On the closing day of last year\u2019s Annual Conference, there was something remarkable up front: Both the preacher and the newly consecrated moderator were biracial women. A few months later, for the first time ever a biracial man chaired the denomination\u2019s board. My heart rejoiced at the confluence of these extraordinary moments in the history of the Church of the Brethren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some might think such details shouldn\u2019t be mentioned, believing that equality-minded people don\u2019t see color. But people do see color. And I\u2019m not the only person of color who notices how few people like us are in the room. (Sometimes we even know exactly how many.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year is the 238th recorded Annual Conferences. Out of all those years (plus the ones with no records), this is the fifth time the moderator is a person of color. It felt momentous when Bill Hayes broke the color barrier in 1988. But it was another 13 years before the next person of color was called as moderator, and it’s taken 36 years to reach the fifth. At this rate, it will be 2060 when the church reaches double digits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve heard people say how diverse the Church of the Brethren has become, but never have I heard that from a person of color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Bill Hayes became moderator, he recalled how isolated he felt at his first Annual Conference in 1978. Twenty-four years later, “lonely” was the way pastor Dennis Webb felt at his first Annual Conference, in 2002.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These feelings don\u2019t mean that other Conferencegoers weren\u2019t kind. (I sure hope we were.) It means these two people felt like outsiders. It took fortitude for them to stay in a church that is predominantly white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The measure of the church\u2019s diversity is not necessarily how many people of color are elected moderator, though that has value that is both symbolic and real. Certainly let’s keep doing that; let’s even pick up the pace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But another kind of accomplishment would be if newcomers at every Church of the Brethren gathering encountered such a vivid array of people that they had no need to count the other people of color. In fact, there would be, as the book of Revelation envisions, “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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