NEJ Delegates Participate in Liturgy of Remembrance
Outside the Omni William Penn Hotel stands a pocket park with a series of circular fountains. As each one fills with water, it overflows into its neighbor. Together, they are stunning. Together, they create a quiet symphony of sound and visual delight.
A fountain stands outside this 2024 gathering of the Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference in Pittsburgh, PA. But this isn’t the first gathering of Methodists that this city has hosted. 60 years ago, Methodists gathered here for the 1964 General Conference, which came to discuss, among other business, how to move the church towards greater racial integration. At that conference, protestors stood in front of the conference center, rather than fountains.
Delegates explore history of structural racism in the Methodist church
As part of the worship service on Tuesday, delegates heard the story of the 1964 General Conference, as told by Bishop Peter Weaver, a retired bishop in The United Methodist Church, who participated in the protest. The protestors were part of a Pilgrimage to Pittsburgh, a movement organized by a group of students and clergy who had been working to integrate churches in Jackson, Mississippi. These bold leaders were frustrated by the church’s unwillingness to address the structural racism and segregation perpetuated by the continued existence of the Central Jurisdiction. They took decisive action to try and force change.
More than 1000 people gathered for an all-night vigil at the Smithfield Street Methodist Church. They brought with them a charred cross, that had been burned on the lawn of Rev. Ed King, the chaplain of Tougaloo college, who had been instrumental in the work towards racial integration.
After praying together all night, protestors gathered outside the conference center. Bishop Weaver shared that those who participated in the protest, prayed on their knees that “Hearts would be changed, so that structures would change.” Protesters would later storm the floor of the General Conference to disrupt the proceedings and demand an immediate end to segregation by abolishing the Central Jurisdiction.
The Central Jurisdiction: A history of structural racism
The Central Jurisdiction was created in the 1939 merger of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and the Methodist Protestant Church. The Southern church only agreed to this union after a compromise to create a jurisdiction based on race, rather than geography.
Eric Carr, chairperson of the NEJ BCMR, Black Methodists for Church Renewal, spoke of the history of the Central Jurisdiction, “The Creation of the central jurisdiction was meant to separate and divide… it is said to be Methodism’s original and central sin, whose residual effects are still visible and felt in the denomination today and most specifically in today’s Central Conferences.”
While the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would soon end segregation, Methodists at the 1964 would choose to maintain the status quo. They chose not to act. Systemic and structural injustice was allowed to continue unchecked until the 1968 Uniting Conference, where the Evangelical United Brethren made abolishing the Central Jurisdiction a condition of the merger.
A symbol Methodism’s racist past invites prayers of repentance
That same cross that was the central symbol of the protest, stood on the stage as a focal point of the worship service. The body received the story and was invited to consider the ways that the residue of systemic racism continues to affect us even today, and our complicity in perpetuating and participating these systems, rather than working to dismantle them.
Delegates engaged in a litany of repentance that incorporated both the baptismal vow of all methodists to “reject evil, injustice and oppression, in whatever forms they present themselves” with Lift Every Voice and Sing, the Black National Anthem.
After this time of collective confession and repentance, Bishop Moore- Koikoi stood and concluded the service with a rousing charge, adapted from the work of Cole Arthur Riley, author of Black Litanies, and the book, This Here Flesh.
She called on every person present to honor their true selves and to hold fast to the commitments that they made today.
“Listen to the cries of those around you. And then follow a path of healing and liberation for yourself, but more importantly, for those around you and all you encounter. Take peace in the sound of your own voice, And the sound of the voice of God that you hear coming from others. And choose a life, a life that honors your true self, and the commitments that you have made today. May it be so. Amen.”
We tell the story of our racist past because the work is not yet finished. The residue of structural racism remains, and it continues to affect our life together. The liturgy of repentance that the delegates prayed is available for your use. It was written by the Rev. Amy Wagner in consultation and collaboration with the Rev. Eric Carr, chairperson of the NEJ BMCR. The second movement of this act of repentance names sinful action that has occurred at previous gatherings of the Northeastern jurisdiction. Consider replacing it with an action that your congregation might need to confess.
Litany of Repentance by Rev. Amy Wagner