The North Central Jurisdiction Black Methodists for Church Renewal (BMCR) and the Commission on Religion & Race (CORR) held their joint annual meetings in the East Ohio Conference October 3-5.

Bishop Hee-Soo Jung, resident bishop of the new Ohio Episcopal Area consisting of the East Ohio and West Ohio Conferences was unable to attend but offered greetings via video during the opening worship service at Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Warrensville Heights.

“I have always believed that the African American United Methodist Church plays a significant role in our time and continues to play a prophetic role in creating a Church that is the beloved community,” Bishop Jung shared. “In being newly appointed to the Ohio Episcopal Area I have thought about many pioneers in United Methodism from African American ancestors: Bishop James Thomas, Bishop Ezel Ammons, Bishop Woodie White, Bishop Charles Jordan, Bishop Jonathan Keaton, Bishop Linda Lee, Bishop Julius Trimble, Bishop Frank Beard, and the deep emotion of joining in holy ministry following Bishop Gregory Palmer, who has just retired, and Bishop Tracy Malone, who went to Indiana. The North Central Jurisdiction raised amazing leaders from BMCR. We express our gratitude by pledging to continue to work together in solidarity and to renew our Church together.”

The theme of this year’s meeting, “Self-Actualization: Our Faith, Our Family, Our Future”, was grounded in the words of Nehemiah 4:1-14.

“The community pictured in our passage in Nehemiah was a post-exilic community. They had returned from exile, rebuilt the temple, their place of worship, the place where they could meet their God. And in this passage, they were busy rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. This wall was important not just for protection but because it signaled the restoration of God’s people. It pointed to their future as a restored people,” said Bishop Kennetha Bigham-Tsai, resident bishop of the Iowa Conference and co-resident bishop of the Illinois Great Rivers Conference with Bishop David Bard. “These post-exilic Israelites were building a wall as part of their self-actualization in God, the self-actualization of their faith, their families, and their futures.”

In his message during the opening worship service Rev. Cornelius Davis, Jr. of the Michigan Area of The United Methodist Church said of BMCR, “We have got to live into, ‘if you can’t help me, don’t try to stop me’ because God’s favor is on me, and I am a precious one of God. Yes, we have gone through disaffiliation. Yes, we have gone through things like the way the world is right now. Yes, we’re experiencing things where truth is being made into lies and lies are being made into truth. If you can’t help me, please don’t stop me. Move out of my way don’t try to block me because I’m going to move onto my self-actualization. I’m going to move on protecting my family. I’m going to move on doing what I’ve got to do and just like it was did back then it can be did now.”

BMCR Past, Present, and Future

Will Fenton-Jones, director of Multicultural Ministries in the East Ohio Conference Connectional Ministries office shared that in moving forward it’s important to recognize and learn from the past.

“The history of BMCR is important for every United Methodist to know and understand.  When the United Methodist Church was formed, a major question at the center was around the desegregation of the Church and BMCR was formed to advocate for the rights and place of Black United Methodists in the Church,” he said. “As a recognized racial ethnic caucus, BMCR plays an important role in training, equipping, and supporting the Black Church. Each year, BMCR gathers as the NCJ alongside CORR, to worship, have conversation, and celebrate this important ministry together. For us here in East Ohio it’s part of our anti-racism strategy: re-telling the stories of BMCR, being in relationship with our racial ethnic caucuses and jurisdictional board and seeking how we repair and reinvest in our churches and communities.”

During the three-day meetings, NCJ BMCR at Aldersgate UMC and NCJ CORR at the Embassy Suites in Beachwood, each group selected its new leadership. CORR is creating a team to discern how it can most effectively do its work across the jurisdiction and BMCR elected Rev. Dawan Buie, pastor of Aldersgate UMC in East Ohio, as the new president of its leadership board.

The Service of Holy Communion

Rev. Buie’s sermon during the Service of Holy Communion was titled “The Detractors of Progress”.

“As we build, brothers and sisters, be reminded that Nehemiah and the people built the wall with the detractors there. The detractors we face are not going to leave. But let me remind you that we serve an awesome God, a mighty God, a magnificent God, a way-making God, a transforming God and God is bigger than those detractors. If you have God and 50 detractors, you’re going to win. Let’s build church and let’s keep on building,” he said.

The offering collected during that service will be used to provide scholarships for North Central Jurisdiction youth to be able to attend the SEJ Black Methodists for Church Renewal’s Youth Harambee in 2025. Held at a Historically Black College and University, the four-day event offers youth a time of leadership, spiritual growth and training.

Spiritual growth and leadership development were central pieces of the annual NCJ BMCR meeting, too.

BMCR Annual Meeting Workshops

During her presentation on “Addressing Our Haters” Rev. Angela Lewis, superintendent of the Northern Waters District in the East Ohio Conference said, “We need each other to get to where we want to go. We can’t be so sensitive that we can’t be corrected.”

She continued, “Conflict resolution is not about finding out rights and wrongs. Conflict resolution is discovering clear and transparent communication so that everyone can be on the same page.”

Rev. James Fielder, pastor of Moline Riverside UMC in the Illinois Great Rivers Conference spoke on the topic “Removing Obstacles”, which addressed not letting others impede a church’s progress.

“When we are called to a place, we are called to lead. Leadership is not call and response. The church today needs leaders, and it takes courage to lead,” he said adding that Jesus focused on teaching instead of listening to detractors. “Jesus was committed to the disciples. He kept teaching. He kept leading.”

Pastor Marc Tibbs of Akron Centenary UMC in the East Ohio Conference shared his experiences on the topic “Rebuilding the Wall”.

“The level where we are lacking as a Church is solidarity, and solidarity is when we are standing shoulder to shoulder with somebody. When they hurt, we hurt. When they rejoice, we rejoice. You only can build solidarity if you’ve got a relationship, and you can’t relate, you can’t build a relationship if all you have and all you are doing is charity,” he said.

Additional workshops were scheduled on “Passionate Worship”, to offer insight on best practices for utilizing music ministries to engage congregations, and “The Shift After General Conference”, to share ideas for how progressives and conservatives can recognize their theological differences while working together to move the Church forward.

NCJ BMCR & NCJ CORR Celebration Banquet

The final evening of the BMCR and CORR meetings featured a joint Celebration Banquet at which Bishop Bigham-Tsai was the keynote speaker.

“This is what I came to tell you tonight: if generational trauma is real, and it is, then so is generational resilience. The Israelites of Nehemiah’s time were a resilient people despite the trauma of war and exile. Their trauma was real, yet the text says that the people still had the mind to work. They were still building that wall. They were still going about their ministry. They were still restoring the land. They had the trauma, but they still had a mind to self-actualize their faith, their families, and their futures,” she said. “BMCR, we must draw upon the generational and spiritual resilience that has been bequeathed to us by the great cloud of witnesses to our faith because the struggle is not over.”

During the banquet, attendees commemorated the life and ministry of Rev. Dennis M. Oglesby, Jr. who joined the Church Triumphant in June. Oglesby was a member of the Northern Illinois Conference who had transferred to the Minnesota Conference and was serving as pastor of Camphor Memorial United Methodist Church.

The West Ohio Conference BMCR caucus received the Attendance Award for having the most members registered for the annual meeting, and Elsie Turner of the East Ohio Conference caucus received the Michael Johnson Award for Social Justice.

“Elsie Turner has dedicated her life to BMCR and East Ohio Conference BMCR would not be here if it wasn’t for her. Thank you, Mrs. Turner, for being a mentor, a shepherd, a friend, and a mother,” said Tina Johnson of the East Ohio Conference in presenting the award.

Bishop Bigham-Tsai closed her message with these words of instructions for all: “We cannot stop working to self-actualize our families, our faith, our futures, and our churches. We must stay as the Church, as The United Methodist Church, in the struggle because our future, the future of our children and grandchildren, depends on us staying in the struggle. Our future is in this struggle just like it has always been in the past. This struggle is the actualization of hope.”

Written by Rick Wolcott, Executive Director of Communications for the East Ohio Conference of The United Methodist Church.