May Day

Dear Minooka UMC Found Family,

That religion, which I thought I professed and which was calculated to better the world, was something that was worthwhile for me to use my energies in propagating; and I did it. I could not help it. 
—Samuel Fieldan, an immigrant and Methodist Episcopal Church lay speaker.

Mr. Fieldan offered those words in his closing speech at the first May Day rally in Chicago way back in 1886. We don’t talk much anymore about May Day or worker’s rights. But, with publication day for this newsletter being May 1, it seems the perfect time to do so.

Caring about—and working for—labor rights is even older than eloquent Mr. Fieldan. Outspoken work for labor rights goes back to the beginning of the Methodist movement. In 18th-century England, John Wesley and the early Methodists ministered to coal miners and other marginalized workers and their families. The predecessor denominations that became the United Methodist Church have been advocating for fair labor practices ever since.

In 1908 the Methodist Episcopal Church adopted a Social Creed calling for an end to child labor, a fair and living wage for all workers, collective bargaining rights for employees and workplace safety practices. Some highlights:

For equal rights and complete justice for all men [sic] in all stations of life.

For the protection of the worker from dangerous machinery, occupational diseases, injuries and mortality.

For the abolition of child labor.

For such regulation of the conditions of labor for women as shall safeguard the physical and moral health of the community.
For the gradual and reasonable reduction of the hours of labor to the lowest practical point, with work for all; and for that degree of leisure for all which is the condition of the highest human life.

For a release from employment one day in seven.

For a living wage in every industry.

For the highest wage that each industry can afford, and for the most equitable division of the products of industry that can ultimately be devised.


Read the whole Creed here.

I truly admire this creed—but I don’t love how relevant it still is. Let’s consider what we might do about that.

Thinking about the connection between ourselves and all our neighbors and our need to advocate for ourselves and our neighbors brings me back to the poem that begins the Bible. It is not a typo in the bulletin, we really are experimenting with reading the same scripture as last week, but from a different version. Last week was The Message; this week The Voice translation.

Why? There is so much more for us to glean from that inspiring text! This week we’ll focus on how the opening story helps us know how to read the entire rest of the Bible. That’s what we’ll explore this Sunday, May 3, in my sermon Back to the Beginning! The Preface.

Participate in our worship experiences Sundays at 9:30 a.m. in person at 1210 S. Ridge Road in Minooka. Or via livestream on our Minooka UMC Facebook page or on our Minooka UMC YouTube Channel.

Whether in person or online, all are invited to our welcoming and affirming congregation.

Plotting Goodness, 

Pastor Dave

Photo by Sim Kimhort on Unsplash