Hope and Awe: Inauguration draws, inspires United Methodists United Methodist News Service, Jan 30, 2009
UMNS PHOTOS BY JAY MALLIN
As many as 2 million people crowd the National Mall to watch the inauguration of President Barack Obama in Washington on Jan. 20.
United Methodist News Service
WASHINGTON, D.C.—United Methodists were among the throngs of people who descended upon the nation’s capital to witness the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States of America.
When Mr. Obama placed his hand on the 148-year-old Lincoln Bible and said, “I do solemnly swear,” he became the first African American to ascend to the highest office in the land and added another layer to the foundation laid by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Michelle Gilstrap, 17, came to Washington with a group from Cascade United Methodist Church in Atlanta. She told her mother that she wanted to attend the inauguration because “Barack Obama is the George Washington of our generation.”
The significance of the day left United Methodist Bishop Gregory Palmer “breathless and feeling like I’m walking on air.”
“It is unbelievable that this is happening, and I am so grateful to be a witness to it,” said Bishop Palmer, president of the denomination’s Council of Bishops. “The barrier of race has been removed from the highest office in the land.”
Mr. Obama’s inauguration carried a collective significance for people of all races, but its significance was also different for each individual in attendance and watching worldwide.
“This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed,” Mr. Obama said, “why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father, less than 60 years ago, might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.”
The Rev. Kelvin Sauls, a staff member of the denomination’s General Board of Global Ministries, found the inauguration to “be an awesome and powerful experience.” He recalled a line from the movie Amistad, a 1997 film depicting an 1839 mutiny aboard a slave ship. After the Supreme Court freed the slaves, the principal character, Cinque, said, “It is for this day that my ancestors lived and died.”
“As an African, experiencing the inauguration is a day for which our ancestors lived, toiled and died,” said Mr. Sauls, a native of South Africa.
‘Hope over fear’
Mr. Obama provided an assessment of the country’s standing and his vision for the future.
“Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real,” he said, addressing a crowd estimated at more than a million on the National Mall in front of the Capitol. “They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America—they will be met.”
The new president also told those assembled on the mall and those gathered around televisions that they had “chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.”
The Rev. Albert Sampson, pastor of Fernwood United Methodist Church in Chicago, had been among the masses on the National Mall before. He attended the 1963 rally where King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, and was a speaker at the Million Man March in 1995. This time, he had a ticket to what he believes has to be the biggest event so far.
Mr. Sampson, who was ordained by King as a Baptist minister before becoming United Methodist, called President Obama’s address “an international message” with a personal touch. “His words were packaged to go around the world like a boomerang,” he said.
The idea that America will extend its hand if others unclench their fists was a powerful notion to Mr. Sampson, an advocate of nonviolence. “According to God, you’ll get more when you open your hand than you will with your fist closed,” he said. “We’ve got to find other strategies for handling our differences. That’s one of the key things he was saying.”
The Rev. Larry Pickens, pastor of Northbrook (Ill.) United Methodist Church, and his wife, Debra, were among the ticket-holders seated in front of the podium area during the inauguration. Afterward, they went to Capitol Hill United Methodist Church, where meals were being served to the community. Later, the couple was to attend the Eastern Ball, where the Obamas were expected to drop by.
Dr. Pickens said he thought the president’s speech “set the right tone,” and he was particularly interested in his suggestion of openness to the Muslim world if there was a desire to relate to the United States in a peaceful way. “I thought that was a very important message for him to send,” he said. Moving forward
The vastness and depth of the crowd kept Chicagoan Vidette Bullock Mixon and her family from reaching their ticketed seats on the mall, so they watched the inauguration on television. Ms. Bullock Mixon, a staff member of the denomination’s General Board of Pension and Health Benefits, said the Rev. Joseph Lowery’s benediction “seemed a fitting way to tie the whole program together.”
As she witnessed the United Methodist pastor and civil rights worker pray, she remembered her late father, and the work he did with civil rights and as a member of Black Methodists for Church Renewal. “President Barack Obama stands on the shoulders of individuals like the Rev. Joseph Lowery,” she said, adding that Dr. Lowery took great pains to communicate “we’ve come a long way, but we have a long way to go.”
Also unable to reach their ticketed seats was the Rathod family from Hasting, Neb. Jason, who was one of six youth to give the Young People’s Address at the 2008 General Conference, said just being on the mall and hearing Mr. Obama’s inauguration message was “an amazing experience.”
It was “great to be around so many people who are ready for the country to move in a new direction and past what has been a pretty rough last eight years,” Jason said.
His mother, Ella Rathod, said the family migrated from India in 1971 and was no stranger to crowds, but the crowd on the mall witnessing the inauguration was “unbelievable.”
“I could not believe all the people that we saw,” she said. “Having an African American to be the first president is seen as hope for the whole world. We are happy that we are here to witness it.”
Ms. Bullock Mixon celebrated the people who came to witness the historic event: “The tenacity and determination of the people speaks well of the support President Barack Obama can count on when he says, ‘I’m counting on you, the citizens of the United States, to make this work.’ ”
Working together
The Rev. Robert Besser, pastor of Wesley United Methodist Church in Beaumont, Texas, found Mr. Obama’s inauguration and speech “awesome and wonderful.” The speech, he added, “was the best part” of the day.
As he watched the inauguration on a Jumbotron screen, Mr. Besser agreed with Mr. Obama’s call to work together without divisiveness, and the new president’s statement that Americans would need to make sacrifices to get the nation moving in another direction.
“But like our forefathers and ancestors in the faith and in the country who were able to make it happen, we have that same spirit,” Mr. Besser said, “and if we work together, we too can move forward in our country’s future together.”
As the descendant of a slave and a Native American, Larry Hygh Jr., a United Methodist communicator from the Los Angeles area, called the inauguration “a great time for me.” He had preached the night before at Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church in Washington, challenging his listeners “to go forth and change our communities.”
Dr. Hygh heard the new president’s address through loudspeakers as he stood along the Inaugural Parade route on Pennsylvania Avenue. He caught a glimpse of the motorcade as it headed toward the Capitol from the White House and hoped to see Mr. Obama later during the parade.
“I am feeling this overwhelming joy at our first African-American president being inaugurated,” he said. “Hopefully, it will not be business as usual. Hopefully, we will get some change for our country.”
‘Once in a lifetime’
Herman L. Fraser, 60, member of Abyssinia Baptist Church in Harlem, N.Y., brought an ecumenical group to the inauguration. They arrived at Washington’s Asbury United Methodist Church at 5:30 a.m. Jan. 20 and made it their home for the day.
Mr. Fraser said he realized he would not be able to get close to Mr. Obama, but still “just wanted to be in Washington, D.C., today.” He also praised the United Methodist church that hosted his group.
“I do not think we could have found a church as warm as this one,” Mr. Fraser said. “They just welcomed us in.”
Christine Christian-Roy, a Catholic from Nyack, N.Y., also watched the inauguration from the sanctuary of Asbury Church and said she cried throughout the entire event.
“I never believed I would live to see this day,” she said. “Anything can happen now but our president cannot do it by himself.”
Juanita Omilami, 23, of Atlanta, traveled to D.C. with a group from Cascade United Methodist Church, though she is a member of a nondenominational church, Abundant Life. “As soon as I heard that Obama was president-elect, I knew I had to get to D.C.,” she said.
“[It was] a very surreal experience, and I couldn’t believe it was happening—the expressions of the crowd and the sea of the people and the beautiful words that Barack spoke. . . . It was a dream come true.”
UMNS PHOTOS BY JAY MALLIN
‘Hope over fear’ 
Working together 
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