Worship includes service of reconciliation and repentance for racism
against African-Americans.
By Michael Wacht
LAKELAND — Delegates to this year’s Florida
Annual Conference Event May 28-31 in Lakeland will encounter a worship
experience that is different in many ways from past years’,
according to the Rev. Brenda Lewis, campus minister at Florida
Southern College and chairwoman of the event’s worship committee.
This year’s event features a service of
reconciliation and repentance for racism, inspired by a similar
service at the 2000 General Conference. Lewis said she hopes the
service, slated for the evening May 29, will be an experiential event.
“Sometimes people question, ‘I wasn’t
there when the church split. I wasn’t there when we had the Central
Conference. Why should I be part of a repentance service?’ ” she
said. “The way the service is set up, it will be meaningful for
people who were not there and give them a taste of what it was like.”
Guest speakers from the African Methodist
Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, Christian Methodist
Episcopal and United Methodist churches will share “our history of
brokenness,” Lewis said.
“Why do something like that now? It’s
important to take time for repentance and reconciliation…to claim
our history, repent and use that knowledge to be a more faithful
church in the future,” she said.
Lewis said the United Methodist Church’s
historic brokenness is primarily focused on African-Americans, but she
hopes this service will help mend or improve relationships between the
Anglo community and the Hispanic, Asian and other communities making
up the church today.
Bishop Jonathan D. Keaton, resident bishop of
the Ohio East Area, is the featured speaker. Keaton says he believes
divisions among Christians seriously diminish the impact of the church
on the world and has committed himself to working for Christian unity.
“Like Christ, I wish that we ‘may all be one’
as Christ is one with God,” he said.
The closing service will also be a new
experience for many delegates. Its focus is on appointment making and
a reaffirmation of baptism.
“Usually we just hurl appointment books at
people as they run out the door,” Lewis said. “This will put the
giving of appointments in the context of worship…It will launch the
year in prayer and reaffirmation.”
Another change will be a new order of worship,
designed to create a flow among the various services, Lewis said. “We
wanted to begin by looking back and celebrating the past. Then we’ll
move forward as we get into annual conference.”
The memorial service, which has traditionally
been held toward the middle of the event, is the opening service,
beginning at 2 p.m. The first evening begins with a “festive worship
service” that will include Communion, Lewis said.
Retirement and ordination services will take
place Thursday and be tied together by the passing of the mantle
during the retirement service.
Review Survey
How do you feel about participating in a service
of repentance and reconciliation for racism, and what’s your
theological reason? E-mail your response to MWacht@flumc.org.
All responses are subject to publication in part or in whole in a
future edition of the “Florida United Methodist Review.” |
