Signs of Hope - Encounters, Conversation and Vision

The conversations began as what I like to refer to as “by-the-way” discussions while we were away for 12 days in April and May of this year. Sherman, Larry and I were together for the United Methodist Church’s General Conference in Ft. Worth, Texas, and the conversations began as questions as to how United Methodist men in the Baltimore region and across the Baltimore-Washington Conference could become actively involved in supporting Hope for the City, our conference’s strategic plan for ministry in Baltimore. The conversations were holy in that as we began to vision together, concrete possibilities for mission and ministry in Baltimore, and ways that men could make an immediate and significant impact and witness as to the presence of Christ in their lives and in the city, started to emerge. During our twelve days of holy conversation, we agreed that a great place to start was in assisting with clean-up efforts at Mt. Auburn Cemetery on the southwest edge of the city. Mt. Auburn Cemetery was founded in 1872, and is one of the first cemeteries owned and operated by African Americans in Baltimore. It is the burial site for numerous individuals central to the Civil Rights movement regionally and nationally, and although it is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, in recent years the cemetery has been in need of significant clean-up and improvement. As a result of our conversations in Texas, since the middle of May, Methodist men from across the region have gathered on at least two Saturdays each month to assist with clean-up efforts. Through the persistence of these men and many others, there are signs of hope at Mt. Auburn. On one recent Saturday, we encountered the grave site of Bishop William Alfred Carroll Hughes and his family. We learned that Bishop Hughes was the first bishop elected after the Methodist merger of 1939. For some time, his grave site could not be seen. But due to the clean-up efforts at the cemetery, we can now see where one of the bishops of the church and his family is buried. This is a sign of hope. I’ve learned that hope often begins with encounter, conversation and vision.