A new stained-glass window featuring Bishop Leontine T.C. Kelly in the Cathedral of the Rockies in Boise, Idaho. Photo courtesy of Cathedral of the Rockies
Each year as we celebrate Christmas, we remember the greatest gift of all – God entering our world as a person in Jesus Christ. Even as we give thanks for this greatest gift, this is also a good time to remember the ways God has touched our lives through others. Recently I saw an article that reminded me of one of the mentors in my journey of faith, especially in the area of racial justice as discipleship. As a seminary student in the summer of 1979, I had the privilege of serving in a ministry setting at Asbury United Methodist Church in Richmond, Va. At the time, this historically Black church was located in the predominantly low income and underserved neighborhood of Church Hill. The pastor of Asbury was The Rev. Leontine Kelly. She welcomed Vickie and me into the life of the church and the neighborhood. She became a wonderful mentor who embodied the love of God for all people and commitment to the ongoing call to racial justice. After that formative summer, we continued to stay in touch during her remaining years in Richmond. In 1984 she was elected as a bishop of the United Methodist Church in the Western Jurisdiction. Her native Southeastern Jurisdiction was not yet ready to even consider electing a Black woman as bishop. She was the first Black woman bishop in any major denomination in the United States and served faithfully until her retirement in 1992. She died in 2012 at the age of 92.
The recent reminder of the gift of Bishop Kelly in my life came through an article about a new stained glass window in the Cathedral of the Rockies in Boise, Idaho. In 2020, that church decided to replace a window of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Robert E. Lee. The window was commissioned in 1958 as an attempt to symbolize unity between the North and South. Looking back on that decision, the Rev. Duane Anders who is the current senior pastor said, “It really was an attempt to say, ʽThis is Christian unity,’ Now, it was totally blind to the systemic racism of the 1950s and ‘60s that was putting up Confederate monuments.” An image of that window is posted below:
A stained-glass window in The Cathedral of the Rockies/Boise First United Methodist Church, in Boise, Idaho, features images of Robert E. Lee (left), Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. Church leaders have decided to remove the image of Lee, given his role as a Confederate general. “Symbols of white supremacy do not belong in our sacred space,” they said in a statement. Photo courtesy of The Cathedral of the Rockies.
Once the decision was make to remove the window, there was a lengthy discernment process about who should be featured in a replacement window. Bishop Kelly was chosen because of her faithful witness to the gospel and racial justice. This church was also where she was consecrated as a bishop in 1984. The Rev. Anders went on to say, “This is a small step on the way to living as an anti-racist. “This is a small step toward living our call that God’s house (the church) is open to all. Removing a symbol of hate, slavery and racism is a step.”
I am grateful for this step taken by Untied Methodists in Boise Idaho. I am even more grateful for the opportunity I had to know Bishop Kelly and for the ways she served as a mentor on my journey of faith and commitment to racial justice as Christian discipleship.
As the final Weekly Reflection for 2021, I also want to thank you for taking the time to read these posts and for all the ways you support the ministry of the Cornelius Corps.