News and Views

Gathered in person for the first time as a new Area, the people of the Baltimore-Washington and Peninsula Delaware Area filled the sanctuary at Severna Park UMC on Oct. 13 to give thanks for all that has been and proclaim, “Yes!” to a future filled with hope, vitality and possibility.

The area’s 10 district superintendents brought living water from the Atlantic Ocean, the Chesapeake Bay and lakes and rivers around the region, pouring and combining them in a baptismal font and encouraging all present to remember their baptisms. Leaders from both annual conferences celebrated the numerous shared ministries already flourishing as a result of the affiliation begun three years ago. Bishop LaTrelle Easterling was presented with a hand-made stole decorated with symbols of the Area’s work to create “Beloved Community. Communion was celebrated in a liturgy written especially for the occasion and read by Lay Leaders Amelia Duroska and Yvonne Jackson, and Bishop Easterling was welcomed back as the resident bishop of the Baltimore-Washington and Peninsula-Delaware Episcopal Area.

This is not the first time the two conferences have been linked. In the 1970’s and ‘80’s they were part of a shared episcopal area. Three years ago, as a stewardship measure, the conferences were affiliated and began to share some staff, resources and ministry and mission opportunities under Bishop Easterling’s leadership.

At this year’s Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference in July, the Episcopacy Committee, to address budget concerns, joined the Peninsula-Delaware and Baltimore-Washington conferences into one episcopal area and assigned Bishop Easterling to lead it. While some areas share only a bishop, this area has also embraced the possibilities of connection and a shared mission.

In a spirit of joy, fellowship, gratitude and renewed vision, the people at the Oct. 13 worship service prayed, “Bless us as your people, dear God, with reimagined creativity to work with you as you seek to do something never done before.”

Bishop Easterling expanded on this prayer in her sermon.

She called on United Methodists to meet “at the foot of the cross,” and to think about the things, as Paul advised in Philippians 4:8, that are true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent and worthy of praise.

Bishop Easterling acknowledged that some people recently disaffiliated from the denomination because of theological differences and divisions. “There were aspersions cast by some against those who have committed to remain within The United Methodist Church, to remain with a denomination that voted to stop persecuting people because of who they love or discriminating against individuals because they will no longer hide in metaphorical closets. Well, beloved,” she said, “I make no apologies for embracing love beyond all else. I make no excuses for privileging love beyond law. I will not equivocate for choosing inclusion over exclusion, and I hope you won’t either.”

The bishop continued, “Don’t let anyone cause you to question your faith or your belief. As stated in A Brief History of The United Methodist Church, ‘The United Methodist Church shares the heritage of Biblical faith from the people of Israel and the Christian faith proclaimed in The New Testament.' Our founder, John Wesley, and those who became Methodists were faithful, devoted and devout followers of Christ and labored in studying God’s Word, fasting, prayer, sacrificial giving and loving their neighbors. They believed the word of God when it said these three remain: faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love. They believed God’s Word when it said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” That love caused them to stand against slavery. That love caused them to welcome women as proclaimers of the Word. That love caused them to reject a caste system. That love caused them to advocate for the poor, to welcome the immigrant and to offer hospitality to all. We stand on that biblical witness and their shoulders.” 

Privileging love also means wrestling with other divisions from the past, preconceived prejudices about who might be on the other side of the Bay Bridge, and examining the racism of the “Baltimore – hyphen – Washington” and “Peninsula – hyphen – Delaware” conferences. “Beloved, there is segregation, division and hatred in those hyphens,” she said, citing the historically racially segregated, all-Black Washington and Delaware Conferences.

“We need to exhume the secrets, the ugly truths that we would rather forget and remember who we have been so that we don’t repeat our mistakes, Bishop Easterling said. “Truth Is something many would like to avoid right now. But truth will set us free.”

To face the truth and embrace God’s call to be the church, United Methodists need to let go of their fear. “Fear looks back, but faith looks up,” she said. “We need to experience the power of God working through us together. These two conferences have the opportunity to model collaboration, reconciliation, and healing together. We have the opportunity to offer this witness to a world plagued with life-threatening division. What God will do through us together will be breathtakingly amazing and far more than we can accomplish alone.”

Claiming and living out our baptism, “requires a humility to remain open to ever deepening change, ever-widening understanding, letting go and evolving,” the bishop said. “God is yet speaking. God is calling us into relationship to forge something new. Not what existed years ago when our conferences were simply a two-point assignment under one bishop. No, God is giving us the opportunity to leverage all that we have and all that we are to go deeper in discipleship, mission and ministry. God through God’s alchemy is creating something beautiful. …”

“So many people today are busy proclaiming what they are against, but it begs the question, what are we for?! We are here for one reason and one reason alone, because we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, are baptized in the waters of reconciliation and change, and committed ourselves to a life of disciplined discipleship framed in grace and love,” the bishop concluded. “As Christ-followers, we are for justice, we are for mercy, we are for grace, we are for love. Why? So that it is in our churches as it is in heaven! So that it is in our conferences as it is in heaven! So that it is in our Area as it is in heaven!

And the people of the new Baltimore-Washington and Peninsula-Delaware Area rose to their feet and responded, “Amen!”