wfn.org | Pan-Methodist bishops confront issues of racism, repentance

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March 15, 1999 News media contact: Thomas S. McAnally*(615)
742-5470*Nashville, Tenn. 10-21-31-71BP {138}

NOTE: Photographs and a sidebar, UMNS #139, are available for use with this
story.

ATLANTA (UMNS) -- Union may not be on the near horizon for four Methodist
denominations, but bishops are committed to a journey in that direction with
a continuing emphasis on cooperation and dialogue.

Meeting March 9-11 for their seventh consultation in 20 years, bishops of
three predominantly black Methodist churches and the largely white United
Methodist Church explored requirements for union, including  repentance,
reparation, forgiveness and reconciliation.
	
About 75 bishops attended, representing the African Methodist Episcopal
(AME), African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ), Christian Methodist
Episcopal (CME) and United Methodist (UMC) churches.
	
The primary theme for the three-day consultation was prompted by the work of
a Commission on Pan-Methodist Union, a group recommended by the bishops at
their last consultation in 1995 and subsequently authorized by the general
conference of each denomination.

Leadership of the commission rotates annually among the four denominations.
Current co-chairpersons are UMC Bishop William Boyd Grove of Charleston,
W.Va., ecumenical officer for the Council of Bishops, and Trudie Kibbe Reed,
a UMC laywoman who is president of Philander Smith College in Little Rock,
Ark.
	
A 20-year-old Commission on Pan-Methodist Cooperation is chaired by AME's
ecumenical officer, Bishop McKinley Young of Atlanta. Both commissions met
in Atlanta before the consultation of bishops.

"We are one church broken into four pieces by the sin of white racism, but
we have a yearning for reconciliation and healing," Grove said at an opening
worship service held at Ben Hill UMC, a predominantly black congregation.
Pastor of the church is the Rev. McAllister Hollins, a member of the
Commission on Union.

Preaching at the service, UMC Bishop Charlene Kammerer challenged the
Methodists to respond positively to the last request Jesus made of his
disciples, that they be one. Kammerer, of Charlotte, N.C., is a member of
the Commission on Pan-Methodist Cooperation. 
	
Pointing to men and women, liberals and conservatives, and others categories
in the church,  Kammerer said, "We in the family of God need them all . . .
as the eye needs an ear and the head needs a heart." Those separated in the
Christian church -- the body of Christ -- each have gifts that are sorely
needed by the whole, she said.
	
Unity will not be achieved by good intentions or a desire to be inclusive,
she said, but "only because of the work and power of the Holy Spirit."
 	
The four denominations trace their common heritage to the Wesleyan movement
in England in the 18th century and the creation of the Methodist Episcopal
Church in America in 1784. The three African Methodist denominations broke
off from the parent denomination because of racist policies and practices. 
	
Reflecting on the years since the family of Methodists was divided, Kammerer
asked, "Has enough of the Holy Spirit invaded us yet so we are able to be
one?"
	
Speaking the next day, the Rev. W. Peter Stephens, president of the British
Methodist Conference, urged the four churches not to become content with
their separate lives.
	
"If Christ can't unite you across barriers of race, he has not worked
salvation among you," he said. "Christ unites us across those things which,
in human society, divide us."
	
In a major address during the consultation, CME Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt Jr.,
traced, from an African-American perspective, the theological themes in
several Articles of Religion shared by the four churches. Hoyt, of
Shreveport, La., is a member of the Commission on Union.

He questioned whether repentance and forgiveness are possible. "We live in a
spoiled moral environment where people claim repentance and ask for
forgiveness," he said. "In both instances, people live in a fantasy world,
claiming law over mercy. It is our hope that those who have perpetuated
racism and who profit from the same in power positions within the church
will now repent and show fruits of repentance.  

"Those who have been wronged must not sulk in self-pity or revenge, but must
offer forgiveness in a spirit of love to those who honestly ask for the
same," he continued. "If there is to be true community, we must develop
patterns of truthfulness in confronting sin and seeking reconciliation and
new life."

Hoyt also warned against "cheap grace," defined as "the preaching of
forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline,
communion without confession, absolution without personal confession." 

A bishop from each of the four denominations gave a formal response to
Hoyt's address. 

AME Bishop Phillip R. Cousin of Philadelphia warned that in its dual nature,
the church does not always live out sociologically what it proclaims
theologically. He also pointed to tensions between majority and minority
members regarding turf, decision-making and institutional power.

Cousin was cautious about calls for reconciliation. "All my life I've been
told to love and wait, love and wait, love and wait," he said. "It's like a
needle on a broken record."  

While it is important to love, he said, it is also important to sit at the
table when decisions are made. "Let those who have been heaping injustice
initiate the reconciliation, and let me sit and wait.

"We will never be what we ought to be until we live the life you sing about
in your songs," Cousins declared. "When you are ready to be what you sing
about, then we will be ready to make pan-Methodism a reality. . . I'm still
human and I wait."

AMEZ Bishop Marshall H. Strickland of Baltimore, echoed the call for
avoiding cheap grace. "New wine cannot be placed in old skins," he said.
"Reconciliation requires radical change, not amalgamation.

Given the manner in which African Americans who desired to be Methodist were
treated throughout much of the church's history, CME Bishop Othal Lakey of
Atlanta said it is important to note that they chose to remain Methodists.

"Early on, black Methodists decided they wanted to be free, Christian and
Methodists," Lakey said. "If they could not be free and Christian in the
Methodist Episcopal Church, they would not allow the conduct of some
Methodists to keep them from being Methodists." 
	
UMC Bishop George Bashore of Pittsburgh, president of the denomination's
Council of Bishops, was unable to attend the consultation because of
illness. However, his response was read. The United Methodist Church has 8.5
million members in the United States, of whom nearly 362,000 are black.

"In order to give substance to repentance, which implies decrying and
turning away from acts of oppression and racism, we need intensified
solidarity among our congregations through action-advocacy, hospitality and
exorcism of racism in our churches and society," Bashore said. "This will
move us from superficial code-language toward a more faithful living of the
priority commandments.  
"It is tragic that in our many communities, the children of John Wesley have
divorced, and we, as their children, act as if we don't have visiting
privileges. May God help us to find ways to show fruits of true repentance."

What repentance for its racist past means to the UMC and what forgiveness
means to the three black denominations were part of the conversations at
both commission meetings and the consultation.

Plans for a call to repentance -- with accompanying educational components
-- are being developed by the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity
and Interreligious Concerns and the Council of Bishops, in close
consultation with the Commission on Pan- Methodist Union. A pan-Methodist
advisory group has also been created and will have its first meeting in
April.   

An update on the repentance plans was given by Grove; the Rev. Bruce Robbins
of New York, staff executive of the UMC Commission on Christian Unity; and
Ruth Daugherty of Lancaster, Pa., a commission member who co-chairs a task
force on the repentance effort with the Rev. Rhymes H. Moncure Jr. of
Columbia, Mo.

"It is important that all United Methodists come to an attitude of
repentance for racism then and now," Daugherty said. The call for repentance
will include:

*	a pamphlet outlining the history of the racial divisions in the
church ;
*	"Steps Toward Wholeness: Learning and Repentance," a study guide for
United Methodist congregations in preparation for an Act of Repentance for
Racism and Pan-Methodist Conversations on Union;
*	a liturgical act of repentance at the United Methodist General
Conference meeting in Cleveland May 2-12, 2000; 
*	legislation that would revise part of the church's constitution
dealing with racism;
*	annual conference discussion and action on the proposed
constitutional amendments;
*	conversation and cooperative efforts among local pan-Methodist
congregations.

All pan-Methodist bishops were given a draft of the study guide and asked to
make suggestions. The UMC General Conference will be asked to approve the
study guide, which will  include historical information on the three black
denominations and the former Central (black) Jurisdiction of the old
Methodist Church. The Central Jurisdiction was created at the time of
Methodist union in 1939 and not totally abolished until the Methodist and
Evangelical United Brethren churches merged in 1968 to create the United
Methodist Church.
Reflecting on the three meetings, Robbins said participants were "in search
of a vision of where they want to go together. The long-term goals are
clear," he said, "but the shorter ones are more difficult."

"For many United Methodist bishops, coming to know more personally the
histories and experiences of the historic black churches was enormously
valuable," he observed.

Grove and Young expressed pleasure at the large percentage of bishops from
all four churches attending the consultation. "We've dealt honestly with
real issues that have divided us," Grove said.  

The bishops agreed to meet again in four years.  They also:

*	endorsed a second Pan-Methodist National Black Men's Convocation,
tentatively planned for March 3-5, 2000, in Atlanta under the banner
"Linking Generations of Black Men"; 
*	heard an update on a cooperative campaign for children in poverty
and agreed to encourage their churches to support the "Children's Sabbath"
on or near the weekend of Oct. 15-17;
*	heard plans for a millennium event for the Methodist movement in
North America Nov. 18-21 in Houston.
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