Austin UMs plan downtown walk to reconcile split

Two Austin congregations plan to reconcile a 140-year-old racial split next month.
Members of First UMC and Wesley UMC, predominately white and black congregations that share common roots, plan to meet March 20 at 10 a.m. at 11th and Trinity streets in downtown Austin. Then they are to march to Ninth and Trinity for an 11 a.m. service of repentance and reconciliation.
The service is to be done in the First Baptist Church parking lot. That was the site of Wesley UMC’s first permanent home.
The service is to follow the repentance and reconciliation litany used at the 2000 General Conference in Cleveland, said Jay Brim, one of the march organizers. Byrd Bonner, a member of Travis Park UMC, San Antonio, helped write the litany and organize that Cleveland service.
The Rev. John H. McMullen Jr., senior pastor of the 2,322-member First UMC, is to preach. John King, a member of Wesley UMC, and Robbie Ausley, a member of First UMC, are also scheduled to speak.

UMs from across Austin to join in march
A lunch at First Baptist Church is to follow the service.
Representatives of other Austin United Methodist congregations, including Bethany UMC, Oak Hill UMC, Tarrytown UMC and Westlake UMC, are expected to join in the procession and service, said Brim, a member of Westlake.
Most Austin congregations trace their roots to Tenth Street Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Brim said. It was the first—and for a time the only—local Methodist church in the state capital.
In 1863, Brim said, the Freedman’s Bureau sent teachers to Austin to work with black residents. Those teachers conducted classes in the basement of Tenth Street Church. Those classes led to the start of a black Methodist congregation that worshiped in the church basement.
In 1867, Brim said, church records show that trustees allocated $200, a set of pews and a lectern to the black congregation. Then they invited the blacks to meet elsewhere.
The black Methodists moved to Ninth and Trinity streets and opened Wesley Chapel.
The Rev. Sylvester E. Chase, pastor of Wesley, said it’s important for the current 335 members of his east side congregation to see that the church was once in downtown Austin.
“ That’s unheard of,” he said. “Many of the new members—those who have joined over the last 30 to 40 years—just don’t know that history.”
Chase said he hopes the reconciliation service will remind church members—both black and white—that they need to be more intentional about their current relationships.
“ We’ve come a long way,” he said, “but we still have a long way to go. I think we’ve become complacent. We know each other. We say, ‘Hi.’ We do some things together. But we still need to develop a more caring spirit and relationship with all God’s children.”
Both Chase and Brim noted that recent racial tensions involving the Austin police department had made news.
“ If we’re really doing that well,” Chase said, “we wouldn’t still have a race problem.”
In November 2002 Travis Park UMC and St. Paul UMC, predominately white and black congregations in San Antonio, went through a similar reconciliation service. Black members from Travis Park had formed the St. Paul congregation.