James A. Forbes
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The Rev. Dr. James Alexander Forbes, Jr. (born 1935), a native of Burgaw and Raleigh, North Carolina, is the Distinguished Senior Minister Emeritus of The Riverside Church, an interdenominational (American Baptist and United Church of Christ) church on the border of the Morningside Heights and Harlem neighborhoods on the Upper West Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. He is an ordained minister in the American Baptist Churches and the Original United Holy Church of America.
On June 1, 1989, Forbes was installed as the fifth Senior Minister of The Riverside Church, succeeding the Rev. William Sloane Coffin. Forbes is the first African American to serve as Senior Minister of one of the largest multicultural congregations in the nation. On June 1, 2007, after 18 years of service, he officially retired from this position to begin a national ministry of healing and spiritual revitalization, The Healing of the Nations Foundation.
Forbes currently hosts a radio program, The Time Is Now, which airs weekends on the Air America Radio network.
He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African Americans.[citation needed]
