In the world of today, we designate our months. June, for example is "Dairy Month." Almost everyone knows that.
And early in the year we encounter "Black History Month" (February) and "Women's History Month" (March).
Those monthly designations are proclaimed and designated either by some governmental body or by some group trying to draw attention to a cause, concept, or industry.
Inspired by these designations, I have decided to proclaim and designate the month of May as "Church History Month."
I do so with questionable (or nonexistent authority). I am not, of course, a governmental body (unless one takes the concept of "self government" to the extreme). And by definition, I am not a group although I am trying to draw attention to something.
I am the co-chair of the UNY Commission on Archives and History, but neither that commission nor the other co-chair has authorized me to so proclaim and designate.
However, it still seems appropriate - even compelling - for me to do so.
Personally, it seems appropriate as it is in May of each year that I attend the meeting of the CAHs of the ten northeastern UMC annual conferences.
As a congregation, it seems appropriate as it is at the end of May of each year that we observe Memorial Day with our annual "Deceased Pastors Service" at Bayside Cemetery. Likewise during most years (about 70% of them) Pentecost falls in the month of May and we use our celebration of the birth of the church to honor our Golden Members and to receive new members.
As United Methodists, it seems appropriate as it was on May 24, 1738 (me 275 years ago this month) that John Wesley had his "Aldersgate Experience."
Finally, as Christ's universal church it seems appropriate, as May falls in the midst of a lectionary cycle that begins with Holy Week and continues through Jesus' post resurrection appearances, the Ascension, Pentecost, and the struggles and development of the early church - the scriptures' greatest source of church history.
Therefore, I may be lacking authority, but I am loaded with "appropriatism." And I feel justified in proclaiming and designating the month of May as "Church History Month."
But what is the value in doing so?
The value of "Church History Month" is that it reminds us that we preserve and celebrate the past for the good of both the present and the future by using that past as a living and active teacher - not as a fossilized static happening.
As we use it this way, we can recognize that, despite our differences in background, life experience, and opinions, and despite the changes that have taken place over the last two thousand years, those of us in the church share a common story and are part of a common family tree.
This has been the case at least since Pentecost where all present were afraid and each heard in his or her own language. It has continued as God made it clear that the church was open to both Jews and gentiles. It has endured through the church's move from persecuted minority to worldwide religion and as the story has been carried across oceans, continents, and centuries.
The story of the our past is a necessary part of what holds us together.
I have become acutely aware of this because of my role as CAH co-chair in a three year old annual conference created out of four previous conferences, each with their own traditions and their own ways of doing things. Our commission shares our story as a way of helping the people of the conference understand that we are a part of that common family tree. Seeing ourselves as cousins rather than strangers helps us feel that we are parts of the same family.
Christians and churches let Christ and each other down if they ignore the past and instead allow our differences and fear of change to interfere with our service to and for Christ.
I am conscious of this all year long, but especially in May, which I have now - unilaterally and without any authority except for the newly minted concept of "appropriatism," proclaimed and designated as "Church History Month."
Jim