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Commentary: Remembering Delaware Conference, 40 years later

Sep. 20, 2005

NOTE: A head-and-shoulders photo of the Rev. Patricia Bryant Harris is
available at http://umns.umc.org.

A UMNS Commentary
By the Rev. Patricia Bryant Harris*

The old Delaware Conference remains a source of pride for
African-American United Methodists, yet it also marked an era of shame
for the church.

Nearly 40 years after it was merged into other areas of the church, the
conference will be remembered and celebrated at a black-tie gala Oct. 29
in Wilmington.

The old Delaware Conference, as it is affectionately referred to, was
organized after the Methodist Episcopal Church's 1864 General
Conference, which authorized the creation of Negro annual conferences.
Delaware was the first annual conference of African-American Methodists
organized after that meeting.

The conference comprised all 34 African-American churches in New York
City, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Chester, Del., the Eastern Shore of
Maryland, and the Eastern Shore of Virginia. At the same time, there
were Anglo conferences for New York, Northern New Jersey, Southern New
Jersey, Philadelphia, Peninsula and Virginia.

During the Delaware Conference's 101 years of existence, the spiritual
life of the pastors and the people was primary. Time was devoted to
examining the character of the clergy, to building clergy and spousal
support systems through "preachers' meetings" and "ministers' wives"
organizations. The old Delaware Conference placed emphasis and
intentional planning and focus on the theological education of the
clergy and the religious education of its congregations, including its
youth.

Congregations were taught about the general church and its mission. They
also learned about stewardship, which led to supporting missions,
locally and churchwide. The pastors and congregations of the old
conference had a sensitivity and concern for the human condition, and a
unique understanding of the social gospel as though Jesus had taught
them in person. The Scriptures themselves became alive through the
enactment of their faith.

The old Delaware Conference was a living witness of the love of Jesus
Christ, as each clergy and lay person took responsibility for looking
out for the other, caring for one another, and living with dignity and
integrity in the midst of the Anglo Methodist Conferences' committed
sins of poverty, segregation, racism, oppression, discrimination, hatred
and omission to live according to God's law of justice.

Those sins made the Delaware Conference era one of shame for this
Methodist denomination.

The conference was birthed in dignity by its African-American founders
and born out of the sins of its white brothers and sisters. For 101
years, African-American churches and Anglo churches were both called
Methodist. Both belonged to the same denomination, both were governed by
the same Book of Discipline of the Methodist Church, both preached from
the same Bible, and both proclaimed salvation through Jesus Christ. But
the Anglo Methodist church practiced that which grieved the heart of
God.

I remember the joy. I remember the pain. I was a child of the old
Delaware Conference of the Methodist Church. My parents, the Rev.
Commander R. Bryant and Rose Bryant, along with my two sisters, Rita and
Mildred, lived with pride during this time of shame for the church.

As an African-American minister's daughter, I lived through the era of
non-equitable compensation for African-American clergy, the late
development of a self-contributing pension plan as the only pension plan
(with a pastor's yearly salary of $1,800-$2,400 as late as 1963), and
nonexistent or inadequate medical insurance. I lived through outhouses
and manual water pumps.

I lived through my father growing vegetables, raising livestock, hunting
game and fishing. I witnessed my mother canning, and preserving and
curing foods so that our family would have food to eat - especially
during the winter months, when on any given Sunday, the churches would
not have money to pay the pastor's salary.

I also lived and learned that for all that we may have been lacking,
there were families in our congregations that had even less. Meanwhile,
Anglo pastors and their families of the Anglo Methodist conferences
lived in a different world, with better salaries, better housing and
benefits. I know it was the spirit of the Delaware Conference that
sustained the African-American Methodist churches.

The spirit of joy that is within my heart for the old Delaware
Conference is always bubbling inside me. This was the foundation of my
spirituality. This was where I met God at a very young age. This was
where my father founded St. Matthews church in Newark, N.J., and where I
learned that if you plant a seed with prayer and work, God will water
and grow the garden. This is where I learned the true meaning of
sisterhood, brotherhood and fellowship. This is where I learned about
the meaning and holiness of worship - the worship of God in truth and in
spirit.

It was through the teachings of the Delaware Conference and that of our
parents that my sisters and I learned about our obligation to the social
gospel of justice and love, caring and sharing, the giving of our tithes
and our offerings to a gracious God, our Jehovah-Jireh.

The Oct. 29 gala will commemorate, pay tribute, and honor the old
Delaware Conference and those great leaders, visionaries, pastors and
laity who left us its rich heritage. The intent is to bring together
African-American churches and pastors from the conferences that once
constituted the old Delaware Conference from New York City to Cape
Charles, Va. The gala will also bring the Anglo pastors and churches
from that area together in this celebration to enjoy fellowship, be
blessed with the gospel in song, and to sit under anointed preaching.

As we celebrate the old Delaware Conference, we shall also give thanks
to God that today we are one body in Christ because 40 years ago we
merged to become a new creation.

*Harris is pastor of Marshallton United Methodist Church, Wilmington,
Del. For information on the old Delaware Conference gala, contact Harris
at delconf40@comcast.net or at (302) 322-8586.

News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

********************

United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org

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