Hollering for Change: Conversation with Bishop LaTrelle Easterling

 

The Rev. Dr. Tori Butler (right) speaks with Bishop LaTrelle Easterling of the Baltimore-Washington and Peninsula-Delaware conferences in the fifth installment of the “Hollering for Change” series on women leaders and “firsts” in the denomination. Zoom video courtesy of the Rev. Butler, via YouTube.

Hollering for Change is the name of a series of commentaries by The Rev. Dr. Tori Butler for United Methodist News. Graphic by Laurens Glass, UM News. 

The Rev. Tori Butler speaks with Bishop LaTrelle Easterling of the Baltimore-Washington and Peninsula-Delaware conferences. Easterling talks about the influence of strong women leaders in her life like her mother and grandmother. “I didn’t need to find my voice so much because the women in my life have been so outspoken, never cowered,” she said.

This is the fifth in a series on women leaders and “firsts” in the denomination.

The Rev. Candace Lewis

The Rev. Nicole Caldwell-Gross

Bishop Dee Williamston

The Rev. Angela Redman

 

Sign up for our newsletter!

Subscribe Now
Social Concerns
Deborah Bass opens the 59th General Meeting of Black Methodists for Church Renewal in Charlotte, N.C., on March 18, with her national chairperson’s address. She urged members of the caucus to fight injustice with faith, compassion and courage. Photo by John W. Coleman, UM News.

Black caucus wrestles with immigration injustice

The leader of Black Methodists for Church Renewal urged members gathered for the United Methodist group’s annual meeting to respond to current challenges in the church and society with “faith, compassion, justice and prophetic courage.”
Church History
A protester holds a sign seeking an end to racial segregation in the Methodist Church during the 1968 General Conference in Dallas. The conference merged the denomination with the Evangelical United Brethren Church, creating The United Methodist Church, and did away with the racially segregated Central Jurisdiction. A new book by the Rev. Bonnie McCubbin details the long road for Black Methodists to get full equality in the denomination. Photo courtesy of United Methodist Commission on Archives and History.

Mapping the Black United Methodist pilgrimage

The Rev. Bonnie McCubbin, a historian, details the long road — with some setbacks and detours — for Black Methodists to get full equality in the denomination.
Local Church
Members of Black River Falls United Methodist and community guests enjoy  “Dinner Church” on March 18 at the rural Wisconsin church. The weekly ministry, which is celebrating its second anniversary, has become a place where strangers become friends and a small congregation reimagines its mission. Photo by the Rev. Thomas E. Kim, UM News.

Around the table, a church finds new life in rural Wisconsin

A small-town United Methodist church in rural Wisconsin embraces community outreach by serving meals, building relationships and redefining what it means to be church.

United Methodist Communications is an agency of The United Methodist Church

©2026 United Methodist Communications. All Rights Reserved