emergence as a writer, and the central themes in her message. Writing Her Life In her narrative (a semiautobiographical guide to prayer), Mo. Dabney does not give the date of her birth, nor does she highlight many dates within her text. While on the one hand she aims to play down her person —not wanting to distract from the telling of God’s story—she is on With Prayer and Pen / 117 the other hand its progenitor. Squarely in the tradition of earlier narrative genre, her story focuses on the significance of her life of prayer for “everybody, everywhere.”4 As a lifelong member of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), the largest African-American Pentecostal denomination in the United States, she chronicles her movement into this ministry and how God uses her to bless the world. Information on her formative years is scant. Born in Virginia around 1903, at some early period of life she moved with her mother and two siblings to the North, perhaps to New Jersey. Katie McBurrows reports that Mr. Jackson (Mo. Dabney’s father) was born into slavery in Virginia and was taken away one day to be tarred, feathered, and burned alive.5 Neglecting to bring the fire, his captors left to obtain it. He escaped and went into hiding, during which time he met and married Dabney’s mother. He died while Dabney was young, and so she knew little about him.6 Instead, Mo. Dabney begins her story with her mother’s ministry and her experience of growing up with the “family altar.”7 Their home was known by many as a “place of consolation.”8 Mrs. Jackson, her mother, she never mentions by name. Mo. Dabney shares simply that her mother was widowed, was a noted missionary and singer, and was renowned for being “a great woman of prayer.”9 In particular...