What happens when the promises we make at the baptismal font stop being liturgy and start being a way of life?

This episode of The Unfinished Church brings host Bishop Gregory Vaughn Palmer together with Bishop LaTrelle M. Easterling, Resident Bishop of the Baltimore-Washington and Peninsula-Delaware Conferences of the United Methodist Church. Bishop Easterling is one of the original architects of this podcast's first iteration, alongside Bishop Palmer and Bishop Michael McKee, which makes this conversation something of a reunion and a return to the questions that gave the show its name. She also leads the Council of Bishops' ongoing work on anti-racism, which she helped transition from a temporary task force into a permanent part of the Council's life.

The Unfinished Church takes its name from a Wesleyan conviction: that we are always going on to perfection, not as a claim of arrival but as a prayer. Bishop Easterling grounds that conviction in the waters of baptism. We are not saved as isolated individuals. We are saved for community, and that community has obligations to the world outside its walls. The church's work on race, justice, and belonging is not a response to a news cycle. It is what the baptismal covenant has always required.

Together, Bishop Palmer and Bishop Easterling trace that conviction from the font into discipleship and public witness. They talk about why the anti-racism work of the Council of Bishops was never meant to be episodic, what it looks like when a commitment stops belonging to one committee and starts belonging to everyone, and how to name white supremacy and Christian nationalism honestly in a moment that would rather look away.

Bishop Easterling's hope is not sentimental. It is rooted in a long view of how movements survive and in a Wesleyan yearning to love completely, which she names as the church's most unfinished and most urgent work.

Guest

Bishop LaTrelle M. Easterling serves as the episcopal leader of the Baltimore-Washington and Peninsula-Delaware Area of The United Methodist Church. She was assigned to serve the Baltimore-Washington Conference in September 2016, becoming the first woman to lead this historic conference. She became the bishop of the Peninsula-Delaware Conference in September 2021, when the two conferences were affiliated. Prior to being elected, she served as superintendent of The Boston Metro District, the most diverse and inclusive district within the New England Annual Conference. She was also selected to serve as Dean of the Cabinet. Easterling was elected a delegate to General and Jurisdictional Conferences in 2012 and 2016. Before her election to the episcopacy, she served as a pastor, district superintendent, and dean of the cabinet in the New England Conference. A lawyer, preacher, speaker, and author, she's served in leadership roles focused on anti-racism, immigration, and Hispanic and Latino ministries within The United Methodist Church.

Connect

Visit our show's website at https://wesleyanimpactpartners.org/the_unfinished_church/.

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