wfn.org | Black church committee finds comfort in Psalms

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Sept. 18, 2001 News media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.  10-21-31-71BP{408}

NOTE: A photograph of Bishop Jonathan Keaton is available.

By Linda Green*

LOS ANGELES (UMNS) - As millions around the country and world seek answers
to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a United Methodist bishop suggests
turning to Psalm 46 for peace and comfort. 

Bishop Jonathan Keaton, president of the Strengthening the Black Church for
the 21st Century Coordinating Committee, reflected on Psalm 46 as he tried
to calm the 40 committee members attending a Sept. 9-11 meeting near the Los
Angeles Airport. Keaton is also the leader of the United Methodists in the
East Ohio Annual Conference.

With the words "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times
of trouble," Keaton began a worship service that gave committee members an
outlet to express their concerns and time to reflect on their blessings in
the aftermath of the tragedy. The entire country can use the Psalms to find
support and be sustained, he said.  

"Words seem inadequate to express the shock and horror we feel when such
events occur," he said. "We discover ourselves to be far more vulnerable
than we normally allow ourselves to imagine. We think of our loved ones and
worry about their safety. We are so stunned that we don't even know what to
say or do. We listen to the radio or watch our televisions with rapt
fascination, repelled and drawn by the images all at the same time."

In terrorist-related situations, the bishop said two things are always at
the front of his mind.  Reaching out and helping others is the first, and
knowing that  "vengeance and retaliation" can never be the solution is the
second. "I am not saying that I know what the answer is, but it is not
revenge," he said.

The Rev. William M. Williams Jr., superintendent of the Central District of
the Nebraska Annual Conference, accompanied his daughter, Jenna, to the
meeting. "I was shocked, frightened and scared that this nation was under
attack," he said. "When I saw that second airplane fly into the tower, fear
and trembling came across me." However, he realized that "in spite of what
had transpired, God would be in control of not only my life but of the lives
in this country," he said.

The church should support President Bush but not to the extent of affirming
the country going in somewhere and retaliating at all costs, he said. "I
think the church should be in an attitude of healing and anointing so that
our spirits will not be of anger. Christians should set the standards and
the pace for how this country should be."

Strengthening the Black Church for the 21st Century is an initiative
approved by the 1996 General Conference and continued by the 2000 General
Conference. It seeks to strengthen black churches in the United States by
linking growing congregations with partner congregations, and to revitalize
the more than 2,500 African-American congregations within the denomination.
Its governing committee develops programs and strategies to help
predominantly black United Methodist congregations become more effective in
ministry.

Watching the planes fly into the World Trade Center impacted Henry Stewart
in a personal way.  He worked in a banking office in the center before
moving to Washington to become a legislative aide last year.

As soon as he learned of the tragedy, his initial thoughts were of former
colleagues and college classmates who worked in the building. He had seen
many of them during the Labor Day weekend.   

"After the planes hit, I wondered where they were and were they all right.
When I worked at the World Trade Center, the time the tragedy occurred is
the time when work begins in my former office. Everyone is in place and
beginning work for the day," he said.

On Sept. 13, Stewart said 10 of his friends and acquaintances had not been
accounted for nor heard from. That many others had contacted him to say they
are all right.

During the Strengthening the Black Church meeting and prayer, Stewart
testified about his witness of the faith to friends who did not know God and
had called him by cell phone for words of inspiration. "We who do know God
live in the world and not of the world," he said. Speaking of his Generation
X peers, he said, "Preaching does not reach us all of the time. It is more
example and experiential learning that serves as the biggest witness."

He explained that in the midst of the tragedy, people whom he's known a long
time were confronted with the fact that greater powers exist. He received
many telephone calls from "people I know who have never stepped into a
church before asking, 'How do I approach this spiritually?' and they wanted
to know how to cope in the face of this immeasurable sorrow. They wanted to
pray."

Stewart, 23, discussed the foibles of many Gen X-ers. "With this age comes a
feeling of invincibility, immortality and a sense of nothing can hurt us,"
he said. The tragedies have "proven this belief to be nothing but arrogance,
and the only things that are sure are not the World Trade Center, the
Pentagon, the military or money. It is God almighty, who protects us all."

Not only has Generation X's arrogance been shattered, but so has its
idealism, he said. Those who grew up "post" every major movement in the
United States will see the country undergo a major test, he said.

As the committee members watched media coverage of the unfolding event, they
saw themselves as part of a cast in a Hollywood disaster movie under
production. 

"I kept waiting for the director to say 'cut' and life to return to normal,"
said the Rev. Lillian Smith of the United Methodist Board of Higher
Education and Ministry, based in Nashville, Tenn.

Smith said in times of tragedy, people often ask, "Lord, where are you?"
There also is a tendency to lose hope, she said, "but, in times like these,
we have to remember who we are and whose we are."

"Stunned" was the word the Rev. Dorothy Watson Tatem used to describe her
initial reaction to the situation in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
"It was like something out of a movie," she said.

Watson, director of the urban office of the Eastern Pennsylvania Annual
Conference in Philadelphia, said that although she was upset at the lives
that were lost, "had I not participated in a 12-hour prayer prior to our
meeting, I would have been devastated." She said the strength received from
the vigil enabled her to pray for the country in this time of crisis.

The message the initiative can give following the Sept. 11 tragedy is for
churches to be as the denomination's television campaign proclaims: open,
she said.   

"Strip off all the forms about how to be United Methodists, and answer God's
opportunity to reach out and open ourselves and receive people in," she
said. 

"As the black church, we are in prime territory because when terror hits ...
the disaster will usually be in urban areas, and God is calling us to
continue what we are doing in this initiative and open ourselves up so that
we are transformed to make disciples for Jesus Christ."

Cheryl Stevenson of Wichita, Kan., became the coordinator of the
Strengthening the Black Church initiative in June. She said the committee
and the denomination should send a message of hope to all people, since
everyone has been impacted in some way by the tragedies. 

She said it is time for the initiative to be a pillar of strength for the
church.
 
The Sheraton Gateway Hotel, the site of the meeting, also became a crisis
center for families for one of the airlines. Family members of Los
Angeles-bound passengers from New York went to the hotel to await news of
loved ones. The clergy members of the committee and others offered their
pastoral services and had opportunities to witness to hotel guests. 

Roderick McLean, a staff member of the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries in New York, was more than an hour into his return flight home
when the attacks happened. Without telling the passengers why, the pilot
returned to Los Angeles, he said.  During a prayer and reflection service,
McLean expressed his disbelief at what had occurred and fear for his family
in New York. 

Most attending the meeting said the tragedies were a wakeup call to the
United Methodist Church and to all others to be Christ's church and to
minister and call people into accountability.  "If not, we will continue to
reap what we sow," said the Rev. Dennis Blackwell, pastor of Asbury United
Methodist Church in Merchantville, N.J.

Keaton agreed but went further. He said the wakeup call has to do with the
fact that no day is promised, and that the church must strengthen people in
a world that may be increasingly subject to terrorism. "We have to let
people know that if you are looking for security, you cannot find it in
bombs, bullets and guns. The ultimate security is Jesus Christ."  He said
the world's people must find ways to live as neighbors, understand cultures
and cross the divides.

During the Sept. 9-11 meeting, the committee also:
7	Nominated five churches to be congregational resource centers. The
names will be announced once the churches agree to participate.
7	Honored Cecelia Long as she completes her 12-year tenure as part of
the general secretariat of the churchwide Commission on the Status and Role
of Women.
7	Began implementing strategies to help the black church rekindle love
for Jesus Christ.
7	Visualized how it would get more input and the initiative's
programmatic thrust into the church's general agencies.
7	Began planning for establishing a scholarship at Gammon Theological
Seminary, Atlanta, in memory of the late Valerie Ervin, one of the
committee's first members.
7	Planned for a Congregational Resource Center Summit, a training
event to be held Jan. 18-20 in Dayton, Ohio.

# # #

*Green is news director for United Methodist News Service in Nashville,
Tenn.

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United Methodist News Service
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