Edited version, please read the full version and letter available at UMC.org
United Methodist Council of Bishops Meeting, Berlin, Germany, May 1-7, 2015
United Methodist bishops must speak out against racism and address the anger that has sparked riots in Baltimore and other U.S. cities, the Council of Bishops president said in an emotional address.
"It is not enough for us to remain silent. We’re dealing with principalities and powers, I believe," Bishop Warner Brown Jr. told bishops on May 1. in Germany’s capital.
Brown, who also leads the denomination’s San Francisco area, spoke to a group that included 65 active and 26 retired bishops from around the globe. Brown also released a letter to all United Methodists asking them to join the council "in prayer, reflection and action toward overcoming the issues that sometimes divide our societies."
"Together we can find ways, appropriate to our social context, for healing the brokenness between us," Brown wrote.
As a pastor and police chaplain, Brown said he has known many law enforcement officers of integrity whose work "is so vital to human society." But he also urged his fellow bishops to recognize the anger so many feel after the deaths of multiple unarmed African-Americans and other young men of color at the hands of police and others.
"Video documentation has raised expectations in people that claims of wrongdoing will be seriously considered," he said. "So distrust grows because very few police officers have been held accountable."
Fifty years ago, he pointed out, it was common for the killer to be set free when a black man or woman was murdered. "There is a lot of pain, and the history of that causes a lot of pain to be pent up," he explained.
The church itself is not untouched by racism, Brown said.
In 1968 — a year that saw riots in many U.S. cities following the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — a newly desegregated and newly merged United Methodist Church promised to build "a new kind of church" where all people would be welcomed. But that promise remains unfulfilled, he said.
"Today there are still churches that don’t want a pastor appointed because of his or her race," he said. "There are still churches that aren’t open to being a fully inclusive community. There are some churches that still might send a visitor to that (African Methodist Episcopal) church down the road."
To go forward, the bishop suggested that part of the work "is to find a way we can live into the social holiness that must go hand-in-hand with the spiritual holiness — a life lived as a disciple of Jesus."