In response to God’s grace, we the people of the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church joyfully embrace our identity as an Anti-racist community of faith.
A community that is:
We model an Anti-racist way of living and seek to live into the truth that, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to God through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.” 2 Corithians 5:18 (NRSV)
Anti-Racism Team Chairs: Marilyn Larrimer and Rev.Renee Mikell
Ethnic Local Church Concerns (ELCC)The role of the the Ethnic Local Church Concerns Committee is to provide guidance and resources to churches with ethnic constituencies, supporting initiatives by those churches, identifying and nurturing lay and clergy leadership, and offering training for annual conference and leaders. In addition, the committee is diligent in keeping the concerns of the ethnic local church before the annual conference.
The WPA Conference has had a long history of having an ELCC Committee structurally dating back to the 1980's. A Conference Staff Position was created then that no longer exists. The budget and priorities have evolved over the years. The framework of committee was developed based on The Book of Discipline (Par. 632)
ELCC Chairs: William B. Meekins Jr. and Bob Wilson
General Commission on Religion and Race (GCORR)The General Commission on Religion and Race was created by The United Methodist Church in 1968 to address the turbulent and exciting unrest, disease, hope and new possibilities unleashed as legalized racial segregation and separation were being dismantled in church and society.
The Commission was the vehicle through which the denomination invited white people and people of color to a common table to tackle institutional racism, engage in new conversations about what a truly desegregated and global church could look like, and chart a course for living out the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a more authentic and all-people-embracing way.
Western PA Conference CORR Chair: Peggy Ward