Rev. James Forbes
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Position: Senior Minister
Organization: Riverside Church
Location: New York, NY
The Rev. James Alexander Forbes, Jr. is a member of the Citizens Advisory Group.
The Rev. James Alexander Forbes, Jr. has been senior minister of The Riverside Church in New York City since 1989. Affiliated with the American Baptist Churches and the United Church of Christ, the 2,400-member church is one of the largest multicultural congregations in the nation, and Dr. Forbes is the first African American to serve as senior minister. Before being called to Riverside's pulpit, he was a professor in preaching for 15 years at Union Theological Seminary, and he previously held pastorates in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Dr. Forbes is known as the "preacher's preacher" because of his extensive career and his charismatic style: In 1995, the Baylor University Survey named him one of the 12 most effective preachers in the English-speaking world. Since 1992, Dr. Forbes has been co-chair of A Partnership of Faith, an interfaith organization of clergy among New York's Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim communities. He is on the boards of Manhattanville College, the Interfaith Alliance, Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement, and the United Way. Dr. Forbes has also served on the boards of The Values Institute of America, The Bertram M. Beck Institute on Religion and Poverty at Fordham University, and The Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. He earned a Doctor of Ministry from Colgate-Rochester Divinity School; a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary; and a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Howard University.