wfn.org | Clergywoman charges conference with racial discrimination

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

May 17, 2000  News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.  10-31-71B{242}

By United Methodist News Service

The Rev. Linda Hollies, a former consultant for outreach ministries with the
West Michigan Conference, announced May 12 that she has filed complaints
against the conference with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights and the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Hollies said she was put on involuntary leave in February after suffering in
what she described as a "hostile, threatening and intimidating work
environment." A month later, she was appointed senior pastor of a Lansing
church, effective July 1. She equated that move with "being run out of
town."

The second black person ever to serve on the conference staff, Hollies said
superiors were critical of her spending conference money on outreach
programs for blacks and Hispanics who were not church members.

In a press conference in Grand Rapids, Hollies said she had filed the
complaints May 3 because the conference had not made any "good faith
attempts" to resolve the matter. She also released a report that was filed
by the denomination's Commission on Religion and Race after staff members
there investigated the case. The investigative team included the
commission's top staff executive, the Rev. Chester Jones, and associate
general secretary, the Rev. Yolanda Pupo-Ortiz.

The report noted that Hollies was hired "for the gifts that she would bring
as a creative black woman, highly respected for her teaching, preaching and
writing." The report said West Michigan Council on Ministries staff members
believed Hollies "neglected her duties with the conference and gave much
time to other activities not related to the conference, such as her own
writing."

The commission investigators said that even when the conference and the
church are committed to diversity, "the church system is not ready to
receive, accept, embrace, and be changed by diversity."  

The root of the problem, they concluded, was not Hollies or staff members
but the system itself. "The church is not where she needs to be on this
issue of embracing cultural diversity, so we are all victims. The problem is
systemic racism. The systemic problem is related to the conference efforts
to embrace racial diversity without having the training process in place
that would support the transition to a racially diverse and inclusive
working environment."

Among its nine recommendations, the report said the conference should
establish a diversity plan; establish a plan for diversity management
training; "develop a sound evaluation system for all employees"; and provide
a support group for Hollies "as she prepares for her new cross-racial
appointment."

Contacted by United Methodist News Service, Michigan Bishop Don Ott said he
had received formal papers only the day before.

"I really regret that a pastor has a grievance against the church," Ott
said. "I have some disagreement with some of the statements I've heard
reported in the press from Linda Hollies. We will be cooperative with the
agencies in examining her grievances."

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United Methodist News Service
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