WASHINGTON, D.C. ? W. Astor 'Bill' Kirk, a member of Foundry UMC, has recently published 'Desegregation of the Methodist Church Polity: Reform Movements That Ended Racial Segregation.'  The author, an African-American, gives a glimpse of the resistance to integration within the Methodist denomination and the feelings of people like himself who experienced the sting of the church's rejection, said his pastor, the Rev. Dean Snyder.
The Central Jurisdiction, which crossed geographic lines, was organized in 1939 as a means to keep African-American and white pastors segregated. Kirk served as secretary and then chair of the Central Jurisdiction's Committee of Five, the group that finally persuaded the denomination to abolish the Central Jurisdiction. The process took 30 years and was helped by the insistence on its dismantling by the Evangelical United Brethren Church at the merger in 1968. 'Bill contributes greatly to our understanding of the U.S. Methodist tradition and the American struggle to overcome racism,' Snyder said in a review at Amazon.com, where the book may be purchased. | 
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