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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodists together |
January 2004 |
Black Methodists inspect 'fruit' of church's repentance
By Linda Green
BALTIMORE (UMNS) - Three years have passed since The United Methodist Church apologized for the sin of racism and sought to reconcile with African-American Methodist denominations that formed during the 18th and 19th centuries.
During that repentance service at the 2000 General Conference, United Methodists were warned that the fruits of their repentance would be under scrutiny by African-American churches.
Since then, most of the 64 United Methodist annual conferences in the United States have held repentance services, including both the North and South Indiana conferences. Local congregations have engaged in partnerships with members of the African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion and Christian Methodist Episcopal churches. Members of those denominations also hold membership on the governing bodies of United Methodist boards and agencies.
Representatives of these historic Black Methodist churches and United Methodist churches came together in Baltimore recently in search of the fruit and to see how they would journey together in Christ in the future. Native American United Methodists also participated.
The United Methodist Church has made strides in its repentance, but it needs assistance in identifying the missing pieces, said Anne Marshall, a staff executive with the denomination's Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns.
The consultation focused on identifying next steps for The United Methodist Church to take beyond the act of repentance to reconciliation.
Several ideas for next steps included moving beyond the "safe" observances, focusing on people 25 to 45 years old, acknowledging the intersections of race, and tearing down walls that separate various races. The group also discussed encouraging the startup of cooperative congregations under the pan-Methodist banner.
"If a tree is purporting to be an apple tree, the way to tell if it is so is to taste the fruit, examine the fruit," said Staccato Powell, an African Methodist Episcopal Zion representative from West Chester, Pa. "So if The United Methodist Church is genuinely repentant for its actions of the past, then we want to know that by their current deeds and practices."
Powell asked how The United Methodist Church could reach beyond its institutional walls if it continues to exclude those who never left its ranks - a reference to the racism that still exists in the denomination.
He also questioned whether the act of repentance was an attempt to "bring people of color back in to reverse the cycle of the downward spiral in terms of membership, or is this an attempt to control and dominate as the past has proven?"
The United Methodist Church should "walk the walk and not simply talk the talk," Powell said.
Last updated on 02/09/2004