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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodists together |
March 2004 |
Bishop takes last dance with ministers, spouses
INDIANAPOLIS -- Realizing the importance of rest and relaxation for Hoosiers called to professional ministry, Bishop Woodie W. White hosted here Feb. 15-17 his annual retreat for clergy, diaconal ministers and their spouses.
Setting the theme "Dancing to the Song of Life," the Rev. Cynthia Wilson-Hollins, pastor of music at Ben Hill United Methodist Church in Atlanta, sang her way into the hearts of more than 500 concert goers Sunday night. A long-time friend of White, Wilson-Hollins set her songs into a make-believe dialogue as if she were talking with the bishop on his way to her concert. She sang both secular and sacred songs including "People," "Through it all," "Great is Thy faithfulness" and "Oh how He loves you and me."
She punctuated her hour-and-a-half-long concert with anecdotes about White during his four decades of ordained ministry. She gave her own tribute to him saying: "I had to be here (for this concert) because you have been instrumental to me on my journey."
Her humorous song "Thank God I'm a United Methodist" brought laughs across the Sheraton Hotel ballroom with lines like "We got 37 potluck (dinners) a year" and the refrain "We might say darn, but we don't say" -- silence -- "we're United Methodists."
In a more somber note, she asked, "Bishop, since you championed the cause of racism, do you think we will every know unity?" She then sang "to dream the impossible dream."
Both Wilson-Hollins and White affirmed each other's ministries and look forward to White's moving to her town this coming fall.
Keeping the dance theme fresh, a long-time Nashville, Tenn. inner-city pastor, began the Monday morning session setting her theme with the words, "I hope you never lose your sense of wonder; you get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger" -- words from popular singer Tia Sillers written by Mark Sanders. "I hope you dance, I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance; never settle for the path of least resistance."
In a heart-to-heart talk with more than 300 clergy, diaconal ministers and their spouses from across Indiana, the Rev. Rosemary Brown, pastor of Monroe Street UMC, coached her listeners not to loose that sense of wonder that brings joy. "When one door closes, another opens." And if another doesn't open, she said, "crawl through a window."
"Jesus said to plant seeds, but he didn't say anything about weeding the garden," she said. Brown shared her personal times of resistance as one of the first women ordained to ministry in Tennessee, her arrests during the civil rights movement and her patience with a male parishioner named Clarence who didn't want anything to do with her. She warned her listeners about bitterness and how Jesus overcame bitterness with love.
She, too, paid tribute to White and the role he has played in her life and ministry during the past 20 years. She affectionately told him face-to-face, "you are the wind beneath my wings." She said, "what he offered all of us was a hoe to soften the ground. He taught us we can soften the ground (of resistance) with love."
Both evening and morning sessions were punctuated with music from the Rev. David Wells, a United Methodist pastor of Parkersburgh, W. Va., who played trumpet.
Monday night, the Bishop and Mrs. White took to the dance floor following a banquet meal. They were joined by Ruth Handy, widow of the late Bishop W. T. Handy, and Dorothye Henderson, widow of the late Bishop Cornelius Henderson. Both were guests of the Whites. The bishop culminated the three-day retreat on Tuesday morning by leading a service of Holy Communion.
Last updated on 04/19/2004