resolution

African American Methodist Heritage Center (AAMHC)

2016 Book of Resolutions, #3062

The history, heritage and hopes of United Methodists of African American descent are inextricably intertwined with the history, heritage, and hopes of John Wesley’s Methodism since its beginnings in North America. Yet, the whole church has been slow to celebrate that linkage, perhaps due to a lack of knowledge and understanding of the story of trials and triumphs. It is not widely known that:

In 1760 the first person of African heritage to be converted to Methodism was Peter Denis;
In 1765 when Robert Strawbridge preached in Baltimore one of the speakers was a man of African heritage, Caleb Hyland, who later became a member of Sharp Street Methodist Church, one of Methodism’s oldest African American Churches;
The first Methodist class meeting in New York City included a Black woman named Betty, a servant of Barbara Heck;
John Wesley himself chided a group at Fells Point in Baltimore for failing to include a group of Black persons as full participants; and
Black Harry Hosier was a great preacher and colleague of Francis Asbury and, along with Richard Allen, was among the attendees at the Christmas Conference of 1784 when the Methodist Church in North American was organized.

The full and rich history of African Americans in Methodism is still unfolding. It is the vision of the African American Methodist Heritage Center to facilitate the revelation of that history so that it informs the present and builds hope for the future. Through the Heritage Center, African American United Methodists are seeking to recover and preserve the stories and the artifacts of the celebrations and the calamities, the accomplishments and the adversities, the connection and separation, and the whole gamut of experiences encountered over the nearly three hundred years of the church’s journey in America. Methodism, as well as the American society in general, struggled with the sin of racism and segregation. African American Methodists as well as non-African American Methodists dared to be proactive in the long pursuit of justice and equality and full person hood under God.

Failure to remember the full story of the depths from which the journey started will doom those who fail to remember to the fate of not recognizing that history oft repeats itself. Even in the twenty- first century vestiges of racial bigotry overshadow the claims of some persons that racism is in the past and is not impacting the dream that we can be “one people under God”.

The American Poet Langston Hughes raised the question in his poem “Harlem,” “… . What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? … . or does it just explode?” The question is very relevant to the ministry of the African American Methodist Heritage Center should there not be adequate sup- port from the total denomination to implement the dream and to maintain the Heritage Center.

We know that God “Makes a way out of no way,” and reality out of dreams. An African American Methodist Heritage Center that is affirmed, supported, and sustained by ALL of United Methodism, is a living testimony to how those who were victimized and those who caused their victimization have been able, with God’s help, to make of trials and tribulations, everlasting triumph! The Heritage Center is telling the story of the rocky road Methodism has traveled, and it also is an expression of how a people who believed and trusted when there was no reason to believe and trust sustained themselves and made visible the “Amazing Grace” of God.

As people with a memory and as people of hope, the General Conference of The United Methodist Church affirms the need to remember the past and to live through the present into a future that is richer and stronger because of our journey together. Therefore:

Whereas, Black Methodists for Church Renewal (BMCR) and other interested United Methodists had the vision that there be an African American Methodist Heritage Center to recover, preserve, and share the rich history and invaluable contributions of African Americans in The United Methodist Church and its predecessor denominations; and

Whereas, the initiative was taken to create a Board of Trustees that established the African American Methodist Heritage Center, which is properly organized and incorporated as a not-for-profit organization under the law of the state of New Jersey and approved as a 501© (3) tax exempt organization by the Internal Revenue Service; and

Whereas, the 2004 General Conference of The United Methodist Church approved a resolution, “African American Methodist Heritage Center” [#71, The Book of Resolutions,2004], that affirmed the concept of the Heritage Center and authorized the Board of Trustees to pursue funding through the United Methodist Development Fund (now The United Methodist Development Center); and

Whereas, the General Commission on Archives and History has partnered with the board of trustees in the development and ministry of the African American Methodist Heritage Center by officially accepting the Heritage Center to be housed in the Archives Building where the collection is protected by proper scientifically controlled systems for the preservation, cataloguing and maintenance by staff to enable research into the story of African Americans in Methodism; and

Whereas, the Heritage Center has implemented many aspects of its Strategic Plan for Ministry, that include providing work- shops and some resources; and

Whereas, The United Methodist Church in its entirety, desires more effective fulfillment of the ministry of the Heritage Center; and Whereas, the fund-raising efforts to date have yielded limited resources for adequately addressing the resource and information needs expressed by the constituency;

Therefore, be it resolved, that permission is continued for fund raising by the African American Methodist Heritage Center and for the continued development of an endowment through the United Methodist Church Foundation; and

Be it further resolved, that the General Conference recognize that Discipleship Ministries, Higher Education and Ministry, Global Ministries, the General Commission on Archives and History, and the General Commission on Religion and Race have cooperated in the undergirding of the ministry of the Heritage Center and encourage all of the general agencies to determine ways and means whereby they too, can support this ministry; and

Be it further resolved, that the Heritage Center will be intentional in reaching out to the Pan-Methodist Commission membership to encourage the identification, preservation, and sharing of artifacts and memorabilia of our common Methodist heritage that will benefit the seven individual denominations, and Methodism as a whole, in telling the full story of Methodism in regard to the African American experience (The African Methodist Episcopal Church, The African American Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, The Union American Methodist Episcopal Church, The American Union Methodist Protestant Church, The Free Methodist Church).

Be it further resolved, that all United Methodists work, study, support, and pray for the recovery, preservation, and sharing of the unique story of African Americans in Methodism, recognizing that to do so is embracing and remembering the WHOLE story of Methodism.

ADOPTED 2008
AMENDED AND READOPTED 2016
RESOLUTION #3062, 2012 BOOK OF RESOLUTIONS
RESOLUTION #3063, 2008 BOOK OF RESOLUTIONS

See Social Principles, ¶ 162A.

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