It was February 2, and my fellow Harbor District Anti-Racism Team member, Lorraine Norman, and I wanted to make our congregation at Seaside United Methodist Church in Sunset Beach where we are members aware that February was Black History Month. The title of the bulletin board was “Celebrate Black History Month with Unity”. We wanted to share the great strides the United Methodist Church has made regarding racial unity and that our new bishop, Bishop Leonard E. Fairley, who is black, calls all of us to greater progress. In his 2/2/2022 ‘Make It Plain‘ message, he prays and hopes that “we will celebrate together God’s ability to hew out the stones of bitterness, despair, polarization, anxiety, uncertainty, and the stubborn stone of racism, a new thing glowing with a joy, power, and hope that overcomes all obstacles.” So we posted his message.
We also wanted to encourage our congregation to listen to the “Deep Reckonings” podcasts produced by the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church (NCCUMC), especially the 2/1/2021 podcast entitled, “Deep Beginnings with Steve Taylor”. Mr. Taylor, who is white, is the Director of Connectional Ministries for the NCCUMC, and he tells about his journey from childhood to now to become anti-racist. We also shared the “How to Help White Congregations Observe Black History Month Do’s and Don’ts” from the Race & Religion section of the UMC website and the children’s “Do You Know These Black United Methodist History-Makers?” activity.
We posted copies of the activity on the bulletin board and invited people to take them. We also posted copies of book covers of several books on racism to give ideas of books to read. We would like to organize a SUMC book discussion group in the near future on one of these books. Finally, we posted small colorful stickers on the bulletin with phrases such as “It All Starts and Ends With Family” and “A Family Makes Life Beautiful”.
Our Senior Pastor, Eugene Cobb, brought attention to the bulletin board in his 2/9 “Wednesday Weekly Witness” video that was sent to all SUMC members. We are appreciative of his doing that. We got the bulletin board completed by 2/5 so it was up all month. – Karen Viviano
You and your congregation are invited to reach out to the Harbor District Anti-Racism Team if you would like ways to reach out to your congregation members and/ or your community with regards to learning about and walking along side others as we journey to become and anti-racist community.