At the close of Thursday night’s Diversity Celebration, Bishop Leonard Fairley quietly issued a heartfelt challenge to those gathered:
“I hope that what we have seen tonight provokes us in our hearts and in our spirits to understand truly that racism is an evil thing. We should not be afraid to confess that. It is evil because when we allow it to move us, we miss this [points to the worship leaders.]”
“These are brothers and sisters within the bounds of our own Annual Conference. In their service tonight, they are welcoming us, imploring us to hear their story, and not only hear their story, but to take action.”
“One of the joys that I received when I first came back to North Carolina was that I made it a point…to find some time to with meet each one of these groups, and as we began that time together, …joy flooded my soul just to hear, just to be in their presence, just for me to see the joy on their faces, that look: ‘You see us.’“
“But friends, I not only want to see these brothers and sisters. I want them to be a part of my life. I don’t want to assimilate them into my culture. I want to live with them and walk by them, side-by-side. And as much as we don’t like to hear the sound of the word racism — we don’t like that word — this [points to the worship leaders] is what we miss.”
“You know we have moments like these at Annual Conference, and I’m so blessed and honored to be a part of this time. And we sing and we clap our hands, and we leave and we go back to business as usual. And the tears and the sorrow and the pain of these, our brothers and sisters, continue.”
“So don’t let this be just another good time, and you go back and say, ‘Remember when we had that good time at Annual Conference, when they had the band and the singers and the bishop broke a board and he didn’t break his hand?’”
“Let it be a beginning for us to sit down and learn a story different from our own. Racism is an evil thing. It makes us miss the face and the voice of God in our brothers and sisters. As I have talked to these groups, they always tell me, ‘Bishop, we talk about this all the time.’ And in the pain of their voice, they say, ‘When are we going to do something?’
“Now is the time, and we are the people that can and will and must do it. Let’s do it. Let’s be the Church. This is what Heaven looks like. This is a foretaste.”
“Don’t let it end here. We are no longer going to run away from this sin of racism. We’re going to confess it no matter how painful it is. We are going to confess it, and maybe if we begin to confess it, God is faithful and God is just and will forgive us.”