United Methodist News ~ Wednesday, 23 October 2013
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“The board’s decision was taken in light of actions taken in states where same-sex marriage and domestic partnerships are now the law of the land. Our board has sought with this action to make policy decisions that stay in conformity with both civil and church law. We look forward to the Judicial Council’s guidance on this matter.”(Bishop Michael J. Coyner, president of the finance agency board.)
Finance agency extends benefits to same-sex couples
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) — General agencies of the United Methodist Church will extend employee benefits to same-sex couples, under a decision by the board of directors of the denomination’s General Council on Finance and Administration.
The board in its Monday action changed the general agencies welfare benefits program’s definition of “spouse” to include same-sex spouses, recognized by a state as being legally married to the employee, and civil partners, either through a civil union or a comprehensive domestic partnership, recognized by a state as being the legal partner of an employee.
GCFA announced the decision in a news release Tuesday. The agency’s board took the action after hearing from its Committee on Personnel Policy and Practices, made up of representatives of all 11 agencies that get general apportioned funds.
But GCFA will also ask the Judicial Council, the church’s supreme court, for a declaratory judgment on whether extending the benefits violates church law.
“The Board’s decision was taken in light of actions taken in states where same-sex marriage and domestic partnerships are now the law of the land”, said Bishop Michael J. Coyner, president of GCFA. “Our Board has sought with this action to make policy decisions that stay in conformity with both civil and church law. We look forward to the Judicial Council’s guidance on this matter.”
Paragraph 806.9 of the 2012 Book of Discipline, the church law book, states that GCFA “shall be responsible for ensuring that no board, agency, committee, commission, or council shall give United Methodist funds to any gay caucus or group, or otherwise use such funds to promote the acceptance of homosexuality or violate the expressed commitment of The United Methodist Church ‘not to reject or condemn lesbian and gay members and friends.’”
The GCFA news release said Judicial Council will be asked whether general agency payments for portions of the insurance premiums for same-sex spouses and civil partners of general agency employees violates the Book of Discipline.
Denicia Roberts, GCFA’s executive human resources director, said agency employees can sign up to take advantage of the change during an open enrollment period, beginning Oct. 28. Coverage will be effective Jan. 1.
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Bishop urges prayer, action after school shooting
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (UMNS) — Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
The unthinkable has happened yet again, another school shooting, this time in our own annual conference at a middle school in Sparks, Nevada. At this time, the press is reporting two persons dead, a staff member, and the suspected shooter. Two other students have also been injured.
My heart is heavy, and it grieves me every time I hear of the news of our children becoming the victims, and perpetrators of gun violence. This senseless violence, that seems to have become commonplace in American society, needs to stop. It is too soon to know the details of this situation, but any occasion when a child feels the need to take their own life, or that of another, is a tragedy for us all.
Once again, a gun has ended up in a school with deadly consequences. We must continue to work with, and challenge our legislators, and other elements of our society, to find solutions that keep guns out of the wrong hands, while being mindful of the rights of all citizens, including the right to keep and bear arms.
I praise God for teachers and staff who educate, uplift, and care for the safety of our children each day. Once again a heroic teacher has placed his life on the line for the life of students at this middle school in Washoe County.
Join me in prayer for Pastor Gary Pope-Sears and the faithful people of Sparks United Methodist Church, and other faith communities, as they minister to the people of Sparks during this difficult time.
As you gather in Christian community this week, I encourage you to be in prayer with, and for, our brothers and sisters in Sparks. Our General Board of Discipleship (GBOD) in Nashville has resources for dealing with violence, conflicts, tragedies, and grief on their website. Also, several items related to gun violence can be found here from our General Board of Church and Society (GBCS) in Washington, D.C.
Let us work towards a world in which all children are safe, and violence is eradicated. May we continue in our quest to serve the Prince of Peace and create a world free of violence for all of God's creation. Let us work together for Shalom in all of our communities so that the promise of Isaiah 60:18 may be known in our land, "Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders; you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise."
Grace and Peace,
Warner H. Brown, Jr.
Resident Bishop
My heart is heavy, and it grieves me every time I hear of the news of our children becoming the victims, and perpetrators of gun violence. This senseless violence, that seems to have become commonplace in American society, needs to stop. It is too soon to know the details of this situation, but any occasion when a child feels the need to take their own life, or that of another, is a tragedy for us all.
Once again, a gun has ended up in a school with deadly consequences. We must continue to work with, and challenge our legislators, and other elements of our society, to find solutions that keep guns out of the wrong hands, while being mindful of the rights of all citizens, including the right to keep and bear arms.
I praise God for teachers and staff who educate, uplift, and care for the safety of our children each day. Once again a heroic teacher has placed his life on the line for the life of students at this middle school in Washoe County.
Join me in prayer for Pastor Gary Pope-Sears and the faithful people of Sparks United Methodist Church, and other faith communities, as they minister to the people of Sparks during this difficult time.
As you gather in Christian community this week, I encourage you to be in prayer with, and for, our brothers and sisters in Sparks. Our General Board of Discipleship (GBOD) in Nashville has resources for dealing with violence, conflicts, tragedies, and grief on their website. Also, several items related to gun violence can be found here from our General Board of Church and Society (GBCS) in Washington, D.C.
Let us work towards a world in which all children are safe, and violence is eradicated. May we continue in our quest to serve the Prince of Peace and create a world free of violence for all of God's creation. Let us work together for Shalom in all of our communities so that the promise of Isaiah 60:18 may be known in our land, "Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders; you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise."
Grace and Peace,
Warner H. Brown, Jr.
Resident Bishop
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Responding to Violence
On any given day, United Methodists respond to tragedy by offering prayers and support.
Find resources for helping people cope with violent events, read news coverage and learn how individuals as well as ministries make a positive difference even in the most difficult of times.
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Bishop’s daughter dies of malaria
KINDU, Democratic Republic of the Congo (UMNS) — Virginie Kabibi Mirgivir Unda, daughter of Bishop Gabriel Unda Yemba of the East Congo Episcopal Area, has died of malaria. Her mother, Omba Charlotte Unda, also died of malaria Feb. 1, 2007. Condolences from around The United Methodist Church go to the Unda family and to the people of the East Congo Episcopal Area.
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Pastor celebrates October in pink (Ellysa Gonzalez)
BROWNFIELD, Texas (UMNS) — On Sunday mornings throughout the month of October, Ruby Moultrie can be spotted behind the pulpit giving sermons in a pink stole at First United Methodist Church in Brownfield.
The color pink holds a special meaning for her after the events of the last two years.
“Pink has become a color I cherish,” Moultrie said. “I tell people that we will wear pink all of October here at this church. I will wear it every Sunday. Pink has become a celebratory color for me. If I thought I looked cute in pink, I’d probably have a pink car. … I celebrate every day of my life the victory over cancer.”
In 1996, Moultrie was told she had breast cancer. A follow-up appointment with her doctor revealed the diagnosis was false. About 15 years later, she was diagnosed again — this time it was positive. But Moultrie doesn’t see her diagnosis as a burden. She sees it as a blessing.
First time around
“I hate to say this, that I love the fact that I had cancer,” she said. “I appreciate the fact that I did because I’ve grown a lot in how to care for someone else and to tell another person, whether they’re 50, whether they’re 75, when they get that news of cancer somewhere, anywhere in the body, it doesn’t have to be breast cancer, that we serve a God who knit our bodies together and he knows how to find whatever cancer is trying to find a route.
When a mammogram revealed an abnormal finding in her breast in 1996, Moultrie was told she had breast cancer. Her appointment was the Monday before Thanksgiving.
“That day I was just like ‘God, let me hold it together until I get out of this building,’ ” Moultrie said. “They were so non-caring people, this place that I was in. … As soon as I walked out, tears flowed like a river. I got into my car and headed back to Levelland in the blaring sun. I started singing ‘How Great Art Thou’ and knew that I would be all right.”
The person who told her she had cancer offered to schedule her surgery for Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. That Wednesday, Moultrie met with Owens.
“I said ‘I know I have cancer. They already told me I have cancer,’ ” Moultrie said. “And he said, ‘Ruby, you don’t have cancer. I don’t know what they told you.’ I said, ‘I had a sonogram. I did all the work. I just walked through those steps.’ He said, ‘You don’t have cancer.’ He said, ‘I would tell you if you had cancer.’ ”
Sixteen years later
Moultrie was diagnosed with breast cancer again in June 2011.
At the appointment, Moultrie said, the doctor did a mammogram, a sonogram and an MRI. She was joined by her best friend and “sister,” Dianne Blume, who had also joined Moultrie for the mammography appointment 16 years before.
“She’s been my sister since 1995,” Moultrie said of Blume.
Moultrie met Blume at Walk to Emmaus, a three-day Christian spiritual renewal event, in 1995.
“We’re like a glove,” Blume said. “We just click. We fit. We’re sisters.”
Since their meeting in 1995, Moultrie and Blume have scheduled their yearly mammograms at the same time.
Their mammograms last year yielded an unexpected discovery.
“About the middle of June, June 9, my phone rang here at the office, and I was interviewing a lady for a secretarial job,” Moultrie said. “I said, ‘Brownfield Methodist Church.’ And the doctor said, ‘Ruby, this is Dr. Rosen, and you have cancer.’ Kind of like that.”
Moultrie’s first phone call was to Blume.
Tears and different emotions began to flow.
“I was angry,” Moultrie said. “I wondered, ‘Why me?’ I did all the stuff in about two minutes, and then I decided, ‘I’m a pastor. I can’t break. I’m supposed to handle this better.’ And so for about two weeks, I would put it on the back burner.”
Facing the facts
The follow up revealed Moultrie’s tumors to be at stage zero and not past her breast. Meetings with her doctors and surgeons to talk about her options resulted in an appointment for surgery on Aug. 15 to remove the cancerous material.
The weight of the diagnosis and oncoming surgery took second place to her job as a pastor, Moultrie said.
Nonnie Cawthon, congregation member at First United Methodist Church in Brownfield, said this was no surprise to the church family.
“She’d rather take care of other people than herself,” Cawthon said. “She’s always so busy taking care of everybody else.”
When people would ask if she was OK, Moultrie would automatically reply with, “I’m fine,” she said.
“It wasn’t until I started journaling that cancer became real,” Moultrie said. “That it was ‘Ruby the person,’ not ‘Ruby the pastor with cancer.’ And I started journaling and writing down. … I decided to journal and face it like every other female Christian facing breast cancer.”
On Aug. 15, Moultrie arrived at the hospital at 6 a.m. and was wheeled to surgery for a double mastectomy at 11 a.m.
Before surgery, Moultrie’s doctor asked her if she wanted to have a double mastectomy even though the tumor was only found in one breast.
Moultrie decided to do it. After surgery, her doctor told her it was a smart decision because scans showed tumors on the other side as well.
“I remember looking at her, and our eyes looked at each other, and we just knew God was in control,” Blume said. “That was strange. She had a feeling that she needed to have them both.”
Moultrie said that’s how she knew it was a God-led decision.
Strength in faith
After surgery, Moultrie spent a few weeks recovering in Levelland with Blume and her family
“She came here to my house, and my husband and I took care of her,” Blume said. “I hurt for her to see what she went through. My dad went through cancer, and we had to watch that. You just had to hold on to God’s promise. We just knew he was going to take care of her.”
Cawthon said she and her husband and many other congregation members checked in on Moultrie constantly and helped when and how they could.
“We’ve gone to doctor appointments with her,” Cawthon said. “We have taken food to her house. We’ve cried, laughed and held her hand.”
The love of her congregation members could be felt strongly when she returned to Brownfield, Moultrie said.
Cawthon said Moultrie’s strong faith in God is one of many factors she believes has helped her through.
“I decided if I was to have cancer, then I would have cancer as a witness to everyone,” she said. “That means way past the doors of the First United Methodist Church of Brownfield. If I was to have cancer, then God would show me how to go through radiation, go through chemo, go through all the stages to be a better pastor with that. And if I was to have cancer, God would also use that to say prayer works.”
Moultrie said her recovery is a result of God’s work through her.
“It’s really been an OK journey,” Moultrie said. “I hope I can still say that in five years when somebody looks and says ‘oh, that cancer is back.’ I don’t think that will happen. I hope I can say I can walk through it a second time.”
• 766-8795
Follow Ellysa on Twitter
@AJ_Ellysa
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7 practices for best church volunteers (Brian K. Dodd)
ATLANTA (UMNS) — I don't know where I would be without a man named Lenis Black. With the trajectory I was on, I certainly would not be the person I am today. Who is Lenis Black you ask? Lenis was a volunteer at Acworth United Methodist Church. He was my first Sunday School teacher when I began attending church in 1980.
I was talking today about the practices of the best church volunteers. The conversation caused me to go back 33 years and remember the incredible impact Lenis had on my life. Before reading the 7 things I learned from Lenis, make sure you read about the FREE online conference called Get More Volunteers 2013.
The Best Volunteers Provide Stability And Security - After my parents divorced, my mother began taking her three children to church hoping the environment of Acworth United Methodist Church would provide her children some level of stability. Thanks to Lenis and others, my mother made the correct decision.
The Best Volunteers Make Church Interesting - Lenis was a great teacher, humourous, and very interesting. He talked about things teenage boys appreciated and made the Bible come alive.
The Best Volunteers Build Relationships That Extend Beyond Sunday Morning - Lenis had a son who was one of my best friends. This was a good excuse for him to periodically show up at school to simply see how I was doing.
The Best Volunteers Care About People - The thing I remember most about Lenis was when called me during the Georgetown vs Villanova showdown in January 1984. There was no agenda as he was just investing in my life. Funny thing, I remember every aspect of that phone call to this very day.
The Best Volunteers Model The Christian Life - Great volunteers are a picture of the desired destination at which others wish to arrive. The reality is that when a divorce happens, a void is created in the child's life. It is simply unavoidable. The void of a Godly man was filled by Lenis. He gave me a picture of what a man sold out to Christ looked like.
The Best Volunteers Expose Others To Church Leadership - The best volunteers consciously expand the leadership circle. Shortly after becoming a Christian, Lenis walked me into Senior Pastor Jim Lowery's office to pray before a service. Due to my naivety, I had no idea what was going on or what to pray. However, that single decision to have me in that setting propelled me on a path that I'm still on to this day.
The Best Volunteers Are Extravagantly Generous - Lenis taught our class for the four years of high school. Each year he wrestled with whether he should return or not. He always did and my life was never the same. In fact, he has taught sunday school classes of different ages at Acworth United Methodist for over 40 years.
I am so glad for the investment Lenis made in my life. I will thank him every day for all of eternity.
If you want to raise up volunteers like Lenis in your church, then on October 29th, The Rocket Company is putting on a FREE online conference called Get More Volunteers 2013.
This conference is hosted by Tony Morgan and features great leaders like Reggie Joiner, Perry Noble, Chris Hodges and Derwin Gray. I'll even be playing a role. Click here or on the image provided to sign up. I recommend you get your entire volunteer team to watch. You'll be glad you did.
-------------- - Brian K. Dodd
Brian Dodd's daytime job is as a Generosity Architect and leadership consultant for INJOY Stewardship Solutions. During the last 10+ years, he has spent each day having one-on-one conversations with many of the greatest church leaders in America. He also also has over 25 years of church volunteer and staff experience. Check out his blog: Brian Dodd on Leadership.
From pastors.com
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Michigan church makes food favorite to keep the church warm
MIDLAND, Mich. (UMNS) — The flavor of the Upper Peninsula was prominent in the kitchen of LaPorte United Methodist Church in Freeland last week.
Some 600 pasties (pass-tees) were made by church volunteers Wednesday through Friday, and the savory meat pies already have made their way to households in Sanford, Merrill, Saginaw, Breckenridge and a lot of places in between.
Pasties, a popular Upper Peninsula fare and a star attraction along U.S. Highway 2, are meat pies encased in pastry. The meat pies made locally contained a combination of ground beef, pork, potatoes, onion and either rutabaga or carrots, said Mary Jane Erskine who, along with Lonalee Maier co-chaired the last week’s fundraiser. She said the orders for rutabaga outnumbered carrots three to one.
Volunteers gathered last Tuesday to clean and chop the vegetables. On Wednesday morning, a group of 16 volunteers already had put together 193 pasties in two hours. Using a production line of sorts, volunteers rolled out balls of dough into eight-inch circles, then passed them along to others who scooped heaping cups of the meat/vegetable filling onto each pastry and topped the filling with a pat of butter. The pastry circle was then folded over the mixture and the sides crimped. The half-moon meat pies were wrapped in aluminum foil, with baking instructions attached and then placed into white takeout containers for customer pickup later.
As the volunteers finished up a batch of pasties early Wednesday afternoon and were ready to take a break for a taco salad lunch, several gathered to talk about everything pasty. The church had a pasty sale in January and volunteers made 300. Because orders for last week’s fundraiser were double, the church plans another pasty sale in January.
Volunteers used the same recipe from pasty sales the church used to conduct years ago. Members were surprised when they realized the sales were in the 1980s — a lot longer ago they they first thought. The recipe, which came from a church member’s daughter who lived in the Upper Penninsula, includes measurements for making 320 pasties (80 pounds of ground beef, 160 potatoes, 20 large onions and rutabaga and 480 baby carrots).
One volunteer said a farmer friend in Munising told her he recalls eating pasties that had meat filling at one end and either a cherry or apple pie filling at the other end. The pies were popular lunches with farmers who could easily take them into the fields.
Volunteers from Swan Valley United Methodist also helped. Proceeds from the fundraiser will be used for the church general fund and most likely will pay for propane to heat the building this winter, Erskine said.
Upper Peninsula Pasties
2 pounds ground beef, uncooked (or 2/3 beef, 1/3 pork mixture)
4 good sized potatoes (Russets or white)
1/2 large onion
1/2 rutabaga
12 baby carrots
Salt (1 teaspoon) and pepper to taste
Chop potatoes into small squares, a little bigger than the size of a French fry, cubed. Put in a large pan and cover with water to keep them from browning.
Chop rutabaga into small squares. Chop carrots and onions into small pieces but not too fine.
Combine everything into a roaster pan. Mix by hand. Don’t add meat to vegetable mixture until ready to make pasties.
Dough for eight 8-inch pasties
2 cups Crisco
2 cups boiling water
2 teaspoons salt
6 1/2 cups flour
Mix well. Don’t over mix as dough gets tough. Refrigerate two hours.
Making the Pasties
Put one cup of mixture of veggies and ground beef into one half of the crust. Make sure you get a good variety of all ingredients.
Add 1 teaspoon butter on top of mixture. Fold over the crust. Pinch together the edges. Place small slits in the top of the crust. Wrap in foil rolling foil down at top and up on ends to keep juice from leaking out.
Bake at 375 degrees for one hour. Unless frozen, then bake for 20 minutes at 450; reduce heat to 350 heat and bake for another 40 minutes. Open foil for 10 to 15 minutes as needed to brown top of crust. Serving suggestions: gravy, salsa, ketchup, chili sauce.
Frozen: Do not thaw. Still wrapped in foil, bake 20 minutes at 450 on a cookie sheet. Reduce heat to 350 and bake for one hour. Open foil for last 10 to 15 minutes to brown crust. Serving suggestions: gravy, salsa, ketchup, chili sauce.
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United Methodist News Service
United Methodist Communications
810 12th Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37203 United States
Phone: (615)742~5400
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