Over the past 57 years since Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, Northern Illinois United Methodists honor annually his sacrificial leadership and recommit to eradicating racism and the profound gap between rich and poor, influential and invisible.

Rev. Danita R. Anderson reminds worshipers that they were created by God to work together to bring about the Beloved Community.

At the conference’s 2025 observation at First United Methodist Church of Downers Grove on Jan. 19, keynote speaker Rev. Danita Anderson spoke of “God’s agenda” that we should love all whom we encounter. “Martin Luther King must have heard this agenda,” she said.

Rev. Anderson is the first black woman to serve as an assistant to the bishop in the North Central Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church. She is respected for her leadership in church and community. “This is a bad sister,” commended Rev. Marcus Tabb when he introduced her.

King “showed us how to live together in a world that was not interested in living together,” Rev. Anderson observed.  

“He was following God’s agenda to show the world that no matter your background, we are to build community together. We were created by God to work together.”

This agenda is not finished, she said.  

“We must put away the nonsense and stupidity in the world,” she said frankly of the divisions that block the establishment of the Beloved Community. In the Beloved Community, we are responsible for one another. 

“Beloved Community” was coined by Josiah Royce of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. King developed the idea into a global vision in which all people share in the wealth of the earth, poverty is eradicated, and racism and all forms of discrimination are replaced by the conviction that all are equally loved members of God’s family.  

Thus, eradicating racial injustice is necessary for the Beloved Community to become reality.  

The Swahili Choir of Victory New Faith Community of Rockford buoyed spirits with their joyful songs.

Referring to the United Methodist membership vows, she urged the worshipers to “resist racial injustice in all the forms it presents itself.”

She related two personal stories of racist, threatening behavior she endured from police officers—on Sundays when, as a district superintendent, she was dressed for church and drove with meticulous attention to traffic laws. Even after she identified herself as a clergywoman to the officers who pulled her over, they still spoke contemptuously to her and warned her to leave town.

These events occurred fairly recently—some 160 years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Make sure there is a place at God’s table for all, Rev. Anderson said. This entails helping others when they cannot help themselves. It means caring for others, especially the last and the left out.

“As you think about all the places you go, ask yourself, ‘Is there a place at the table for everyone?’” she said.

“If not, get up and give them your place.”

Watch a recording of the service