Cal-Pac MFSA Feasts on Fellowship
By Theresa Basile, Cal-Pac MFSA
In June 2020, faced with the new realities of life during a pandemic, the California-Pacific Annual Conference held an entirely digital legislative session, which turned out to be a remarkably successful adventure in holy conferencing.
In the same resourceful spirit, Cal-Pac MFSA reinvented their keystone yearly event, the Mildred Hutchinson Award Luncheon (or Dinner), which they have held during annual conference sessions for several decades. The luncheon went digital on Friday, June 19th.
Although it would not have occurred to anyone before the coronavirus disrupted our lives, holding virtual meal on Zoom can provide previously unimagined access across a conference that spans the southern part of California, the state of Hawaii, Saipan, Guam and Pacific islands.
There’s nothing quite like organizing a luncheon with no food to serve! So says Cal-Pac MFSA Vice President Cynthia Tuell, a veteran chapter organizer. Besides the lack of a menu or caterer, she kept reminding herself there were also no worries about the logistics of the “venue” or the time they would need to “get back” for the next plenary session. But she made sure to schedule extra time before the action began, for friends to visit and chat - for many, catching up with old friends is the best part of Cal-Pac MFSA’s annual celebration.
After some preliminary schmoozing on Zoom, enthusiastic guests enjoyed rousing opening remarks by Rev. Bridie Roberts, Cal-Pac MFSA President. They also heard about the soon-to-be-released digital worship service, “Black Lives Matter: A Service of Lament,” created jointly by Cal-Pac Black Methodists for Church Renewal (BMCR) and Cal-Pac MFSA.
These justice partners came together at the beginning of 2020 – months before the murder of George Floyd and the following events that have consumed the country’s attention – to plan a live worship service for April 4th, the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination. When the outbreak of Covid-19 forced that in-person service to be cancelled, the partners regrouped and created a recorded service. The service includes the compelling message “The Power of Lament” delivered by Rev. Victor Cyrus-Franklin, lead pastor of Inglewood First UMC, and it is dedicated to Sandra Bland and “all those whose lives were taken prematurely due to violence against Black people. See and share the Service of Lament on Facebook
For 35 years, the highlight of the Cal-Pac MFSA annual meal has been the presentation of the Mildred Hutchinson Award to an individual who embodies the spirit and passion for justice that Hutchinson modeled so articulately for over forty years.
Known by many as the “conscience of the United Methodist Church,” Mildred Hutchinson witnessed prophetically to the causes closest to her heart. Whether marching with migrant farm workers, protesting the Vietnam War, or opposing investment in South Africa during the time of apartheid, her aspirations for equality in the world were surpassed only by her quest for equality in the church. As a spirited voice in the drafting of our UMC Social Principles, Mildred championed the advancement of women in ministry, including their eligibility to serve as Bishops, as well as the full inclusion of LGBTQ Christians in the life of the church.
Following decades of tradition, this year’s award was presented by last year’s recipient, Rev. Gary Bernard Williams, the lead pastor of St. Mark UMC in the heart of South Los Angeles. Williams’ justice work is multi-faceted, spanning the church horizontally and vertically. He has served with the Advisory Team for the General Board of Church and Society (GBCS), the Ministry with the Poor Gathering, Justice Not Jails, and he chairs Strengthening the Black Church in the Cal-Pac Conference.
Beyond the UMC, Williams is the founder of the Full Circle Recovery Ministry, a Christian based 12-Step group, as well as Faith in Action, a group working to end Gun and Gang violence in South L.A. Gary is also a personal mentor to at-risk young men in Los Angeles, and he helped to create Manna House, an after-school program for the children of South Central L.A. to have a safe space to learn and grow intellectually and spiritually.
The prophetic and transformative justice ministry of Rev. Sandie Richards, who received the Hutchinson award this year, is no less impressive. From an early age she saw in Jesus “an example of how spirituality and a love for those on the margins leads one to act in courageous and transformational ways.” As a young woman, her passion to serve focused on women’s issues and the urban poor. While studying at Union Seminary in New York, Sandie also served as chaplain for Momentum: Love for People Living With Aids.
It was during her appointment to Santa Monica’s Church in Ocean Park, a congregation with an celebrated history of social activism, that Sandie began her public policy advocacy, becoming one of the first religious leaders to publicly support the Living Wage Movement at protests, city council meetings and in the national press.
Through decades of activism, Sandie’s diverse justice work has spanned affordable housing, civil rights for the homeless, workers’ right to organize, farm workers’ rights, and immigration justice, and she has been an avid and vocal champion for full LGBTQ inclusion and equal rights. Working with Women Against Gun Violence, Sandie has also worked to decrease the proliferation of guns in our society.
Sandie’s justice advocacy also reaches beyond national borders. She has joined two solidarity delegations to the Philippines, co-leading the first, and continues today addressing the human rights abuses, extra-judicial killings, militarism, and land exploitation suffered by indigenous and other Filipinos. Rev. Sandie Richards has served as Chair of the Cal-Pac Board of Church and Society; currently, she is the Coordinator of Peace with Justice in the Cal-Pac conference.
After expressing gratitude for the award, Sandie focused her remarks of the issue weighing most heavily on the minds of all: the need to expose and dismantle the systemic racism that deeply permeates our society. Richards reminded her fellow United Methodists that white allies “need to stand behind Black people and other people of color, to use our privilege in service of change. We need to work toward the centering of the experiences of oppression in order to make the needed changes.”
Richard Bentley, Cal-Pac MFSA treasurer and longtime organizer reports some unexpected, very welcome byproducts of this year’s alternative to the usual gathering. The annual in-person meal has been a vital source of support for the chapter, but this year the “luncheon” was free. Nevertheless, with roughly 100 registrations for the luncheon, Cal-Pac MFSA had gratifying results from the membership renewals and accompanying donations by many dedicated MFSAers.
Another benefit: this lunchtime MFSA connection enabled Cal-Pac leaders to organize a What’s App group for people to work together as the virtual annual conference unfolded. That strategy group also kept meeting via Zoom during breaks throughout the conference session, and Bentley reports that this coordination achieved some very good legislative results for the conference.
Notable among those results was the adoption of the “Resolution in Response to the Murder of George Floyd and Others” which reflects the 2020 Call to Action from Black Methodists for Church Renewal. This resolution calls on specific UMC bodies to work with authorities in Minneapolis, Minnesota “to ensure that all delegates to the 2021 General Conference will both be and feel safe participating irrespective of race, culture, nationality, or language.”
Another legislative achievement this year was a new allocation added to the conference budget for 2021, to address systemic changes related to racism that are needed within the institutional church and to assist historically black congregations in the conference. A task force that includes the Bishop and the top Black leaders in the conference was set up to implement those goals.
At the beginning and close of the luncheon, some attendees couldn’t resist singing along with the musical offerings of Rev. David Farley, who sang and played guitar. “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize” was a huge favorite that raised cheers from the on-screen crowd.
While a virtual meal will never replace the joy and warmth of breaking bread together in person, this year’s adventure in digital fellowship proved to be a successful alternative and a good learning experience for challenges still to come this year and beyond.
