Annual conferences confess to racism
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A UMNS photo by Ashley Laird Members of the North Alabama Conference attend a Service of Confession at McCoy United Methodist Church in Birmingham.
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Members
of the North Alabama Conference participate in a Service of Confession
at McCoy United Methodist Church in Birmingham, Ala. The service's
purpose was to apologize for the way blacks were treated by members of
the United Methodist Church. A UMNS photo by Ashley Laird. Photo #05-499. Accompanies UMNS story #399. 7/15/05
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July 15, 2005
A UMNS Feature
By Allison Scahill*
United Methodists
around the United States are working to reconcile past actions spurred
by racism. During annual conference (regional) gatherings this spring,
several of the sessions acted to remember and redeem past wrongs.
In Birmingham, Ala., hundreds of people
stood outside McCoy United Methodist Church on June 6 for a “Service of
Confession and Recommitment to Disciple-Making.”
The service included a confession of the sins of prejudice and discrimination against African Americans.
“I’m a pastor and as a pastor and as a
Christian, we’re in the business of naming our sins and asking God for
forgiveness, so it seemed to me like something we needed to do,” said
North Alabama Bishop William Willimon.
“As a newcomer to North Alabama, I was
impressed that this was a big issue for our conference,” he said. “We’ve
lost a lot churches in the transitional neighborhoods in the
inner-city. I went to work everyday past McCoy Church, and I heard lots
of stories of grief, not only of McCoy, but of churches similar to
McCoy.”
McCoy Church closed in 1993 as the
formerly white neighborhood became predominately African-American. The
predominately white church could not keep enough members to support it.
The United Methodists from across North Alabama processed to McCoy, made statements and confessed sin.
“Our sin of leaving the city. Our
sin of not being able to overcome racial prejudice. Our sin of not
risking,” Willimon said as he listed the offenses named.
“We pronounced forgiveness and then an
African-American leader in our conference stood up and said ‘As forgiven
to reconcile people, we will therefore …’ then she read out a whole
list of things that we promised to do.”
The promises include starting six new churches. Three will be multi-ethnic.
“We’re learning,” Willimon said. “Alabama
is a wonderful place to learn from our mistakes. One of the gifts of
being in that conference as a newcomer is we’ve got a wonderful history
in black and white -- some great heroic stories and some sad stories.”
During the same week the Mississippi
Annual Conference honored 13 retired pastors who 42 years ago signed the
“Born of Conviction” statement denouncing segregation.
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A Web-only photo by Keith Birmingham Inman Moore is one of 20 pastors driven out of Mississippi due to racism.
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Inman
Moore stands at Sierra Madre United Methodist Church in Sierra Madre,
Cal. Moore moved to California in 1963, just months after signing the
"Born of Conviction" statement denouncing segregation with 27 other
ministers in Mississippi. A UMNS photo by Keith Birmingham. Photo
#w05079. Accompanies UMNS story #399. 7/15/05 |
“You reached a point where you simply had
to stand up, so to speak, and speak your piece,” said the Rev. Inman
Moore, Pasadena, Calif., one of 28 pastors who signed the statement.
“It was just so obvious that the church
was not speaking out or certainly was not exercising the kind of witness
that we felt it should exercise,” said the Rev. Maxie Dunnam, Wilmore,
Ky., one of four writers of the statement. “We felt at least some folks
within our United Methodist Church ought to be addressing the issue.”
Dunnam said reading the statement today allows those who did not live during the time to realize how life was then.
“When you look at the statement in
retrospect it really does … show how traumatically desperate situations
were back then, because our statement really was a pretty mild statement
if you look at it today,” he said. “But when you think about that
statement being made and the fall out and what happened as a result of
it, it is a pretty clear indication of what things were like back in
those days.”
“It just created tremendous ripple,” Moore said. “It literally created headlines in papers all over America.”
After signing the statement and releasing
it in the Mississippi Advocate in January 1963, 20 of the pastors soon
left Mississippi, driven out by the reactions of their congregations or
threats on their lives. Moore and his family left for California
in April 1963.
“We all had intimidating phone calls and
letters. Some of the ministers were locked out of their churches,” he
said. “Several of them were without a source of income or a place to
live immediately.”
For Moore, the matter became highly personal.
“My father was a prominent
Methodist minister in the conference,” he said. “My father and I never
lost communication with one another, but he said, ‘Inman, this is our
way of life, why rock the boat?’ I constantly began to find myself in
church meetings voting on opposite sides of the fence from my father. I
loved him and he loved me … but we were just in a case where it was
getting very difficult for me to be opposing my father. So my wife,
Nellie, and I decided that the two of us and our four children could do
better somewhere else.”
Moore and the Rev. Ed
McRae, another signatory, were also recognized for their work and
convictions at the California-Pacific Annual Conference later in
June.
Moore said he believes the fight to end racism is ongoing. “The beat goes on, and I don’t think it ever ends,” he said.
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A UMNS photo by Fred Koenig The
Rev. Emanuel Cleaver preaches at a worship service honoring African
Americans who stayed in the church through struggles with racism.
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The
Rev. Monica Jefferson, the Rev. John Heyward and Bishop Robert Schnase
listen as the Rev. Emanuel Cleaver II preaches at the Sunday worship
during the Missouri Annual Conference. The Missouri Conference held the
service to celebrate the black people who stayed in the church, but also
those who have inspired others to remain in the church. A UMNS photo by
Fred Koenig. Photo #05-500. Accompanies UMNS story #399. 7/15/05 |
On June 5, the Missouri Conference
honored African Americans who stayed in the United Methodist Church and
its predecessor denominations even as they endured racism.
“We do a lot of talking around those who
could not stay within the life of Methodism, but what about those who
stayed?” asked Monica Jefferson, coordinator of urban and intercultural
ministries for the conference “There were African Americans who lived
out the struggle, who lived out the blessing, who know what it means to
be a United Methodist.”
Jefferson worked with a team to plan the
service that celebrated both the African Americans who stayed in the
church and those who have inspired anyone to remain in the church.
“I asked people, ‘On whose shoulders are
you standing?’” she said. “These people are the reason why we’re
Christian. I can remember my second grade Sunday school teacher, Mrs.
Stewart, who made Sunday school fun.”
Jefferson said more than 1,600 names were
collected during the service. They will be put into a book titled “A
Cloud of Witnesses.”
“We reconciled history,” Jefferson said.
Historian Joyce Coleman gives tours of the Underground Railroad in the greater Cincinnati area and northern Kentucky.
One stop is the house of John Van Zandt, a white abolitionist from the 19th
century who was excommunicated by the Sharon (Ohio) Methodist Church
after he freed his slaves and dedicated his life to helping slaves
escape.
In June, more than 140 years later, Van Zandt was reinstated to church membership.
Coleman spent 10 years researching Van
Zandt’s life using court records, books and even the classic text “Uncle
Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe. She learned that Van Zandt was
the inspiration for the fictional character John Van Trompe, who helped
free slaves in the book.
“I did not understand
why the church would kick him out,” she said. “I looked into the
founding of the Methodist Church. They kicked him out, and he was
following the church’s tenets. I thought, ‘That’s not right.’”
On June 18, the Ohio Historical Society
placed a historical marker on the site of Van Zandt’s home. Called The
Eliza House, it is now a parsonage for Landmark Baptist Temple in
Evendale, Ohio. More than 100 people witnessed the dedication.
Later that afternoon, Coleman and several
members of Van Zandt’s family — some have taken the name Van Sandt —
placed flowers on his gravesite.
The Reinstatement Service was part of Sunday worship on June 19 at Sharonville United Methodist Church.
“The church was packed,” Coleman said.
“Rev. (Jim) Stauffer talked about the importance of that day, and there
was also a John Van Zandt re-enactor who came to the church and talked
about what happened to him and how he felt.”
The service included reading a letter of
reinstatement and presentation of a membership certificate reinstating
Van Zandt from Bishop Bruce Ough of the West Ohio Conference.
“That action by the church, a church that
he loved, tore this man down. He felt he was doing what God wanted him
to do,” Coleman said. “Now, the action of a church being reversed — I
feel like there is nothing more powerful.”
*Scahill, a mass
communications major at United Methodist-related Baker University in
Baldwin City, Kan., is an intern with the Convergence Team at United
Methodist Communications.
News media contact: Tim Tanton, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Audio Interviews
Bishop William Willimon: “Alabama’s a place to learn from our mistakes.”
The Rev. Inman Moore: “Mississippi was a closed society.”
Maxie Dunnam:“The church was not speaking out.”
Related Articles
Taking a stand
Methodists in Alabama repent for past support of segregation
Hero of Underground Railroad honored
Unlocking the Future
Resources
2005 Church Conferences
Act for the Repentance of Racism
General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns
Center for the Healing of Racism
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