By Michael Wacht

LAKELAND — “Christian unity is a worthwhile hope, it’s just not a present reality,” said Bishop Jonathon D. Keaton of the East Ohio Area of the United Methodist Church. “Ditto for racial unity.”

Keaton was the preacher at the service of Repentance and Reconciliation for Racism May 29, the second day of the 2002 Florida Annual Conference Event here. Keaton is also a leading advocate in the United Methodist Church for both Christian and ethnic unity.

Keaton quoted Psalm 30:5, “…weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning,” as he recounted the often painful history of African-Americans and American Methodism and offered hope for the future.

Methodism came into early conflict with slavery and racism, Keaton said. John Wesley called slavery an inhuman practice and termed American slavery “the vilest the world has ever seen.” Early Methodists took strong antislavery stances, but were met with resistance. In 1816, the Methodist General Conference appointed a nine-member committee to examine the slavery issue and see if it was wrong, Keaton said.

In the early days of Methodism, racially-mixed congregations were common. “Eleven o’clock was not the most segregated hour, as it is now,” Keaton said. “How can we make it right? I don’t know, and that makes me weep.”

Most of the crucial events that separated African-Americans from the Methodist Church happened during worship or in the church, Keaton said. Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the first person licensed or ordained in the United States, left St. George’s Church in Philadelphia when Absalom Jones, a church member, was asked to move to the back of the church while praying.

At the Methodist Church’s uniting conference in 1939, the 47 black delegates wept while the majority sang “Marching to Zion” after the vote approving the creation of the racially-segregated Central Jurisdiction.

Keaton said the service of racial reconciliation at the United Methodist Church’s 2000 General Conference was bittersweet for African-Americans. Many people rejoiced because the service focused on the African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion and Christian Methodist Episcopal churches, whom Keaton referred to as the ones who left the church, but initially ignored the African-Americans who stayed in the Methodist Church.

Leaders from the African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion and Christian Methodist Episcopal churches also shared their experiences of brokenness and forgiveness.

The Rev. Leroy Kennon, district presiding elder in the Orlando District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, said sin put humans “in a wrong relationship with God and with each other,” but forgiveness heals those relationships.

“We need no more laws…committees,” Kennon said. “We need reconciliation. We need healing.”

Bishop Paul W. Stewart of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church said he was “glad the United Methodist Church has owned up to its sin of racism and is repenting,” and asked delegates to “do works befitting of repentance.”

The African-American Methodist denominations also need to repent, according to Stewart. “Maybe we don’t need to repent of racism, but we need to repent of other things…suspicion and doubt and continuing to nurse our old hurts and pains,” he said. “We need to give up the sins we have loved and cherished for so long.”

Bishop Richard K. Thompson of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church said reconciliation is bringing together two parties “that should have been together all along,” and true repentance must bear fruit.

“Bear the fruit of true inclusion in the blessings God has bestowed on you, not just tokenism or formalism,” Thompson said. “Responding on behalf of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church to the sin of racism is an humbling experience. The Bible says if a brother repents, we are bound to forgive. I accept your repentance and hope we can be reconciled.”