11/12/2003 News media contact: Tim Tanton · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn.
This report is accompanied by photos and a sidebar, UMNS story #549.
By John W. Coleman Jr.*
Trudie
Kibbe Reed gives the keynote address during a first-ever summit of
African-American United Methodist leaders in Washington. “The major
problem with black people and the black church today is not racism but
‘us-ism’ ... and our oppression of each other,” said Reed. Reed is
president of Philander-Smith College in Little Rock, Ark., a
historically black United Methodist college. A UMNS photo by John W.
Coleman Jr. Photo number 03-444, Accompanies UMNS #548, 11/12/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
Herbert
Brisbon (center) and a group of youth and young adults talk about
issues facing young people during a first-ever summit of
African-American United Methodist leaders in Washington. Brisbon is a
Wesley Seminary student and member of Covenant Point United Methodist
Church in Waldorf, Md. A UMNS photo by John W. Coleman Jr. Photo number
03-446, Accompanies UMNS #548, 11/12/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
Music from the Summit of African-American United Methodist leaders, Photo number W03093, Accompanies UMNS #548
No Long Caption Available for this Story
Rev.
Ronnie Miller-Yow leads a song at the opening worship service of the
Summit of African-American United Methodist leaders. Photo number
W03092, Accompanies UMNS #548
No Long Caption Available for this Story
Photo number W03094, Accompanies UMNS #548
No Long Caption Available for this Story
Bishop
Felton Edwin May gives the opening address during a first-ever summit
of African-American United Methodist leaders in Washington. “We are not
well in this denomination,” May, leader of the church’s Washington Area,
said. The host bishop called for a renaissance of the black church. Two
days later, he closed the gathering with an impassioned prayer that
departing attendees would use their new insights and convictions in
strategic action. A UMNS photo by John W. Coleman Jr. Photo number
03-445, Accompanies UMNS #548, 11/12/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
Photo number W03095, Accompanies UMNS #548
No Long Caption Available for this Story
WASHINGTON (UMNS) - Three hundred African-American
United Methodist leaders discussed common challenges and ideas for
strengthening the ministries of black churches during a first-ever
summit Nov. 7-9.
"We are not well in this denomination," said
Bishop Felton Edwin May, leader of the church's Washington Area, in an
opening address at Asbury United Methodist Church. The host bishop
called for a renaissance of the black church. Two days later, he closed
the gathering with an impassioned prayer that departing attendees would
use their new insights and convictions in strategic action.
Thirteen
of the denomination's 24 active and retired African-American bishops,
known collectively as the Ebony Bishops Network, convened the summit
following the United Methodist Council of Bishops' fall meeting in
Washington. At a retreat earlier this year the network had examined the
"seriously fractured state of the black church on all levels, as well as
our diminishing presence and effectiveness in fulfilling the needs of
the black community," according to the invitation letter from the
group's chairman, Bishop Rhymes Moncure of the Nebraska Area.
"From
Oppression to Liberation: Responding to God's Call for the Black
Church" was the theme of the gathering, the first Summit on the State of
the Black Church held by the bishops.
Participants addressed
the black church's role in responding to myriad problems in the black
community, including rampant violence, HIV/AIDS infection, homelessness,
incarceration, teen pregnancy and school dropout rates. They also
wrestled with obstacles to church growth and vitality, the alarming
absence of young people in black congregations, and the difficulties
many black leaders reportedly face in advocating for the concerns of
black people in their denomination.
Participants included
pastors and laity from churches of all sizes, and leaders from annual
conferences and general church agencies. While white racism was named
among the challenges they face, it received scant attention. The
summit's clear focus was on the black church's own shortcomings and its
potential to reclaim its historic role to spiritually and socially
support and uplift the black community.
"The major problem with
black people and the black church today is not racism but 'us-ism' ...
and our oppression of each other," said Trudie Kibbe Reed, program
facilitator and keynote speaker for the summit. Reed is president of
Philander-Smith College in Little Rock, Ark., a United Methodist
historically black college.
"We are out of alignment with God
and with each other," she explained. "It comes from a broken covenant
with God and with our ancestors who paved the way for us …"
Despite
social and economic gains achieved by many African Americans since the
civil rights era, Reed cited consequences of the broken covenant with
God, including infighting in black churches and institutions, failure to
pass on positive aspects of black heritage and culture, and lack of
support for black churches, organizations and businesses.
She
denounced jealousy, misuse of power, materialism and the prevalence of
dehumanizing language and behaviors in the black community as
"dysfunctions ... adapted from our oppressors."
"We must confess
and repent of our sins, our broken covenant and disobedience," Reed
said. She called for black churches to "take action to become
transformed people of God."
Subsequent sermons by the Rev. Tyrone
Gordon, pastor of St. Luke's "Community" United Methodist Church in
Dallas, and the Rev. Dorothy Watson Tatem, director of Metropolitan
Ministries in the Eastern Pennsylvania Annual (regional) Conference,
stressed God's help as essential to the black church's prospects for
transformation and triumph over its challenges.
"I see the exodus
of young people from (our) churches," Gordon said. "It's not that
they're not coming to church. They're just not coming to ours." As
others at the summit, he complained of a widespread lack of vitality in
worship, creativity in doing ministry and sincerity in welcoming
non-members into churches.
Gordon challenged black churches to
learn more about their communities through research and personal
interaction, to reclaim their historic central role in the life and
culture of their communities, and to embrace the future and the
interests of younger generations by being willing to "make changes in
our worship, preaching, music, outreach and evangelism."
In 11
small groups, summit attendees discussed familiar congregational
dysfunctions, including apathy, fear of change, excessive conformity to
rules and traditions, low self-esteem, confusion, power and role
conflicts, enmity between laity and clergy, over-dependence on pastors,
lack of youth empowerment and alienation from surrounding communities.
They also heard success stories about black United Methodist
congregations that are overcoming many of these challenges.
Ideas and recommended solutions included: · Increasing the teaching of evangelism, discipleship and church administration in churches and seminaries. · Making more use of visual media and computer technology to attract young people and to enhance worship and other ministries. ·
Reclaiming a tradition of mentorship and apprenticeship to help people
identify, develop and use their spiritual gifts in service to church and
community. · Intentionally building more relationships between
congregations and their communities through shared activities, dialogues
and experiences.
"We must be on the edge where our black culture
is going, not behind it," said Bishop Alfred Johnson of the Greater New
Jersey Area. He and his episcopal colleagues expressed some of their
own concerns and promised to consider and respond to many of the ideas
presented.
The bishops encouraged participants to value and
teach the heritage of the black church, to identify and employ all the
resources for ministry available to them, to study and use the church's
Book of Discipline to their advantage, and to measure vitality not in
the survival or size of their congregations but in the quality of their
discipleship and the growth of their ministries.
Reed and the
Ebony Bishops Network plan to develop a study guide for churches in
early 2004 with video excerpts and information from the summit. In the
meantime, nearly a dozen attendees agreed to form a national initiative
among their churches to minister to homeless and displaced people in
their communities.
# # #
*Coleman is the co-director of communications for the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference.
Related Story
Korean News
