Christ Church in the City

Join us !!

Starting September 1st, join us in uplifting our spirits on the first Sunday of every month with an evening prayer call, 6-6:30 pm, led by the Pastor. Let's rejuvenate our souls through the power of prayer! Dial: 605-472-5765, Access Code: 409165 #

Starting September 1st, join us in uplifting our spirits on the first Sunday of every month with an evening prayer call, 6-6:30 pm, led by the Pastor. Let's rejuvenate our souls through the power of prayer! Dial: 605-472-5765, Access Code: 409165 #

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May the God of grace abound within the DMV area and beyond! Remember, eagles are meant to soar, so aim high and reach for the stars! Grace and Shalom!

The BWC's Advocacy and Action Ministries invites you to join us for our "Building Beloved Relationships" Training Webinar Series led by K Scarry of the People's Supper. This webinar series will provide you with a pathway to leading amidst change and having brave conversations, along with time for further discussion and Q&A so that you can best understand how to build beloved relationships within your congregations and wider communities.

Learn more and register at bwcumc.org/belovedrelationship24

The Baltimore-Washington Conference of the UMC and the United Women in Faith invite you to join us on September 18, in Washington D.C. for our annual Federal Legislative Advocacy Day.

Legislative Advocacy Days are an exciting opportunity for United Methodists to faithfully advocate for the transformation of systems that disenfranchise, marginalize, and oppress.

Learn more and register: bwcumc.org/fedadvocacy24

We are eagerly organizing our community and local church Back to School event.

This is the Lord’s doing, and it is pleasing in God’s sight!!!! We are committed as Christ Church in the city with a heart of Christ for the city.

Sis. Kerry, Sis. Ally and Bro. Lee is working tirelessly on our community garden

Sis. Alcione, chair of our 5,000 food ministry, is coordinating efforts to make a meaningful impact in our community with local volunteers and invested disciples of Christ UMC for our distribution!

In addition, let's get ready for an amazing event! Tomorrow, Ward 6 parishes are coming together to host a special back-to-school event for the community. Join us at 12:30 PM at Riverside Baptist Church.

Welcome Back, Bishop!

REJOICE!

Bishop LaTrelle Miller Easterling has been re-assigned to the Baltimore-Washington Conference and the Peninsula-Delaware Conference!!!

That joy-filled news was announced today in Pittsburgh at the 2024 Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference.

A full story will be posted soon, both here and on the BWC website at www.bwcumc.org

Here is the full list of episcopal assignments:

Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton -- New York and New England

Bishop Héctor Burgos Núñez -- Upper New York Conference and Susquehanna;

Bishop LaTrelle Miller Easterling -- Baltimore-Washington and Peninsual-Delaware

Bishop Cynthia Moore-Koikoi -- Greater New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania

Bishop Sandra Steiner Ball -- Western Pennsylvania

Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett --West Virginia, and who will be shared with Southeastern Jurisdiction.

Join us tomorrow at 10:15 am as we begin this new journey answering the call of the deep!

During the month of July, Pastor Dukes will lead us in a sermon series, “Deep Calls to Deep.” Join us as we go further in our faith walk! Will you answer if we are called to go deep?

Romans 10:14-15 NRSV
But how are they to call on one whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? [15] And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

Today, on July 1st, we are delighted to announce that Pastor Dukes will continue as our pastor. We are excited about the future and eagerly anticipate God's plan for our ministry and the community we serve. We are also praying for pastors who are starting their new appointments and those who are continuing in their current appointments in the United Methodist Church.

Franciscan Benediction:

May God bless you with discomfort…
Discomfort at easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships,discomfort, so that you will live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger…
Anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,anger, so that you will work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears…
Tears to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, starvation and war,tears, so that you will reach out to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.

And, may God bless you with foolishness…
Foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, foolishness so that you will do what others claim cannot be done.
Amen.

In Washington, D.C. on July 10, 1971, Fannie Lou Hamer deliverd a poignant speech at the National Women's Political Caucus. She spoke of feminism and how it had been exclusionary of black women. She called out the important work of black women in Mississippi who made strides in the civil rights movement and how the country needed to address the imbalance of patriarcal oppression for not just black people, but all women and marginilized folks.

This Juneteenth, we pay tribute to Fannnie Lou Hamer and honor her work. In 2024, the work is just as prevaltent. May we breathe in these words and live them out in our every day lives until EVERYONE can be liberated.

Wesley Theological Seminary is located in D.C. May we continue to be a divine space for liberating minds and divine ministry. You are beloved.

Image ID:
Black background with two corner borders at top left and bottom right in stripes of red, yellow, and green. Yellow text in the center of the graphic reads, "Nobody's free until everybody's free" spoken by Fannie Lou Hamer.

The Rev. Clementa Pinckney🕯
Cynthia Hurd🕯
The Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton🕯
Tywanza Sanders🕯
Ethel Lance🕯
Susie Jackson🕯
The Rev. Depayne Middleton Doctor🕯
The Rev. Daniel Simmons🕯
Myra Thompson🕯
May we never forget their names nor their legacies.

Amazing grace!

UMC bishops mourning the death of Rev. James Lawson, a civil rights icon

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church is joining the world in mourning the death of Rev. James Morris Lawson Jr, a civil rights icon and United Methodist preacher, who passed away suddenly on Sunday, June 9, from cardiac arrest. He was 95.

Rev. Lawson was also a university professor, a leading theoretician and tactician of nonviolence within the Civil Rights Movement. During the 1960s, he served as a mentor to the Nashville Student Movement and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He was a close adviser to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who called him “the leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence in the world.”

Rev. Lawson would later serve as pastor of Holman United Methodist Church in Los Angeles for 25 years.

“As we mourn the passing of Rev. Lawson, we give thanks for how his love of God and his passion for justice, equality, and fairness have impacted many people’s lives and communities. Some of us would not be in the roles we serve today had it not been for such powerful leaders such as Rev. Lawson, who paved the way for us,” said Bishop Tracy S. Malone, the first Black woman to be president of the Council of Bishops.

James Lawson was born in Pennsylvania in 1928. His father and grandfather were Methodist ministers, and Lawson received his local preacher's license in 1947, the year he graduated from high school.

At his Methodist college in Ohio, he joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), America's oldest pacifist organization. Through FOR, he was first exposed to the nonviolent teachings of Gandhi and fellow Black minister Howard Thurman.

After spending time in prison for refusing the Korean War draft, he obtained his B.A. in 1952, and spent the next three years as a campus minister and teacher at Hislop College in Nagpur, India. While in India, Lawson eagerly read of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the emerging nonviolent resistance movement back in the United States.

Rev. Lawson met King in 1957, after spending three years in India soaking up knowledge about Mohandas K. Gandhi’s independence movement. The two Black pastors who were just both 28 years old quickly bonded over their enthusiasm for the Indian leader’s ideas, and King urged Lawson to put them into action in the American South.

Rev. Lawson began holding seminars to train volunteers in Gandhian tactics of nonviolent direct action. James Lawson helped coordinate the Freedom Rides in 1961 and the Meredith March in 1966, and played a major role in the sanitation workers strike of 1968.

Rev. Lawson moved to Los Angeles in 1974 to be the pastor of Holman United Methodist Church. He spoke out against racism and challenged the cold war and U.S. military involvement throughout the world. Even after his retirement, Rev. Lawson continued to be an advocate for social justice and equality.

“The United Methodist Church will be forever blessed by the leadership and ministry of Rev. Lawson,” Bishop Malone said adding that, “we can imagine Jesus is welcoming Rev. Lawson with open arms, saying “well done, good and faithful servant.”

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Media Contact:
Rev. Dr. Maidstone Mulenga
Director of Communications - Council of Bishops
(202) 748-5172