United Methodists celebrate African Americans who stayed April 30, 2004 By Linda Green*  | A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. Holding hands during a service of appreciation for African Americans who stayed in the church despite institutional racism |
PITTSBURGH
(UMNS) — United Methodists celebrated the African-American witness and
presence within the United Methodist Church on April 30 and recognized
“those who stayed” in spite of racism.The
nearly 1,000 delegates and visitors to the denomination’s top
legislative assembly in Pittsburgh participated in a Service of
Appreciation, honoring and celebrating those African Americans who
remained as members of the former Methodist Episcopal Church and other
predecessor Methodist bodies in spite of the racial indignities that
occurred in a segregated structure. The
service celebrated God’s presence in the life of the church, recognized
wounds and encouraged healing. A video montage of African-American
United Methodists of yesterday and today centered the delegates as they
began their witness and confessed to the sin of racism that continues to
exist in the denomination. The
delegates gathered to “rise above the transgressions that have wounded
us” and “celebrate a new beginning … and human dignity,” said Bishop
Peter Weaver, Philadephia Area, the opening liturgist for the service.  | A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. The
Rev. Renita Thomas (center) wipes away a tear during a service of
appreciation for African Americans who stayed in the church despite
institutional racism. |
As
United Methodist Christians, Weaver said, the delegates came together
as a community of faith under one baptism and gathered “because sin
interrupts community” and shatters hope and possibilities.The
delegates were reminded that the African-American presence in the
United Methodist Church did not begin with the denomination’s 1968
creation but existed when Methodism began. Today, there are 423,456
African-American U.S. members of the United Methodist Church, including
14 bishops. “The
roots of Methodism are in the African-American community,” said the
Rev. Vincent Harris, president of Black Methodists for Church Renewal, a
37-year-old national caucus that promotes advocacy and leadership
development. The roots are evident in the fruits of new church starts
and other acts that not only benefit the church but also are new
creations for the future, he said. “It
is important to be clear that I would not be here if they had not
stayed,” Harris said. As a third-generation Methodist, “I believe in the
church; I believe in what Jesus brought to us in the Gospel, and I
believe that by staying, we not only make the church better, but we
build a foundation for our future.”  | A UMNS photo by Paul Jeffrey. Members of the Paine College Gospel Choir sing as part of an April 30 service. |
The
need for such a service arose following the 2000 General Conference,
where delegates participated in an “Act of Repentance for
Reconciliation” service, acknowledging the racism that caused blacks to
leave the denomination in the 18th and 19th centuries. But no mention
was made of the African Americans who stayed. Black Methodists for
Church Renewal expressed its concern about the omission to the United
Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns,
which organized the 2000 service and related resources for annual
(regional) conferences. In the four years since then, all but six of the
63 U.S. annual conferences have held acts of repentance services, said
Ruth Daugherty, a consultant to the Christian Unity commission. The
service for those who stayed is a step on a “long journey for us on
this road to inclusiveness,” she said. While noting the 50th anniversary
of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education desegregation
decision in May, she said, “we are still a segregated society (and) we
are still a segregated church (and) even when we sit beside one another,
we are segregated.”  | A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. Bishop Violet L. Fisher reads Scripture during a service of appreciation for African Americans. |
“If
we as Christians cannot repent and take the next steps and learn the
contributions that are made and the richness and necessity that we need
to have for ourselves, how can we expect our society to turn around?”
she asked. “I think that this is a great responsibility that we as
Christians in the church have in our communities and society.”Confessing
to the sin of racism as a member of the majority population was Bishop
Charlene Kammerer, who leads the church’s Charlotte (N.C.) Area. During
her message highlighting the African-American legacy of faith, she told
the delegates that the United Methodist Church inherited a big,
worldwide house for the whole family. But, she said, a problem arose
because ideas, cultures and interests “unduly” separated the family. The
service, she said, would pave the way for United Methodists because “we
are getting our house in order.” Holding the service at a General
Conference was a way to verbalize how the denomination “has been blessed
by the presence of faithful, strong African-American members,” she
said.  | A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. Bishop Woodie W. White leads a prayer during a service of appreciation for African Americans. |
Kammerer thanked the generations of black Methodists who stayed in an institution that excluded them.“For
all those faithful, courageous black Methodists who stayed in an
inhospitable place and abusive church, we say, ‘Thank you, God’ for
you,” Kammerer said. “Those of us in the white majority confess that we
have sinned against you and against God who made us all one family. We
have excluded you from our sanctuaries, schools, colleges, our public
domains, our neighborhoods, our homes and, worst of all, our hearts. For
that we are truly sorry. “We confess our sin and ask with humility that God move us toward repentance and a place of reconciliation and forgiveness.” During
a press conference after the service, Harris said the service will be
in vain if United Methodists do not move outside their comfort zones and
engage others, and assist in civic and legislative processes that will
help in education and alleviating poverty. At
the service’s conclusion, the General Conference approved a motion
directing the churchwide Commission on Christian Unity and
Interreligious Concerns to lead the church in continuing acts of
repentance and reconciliation. The delegates also directed the council,
with assistance from other churchwide agencies, to collect data on
African Americans in the United Methodist Church and its predecessor
bodies in preparation of a resource or resources that will inform the
church and other faith communities of the contributions African
Americans have made and are making in the denomination.  | A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. The Rev. Renita Thomas offers a prayer of thanksgiving during a service of appreciation at General Conference. |
“As
with many marginalized groups in majority societies, the majority
society writes its history through its own lens and through its own
eyes, and the richness of the history of other persons in those
communities or cultures is often lost,” Weaver said. Today,
the United Methodist Church is in a new era and is “claiming that we
need to do the hard work of study and celebration in print, in books, in
media resources of the rich gifts that are here,” he said. “Much of
that is still present in the oral history, but it needs to be brought
together, so that as we move forward in the church, we continue to learn
from both the things we should not have done as well as the things that
were done right.” The
delegates also recognized Bishop James S. Thomas for the historical
contributions he made in the former Central Jurisdiction and as the
chief architect of the plan that helped dissolve that racially
segregated jurisdiction in 1968 and merge it into regional
jurisdictional conferences. He was also awarded for the vision he cast
in his book, Methodism’s Racial Dilemma, where he stated that the
“opportunities before the church are always better than dilemmas.” Thomas
thanked the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History, the
bestowers of the award, and the delegates. “Over the last 40 years,” he
said, “I tried to do what I could do.” *Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer. News media contact: (412) 325-6080 during General Conference, April 27-May 7. After May 10: (615) 742-5470.
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