wfn.org | Black caucus needs new vision to remain viable, leader says

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April 11, 2003 News media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
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NOTE: Photographs are available.

By Linda Green*

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:
7	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.
7	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.
7	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.
7	Listened to strategies to financially shore up the organization.
7	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.

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*Green is United Methodist News Service's Nashville, Tenn., news director.

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United Methodist News Service
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