The United Methodist Church will not hold its 2012 leadership conference in Richmond because the name of the city’s minor league baseball team is racially charged, the church’s leadership has announced.
Members of the conference’s planning commission said they were unaware that Virginia’s capital was home to the Richmond Braves—a team affiliated with the Major League baseball’s Atlanta Braves—when they originally chose the city to host the Methodist Church’s General Conference.
“When the minor league Braves issue was brought to our attention after the original announcement, we felt we were obligated to revisit the issue,” said Gail Murphy-Geiss, who chairs the commission responsible for planning the conference.
The Methodists are now planning to hold the 2012 conference in Tampa, Fla., served by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays major league baseball team and Tampa Yankees minor league team. The region’s football team is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Held every four years, the Methodist General Conference brings together about 1,000 delegates from the denomination’s member churches to decide church law, voting on hundreds of issues affecting church life.
The planning commission expects the 10-day gathering to attract an additional 4,000 people and generate about $20 million in local spending.
At the 2004 conference in Pittsburgh, the delegates passed a resolution to avoid holding meetings and events in cities that sponsor sport teams brandishing Native American names and symbols, which the resolution called “a blatant expression of racism.”
The resolution was passed partly in response to controversy regarding the church’s 2000 meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, home of the Cleveland Indians franchise.
“We are sad for the United Methodists in Virginia who were excited about hosting the general conference, but are pleased to take a strong stand against sports teams with offensive names,” Murphy-Geiss said.
Religion News Service