Black, White Pentecostals Unite in One Association : Religion: Euphoria prevails among leaders, but few doubt that a formidable task looms in overcoming 88 years of racial separation.

Amid the speaking in tongues and symbolic washing of feet, the nation’s most prominent African American and white Pentecostal denominations joined hands here Wednesday to form a new multiracial national association.

Called the Pentecostal Charismatic Churches of North America, the interdenominational group will be led by a 12-member executive committee of six blacks and six whites. White delegates voted to disband their 46-year-old racially segregated Pentecostal Fellowship of North America in a separate action Tuesday.

“I feel excited and euphoric,” said B.E. Underwood, who led the all-white group to disband.

Bishop Ithiel Clemmons of the predominantly black Church of God of Christ was elected chairman of the new organization. Underwood, who is general superintendent of the Pentecostal Holiness Church, was elected first vice chairman.

But even as Pentecostal leaders embarked with high spirits on a new path of reconciliation, few doubted the formidable task ahead in overcoming 88 years of racial separation.

From members of local congregations to prominent bishops, the assessment was much the same--bringing the spirit of Memphis to local churches will be a long and arduous task.

“I don’t think anybody here knows what it’s going to cost us,” said Del Tarr, president of the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, Mo. “But I believe it will be far-reaching worldwide.”

One challenge will be overcoming ingrained racial prejudices among some members of local churches, both black and white.

Said Lucy Ntrek, who attends a black church in Memphis: “I hope we can experience a bigger fellowship (with whites) and that they will no longer be ashamed to identify with us as Pentecostals.”

At the same time, the absence of the Rev. L.H. Ford, the presiding bishop of the 5.5-million-member Church of God in Christ, has not gone unnoticed by delegates here.

Ford, 80, could not be reached for comment, but others in his denomination said that he is unlikely to actively resist interdenominational cooperation. They said, however, he remains suspicious of whites and protective of the church he has helped build into the largest black Pentecostal denomination in the United States.

There are other challenges as well, including the job of enlisting local congregations in their national leaders’ drive for reconciliation.

“Once we come down from the mountain we will have to walk this thing out,” said Bishop Charles E. Blake of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles. Blake was elected to the new group’s executive committee on Wednesday.

Already, there appears to be the potential for disagreement over how political the new association should be.

Blake, for example, said he envisions not only cooperation with white churches to address pressing inner-city problems, but their support in pushing for federal and state action to meet the needs of the poor. He noted that white Pentecostals are generally politically conservative, whereas blacks are liberal.

“This presents some complications,” Blake said in an interview.

At the same time, another new committee member, Pastor Jack Hayford of the Church on the Way in Van Nuys, said he would be very surprised to see the new Pentecostal association adopt an overtly political agenda. He said there has long been a “steadfast resistance” among Pentecostals to political activism. But he said he recognized the need for churches to meet inner-city needs.

But whatever problems may lie ahead, delegates Wednesday reveled in the atmosphere of what they called a mountaintop experience.

In a moving--and unplanned--moment Wednesday, an unidentified delegate in the audience began speaking in “tongues”--ecstatic utterances that believers see as evidence that the speaker has been filled with the Holy Spirit.

As the delegate spoke, cries and ecstatic shouts filled the auditorium on the banks of the Mississippi River, moving Hayford, he explained later, to “interpret” the delegate’s words to the audience.

“Look if you will from the heavenward side of things and see where you have been--two separate streams,” said Hayford. “But now look! Look! Not only is there a new purity but multitudes more who will gather at one mighty river.”