wfn.org | Black, White Methodists Talk Repentance

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
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Note 495 by UMNS on Dec. 8, 1997 at 16:50 Eastern (9384 characters).

CONTACT:  Thomas S. McAnally				863(10-21-31-71B){495}
Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470		Dec. 8, 1997

Representatives of Black Methodist denominations
react to United Methodist plans for repentance

by Tom McAnally*

CINCINNATI  (UMNS) -- Initial plans by the United Methodist Church to repent
for  acts of racism -- historical and contemporary -- drew mixed responses
from representatives of three black Methodist denominations during meetings
here Dec. 1-4.
Members of the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and
Interreligious Concerns shared their plans first with a Commission on Union,
which met Dec. 1-2, and then with a Commission on Pan Methodist Cooperation 
Dec. 2-4.
Each Pan-Methodist  group includes six members from the African Methodist
Episcopal (AME), African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ), Christian Methodist
Episcopal (CME) and United Methodist (UM) churches.
The Commission on Cooperation was created in 1985 to promote cooperation among
the churches in areas such as publishing, missions, social concerns and higher
education.
The second group -- a  Commission on Union -- was authorized by the most
recent round of quadrennial general conferences of  the four churches. The
commission was asked to submit a plan of union to the AME, AMEZ and UM general
conferences in 2000 and the CME general conference in 2002. Some
representatives serve on both commissions.
The New York-based United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity is planning
educational efforts leading to a service of repentance at the UM General
Conference in Cleveland in the year 2000.
  The AME church, formally organized in 1816, traces its origin to an incident
at St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia in 1787, when a
group of African Americans left the church to protest racial discrimination.
  The AMEZ Church dates from 1796, when it was organized by a group of members
protesting discrimination in the John Street Methodist Church in New York. AME
s first church, named Zion, was built in 1800, and that word was later made
part of the denominational title.
  The CME Church was established in 1870, after an agreement between white and
black members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.
  These three historically black denominations have a combined membership
today of more than 4.5 million.
When these divisions occurred, some black members remained in the
predominantly white Methodist Episcopal Church. That denomination  split over
the issue of slavery and did not reunite until 1940, when the two merged with
a smaller Methodist Protestant Church to become The Methodist Church.  
At the 1940 union, a racially segregated "Central" jurisdiction for blacks was
created, overlapping white geographic jurisdictions. The Central Jurisdiction
was not eliminated until the United Methodist Church was created in 1968 with
the merger of the Evangelical United Brethren and Methodist Churches.
Bishop William Boyd Grove, Charleston, W.Va., chief ecumenical officer for the
United Methodist Church, told commission members here the time has come for
the United Methodist Church to face up to its sin of racism and to ask for
forgiveness.
  Pointing to the racial incidents that prompted many blacks to leave the main
body of American Methodism, he said, "Our church has never said 'we're sorry
for that.' ... I don't think we can talk about union without our church saying
in God's presence and your presence, 'We're sorry.'" Part of that repentance,
he added, will be an educational effort to help United Methodists know their
history.
Some representatives of the black denominations expressed  suspicion of the
plans.
"What does it mean to really repent?" asked AMEZ Bishop Richard K. Thompson of
Montgomery, Ala.  "Does dealing with it on the surface really do anything? 
How does one change a racist upbringing?  How do we bring about genuine
repentance?"
AMEZ layman F. George Shipman of Durham, N.C., a retired college president,
stressed that "fruits of repentance" must follow pronouncements.  	
Acknowledging that suspicion exists, CME Bishop Thomas Hoyt of Shreveport,
La., suggested that those who have been offended by another must also repent
and forgive.
  "I don't see the black church saying we will forgive," he said. "What does
it mean to forgive? We have a long way to go on that. We have been victims,
but we have also been victors."
Thompson cited specific examples of racism that he said United Methodists must
address, including the transfer of clergy into their denomination without
consulting bishops of  the black denominations. Grove promised he would take
that issue up with his United Methodist colleagues at their next  meeting.
The Rev. Gloria Moore, an attorney and AMEZ pastor from Knoxville, Tenn.,
called for "forgiving and getting on with it so our children and grandchildren
will have a legacy of loving and forgiving and moving on as one Methodist
family."
  Regarding the act of forgiveness, she said, "One doesn't forget, but when
you remember, it doesn't hurt. There isn't pain. One must repent from the
heart. God will know if repentance is genuine."
Grove and Byrd Bonner, an attorney from San Antonio, Texas, both members of
the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity, shared details of the
repentance plans with the Commission on Union.
A similar presentation was made to the Commission on Cooperation by  two other
United Methodist Christian Unity Commission members: Ruth Daugherty, of
Lancaster, Pa., and the Rev. Rhymes H. Moncure Jr., of Columbia, Mo. The two
chair a task force of the commission developing the repentance effort.
Both reported that actions related to repentance would begin at the highest
levels of the church, including the Council of Bishops and the General
Conference.
  An act of repentance is not dependent on what might be done by members of
the black denominations, Daugherty said.
  "This is a first step our church must take before God,’’ she said. "God is
our judge. ... We as a church need to acknowledge the divisive acts which
caused a break in the community of God -- not general acts, but specific acts.
A lot of our members don't even know about it. We must at least raise their
consciousness."
A study-action guide is being developed specifically for members in the pews,
Moncure said.
  Betty V. Stith, AMEZ lay woman from New Rochelle, N.Y., questioned the
commitment of the average United Methodist.  "How will this get to the
grassroots who are quite content with the way things are?" she asked.
  Moncure acknowledged that some in the church will charge the commission with
agitation. "But, when you wash the clothes, it’s the agitation that causes
them to come clean," he said.
Bishop McKinley Young, Atlanta, ecumenical officer of the AME Church, chaired
the union group until CME Bishop Marshall Gilmore of Dallas was elected here
to succeed him.  Gilmore will serve through 1999, after which United
Methodists Grove and Trudie Reed of Columbia, S.C., will serve as co-chairs
through the year 2000. Young chairs the Commission on Cooperation.
During the Commission on Unity meeting, members  generally agreed that the
churches are not ready to be united into one organization.
  On the other hand, there appeared to be an unwillingness to write off the
eventual possibility that union might occur under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit. There was strong affirmation for a "more perfect union" that would
allow each denomination to continue while working corporately in a federation
or like states within the U.S. federal government.
  Critical to any discussion of unity, the group said, would be addressing
justice issues such as class, gender, race, and the environment. Members of
each denomination must make a greater effort to learn more about the other
three churches, commission members said. 
In other business, the Commission on Cooperation: 
* agreed to participate in the annual Children's Sabbath, developed by the
Children's Defense Fund, and to participate with the United Methodists in
their Episcopal Initiative on Children and Poverty; 
* endorsed a cooperative Black Men's Convocation tentatively planned by
representatives of all four churches  for the fall of 1998 in Atlanta; 
* affirmed greater cooperation of men's ministries in all four churches;
 * explored a cooperative insurance plan for colleges and universities. 
Mary A. Love, editor of church school literature for the AMEZ Church,
Charlotte, N.C., served on the Commission on Pan Methodist Cooperation for six
years after it was organized in 1985 and now serves as its administrative
secretary.
  Reflecting on the meeting here, she said, "Areas of cooperation continue to
increase as evidenced here by the action on men's ministries and issues
related to children and poverty." Love said there is also greater appreciation
for the heritage of each group.
"I'm hopeful that God is doing a new thing," she said.  "The concept of a
federation of Methodist churches, mentioned here, opens doors for union to
occur without loss of identity."
Both Pan Methodist groups will meet next in New Rochelle, N.Y.: Commission on
Unity, April 15-16; Commission on Cooperation, April 16-18.
#  #  #

*McAnally is director of United Methodist News Service, headquartered in
Nashville, Tenn., with offices in New York and Washington.
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