wfn.org | Reflections of African-Americans

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3400 notes).

Note 3399 by UMNS on Jan. 28, 1997 at 15:40 Eastern (3955 characters).

SEARCH: United Methodist, African-American, racism, stories, book
Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT:  Linda Bloom                          45(10-31-71B){3399}
          New York (212) 870-3803                    Jan. 28, 1997

Book tells stories of blacks
in United Methodist Church

                    by United Methodist News Service

     When the Rev. Melvin Talbert became the first African-
American to lead a major United Methodist agency, in 1972, some of
its executives suggested he could make his office in a big room
downstairs, away from the staff and next to the print shop.
     Later, he fought off a published prediction that he would be
fired and managed finally to win the authority he needed to get
the newly-formed Board of Discipleship into shape.
     Today, Talbert -- who was elected bishop in 1980 -- has
become a church leader of international stature, currently serving
as president of the U.S. National Council of Churches.
     Talbert's story and those of other black United Methodists
are part of a new publication, Turning Corners: Reflections of
African Americans in the United Methodist Church from 1961-1993,
produced and distributed by the General Council on Ministries.
     Paula Watson, a staff member of United Methodist
Communications and church employee for 27 years, said she had
pushed for years to create such a written record.
     Acquainted with many African-American staff who had retired
or were beginning to die off, "I realized that some of them had a
wealth of information about the church that we were losing,"
Watson explained.
     Lack of financing has prohibited as comprehensive a telling
as Watson would have liked. But she called Turning Corners,
written by George Daniels, retired executive editor of New World
Outlook, "a beginning."  
     The church had its own period of official racial segregation.
In 1939, when the three branches of Methodism -- Methodist
Episcopal Church, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and Methodist
Protestant Church -- reunited, an all-black Central Jurisdiction
was formed.
     Major J. Jones, the late president of Gammon Theological
Seminary, described the jurisdiction as "that institutional
machinery created by the Methodist Episcopal Church to handle the
black problem."
     According to Turning Corners, the Central Jurisdiction
leadership resolved to eliminate the structure and rejoin the
larger church as an equal. "These efforts included public
demonstrations, harsh Sunday morning criticisms from the pulpit,
sit-ins, heated and often bitter debates on the floor of General
Conferences and scholarly, moral and spiritual appeals to
conscience."
     Finally, in 1968, when the Methodist and Evangelical United
Brethren churches merged, the Central Jurisdiction was disbanded.
More than 250 black Methodists met in Cincinnati, Ohio, that year
and formed Black Methodists for Church Renewal (BMCR) to keep the
church "sensitive to the needs of a genuinely inclusive and
relevant church."
     Among the many black church staff making strides in those
directions were:
     * the Rev. David Briddell, who paved the way for black
filmmakers and producers in the church;
     * Theressa Hoover and Rose Catchings, who fought racist
attitudes as they traveled in the field for the Women's Division
and Board of Global Ministries;    
     * the Rev. Leontine T.C. Kelly, who left one jurisdictional
conference for another in order to be elected the denomination's
second female bishop in 1984.
     Turning Corners is available free, upon request, from the
General Council on Ministries, 601 W. Riverview Ave., Dayton, OH
45406-5543. Watson said that only 7,000 copies were printed, so
availability is on a first-come, first-served basis.
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