United Methodist News ~ Wednesday, 30 October 2013

United Methodist News ~ Wednesday, 30 October 2013

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“In the midst of this despair, we have offered hope, A Future with Hope. When people hurt, United Methodists help.” ~—New Jersey Area Bishop John Schol

Year 1: Sandy recovery — The work of many hands by Linda Bloom*

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (UMNS) — For months after a storm named Sandy swept through Atlantic City, N.J., Rick Hall got wet if he slept in his bedroom on rainy nights.

Winds ripped up sections of the roof of the home he shares with his mother, Elise. Floodwaters on the streets of their Bungalow Park neighborhood, near a cove and an inlet where fishing boats bring their fresh catch to delivery trucks, were chest high on Hall, who is 6-foot-2.

They lost carpeting, furniture, appliances and books. Six days after evacuating, they were back, but recovery has been slow.

“I had a tarp up over the tub, thumbtacked to the roof, so the rain could go into the tub, because it was raining in the bathroom,” he pointed out.

“My mom and I, we roughed it,” Hall said

On Long Island, life already was rough for Lisa Mentges, a single mother who had undergone a double mastectomy for breast cancer just a few days before the Sandy-churned ocean broke over the Long Beach dunes and roared up the street to her one-story bungalow.

“The water came up so fast, I couldn’t even leave,” she recalled. “I was scared.

“The house was actually moving when the water came up.”

The water in the house subsided after several hours.

But Mentges could not get her mastectomy stitches and drains wet, so she, her boyfriend and her son were stranded for a few days, grateful for a food and water delivery from the National Guard. “We stayed here and we slept up in the attic,” she explained. “Then we couldn’t stay anymore because it was cold.”

Sandy assumed several forms – tropical storm, hurricane, even “superstorm” – as it charted a path of destruction from the Caribbean to New York State at the end of October 2012. Whatever the description, the results were the same for hundreds of thousands of other Sandy survivors.

Hall and Mentges do have one advantage. Both have received assistance from United Methodist volunteers through the denomination’s Greater New Jersey and New York annual (regional) conferences and the support of the United Methodist Committee on Relief.

UMCOR received $10,162,797 in direct donations for Sandy relief and an additional $2.5 million from the Red Cross, said the Rev. Gregory Forrester, UMCOR’s U.S. disaster response coordinator.

The New York Conference has relied upon UMCOR’s guidance, noted New York Area Bishop Martin McLee. “UMCOR has been a great partner in this continued recovery effort,” he said.

“As we go forward, we want to continue to enable folks to get back into healthy homes and safe homes.”

Greater New Jersey launched a separate nonprofit organization to coordinate case management, construction and volunteers.

“We created ‘A Future with Hope’ so that we could commit to long-term recovery,” explained Bishop John Schol.  “Our staff members and volunteers work with the long-term recovery groups of every impacted county and are the primary referral for people who need help.”

Sandy’s timeline

Even before it surged up the East Coast, Sandy struck Cuba on Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012. Then nearly a Category 3 hurricane, it destroyed much of the historic city of Santiago de Cuba, damaging more than 200,000 homes in the area. A Methodist house church with a generator began to provide backup power to the community.

Three days later, on Sunday, Oct. 28, an unusual convergence of weather factors propelled Sandy into a “superstorm” with winds that covered about 1,000 miles. President Obama signed emergency declarations for New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Connecticut and the District of Columbia.

The Jersey Shore town of Belmar was under a mandatory evacuation order as Sandy approached, but the Rev. Eugene Chamberlin opted to remain in the United Methodist parsonage with his 16-year-old daughter, Olivia, to take care of their pets.

His wife and co-pastor, Ellen Chamberlin, took their two younger children to a relative’s home in a nearby town.

As Sandy lay siege,  the waters rose.

Chamberlin and his daughter were forced to leave, using a section of their white picket fence as a makeshift raft to evacuate two cats, a dog, turtle and fish.

By Monday, Oct. 29, high winds and rains had cut off electrical power from Washington to points north, eventually affecting more than 50 million people.

Sandy’s center hit landfall near Atlantic City at 8 p.m., with its winds, rain and flooding continuing throughout the night. New York harbor experienced a record storm surge — nearly 14 feet — that topped the seawall in lower Manhattan. Staten Island, where half of the New York Sandy-related deaths occurred, also was hard hit.

Days later, John Stonick, a 60-year-resident of New Dorp Beach on Staten Island, raised his arms high above his head to show relief workers where the water was. “It just swept up the street,” he said. “I was in the house…got out in time.”

The backside of the storm continued to pound the Northeast on Tuesday, Oct. 30,

By early November, it was clear the recovery was going to be a long one. In New Jersey, many of the 113 church properties impacted by Sandy had no flood insurance. For Schol, who had moved to New Jersey just two months earlier, “it was a steep learning curve” as he began asking advice from bishops and others who had been through disasters.

“What I learned in that first week from talking to a lot of people really set the tone and direction for my leadership,” he said.

In areas where Sandy’s winds disrupted power, even those whose homes were not damaged found it difficult to cope. A new ministry was born as churches that had retained electricity or had access to generators opened their doors for improvised community living rooms and work areas.

Members of Morrow Memorial United Methodist Church in Maplewood, N.J., started by gathering in neighbors to share wi-fi access and multiple cups of coffee from a large, ancient coffeemaker. Two days later, the number of daily visitors had ballooned to 500.

After any major disaster, UMCOR-trained Emergency Response Teams form the first line of United Methodist relief.

In the first six weeks after Sandy, Community United Methodist Church on Long Island coordinated the dispatching of more than 700 volunteers to respond to 172 calls from residents, with more than half of the initial relief work completed.

One of the beneficiaries was Henry Enders, a member of Freeport United Methodist Church. The four-to-five feet of water from Sandy flooded the house where he had lived since 1954 and ruined his garden “which I worry about as much as anything else.”

Crisfield, a town of 2,600 in Maryland, had been hard hit by Sandy. By December, the Rev. Rich Walton, disaster response coordinator for the Peninsula-Delaware Annual Conference, had compiled a list of 60 homes that needed repairs and estimated that at least 350 homes were damaged. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which originally did not approve federal aid for Crisfield, was re-evaluating its decision.

A shift in emphasis from emergency relief toward recovery began with the start of a new year.

In preparation, the New York, Greater New Jersey, and Peninsula-Delaware conferences opened registration for long-term recovery volunteer teams in January 2013.

Demands for basic cleanup were beginning to decrease. As of Jan. 22, volunteers organized by Greater New Jersey had spent 13,500 hours mucking out homes and about 15,000 hours on food programs for Sandy survivors.

The New York Conference began to consider how to find help for the five pastors who had managed the Sandy relief sites in Massapequa, Rockville Center and Freeport on Long Island, on Staten Island and Brooklyn.

Through Jan. 31, 1,459 volunteers from New York and 17 other states had worked on 270 homes of New York Sandy survivors.

They contributed 13,320 hours of work, with 69 homes pending.

In Crisfield, where Sandy had disrupted the oyster season, Walton and Ken Wermuth, Eastern Virginia Unit of Mennonite Disaster Service, worked as construction managers and expected 11 volunteer teams in February.

As case managers for A Future with Hope begin working with New Jersey homeowners, Bobbie Ridgely, director, characterized the timing as the “very edge” of the recovery process. “Our biggest challenge is identifying the townships that really are ready to start rebuilding,” she explained.

In March, A Future with Hope started repairs on two homes, with contracts for six additional homeowners.

During their April meeting, UMCOR directors approved $3 million grants to both the New York and Greater New Jersey conferences and $500,000 to Peninsula-Delaware. In addition, $825,759 was allotted to New Jersey and $42,000 to Peninsula-Delaware for repairs to church property damaged by Sandy, representing 10 percent of the funds raised for Sandy relief.

On June 28, the American Red Cross awarded a $1.5 million grant to A Future with Hope and the Greater New Jersey Conference for Sandy recovery work with the elderly and disabled and low-income families.

By summer, the calls to the Massapequa, Long Island, office asking for help had slowed a bit, said Peggy Racine, Long Island site coordinator, but work had continued. “In Massapequa alone, we had between 8,500 and 9,000 volunteer hours up through July.”

In Highlands, N.J., the former United Methodist Church building, which was flooded, was renovated by hundreds of volunteers and opened on July 15 as a hosting site for volunteer teams. The conference averaged 70 to 120 volunteers a week from June to early August.

On Aug. 12, the Rev. Tom Vencuss, returning from Haiti after three years of coordinating volunteer teams for earthquake relief there, became the Sandy recovery manager for the New York Conference.

UMCOR received its own Red Cross grant of $2.5 million in August to provide financial or housing assistance to 700 households in New York, Connecticut and Maryland.

By early September, New Jersey case managers were working with 130 families and had started rebuilding 26 homes and two churches, partnering with 10 organizations.

The conference had hosted more than 1,200 volunteers since late March at its 13 host sites.

Back at the Hall home in Atlantic City, volunteer teams repaired the ceiling and floor and repainted.

Elise Hall, a 64-year-old social worker, had gotten a referral to A Future with Hope.

In early October, Rick Hall, 46, a Federal Aviation Administration employee then on furlough because of the U.S. government shutdown, was happily surveying the progress.

“All of the people who come through, from Ohio, Pennsylvania, this group here (working as he spoke) from South Carolina, they’re beautiful. I couldn’t believe how kind and warm these people really have been.

“(God’s) children showed up to help us. That’s how we looked at it,” he said, displaying a small cross one volunteer had carved out of cedar.

“I’m not telling the story, I’m singing it.”

In Long Beach, Mentges, 48, is thankful that her cancer prognosis is good.

Recovery from the storm, which also affected her parents’ home on the same street, has been rocky. A recent$50,000 renovation from a second mortgage was lost, particularly after she was told by her insurance company not to do anything until an adjuster could come.

“When we took the hardware floor up, the subfloor was loaded with mold,” said Mentges, who has been staying at her sister’s house in nearby Lido Beach with her son, Brandon, 15, and daughter, Brianne, 21. “The wall was loaded with mold. We disinfected for almost a month.”

Bad experiences with two out-of-state contractors have left her with little money and a large amount of work still to be done. The house, now elevated, is still a work in progress.

But, thanks to a referral from another organization, Mentges has a connection with United Methodists now. A volunteer team from the California-Pacific Conference was helping insulate and hang drywall recently, and she’s hopeful the house will be functional enough before Christmas to allow the family to move back.

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service multimedia reporter based in New York. Follow her at http://twitter.com/umcscribe. Contact her at (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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Year 1: Sandy recovery — The work of many hands

Sandy assumed several forms – tropical storm, hurricane, even “superstorm” – as it charted a path of destruction from the Caribbean to New York State at the end of October 2012. Whatever the description, the results were the same for hundreds of thousands. Everywhere in Sandy’s path, the people known as Methodists have been there to help survivors.

Year 1: Sandy recovery — Different needs everywhere

From Santiago, Cuba, to Criswell, Md., to Far Rockaway, Queens, Staten Island, Brooklyn, Long Island and the Jersey shore, the recovery efforts began. The survivors shared common threads of need: immediate relief, assessment, repair, rebuilding and renewal from the emotional and spiritual toll.

Year 1: Sandy recovery — Management the key

A rebuild averages four to five months and could take up to a year, but The United Methodist Church has become well known for disaster case management. “UMCOR is the gold standard,” said Bobbie Ridgely, director of A Future with Hope, Greater New Jersey’s Sandy relief organization. 

Year 1: Sandy recovery — Volunteers a lifeline

“If it wasn’t for them (the volunteers), believe me, it wouldn’t be the same,” said Hazel Gordon, who welcomed United Methodist volunteer teams from Tennessee, Ohio, Virginia and Alabama. “A lot of people, even in this block here, still aren’t finished.”

Year 1: Sandy recovery — ‘Love Methodist volunteers’

Volunteers are the backbone of United Methodist disaster response and nobody knows that better than the people who set up the work opportunities. “I love my Methodist volunteers,” declared Gillian Prince, who works in the New York Conference’s Brooklyn relief office. “They are the best…they come in ready and willing to work.”

Year 1: Sandy recovery — Mission teams needed

Since many volunteer in mission teams plan six months in advance, the advertisement and recruitment for spring and summer of 2014 is crucial right now, says UMCOR’s disaster relief coordinator for the U.S. Recovery from Sandy is expected to take years, so relief coordinators have to keep Sandy on the front-burner for a long time.

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Greater New Jersey Conference marks Sandy anniversary

OCEAN, N.J. (UMNS) — A letter from New Jersey Area Bishop John Schol marks the first anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, which “changed lives and the landscape forever.” The bishop thanked “all of our volunteers, donors, churches and staff who have provided healing and hope for thousands of people.” In the letter, he also wrote about the work to come.

A letter from United Methodist Bishop John Schol of New Jersey marks the first anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, which “changed lives and the landscape forever.”

The bishop thanks “all of our volunteers, donors, churches and staff who have provided healing and hope for thousands of people” and writes about the work to come through A Future with Hope ministry.

Here is the letter:

Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

One year ago, Superstorm Sandy rolled into New Jersey and the region and changed lives and the landscape forever. Today tens of thousands of homes are still in need of repair with many people still unable to return to their homes.

In the midst of this despair, we have offered hope, A Future with Hope. When people hurt, United Methodists help. I take this opportunity to thank all of our volunteers, donors, churches and staff who have provided healing and hope for thousands of people. Together, we set a five-year God-sized vision that included:

Repairing      300-500 homes of low income, elderly and disable people.

Providing      case management for 500 families.

Recruiting,      housing and deploying at least 15,000 volunteers to repair homes.

Repairing      churches and parsonages severely damaged by the storm.

Raising      $21 million.

After one year of ministry, I want to update you on our progress.

 Volunteers

We are now able to host more than 300 volunteers a week through 12 hosts sites. These host sites provide beds, food and showers. Already more than 5,900 volunteers from 23 states and three countries have logged more than 58,000 hours of relief and repair ministry. Immediately following the storm we fed, clothed and provided day and night shelter to more than 10,000 people.

 Case Management

We are presently working with 145 families to create recovery plans. In partnership with UMCOR, we coordinated 9 Disaster Case Management training sessions, training 226 case managers at no cost to 16 organizations including Catholic Charities, American Red Cross, and Salvation Army.

 Home Repairs

We are presently working in 14 communities. We have moved 12 families back into their homes, another 15 homes are under construction and 22 homes are being assessed or are ready for construction repairs. We have also repaired one community center.

 Church Property Repairs

We provided more than $900,000 in grants to assist 44 churches with repairs and undertook repairs for two churches.

 Fundraising

We have raised in donations and commitments $9.3 million toward our $21 million goal. This includes $3.8 million from UMCOR, $1.5 million from the American Red Cross, $750,000 from the Hurricane Sandy NJ Relief Fund (the fund established by Mary Pat Christie, the Governor’s wife),  $600,000 from the Robin Hood Foundation and $500,000 from United Methodist Conferences around the world. Many of the grants were made possible through the A Future With Hope, Inc., the nonprofit corporation started through GNJ that has raise funds and hired staff for this ministry.

Our Mission Fund Campaign, which will raise $12 million ($7 million for Sandy Relief, $2 million for Imagine No Malaria, and $3 million for local mission) has $2.5 million in donations and commitments before the campaigns have begun in most of our congregations. Eighty percent of our clergy have made a commitment to the Mission Fund Campaign and better than one-third of our congregations are in the process of conducting the campaign with their worshippers.

God is doing a miracle in our midst. Our ministry can probably be best summed up by one homeowner who said, “I called 10 different places and then I reached A Future with Hope, and it was The United Methodist Church who said we will help.” Or the man who shared with us as we moved him back into his home:

Mother and I tried every avenue that was supposed to be available to us to help those hurt by Hurricane Sandy, but were continually denied. In April, we were feeling despair because it rained so often.  We even had a stretch of ten straight days of rain. We prayed and asked God just please stop the rain from coming in our home.  All we ask Lord is for the roof to get fixed and that would be a great blessing.  Then we got a call from Jay, from A Future with Hope, who said he’d like to meet us and maybe they could help. At first we thought it was a scam because no one offered us any help before and what he was telling us seemed too good to be true.  So we continued to pray on it and the miracle we needed and God answered our prayers as only He can.  The Lord sent us His children to help us! We were and are overwhelmed by what God has done for us through our brothers and sisters in Christ. We can’t express our gratitude enough to all of the wonderful groups that have come to our home and transformed the devastation we were living in to a warm, comfortable home again. “Ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13)

Thank you for your prayers, thank you for your service, thank you for your commitment, and thank you for your contributions. Together with God we are bringing a future with hope.  (Jeremiah 29:11)

You can continue to support us by sending volunteers and donations. We need volunteers in the coming months. For more information you may email Lisa Park at info@afuturewithhope.org. To learn about how you may contribute financially, please contact me at BishopJohnSchol@gnjumc.org.

Keep the faith!

John Schol, Bishop
The United Methodist Church
Greater New Jersey Conference

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Wisconsin church offers cattle action food stand

ITHACA, Wis. (UMNS) — Many members of this small farming community spend every Wednesday afternoon at the weekly cattle auction. The only problem? There was nowhere nearby to eat lunch. That’s where Willow Valley United Methodist Church comes in, writes Amanda Rehrauer of the Wisconsin Annual (regional) Conference.

WILLOW VALLEY UMC CREATED A UNIQUE OUTREACH MINISTRY: A CATTLE AUCTION FOOD STAND

Paul Denman has been buying and selling livestock at the Richland Cattle Center in Ithaca, Wisconsin, for more than 15 years. He and many members of the small farming community spend every Wednesday afternoon there for the weekly cattle auction. The only problem? There was nowhere nearby to eat lunch. School groups have tried in the past to make use of the small kitchen at the Cattle Center and sell food each week, but the only one to keep the food sale running consistently in recent memory is the Willow Valley United Methodist Church, less than a half a mile down the road.

Denman, a life-long member of Willow Valley UMC, sees the sale as supporting both the community and the church. “Even people who aren’t involved in a cattle sale show up to eat,” he said. Many members from the church pitch in to make food to sell each week, including Denman’s wife, who makes a barbecue dish each week from the cows he buys.

In turn, all profits made benefit Willow Valley UMC directly, including the Wednesday night youth group. Pastor Edward Jones also said recent renovations, including an elevator to make the church handicap accessible, were paid for thanks to the sales. “This church took commitment and stuck with it,” he said.

So what makes the members of Willow Valley UMC, a congregation of 150, so eager to serve food at the auction each week? One volunteer, Sandy Brice, has been working at the food stand for six years – and has recently gotten her mom involved as well. “It’s my way of helping out the church,” she said. “It’s my time to serve... and meet people.”

One of those people is Janice Lord, a member of Willow Valley UMC for three years. She’s only been helping out at the food stand for a few months, but already sees the impact it’s had on her life. Not only has she become closer friends with Brice while volunteering, but said she sees it as her way of giving back to a group of people who supported her through a trying time in her life. “I’m new to the community, but when I was diagnosed with cancer, they prayed for me. They’ve accepted me.”

Both Brice and Lord agree the relationship between the church and the cattle auction is mutually beneficial. “We really do serve the community,” Lord said. “There’d be nothing here otherwise.” But they also said they recognize a greater motivation at hand as well. “If we didn’t have people with faith, we wouldn’t have participation,” Brice said.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wisconsinconferenceumc/sets/72157636905034304/

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Good news for children needing refuge

MADISON COUNTY, Fla. (UMNS) — Folks in Madison County enjoyed some good food and great music at the Good News Music Festival. They came out to support the Madison Youth Ranch, a children's refuge center being built by the Florida United Methodist Children's Home in Orlando. WCTV has the story on the home, which will have horses and other elements of ranch life.by Emily Johnson

Madison County, FL - Folks in Madison County enjoyed some good food and great music at the 'Good News Music Festival' earlier today. They came out to support the Madison Youth Ranch, a children's refuge center, being built by the Florida United Methodist Children's Home.

Many churches and musicians in the area were involved in putting on the festival today and all of the proceeds will go to building a chapel at the ranch site.
"The district superintendent's goal in this area, which is over a 100 churches to fund the chapel," Barbra Faircloth, Event Coordinator.

The ranch will serve the needs of children in the Big Bend, but also the rest of North Florida. " The youth need people who care. I have been a licensed foster parent myself and have seen kids that really needed some extra special loving," said Faircloth.

The Madison Youth Ranch is being modeled after the Florida United Methodist Children's Home in Orlando, but with a western twist. "We want to have horses, a ranch setting. A place where when they get home from school at the end of the day they have a place to go where they know that they're safe and their loved and their cared for," said Merrilu Bennett, Florida United Methodist Children's Home Communications Coordinator.

The next phase for the ranch is to finish the director's home and the cottages where the children will stay. After that is complete the group will start the work on the equestrian facility and the chapel. "Building the horse stable area and the paddock, which will be a big part of our therapeutic program for the kids. And eventually we'll be building a chapel and that's what today is all about, is supporting the spiritual side of the campus," said Mark Nelson, Florida United Methodist Children's Home Vice President of Development.

The 'Good News Music Festival' wanted to raise $5,000 for the chapel today. The Madison Youth Ranch is set to be completed by the fall of next year.

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Obama’s spiritual adviser releases book of devotions by Jonathan Merritt

WASHINGTON (UMNS) — In the midst of the 2008 presidential campaign, then Sen. Obama’s director of religious outreach prayed privately for the future president and began emailing him daily devotions. Religion News Service writer Jonathan Merritt interviews the author of “The President’s Devotional,” Joshua Dubois, about the president’s Christian faith. Dubois is a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, a full communion partner of The United Methodist Church. 

In the midst of the 2008 Presidential campaign, one man—Senator Obama’s Director of Religious Outreach—was concerned about the soul of the future President. Though Joshua Dubois prayed privately for Obama, he was compelled to go one step further, emailing the President a daily devotional reading.

For the first time ever, a collection of those devotionals have been released through DuBois’ new book, The President’s Devotional, Here, we discuss President Obama’s spirituality, many conservatives’ charge that he isn’t really a Christian, and the First Lady’s faith.

JM: You’ve shared a lot of devotional material in this book. Is there one you felt was particularly influential on the President?

JD: Let me start off by saying that I can’t speak for the President. He has said many times how meaningful the devotionals have been to him. And I’m honored that he would say that. I think, though, however, that there are some that are particularly resonant, particularly those that weave in history and culture together with Scripture to make a point. So there are a few.

There’s one that’s about British Prime Minister Lloyd George. And it’s basically about how to approach tough times. Lloyd George was in the middle of several different conflicts at once: he had World War 1 to worry about, along with the Irish Republican Army, and a financial crisis. And he still kept a very positive countenance. And someone asked him, “How are you so happy all the time, with all this going on?” He responded, “A change of nuisance is about as good as a vacation.”

So I just use that to illustrate the same point in the book, that suffering produces endurance, and endurance character, character, hope. We must look at the challenges we’re facing as opportunities to add to our set of experiences and our wisdom rather.

I think that’s one that resonated with the President. Obviously, ones on Abraham Lincoln as well. He’s a jazz fan, and so there’s one about Nina Simone and King David and their ability to write their own lyrics to their lives in challenging times. 

JM: When was the moment in your tenure that you felt the President was at his spiritual lowest and what did you write in your devotional to try to lift his spirits?

JD: I would go back to when I first started writing. This was a moment during the 2008 Presidential campaign, I was the Director of Religious Outreach at the time, and I saw him—then Senator Obama—as someone who had tremendous faculties. He was intelligent, he was a strong leader, he had a lot of support around him as well—political support and policy advice. And even Secret Service protection! But I didn’t see a lot of folks who were thinking about his spirit, his soul. And those were particularly tough times. We were dealing with the worst economic crisis of our lifetime. Senator Obama had to respond to that as a candidate. We were dealing with attacks from the other side, his political opponents. And it was at that moment that God kind of tugged at me and said, “Instead of just praying for him privately, by yourself, why don’t you reach out to him? Why don’t you share an encouraging word with him?” So that was kind of how the whole thing got started.

I can’t speak for him and say that that was necessarily a low moment, but it was definitely a time when he was going through a number of challenges.

JM: A lot of conservative evangelicals questioned the authenticity of the President’s Christianity. They argued, for example, that you can’t be Christian and pro-choice. How did these accusations make you feel and how do you answer these critics as one who has seen the spiritual side of Barack Obama firsthand?

JD: I would say the President is a deeply-committed Christian who privately, but seriously, seeks to cultivate his faith and grow closer to Christ. I serve a God of Romans 10:9, “Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that he was raised from the dead and you shall be saved.” It doesn’t say if you’re a Republican you shall be saved, if you’re a Democrat you shall be saved, or if you can pass some test from the right Christian leaders you shall be saved. It’s simply about a personal relationship with Jesus. And that’s something that I’ve seen the President cultivate firsthand, and talk about in a lot of different venues, and really seek to foster in his own quiet ways.

So I don’t think the President spends much time thinking about those critics. It seems, to me, to run counter to the gospel—that speaking for someone else’s faith—that I think should give pause.

The President is a committed Christian, someone who’s taken his faith very seriously for a very long time, and I’ve been honored to witness that firsthand.

JM: Joshua, what does the public not know about President Obama’s faith life?

JD: I think that, in careful and quiet ways, he has really sought to grow in his faith: through reading these devotionals every morning, attending worship services as often as he can—particularly at St. John’s Episcopal, right across the street from the White House. I’ve been with him as he walked his whole family over to church.

There are also other little things: he calls pastors, from time to time, to come into the Oval Office to say a word of prayer over him. Every year on his birthday he convenes a conference call with pastors around the country to offer some advice and blessings for the year to come.

So I think there are lots of these little moments. The one I talk about in the book is the time we went down to Billy Graham’s house. Obama has been the only sitting President to actually visit Rev. Graham at his home. To be in that room with those two amazing men, to hear Rev. Graham pray for President Obama, and hear President Obama pray for Rev. Graham, was just a really unique and remarkable moment.

JM: And some of those pastors he has reached out to, inviting them to come pray with him in the Oval Office, who are some of those?

JD: There are a number of them. Pastor Joel Hunter from Northland Church, in Longwood, Florida, is a dear friend and someone that has spent a lot of time supporting the President in prayer and conversation.  A.M.E. Bishop Vashti McKenzie is also a very good friend, someone who has offered a lot of guidance over the years. And then Sharon Watkins, from the Disciples of Christ, is someone who has been a real guiding force as well. So there are a number of pastors, but those are a few.

JM: From your experience, does the First Lady share the President’s faith commitment? What does that look like for her?

JD: Yes, the First Lady is a strong Christian as well, and is very serious about her faith. It was wonderful being with her as she talked about her faith and her values at the A.M.E. Church general conference a few years ago. And also being with her when she’s in worship services with the President. And so there’s a strong family there, one that is careful about raising up their children in the way they should go. And it’s been wonderful to see that grow and develop over the last few years.

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History of Hymns: ‘When Our Confidence is Shaken’

DALLAS (UMNS) — Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000) offers an explicit hymn that addresses the crisis of faith experienced by many in this time. Written in the years immediately following the publication of Anglican Bishop John A. T. Robinson's controversial 1963 book “Honest to God,” Green labels existential doubts and offers hope, writes C. Michael Hawn.

History of Hymns: “When Our Confidence Is Shaken” by C. Michael Hawn

"When Our Confidence Is Shaken"
Fred Pratt Green
The United Methodist Hymnal, No. 505

When our confidence is shaken
in beliefs we thought secure,
when the spirit in its sickness
seeks but cannot find a cure,
God is active in the tensions
of a faith not yet mature.*

Hymns have spoken to our suffering, fears, and doubts throughout the centuries. In the eighteenth century, Charles Wesley wrote:
Give to the winds thy fears;
hope and be undismayed.
God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears,
God shall lift up thy head. (UM Hymnal, No. 129)

Horatio G. Spafford wrote in the last half of the nineteenth century:
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll;
whatever my lot, thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul. (UM Hymnal, No. 377)

At the turn of the twentieth century, Methodist pastor Charles Tindley led his congregation in singing, "When the storms of life are raging, stand by me . . .." (UM Hymnal, No. 512)

Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000) offers a much more explicit hymn that addresses the crisis of faith experienced by many in our age. Written in the years immediately following the publication of Anglican Bishop John A. T. Robinson's controversial book, Honest to God (1963), Green labels our existential doubts and offers hope.

Bishop Robinson introduced topics such as "situational ethics" and "secular theology for secular man" to many who were seeking truth in a world with much less certainty than before. Many conservative or traditional theologians condemned Robinson's book, while liberal theologians welcomed his thinking. For example, popular author C. S. Lewis, in his last interview before his death, was asked, "What do you think of the controversial new book Honest to God, by John Robinson, the bishop of Woolwich?" Lewis replied rather enigmatically, "I prefer being honest, to being 'honest to God.'"

Few hymns of earlier centuries address crises of faith as those addressed in stanza one: "the spirit in sickness seeks but cannot find a cure." In stanza two, the author confronts the ultimate doubts: "our research leads us to the ultimate unknown." In a bold statement, Pratt Green concludes the stanza:
Faith must die, or come full circle
to its source in God alone.

Stanza three encourages us to maintain the "discipline of praying, when it’s hardest to believe." The final stanza states unequivocally: "God is love, and thus redeems us in the Christ we crucify."  The author concludes that even in a crisis of faith . . .
May we in this faith maturing
be content to live and die!

This is an excellent example of congregational song that speaks to a world of what may seem to us to be systemic uncertainty. While earlier hymns often were inspired by personal loss or tragedy, we now move into a realm of pervasive fear and doubt. When all is said and done, we return to faith: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1).

Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000) was born at Roby, near Liverpool, England, and was ordained in 1928. He began writing hymns only in 1969 after retiring from active parish ministry. Despite his late start as a composer of hymn texts, he is known as one of the greatest hymn writers of the twentieth century. In fact, in the foreword to the first compilation of his hymns, The Hymns and Ballads of Fred Pratt Green (1982), he was acclaimed as the greatest Methodist hymn writer since Charles Wesley by eminent British hymnologist Erik Routley. It is likely that his success in hymn writing was built upon his experience as a poet throughout his career. This hymn, entitled "A Mature Faith," was first included in Pratt Green’s 26 Hymns (1971).

The Rev. Carlton Young, editor of The United Methodist Hymnal, summarizes the content well: "[This hymn] affirms a God active in our doubts and the source where questions of faith return full circle. A mature faith stems from our discipline, prayer, and acceptance of God’s redemptive act in Christ."

* © 1971 Hope Publishing Co., Carol Stream, IL 60188. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Dr. Hawn is distinguished professor of church music at Perkins School of Theology. He is also director of the seminary's sacred music program.

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All Hallows Eve hospitality

BUCKHANNON, W. Va. (UMNS) — “Halloween has always been connected to Christianity” and its focus on death is inseparable from its religious roots, writes Debra Dean Murphy, assistant professor of religious studies at United Methodist-related West Virginia Wesleyan College. She argues that the holiday also should be about neighborliness. 

All Hallows Eve Hospitality by debradeanmurphy

There’s a trend in the trick-or-treat business that I find a little sad. It’s called “trunk-and-treat” and it’s popular in church parking lots. The idea is that open car trunks are decked out in Halloween decor (usually not the gross or scary stuff), stocked with lots of candy, and then pirates and ladybugs, superheroes and Disney princesses go car to car filling up their treat bags.

I understand the rationale: it’s considered safe for the kids; it’s a no hassle, one-stop-shopping excursion; there’s some stimulation for the adults as they have other adults to talk to. And it’s part of a larger effort in many churches (especially in the south) to remove Halloween from local neighborhoods and park it on the church grounds, literally – to clean up the holiday’s image and minimize its dark undertones.

But the thing is, Halloween has always been connected to Christianity, and its preoccupation with death is inseparable from its religious roots. All Saints Day, November 1 – the day that Christians commemorate the saints of the Church who have died – is also known as All Hallows. So October 31 is All Hallows Eve or Even, contracted from the Old English into “Halloween.”

November 1 was also the beginning of the new year for the ancient Celts. October 31 marked the end of their growing season and on that night they would pay tribute to the spirit world with gifts of food to insure that next year’s crop would be bountiful. It was a time for communicating with the dead and receiving wisdom from the ancestors to help secure future prosperity.

And so All Hallows Eve has always been intertwined with the angricultural rituals of Celtic folk religion. In ancient times huge bonfires were set in order to frighten away evil spirits. In medieval times the pagan and Christian traditions merged, with children going door to door begging for “soul cakes” for the wandering spirits. if no treats were offered, the beggars would play pranks. Trick or treat.

This crisscrossing of the pagan and Christian is not unusual in the Church’s history and is no cause for alarm. Christmas, for example, is celebrated on December 25 not because this is the date of Jesus’ birth — no one knows when he was born — but because of a popular Roman celebration. Saturnalia — a festival devoted to Saturn (and before that to the sun-God Mithra) was a raucous affair of much feasting and merry-making. Church authorities tried forbidding it, insisting that Christians not take part, but to no avail. So they adopted it, adapted it, and in the year 336 turned it into the commemoration of the nativity: Christmas — the “Christ mass.” And many of the beloved traditions we associate with Christmas — garlands of greenery, trees lit with candles, the yule log — have their roots in these pagan, pre-Christian traditions.

And so, too, with the traditions of Halloween: the carved pumpkins, our fascination with death, dressing up and going door to door. I don’t want to get too heavy-handed with the theological significance of these rituals but there is something to the idea that we open our door to strangers on a dark, autumn night, a grinning lantern on the porch to light their way. It’s a small gesture of hospitality, a willingness to want to know our neighbors. (Of course it’s also about the candy).

There’s also something about the risks of hospitality and neighborliness in Halloween’s rituals. Sometimes doors are closed and locked, houses dark — hospitality denied, neighborliness feared. The work of community is harder than we think. But when we offer a gift to a stranger (a cup of cold water, a Snickers bar on Halloween), we are also learning to receive gifts from strangers — to be transformed by encountering Christ in them. They might be wearing a mask (a vampire mask, say, or the mask of loneliness or irritability), but we all wear masks, all the time. Discarding them is the work of a lifetime.

Halloween in a parking lot is safe and of course we want our children to be safe. But opening our doors on the night before All Saints Day can be a surprising gift of grace — hospitality given and hospitality received. Death comes for us all but, until then, dare we give ourselves away in small gestures of friendship and neighborliness?

This is slightly revised from a post written in October 2010.

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