In April 2021, East Ohio MFSA began a study series titled “Easter People: Transformation.”  Intended as a follow-up study to fall’s “Race Matters: What Can I Do,” “Easter People: Transformation” asked and examined the important question of what is required to be Resurrection People.

Divided into seven weekly zoom meetings, the study explored Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s writing and PBS special series of the same name “The Black Church: This is Our Story, This is Our Song” and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”  Gates’ writing and PBS special was chosen because it begs the question: What is the role of The Church in matters of social justice?  The writing and special provides a basic context from which to self-examine.

One element of that basic context is the unique relationship that was forged between enslaved people and God.  New to the enslaved people, this God sustained them in the midst of oppression when they were denied their humanity.  The Christian God that the Black Church worshipped provided hope, stability, and nurture to a people oppressed (and often harmed in body, mind, and spirit) by deeply religious White Christians who saw God rather differently (eg.  sanctifying White power, privilege, and superiority).  The Black Church has been a hub for nurturing oppressed people through the challenges of segregation and numerous injustices over which they had neither say nor control.  Consistent throughout the several denominational variants of the Black Church was a sense of God as Comforter, Protector, and Sustainer, providing hope and nurture as the Church body taught and organized to meet the human needs of their congregations outside the church walls.

Additionally, another element is the critical role the Black Church fulfilled in leading the Civil Rights Movement.  The most prominent figures of the Civil Rights Movement were deeply rooted in Biblical text, trained in theology, and prepared to march and speak boldly.  Like the prophets and martyrs of old, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lewis, Howard Thurman, and others provided the impetus for the rest of American society to “move” Sunday sermons into the streets, lunch counters, buses, and schools.  It was a seamless garment of social justice, from the church to the streets. “Social justice” was not merely an add-on for the local church dinner or a donation to a fund.  From Gates’ text, Dr. Martin Luther King’s  “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” was discussed as expressing a Biblical basis for public, political action.

At the conclusion of the study on Resurrection People, participants engaged with examples and descriptions of how the UMC is working towards restorative justice from the Book of Discipline.  This includes repentance, reconciliation, and significant instances of reparation that have occurred worldwide.

The “Easter People: Transformation” study provided an opportunity for individuals to examine the rise, history, ministry, and expression of the Black Church and to learn from the Black Church on the true meaning of “church,” especially as folks from mostly White congregations and as folks who choose to be advocates for social justice.