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| General Conference Celebrates the Dissolution of the Central Jurisdiction | ||||||||||||
by Christie R. House* Fort Worth, TX, April 29, 2008--"The Methodist Church chose to exclude members of the body of Christ because of their skin color," stated Erin Hawkins, Sunday morning, April 27, 2008, in a plenary session on the floor of General Conference, Fort Worth, Texas. Within the legislative rhetoric necessary to create one Methodist Church in 1939 from the three denominations that had splintered before the nation's Civil War, that direct statement was never made, but skin color was the only basis for setting aside all the congregations of color that made up the Central Jurisdiction. Everyone at the 1939 uniting conference knew that. Hawkins, the General Secretary of the General Commission on Religion and Race, led the General Conference in a commemoration that marked the 40th anniversary of the official dissolution of the Central Jurisdiction in 1968. The Central Jurisdiction was dissolved in the same way that it had been created: as part of a merger. In the new United Methodist Church, a merger of the Methodist Church and Evangelical United Brethren church, the Central Jurisdiction simply did not appear as one of the jurisdictions of the denomination. Faith and Sacrifice The reality of integrating the Central Jurisdiction churches into the new jurisdictions was a far more complicated process. Bishop Leontine Kelly, reached by phone after the commemoration, said it took many years of difficult work to abolish the Central Jurisdiction. Bishop Kelly became the first African American woman to hold the office of bishop in The United Methodist Church. By 1968, many churches, particularly in the north, had already joined the larger jurisdictional structures. But African American members were bitterly disappointed by the way the Methodist Church had shut them out and then took its time to integrate their congregations back into the denomination. The late Rev. Robert E. Jones-Felder, Bishop Kelly's son-in-law, was a young clergy delegate in 1968. His father, the Rev. Gloster Bryant Current, Sr., headed the Central Jurisdiction delegation working to abolish the jurisdiction, yet, at the time, Jones-Felder voted against dissolution. His views, and those of many others, have been preserved in interviews conducted by Pam Crosby and Mike DuBose of United Methodist Communications at a 2004 Central Jurisdiction reunion held in Atlanta. "I had not seen evidence of a change of heart of the persons who were in leadership in the church," said Jones-Felder in his interview. "I thought we needed to hold out for assurances for representation across the boards and agencies of the church." Jones-Felder later became a Church and Community Developer with the General Board of Global Ministries. "We have not yet arrived at where we need to be," he said, "but we have come a long way." Pushed by Merger Many members of the Central Jurisdiction felt that dissolution occurred only because the Evangelical United Brethren Church otherwise refused to enter the merger. In fact, the article of the Constitution of the Methodist Church that abolished the Central Jurisdiction was passed in 1964, before union, but compliance was voluntary, both on the part of the Central Jurisdiction churches and the majority jurisdictions. World Outlook editors in 1964 wrote: "Had it been presented for the first time it would have looked like a sensible and hopeful solution. Unfortunately, many of its features--its 'voluntarism' for example--had been presented eight years before, and little had been accomplished. There is no doubt that many people in the church, both Negro and white, are getting impatient." Bishop James K. Mathews, a former missionary and Board of Missions director, knocked on the doors of Galloway Methodist Church in Jackson, Mississippi, on Easter Sunday, 1964, with Bishop Charles F. Golden of the Central Jurisdiction at his side. They were denied entry. They later worshipped at Jackson's Central Methodist Church of the Central Jurisdiction, which had no problem admitting them both. Strong Leaders from a Strong Jurisdiction "If we had not had a Central Jurisdiction, a lot of our people would not have had an opportunity for real leadership," said Gray. "This is the place where they learned or honed their skills." Bishop White served as the first general secretary of the new denomination's General Commission on Religion and Race in 1968. It was his charge to oversee the integration of Central Jurisdiction churches into the denomination. He said he worked with people "who literally had never sat down at a table with black people." He could see how the Central Jurisdiction had prepared African Americans to step up into every leadership opportunity the new denomination offered. At the 2008 General Conference commemoration, Erin Hawkins thanked the members of the Central Jurisdiction who had stayed in the denomination to see it through to union. Angella Current-Felder, Bishop Kelly's daughter, said "Union eliminated the principle of mandatory segregation within the church and paved the way for the church to battle its demons of racism, bigotry, and prejudice." Interviews conducted by Pamela Crosby from the 2004 Central Jurisdiction reunion have been preserved and made available online by UMCom at http://audio.umc.org . Search by subject for Central Jurisdiction. More General Conference 2008 News * Christie R. House is the editor of New World Outlook.
Date posted: Apr 29, 2008 |
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