To the Laity and Clergy of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church,
 
The recent killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor have elicited lament and anger, protest and soul-searching, sadness and grief, all of it justifiable. It is also important that we place our responses in a more extended recent historical context. In the language of my colleague, Bishop Gregory Palmer, it is essential that we move beyond crisis and catharsis. We cannot be disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world apart from a deeper engagement with the present moment.  

The Florida Conference is on a journey in response to racism which is extended over decades. The Florida Conference continues to reckon with our own institutional racism. Much needed reflection and action awaits our engagement.
 
We wanted you to know of these resources. Some are examples of sermons in local churches, some public statements after acts of violence.  Some represent the work of groups, others are the reflections of individuals. Some of the documents record annual conference actions related to Black Lives Matter and Mass Incarceration. Some of the resources point to the work of our connectional church. 

We have included a brief collection of books, which can help a disciple of Jesus Christ to become more acquainted with the history and implications of racism.   

While this is not a comprehensive account of how the church has spoken and is speaking, it is a beginning.  

Please join us in this journey.  

The Peace of the Lord,

+Ken Carter
Resident Bishop
Florida Conference
The United Methodist Church

Resources within the United Methodist Church

• Black Methodists for Church Renewal 
• General Board of Church and Society 
• General Commission on Religion and Race

Articles/Blog Posts

• Ashes: An Outward and Visible Sign – February 2013
• Sanford, the peace of Christ and our birthright gift – July 2013
• Learning to Sing the Lord’s Song in a Strange Land: Immigration and Scriptural Imagination – October 2013
• Beyond Rhetoric to Relationships in a Multi-Religious World – February 2015
• Faithful Discipleship in a Time of Turbulence – January 2017
• Charlottesville and the Call to be the Church of Jesus Christ – August 2017
• Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone – January 2020
• A trip back in time and a sobering vision – February 2020
• COVID-19 shines spotlight on racial health care disparities - May 2020
• The Color of Coronavirus – June 2020
• The Threat of Blackness – June 2020
• Breathing the air of racism and sectarianism - June 2020

Videos

• Sermon on Race by Rev. Corey Jones – December 7, 2014
• A Spiritual Practice for Dismantling Racism:  I Can’t Breathe/Come Holy Spirit - June 2020

Public Statements

•  A Statement of Faith and Hope in a Time of Racial Injustice - 2014
• Bishop and Cabinet Statement after Pulse Shooting – June 2016
• COB Statement in response to Migrant Caravans – November 2018
• A Call to Discipleship: Living as Disciples of a Non-Violent Lord in a Time of Violence – August 2019
• Anti-Racism Statement by the Bishop and Extended Cabinet of the East Ohio Annual Conference - 2020
• Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and a letter to my white colleagues - 2020
• A Pastoral Letter to United Methodists of the Southeastern Jurisdiction - June 2020
• Florida Council of Churches Statement - June 2020
• Cabinet Statement in Response to Racial Injustice - June 2020

 Resolutions

• Abolishing the Systems of Mass Incarceration - 2017
•  Black Lives Matter: A Movement for All United Methodists – 2017
• Combating the Erosion of Human Dignity - 2017

 
 Books

• Black Miami in the 20th Century – Marvin Dunn
• Brother to a Dragonfly - Will Campbell
• Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America – Gilbert King
• Fearless Dialogues – Gregory C. Ellison, II
• How to Be An Antiracist – Ibram X. Kendi
• Jesus and the Disinherited – Howard Thurman
• The Cross and the Lynching Tree – James H. Cone
• The End of White Christian America – Robert Jones
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness – Michelle Alexander
• The Preacher King: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Word that Moved America – Richard Lischer
• The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead
• The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration - Isabel Wilkerson
• White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White – Daniel Hill
• White Fragility:  What It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism – Robin DiAngelo
• Why We Can’t Wait - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Other Documents

• A letter from Bishop Carter to the pastor and church in Sanford during Trayvon Martin in 2013
• Race Conversation Fact Sheet
• Coronavirus and Communities of Color – June 2020