Leontine T.C. Kelly, bishop of...
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Leontine T.C. Kelly, bishop of the United Methodist Church, in addressing a group of church leaders in Wisconsin a few years ago, told the story of her and her brother, exploring the new parsonage in their parents' absence, finding a hole in the basement floor that had been covered over. Her brother, overcome with curiosity, got a flashlight and shone it into the hole, which proved to be quite deep. Leontine was persuaded after much coaxing to allow herself to be lowered down the hole, only to discover that it turned into a tunnel. Frightened, the children were bursting by the time their pastor father returned home. He was equally as interested in the discovery as they were, and together they at last explored the tunnel, until it led to another sealed opening. Plotting the course the tunnel seemed to take, they discovered that the far end entered a building that they knew for a fact had been a way station on the Underground Railway of the slave era. The exploration led to the tunnel being re-opened at the far end, and more searching for the next connection in this network that had delivered fugitive slaves to freedom in one of the darkest times in American history. Coincidentally, this rediscovery came at a time when the city in which they lived needed some way to bring people together, and the local pastors decided to use this to help in that effort. Retelling the story of their delivery gave blacks and whites a rallying point -- and hope for the future. -- Herrmann
