“And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” 1 Cor. 13: 13
As a high school student awakening to the realities of the nefarious external force of racism that played upon my personhood in the world, I knew I had to grasp to something higher than myself. The church was where I turned to find hope amidst the hurt of being young and black in America. Yet, I also found myself sitting across from my grandmother at her kitchen table, questioning. I was hoping for some rational understanding of why even in the church we could not escape racism, and that being the case, why did our family remain Methodist throughout seven generations, finding the home at Waters Methodist Episcopal Church now Waters UMC) in the Peninsula-Delaware Conference the bedrock of the Methodist Movement in the Eastern Shores of Maryland? Ever tolerant of my obstinate passion for answers to the incongruence of verbal faith commitments and actual practice, she gently but resolutely reminded me of some essential truths:
She reminded me that African Americans who remain in the United Methodist Church are both a remnant of hope and a reminder of the ideal for the church to match its practice with its proclamation. Even though the continued presence of African Americans in Methodism in the twenty-first century, particularly in The United Methodist Church, is still an anomaly. With its peculiar and promising proclamation of the prevenience of grace, Methodism was cool water to a soul burning for hope. She reminded me of those disinherited ones, my family members, who said, “Yes!” to the invitation offered to them by the circuit riders, embracing their humanity and dignity through God’s amazing grace in Jesus Christ and the scandal of the cross of Calvary. It was for them, as the writer of the Gospel of John put it, “grace upon grace” [John 1:16]. She spoke of Wesley’s strong opposition to slavery, including its historic position at the organizing Christmas Conference in 1784. The Wesleyan style of worship included extemporaneous prayer and preaching. And the ability of the disinherited to serve as lay preachers and exercise influence with Black people and whites despite restrictions on their movement and limited leadership opportunities.
Still, I persisted then and even today, subtly at times, posing the question, why should I (We – AAs) stay?
In the words of Professor William B. McClain from his writings in Black People Called Methodist, Whither Thou Goest? “Why did African Americans endure the demeaning institutional machinery set in motion to affect this humiliating “church-within-a-church” contrivance? Why have African Americans remained Methodists when the church they love so often puts convention above conscience, is so often more concerned about unity than about uniqueness and is more willing to conform than to create?” In response, we can turn to the Apostle Paul “we see through a glass darkly,” [1 Cor 13:12] only sure of who Jesus is and what He has done, and what love accomplished in him, and continues to accomplish in his name. That love is resurrected in His rising and is alive and available to all. That love lives and is shown abroad when the church reaches across to take the hand of those who are reaching for hope for tomorrow, however that hand may look.
My grandmother would remind me that it was my ancestor’s choice to stay because it was our spiritual home where the liberating Word is proclaimed as a testament to the one who brings freedom and justice and identifies with the poor and invites the disinherited to the Table.
Josephine Price Pinder (b. Jan 29, 1922 – d. Aug 24, 2012)
Board member of the General Board of Global Ministries, Churchwomen United, National Council of Churches, representative to 1968 Uniting Conference, Jurisdiction and General Conference Delegate of the Eastern PA Annual Conference and youth gang worker, and best of all beloved grandmother, servant of Christ and keeper of the faith!
Grace and Peace, 
Chris
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