Black caucus needs new vision to remain viable, leader says
4/11/2003 News media contact: Linda Green · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn
NOTE: Photographs are available.
By Linda Green*
United
Methodist bishops prepare for a service of Holy Communion during the
annual meeting of the National Black Methodists for Church Renewal in
Los Angeles. From left are: Forrest C. Stith, Alfred L. Norris, Charles
Wesley Jordan and Jonathan D. Keaton. A UMNS photo by Larry Hygh Jr.
Photo number 03-140, Accompanies UMNS #216, 4/11/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
The
Rev. Addison Shields (left) receives Holy Communion from Bishop Ernest
S. Lyght during the annual meeting of the National Black Methodists for
Church Renewal in Los Angeles. The 530 people in attendance focused on
the emotional, spiritual and physical renewal of African-American
churches and communities. A UMNS photo by Larry Hygh Jr. Photo number
03-142, Accompanies UMNS #216, 4/11/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
United
Methodist bishops prepare for a service of Holy Communion during the
annual meeting of the National Black Methodists for Church Renewal in
Los Angeles. From left are: Ernest S. Lyght, Violet L. Fisher, Linda Lee
and Warner H. Brown Jr. A UMNS photo by Larry Hygh Jr. Photo number
03-141, Accompanies UMNS #216, 4/11/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
LOS ANGELES (UMNS) - If the United Methodist
African-American caucus wants to continue providing a prophetic voice in
times of injustice and a pastoral presence in times of crisis, it needs
a new vision, leaders of the group say.
Speakers, workshop
leaders, Bible study leaders and others led this refrain at the April
2-5 annual meeting of the National Black Methodists for Church Renewal.
The 530 people in attendance focused on the emotional, spiritual and
physical renewal of African-American churches and communities.
Representing
more than 380,000 African-American United Methodists, the 36-year-old
organization has fulfilled its original purpose of advocacy, leadership
development and connecting blacks to the church at large, but "we missed
out on the pulse of the church," said the Rev. Vincent Harris of
Houston, newly elected caucus chairperson.
BMCR must reassess its
mission, he said. "We have not felt what is going on in our churches
and we have not connected to that." BMCR is so disconnected from local
churches that people do know what the organization is, are skeptical
about the things that it does or feel that the caucus is not relevant to
their needs, he said.
"We are at a point where people or local
churches today do not see us as viable as we once were," Harris said.
"If BMCR has had some influence, where has it been? It has been with
those people who were the original founders, and they have been able to
penetrate the church and make decisions that really did affect local
churches."
The question today, he said, is: How does BMCR bring a
new generation into understanding what the caucus is and how they can
be effectively involved in it?
BMCR must first address the health
of black United Methodist congregations. "We have found that most
African-American congregations are sick; they are unhealthy," Harris
said. The caucus "must find a way to infuse medicine - the medicine of
revival and renewal - into these churches so that we can boast about the
church in a way that the church needs to be boasted about."
African-American
churches are located in communities that are "dying or sick," he noted.
"The church shouldn't be sick. The church should be a place where
people come to get well."
BMCR must invite both clergy and lay to
understand that congregations and communities need to move toward
healing and wholeness, not just in a corporate way but in a hands-on
way, he said. "The people need to know that congregations need to be
healthy, communities need to healthy, and we have to be a part of that
movement."
Harris, who has attended the organization's national
meetings since 1985, said he has always questioned, "what we do, why we
do and how does that relate to the gospel and what we are called to be
as a church." He said his understanding has been fuzzy.
As the
chairperson, Harris wants to clarify BMCR's role for a new generation.
The organization should be able to say that after nearly 40 years, its
mission is consistent with that of the church universal: to be the
people of God, serving in places where it needs to be.
"Today BMCR is moving, it's healing and it's transforming," he said, stating his immediate vision for the organization.
Harris
said the group is recuperating from the brokenness left by wounds of
disappointment and despair, and the wounds of seeing the church - and
the black church, especially - not grow as it should. For healing to be
successful, he said, two things must occur.
The first is
organizational healing within the relationships and attitudes of
African-American United Methodists. Harris said many are frustrated that
BMCR does not accomplish the things it sets out to do.
The
second healing is needed at the grass-roots level, he said. Local
congregations must understand that their churches need healing to move
forward.
"People have settled for what BMCR's original vision
was, and today, we not only need to take a look at where we've come from
but also at what we need," Harris said. "BMCR is no longer a teen-ager.
It is an adult, but we have some teen-age and adolescent attitudes in
the organization. We have to move from our milk to our meat."
Transformation,
he said, involves a plan of action and setting goals and relevant
objectives for local churches and the caucus. People are dying, hurting
and scared, and BMCR needs to find ways to help local churches address
those concerns, Harris said.
While many churches have adopted
the "what people need and what people come with" models of doing
ministry, BMCR's model was adapted from "one that was middle-class and
like the regular church, where we don't want to get our hands dirty."
"It
is past time to get our hands dirty," he said, "and let the people who
are doing the work in the ministries of our churches … (tell) about
what they are doing in those ministries that has been transforming in
their lives."
In other business, BMCR members elected officers
and approved four resolutions for delegates to consider during the 2004
General Conference, the denomination's top legislative body. The
assembly will meet in Pittsburgh.
Besides Harris, others elected
were Brenda Mims-Wilson, Oakland, Calif., vice chairwoman; Velva
Hardaway, Dayton, Ohio, recording secretary; and Josefa Bethea,
Greensboro, N.C., treasurer.
One resolution calls upon the
General Conference to support the continuation of the Strengthening the
Black Church for the 21st Century initiative, which members said is a
vital ministry that strengthens the entire church. The initiative
focuses on restoring, revitalizing and renewing black churches for
mission and ministry.
Another resolution urges increased support
for the church's Africa University in Zimbabwe. BMCR is calling on the
General Conference to make the 10-year-old school a priority by
allocating "an apportionment of $10 million over a four-year period and
an additional $10 million to be raised through World Service Special
Gifts to continue development, construction and endowment of Africa
University."
The caucus also encourages General Conference to
continue the Black College Fund as an apportioned fund for the 2005-2008
period at the previously funded level of $45 million. The caucus and
fund officials note that local United Methodist congregations average 86
percent payment of their annual Black College Fund apportionment, and
the resolution to General Conference urges payment of 100 percent.
Supporting
the Black College Fund and other apportioned ministries is difficult in
some annual conferences because of an accounting practice known as
bundling, which drew criticism from the Rev. Jerome King del Pino, top
staff executive of the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and
Ministry. With bundling, several connectional funds are lumped together
in such a way that local churches are unable to understand the purpose
of the funds or to easily identify the funds they are supporting. That
practice is also affecting giving to Africa University and the
Ministerial Education Fund.
"Once bundled, it becomes difficult
for the bishop and (annual conference finance officials) to lift one
fund above another in interpreting the specific apportionment that is
included in a particular bundle," del Pino said. His agency oversees the
Black College Fund.
The Black College Fund has "historically
never been fully supported by certain geographic locations in this
church," he said. Support of the fund has not been uniformly strong
across the denomination.
"It is missionally irresponsible for
annual conferences to so bundle their apportionments so that local
churches cannot knowingly participate in the missional initiatives that
are apportionments and have been approved by the General Conference,"
del Pino said.
The caucus, which had previously approved the
creation of an African-American Methodist Heritage Center, also passed a
resolution that would enable the center to use the resources of the
United Methodist Church Foundation to establish an endowment fund that
would provide support and maintenance for the center's work.
BMCR
nurtured the idea of heritage center in order to preserve the history
of African Americans who have been part of the Methodist church since
its inception. The churchwide Commission on Archives and History has
agreed to be the temporary depository for the collection of artifacts,
documents, pictures and other memorabilia until the center has its own
facility. Organizers hope the center would be connected to one of the
denomination's 11 historically black colleges or universities.
Members also: ·
Heard a report from the Black Staff Forum, a support group for all
black staff in annual conference and churchwide agencies. Newly elected
officers are: chairperson, the Rev. Lillian Smith, staff member, the
United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry; vice
chairperson, Helen Allen, staff member, United Methodist Communications;
secretary, Cynthia Haralson, staff member, General Council on Finance
and Administration; and treasurer, Cedric Foley, staff member, United
Methodist Publishing House. The forum honored those churchwide staff
people who are retiring this year because of actions by the Board of
Pension and Health Benefits. · Passed an April 4 resolution urging
President Bush and the U.S. Congress to bring the war in Iraq to a
speedy end and pursue peace at all costs. · Learned that 60 of the
denomination's 64 annual conferences have responded or will respond this
spring and summer to the 2000 General Conference mandate to engage in a
liturgical act of repentance before fall 2003. · Listened to strategies to financially shore up the organization. ·
Heard about the United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race's
Central Jurisdiction Recovery Project, an to preserve materials related
to the denomination's former segregated province and its merger with the
geographic jurisdictions.
# # #
*Green is United Methodist News Service's Nashville, Tenn., news director.
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