NOTE: This is a digest of news features provided by United Methodist Communications for May 4-8. It includes summaries of United Methodist News Service stories and additional briefs from around the United Methodist connection. Full versions of the stories with photographs and related features can be found at umc.org/news.
Top Stories:
Bishops: Work to end racism and welcome the stranger
BERLIN (UMNS) — The United Methodist Council of Bishops unanimously adopted a pastoral letter on racism affirming that "all lives are sacred and that a world free of racism and xenophobia is not only conceivable, but worthy of our pursuit." Heather Hahn reports from the council's meeting in Berlin.
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Photo by Kay Panovec.
Ohio West Area Bishop Gregory Palmer makes a motion urging the Council of Bishops to write a letter addressing racism during the council's meeting May 1 in Berlin. The letter was completed on May 7, 2015.
Bishops: Work to end racism and welcome the stranger by Heather Hahn
BERLIN (UMNS)
United Methodist bishops are committing to work for toward a church “that is anti-racist and pro-humanity.”
In a unanimously adopted pastoral letter, the Council of Bishops affirmed that “all lives are sacred and that a world free of racism and xenophobia is not only conceivable, but worthy of our pursuit.”
RESOURCES FOR FURTHER STUDY
“A New Dawn in Beloved Community: Stories with the Power to Transform Us,”Linda Lee, ed., Abingdon Press, 2012
Pan-Methodist Statement on Racism from the 72nd Consultation of Methodist Bishops
“Understanding and Dismantling Racism: the Twenty-First Century Challenge to White America,” Joseph Barndt, Fortress Press, 2007
The active bishops approved the letter on the last day of the council’s weeklong spring meeting in Berlin, which happened to coincide with the 70thanniversary of the end of World War II and the Holocaust of Jews and others in Europe.
The bishops met in a city that also has special significance for many African United Methodists. It was the site of the 1884-85 Berlin Conference, where European imperial powers formally divided the continent of Africa, exploiting its resources and leaving a legacy of strife that still exists in some countries today. No Africans were present at that conference.
“The people of our world are hurting, as injustice, violence and racism abound,” the bishops’ letter said. “Our witness to the dignity of all human life and the reign of God is needed now more than ever.”
The letter came after San Francisco Area Bishop Warner H. Brown Jr., the council’s president and a Baltimore native, gave an emotional address about the racial tumult in his hometown.
Parts of Baltimore, including Brown’s childhood neighborhood, erupted in looting and violence after Freddie Gray died from injuries sustained in police custody. Gray’s death followed other multiple cases where unarmed African-Americans and other young men of color have died at the hands of police and others.
As Brown’s noted in his address, the United States is not the only place stained by racial strife and fear of the stranger.
“After the rich discussion and prayerful reflection in this meeting, I hope we will take home a serious commitment to join the work of breaking down the walls that divide our communities and move to build relationships,” Brown told United Methodist News Service.
He joined the letter’s call “to work against racism and abuses of privileges in all our contexts.”
Racism’s global reach
The far-reaching statement draws attention to problems of racial and ethnic animosity in various regions of the world:
Migrant people being attacked and burned in the streets of South Africa.
Jews who are fleeing Europe after spikes in anti-Semitic violence.
The plight of Mediterranean refugees who are fleeing war and poverty.
Racially charged protests and riots in cities across the United States “that remind us that systems are broken and racism continues.”
Retired Bishop Linda Lee, who helped draft the bishops’ earlier 2010 pastoral letter on racism, said she felt “God had really moved” when bishops asked her to convene the team who wrote the current letter.
“I’d like to commend us for taking this step of publicly speaking out on the violence that has resulted from racism, xenophobia, tribalism and other abuses,” she said. “I am also grateful because often silence is understood to mean consent.”
She pointed out the Bible was a main resource in developing the letter. Specifically, the letter cites 1 John 4: 21: “This commandment we have from him: Those who claim to love God ought to love their brother and sister also.”
Ohio West Area Bishop Gregory V. Palmer made the motion for the bishops to speak out as a group on racism. He said he was pleased with the statement and the conversations it had already provoked among the bishops. He added that he hoped bishops would invite people to engage further.
Called to do more
Charlotte (N.C.) Area Bishop Larry M. Goodpaster challenged his fellow bishops to “do more than simply publish the letter and walk away.” He suggested bishops could model for the church how to hold the difficult conversations around issues of racism.
Mozambique Area Bishop Joaquina Filipe Nhanala urged the bishops to report on the results of their commitment.
“What we are dealing with is something that is deep-rooted and longstanding and often not visible to people who are not people of color,” Lee said. “It’s not a quick fix.”
But the words of the Bible offer hope for the journey ahead.
“Scriptures tell us not to grow weary with well-doing,” she said citing Galatians 6:9. “Because if we continue, in due season, we will reap."
Hahn is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
____________________________
United Methodist News Service Weekly Digest for Friday, 15 May 2015
NOTE: This is a digest of news features provided by United Methodist Communications for May 11-15. It includes summaries of United Methodist News Service stories and additional briefs from around the United Methodist connection. Full versions of the stories with photographs and related features can be found at umc.org/news.
Top Stories:
U.S. tornado losses include two from Texas churchVAN, Texas (UMNS) — A church council chair and his wife, a former secretary of the church, died in likely tornadoes that roared through Van, Texas, May 10. The Rev. Mark McClanahan, pastor of Van United Methodist Church, confirmed the deaths of David and Brenda Tapley. Over the past week, tornadoes also have wreaked havoc elsewhere in Texas and in Colorado, Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Arkansas and South Dakota. Sam Hodges and Linda Bloom report.
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Photo courtesy of KLTV 7
Aerial shot of damage in Van, Texas.PreviousNext
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Ohio West Area Bishop Gregory Palmer makes a motion urging the Council of Bishops to write a letter addressing racism during the council's meeting May 1 in Berlin. The letter was completed on May 7, 2015.
Bishops: Work to end racism and welcome the stranger by Heather Hahn
BERLIN (UMNS)
United Methodist bishops are committing to work for toward a church “that is anti-racist and pro-humanity.”
In a unanimously adopted pastoral letter, the Council of Bishops affirmed that “all lives are sacred and that a world free of racism and xenophobia is not only conceivable, but worthy of our pursuit.”
RESOURCES FOR FURTHER STUDY
“A New Dawn in Beloved Community: Stories with the Power to Transform Us,”Linda Lee, ed., Abingdon Press, 2012
Pan-Methodist Statement on Racism from the 72nd Consultation of Methodist Bishops
“Understanding and Dismantling Racism: the Twenty-First Century Challenge to White America,” Joseph Barndt, Fortress Press, 2007
The active bishops approved the letter on the last day of the council’s weeklong spring meeting in Berlin, which happened to coincide with the 70thanniversary of the end of World War II and the Holocaust of Jews and others in Europe.
The bishops met in a city that also has special significance for many African United Methodists. It was the site of the 1884-85 Berlin Conference, where European imperial powers formally divided the continent of Africa, exploiting its resources and leaving a legacy of strife that still exists in some countries today. No Africans were present at that conference.
“The people of our world are hurting, as injustice, violence and racism abound,” the bishops’ letter said. “Our witness to the dignity of all human life and the reign of God is needed now more than ever.”
The letter came after San Francisco Area Bishop Warner H. Brown Jr., the council’s president and a Baltimore native, gave an emotional address about the racial tumult in his hometown.
Parts of Baltimore, including Brown’s childhood neighborhood, erupted in looting and violence after Freddie Gray died from injuries sustained in police custody. Gray’s death followed other multiple cases where unarmed African-Americans and other young men of color have died at the hands of police and others.
As Brown’s noted in his address, the United States is not the only place stained by racial strife and fear of the stranger.
“After the rich discussion and prayerful reflection in this meeting, I hope we will take home a serious commitment to join the work of breaking down the walls that divide our communities and move to build relationships,” Brown told United Methodist News Service.
He joined the letter’s call “to work against racism and abuses of privileges in all our contexts.”
Racism’s global reach
The far-reaching statement draws attention to problems of racial and ethnic animosity in various regions of the world:
Migrant people being attacked and burned in the streets of South Africa.
Jews who are fleeing Europe after spikes in anti-Semitic violence.
The plight of Mediterranean refugees who are fleeing war and poverty.
Racially charged protests and riots in cities across the United States “that remind us that systems are broken and racism continues.”
Retired Bishop Linda Lee, who helped draft the bishops’ earlier 2010 pastoral letter on racism, said she felt “God had really moved” when bishops asked her to convene the team who wrote the current letter.
“I’d like to commend us for taking this step of publicly speaking out on the violence that has resulted from racism, xenophobia, tribalism and other abuses,” she said. “I am also grateful because often silence is understood to mean consent.”
She pointed out the Bible was a main resource in developing the letter. Specifically, the letter cites 1 John 4: 21: “This commandment we have from him: Those who claim to love God ought to love their brother and sister also.”
Ohio West Area Bishop Gregory V. Palmer made the motion for the bishops to speak out as a group on racism. He said he was pleased with the statement and the conversations it had already provoked among the bishops. He added that he hoped bishops would invite people to engage further.
Called to do more
Charlotte (N.C.) Area Bishop Larry M. Goodpaster challenged his fellow bishops to “do more than simply publish the letter and walk away.” He suggested bishops could model for the church how to hold the difficult conversations around issues of racism.
Mozambique Area Bishop Joaquina Filipe Nhanala urged the bishops to report on the results of their commitment.
“What we are dealing with is something that is deep-rooted and longstanding and often not visible to people who are not people of color,” Lee said. “It’s not a quick fix.”
But the words of the Bible offer hope for the journey ahead.
“Scriptures tell us not to grow weary with well-doing,” she said citing Galatians 6:9. “Because if we continue, in due season, we will reap."
Hahn is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Bishops urged to speak out as group on racism
Photo by Diane Degnan, United Methodist Communications
Bishop Warner Brown Jr., president of the Council of Bishops, calls on bishops to address racism and strengthen ecumenical relationships in his presidential address.
Bishops urged to speak out as group on racism by Heather Hahn
BERLIN (UMNS)
United Methodist bishops must speak out against racism and address the anger that has sparked riots in Baltimore and other U.S. cities, the Council of Bishops president said in an emotional address.
“It is not enough for us to remain silent. We’re dealing with principalities and powers, I believe,” Bishop Warner Brown Jr. told bishops on May 1. The bishops are meeting this week in Germany’s capital.
Brown, who also leads the denomination’s San Francisco area, spoke to a group that included 65 active and 26 retired bishops from around the globe. Brown also released a letter to all United Methodists asking them to join the council “in prayer, reflection and action toward overcoming the issues that sometimes divide our societies.”
“Together we can find ways, appropriate to our social context, for healing the brokenness between us,” Brown wrote.
After Brown’s address, Ohio West Area Bishop Gregory V. Palmer called for bishops to develop a pastoral letter on racism and asked Brown to appoint a task force to complete this before the bishops adjourn May 7.
His motion received booming, unanimous assent.
Palmer, who is himself a former Council of Bishops president, noted that many individual bishops have released statements addressing racism and unrest following the deaths of unarmed African-American men.
“God knows we are called to brighten the corners where we are,” Palmer said. “The ‘but’ I would offer is that we have yet to clear our throats and raise our collective voice with a statement calling on The United Methodist Church to become an anti-racist institution.”
He quoted a famous spiritual, urging his colleagues, “Sinner, please don’t let this harvest pass.”
This is personal
Brown, a Baltimore native and former police chaplain in Oakland, California, said he grieves when he sees what is happening in his hometown. Parts of the city, including Brown’s childhood neighborhood, have erupted in looting and violence after the unarmed Freddie Gray died from injuries sustained in police custody.
The six Baltimore police officers involved in Gray’s arrest now face criminal charges and Gray’s death has been ruled a homicide.
“I grieve when I look at what happened in Baltimore. Misguided anger has shifted the focus from justice,” Brown said. “People with nothing to lose have looted and damaged businesses that were key to that community.”
Churches in the Baltimore-Washington Conference and the United Methodist Committee on Relief are responding with kits for health and hygiene needs following the destruction of a pharmacy and the temporary closing of drugstores and groceries. UMCOR is also providing a grant to help churches be a resource for dialogue, peace, and healing.
As a pastor and police chaplain, Brown said he has known many law enforcement officers of integrity whose work “is so vital to human society.” But he also urged his fellow bishops to recognize the anger so many feel after the deaths of multiple unarmed African-Americans and other young men of color at the hands of police and others.
“Video documentation has raised expectations in people that claims of wrongdoing will be seriously considered,” he said. “So distrust grows because very few police officers have been held accountable.”
Fifty years ago, he pointed out, it was common for the killer to be set free when a black man or woman was murdered. “There is a lot of pain, and the history of that causes a lot of pain to be pent up,” he explained.
Racism in the church
The church itself is not untouched by racism, Brown said.
In 1968 — a year that saw riots in many U.S. cities following the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — a newly desegregated and newly merged United Methodist Church promised to build “a new kind of church” where all people would be welcomed. But that promise remains unfulfilled, he said.
“Today there are still churches that don’t want a pastor appointed because of his or her race,” he said. “There are still churches that aren’t open to being a fully inclusive community. There are some churches that still might send a visitor to that (African Methodist Episcopal) church down the road.”
To go forward, the bishop suggested that part of the work “is to find a way we can live into the social holiness that must go hand-in-hand with the spiritual holiness — a life lived as a disciple of Jesus.”
He said that United Methodists need “conversation partners,” especially sister denominations in the Pan-Methodist movement including the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion and Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. All three of those historically African-American denominations formed in response to racial prejudice and disrespect found in earlier strains of U.S. Methodism.
He noted United Methodists rely on ecumenical partnerships in responding to natural disasters like the devastating earthquake in Nepal, as well as addressing the terrorism of Boko Haram and ISIS. Ecumenical partnerships can help address the ravages of racism as well.
“We need to overcome our fearfulness of being viewed harshly,” he said, “and have genuine conversation that can let us break through, that we can be a part of the movement of hope, healing and justice in our land.”
Bishops respond
Missouri Area Bishop Robert Schnase and Florida Area Bishop Ken Carter are among the bishops who have issued pastoral letters in the wake of deaths of unarmed black teens in their areas.
The two sat beside each other during Brown’s presidential address, and both supported the idea of bishops speaking out on racism as a collective body. But they added that such statements should go hand-in-hand with local church action.
Schnase pointed to Wellspring United Methodist Church in Ferguson, Missouri, a three-year-old predominantly African-American congregation that has become a resource for the entire community since the death of Michael Brown.
“Sometimes we set up a false dichotomy between focus on new congregations and social justice issues,” Schnase said. “If we had not identified Ferguson as an underserved area and started a church there three years ago, we would have been outsiders looking in, even in Missouri.”
Washington Area Bishop Marcus Matthews, who leads United Methodists in Baltimore, has spoken out about the current crisis in Baltimore and said a letter from the full council “is long overdue.”
“What I hear from United Methodist clergy and laity is: ‘What do you as bishops collectively think of this issue?’” Matthews said. “The AME has spoken out on this issue of racism as a group. Other groups have too, but we have not as United Methodists.”
Erin Hawkins, the top executive of the United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race, said she hoped the bishops’ statement would challenge other leadership in the church includingGeneral Conference, the denomination’s top lawmaking body.
After bishops agreed to work on a joint letter, Brown offered some parting words.
“A just society cannot be built on violence,” he said. “Anger and distrust will not lead us to a beloved community. Reconciliation can occur, however, when we tell the truth and we take responsibility for our actions.”
He then quoted the Rev. F. Willis Johnson, pastor of Wellspring Church in Ferguson: “Who is going to become a model for dealing with reconciling and truth? That is the role of the church.”
Hahn is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Bishop Warner Brown Jr., president of the Council of Bishops, calls on bishops to address racism and strengthen ecumenical relationships in his presidential address.
Bishops urged to speak out as group on racism by Heather Hahn
BERLIN (UMNS)
United Methodist bishops must speak out against racism and address the anger that has sparked riots in Baltimore and other U.S. cities, the Council of Bishops president said in an emotional address.
“It is not enough for us to remain silent. We’re dealing with principalities and powers, I believe,” Bishop Warner Brown Jr. told bishops on May 1. The bishops are meeting this week in Germany’s capital.
Brown, who also leads the denomination’s San Francisco area, spoke to a group that included 65 active and 26 retired bishops from around the globe. Brown also released a letter to all United Methodists asking them to join the council “in prayer, reflection and action toward overcoming the issues that sometimes divide our societies.”
“Together we can find ways, appropriate to our social context, for healing the brokenness between us,” Brown wrote.
After Brown’s address, Ohio West Area Bishop Gregory V. Palmer called for bishops to develop a pastoral letter on racism and asked Brown to appoint a task force to complete this before the bishops adjourn May 7.
His motion received booming, unanimous assent.
Palmer, who is himself a former Council of Bishops president, noted that many individual bishops have released statements addressing racism and unrest following the deaths of unarmed African-American men.
“God knows we are called to brighten the corners where we are,” Palmer said. “The ‘but’ I would offer is that we have yet to clear our throats and raise our collective voice with a statement calling on The United Methodist Church to become an anti-racist institution.”
He quoted a famous spiritual, urging his colleagues, “Sinner, please don’t let this harvest pass.”
This is personal
Brown, a Baltimore native and former police chaplain in Oakland, California, said he grieves when he sees what is happening in his hometown. Parts of the city, including Brown’s childhood neighborhood, have erupted in looting and violence after the unarmed Freddie Gray died from injuries sustained in police custody.
The six Baltimore police officers involved in Gray’s arrest now face criminal charges and Gray’s death has been ruled a homicide.
“I grieve when I look at what happened in Baltimore. Misguided anger has shifted the focus from justice,” Brown said. “People with nothing to lose have looted and damaged businesses that were key to that community.”
Churches in the Baltimore-Washington Conference and the United Methodist Committee on Relief are responding with kits for health and hygiene needs following the destruction of a pharmacy and the temporary closing of drugstores and groceries. UMCOR is also providing a grant to help churches be a resource for dialogue, peace, and healing.
As a pastor and police chaplain, Brown said he has known many law enforcement officers of integrity whose work “is so vital to human society.” But he also urged his fellow bishops to recognize the anger so many feel after the deaths of multiple unarmed African-Americans and other young men of color at the hands of police and others.
“Video documentation has raised expectations in people that claims of wrongdoing will be seriously considered,” he said. “So distrust grows because very few police officers have been held accountable.”
Fifty years ago, he pointed out, it was common for the killer to be set free when a black man or woman was murdered. “There is a lot of pain, and the history of that causes a lot of pain to be pent up,” he explained.
Racism in the church
The church itself is not untouched by racism, Brown said.
In 1968 — a year that saw riots in many U.S. cities following the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — a newly desegregated and newly merged United Methodist Church promised to build “a new kind of church” where all people would be welcomed. But that promise remains unfulfilled, he said.
“Today there are still churches that don’t want a pastor appointed because of his or her race,” he said. “There are still churches that aren’t open to being a fully inclusive community. There are some churches that still might send a visitor to that (African Methodist Episcopal) church down the road.”
To go forward, the bishop suggested that part of the work “is to find a way we can live into the social holiness that must go hand-in-hand with the spiritual holiness — a life lived as a disciple of Jesus.”
He said that United Methodists need “conversation partners,” especially sister denominations in the Pan-Methodist movement including the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion and Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. All three of those historically African-American denominations formed in response to racial prejudice and disrespect found in earlier strains of U.S. Methodism.
He noted United Methodists rely on ecumenical partnerships in responding to natural disasters like the devastating earthquake in Nepal, as well as addressing the terrorism of Boko Haram and ISIS. Ecumenical partnerships can help address the ravages of racism as well.
“We need to overcome our fearfulness of being viewed harshly,” he said, “and have genuine conversation that can let us break through, that we can be a part of the movement of hope, healing and justice in our land.”
Bishops respond
Missouri Area Bishop Robert Schnase and Florida Area Bishop Ken Carter are among the bishops who have issued pastoral letters in the wake of deaths of unarmed black teens in their areas.
The two sat beside each other during Brown’s presidential address, and both supported the idea of bishops speaking out on racism as a collective body. But they added that such statements should go hand-in-hand with local church action.
Schnase pointed to Wellspring United Methodist Church in Ferguson, Missouri, a three-year-old predominantly African-American congregation that has become a resource for the entire community since the death of Michael Brown.
“Sometimes we set up a false dichotomy between focus on new congregations and social justice issues,” Schnase said. “If we had not identified Ferguson as an underserved area and started a church there three years ago, we would have been outsiders looking in, even in Missouri.”
Washington Area Bishop Marcus Matthews, who leads United Methodists in Baltimore, has spoken out about the current crisis in Baltimore and said a letter from the full council “is long overdue.”
“What I hear from United Methodist clergy and laity is: ‘What do you as bishops collectively think of this issue?’” Matthews said. “The AME has spoken out on this issue of racism as a group. Other groups have too, but we have not as United Methodists.”
Erin Hawkins, the top executive of the United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race, said she hoped the bishops’ statement would challenge other leadership in the church includingGeneral Conference, the denomination’s top lawmaking body.
After bishops agreed to work on a joint letter, Brown offered some parting words.
“A just society cannot be built on violence,” he said. “Anger and distrust will not lead us to a beloved community. Reconciliation can occur, however, when we tell the truth and we take responsibility for our actions.”
He then quoted the Rev. F. Willis Johnson, pastor of Wellspring Church in Ferguson: “Who is going to become a model for dealing with reconciling and truth? That is the role of the church.”
Hahn is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Council of Bishops affirms missional direction for next quadrennium
United Methodist Council of Bishops
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 7, 2015
Berlin: The Council of Bishops, meeting in Berlin, affirmed a vision for a missional direction for the next quadrennium which includes partnering with schools to help end poverty, starting new faith communities, building a culture of call, reaching children with life-saving interventions, and equipping congregations with disciple-making processes to continue making new disciples and increasing the number of vital congregations.
“Your leadership has led to great success and has changed the denomination in a positive way. We can measure the success, in part, through the growing number of vital congregations we see across the church,” said Bishop Bruce R. Ough, chairperson of the Connectional Table.
The new strategic direction would build on and extend the Four Areas of Focus adopted in 2008 and continue the focus on creating vital congregations, but is flexible enough to allow local churches and annual conferences to adapt it according to what works best in their areas. Goals would be developed by General Conference 2016 that would include measures to aid in tracking progress.
“Developing a strategy within the Four Areas of Focus and Vital Congregations will help measure, organize, and connect the agencies and the annual conferences towards a greater impact in each area of focus so that we can tell the story of our connection … we have nearly a decade worth of success stories that show what United Methodists working together combined with great leadership can achieve,” said Bishop Sally Dyck, chair of the Missional Collaboration Group on Vital Congregations and the Four Areas of Focus.
“Recommitting to the strategic direction of the Four Areas of Focus and Vital Congregations in the next quadrennium will build on the important and fruitful ministry we have started," said Bishop John Schol, team leader for the Vital Congregations Operations Team along with Discipleship Ministries. “Embracing strategic direction and goals will align us for missional impact around the world.”
The Council of Bishops provides leadership and helps set the direction of the 12.8 million-member church and its mission throughout the world. The bishops are the top clergy leaders of The United Methodist Church, the second largest Protestant denomination in the U.S.
Media contact:
Diane Degnan ddegnan@umcom.org
615.742.5406 (w) 615.483.1765 (c)
Bishops Ough, Carter elected to lead bishops
Photo by Kay Panovec, United Methodist Communications
Bishop Bruce Ough speaks, as from left, Bishops Kenneth H. Carter, Marcus Matthews, Christian Alsted, Michael Watson, Warner Brown and Cynthia Fierro Harvey listen during the May 2015 meeting in Berlin. Dakotas-Minnesota Area Bishop Ough, was elected next president of the Council of Bishops.
Bishops Ough, Carter elected to lead bishops by Heather Hahn
May 4, 2015 | BERLIN (UMNS)
Dakotas-Minnesota Area Bishop Bruce R. Ough will be the next president of the Council of Bishops.
After his election, Ough told the bishops how he hoped to lead.
“I want to be a person with a passion for the saving of souls,” he said. “I want to be a person that is a strong advocate for justice in the transformation of the world. I want to be a person who lives joyfully and obediently before the Lord, day in and day out.”
On May 2, the council’s active bishops also elected:
Florida Area Bishop Kenneth H. Carter as the president-designate
Nordic and Baltic Area Bishop Christian Alsted as Connectional Table chair
Washington Area Bishop Marcus Matthews as executive secretary
North Georgia Area Bishop B. Michael Watson as ecumenical officer
Re-elected Louisiana Area Bishop Cynthia Fierro Harvey as secretary
HOW THE ELECTIONS WORK
Under the Council’s bylaws, the council’s eight-member Leadership Discernment Committee (which includes one bishop from each U.S. jurisdiction and threecentral conference bishops) selected the slate of officers. The council also can name nominees for secretary and ecumenical officer from the floor, but that didn’t happen in this case.
The officers needed to be elected by at least a two-thirds majority. Bishops could vote for the entire slate by a “yes” or “no” vote.
Ough will receive the gavel on the third day of the 2016 General Conference, and Carter is scheduled to take office as president in spring 2018. The secretary also serves a two-year term.
The executive secretary, ecumenical officer and chair of the Connectional Table each serve four-year terms, starting in 2016.
The active bishops will continue in their responsibilities to their conferences even as they on their additional roles in the council.
“It’s a wonderful privilege to be asked by your colleagues to help guide their work,” Ough told United Methodist News Service. “I think my role is to call forth the gifts of bishops … and direct those gifts toward fulfilling our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”
What the council president does
The council president is responsible for presiding over all meetings of the bishops’ executive committee and council.
Only General Conference — the denomination’s lawmaking assembly — can speak officially for The United Methodist Church. However, the council president sometimes must speak to the public on behalf of the bishops and church teachings. The president also often takes a leading role in council initiatives.
“We are entering an interesting, some would say ‘difficult,’ season in the life of the church,” Ough told his fellow bishops after his election.
Among the challenges he sees are threats of schism in the church and the racism that still bedevils church and society. He also spoke of the bishops’ commitment to foster more highly vital congregations and to live more authentically into the denomination’s global nature.
But he added that together, the bishops can “lead the church into a very bright future.”
Ough presently serves as chair of the 59-member Connectional Table, a sort of church council for the denomination that coordinates The United Methodist Church’s mission, ministry and resources.
San Francisco Area Bishop Warner H. Brown Jr., the current Council of Bishops president, said Ough’s Connectional Table experience will serve him in good stead as he takes on a new role.
“He will be able to bring an excellent perspective into the next quadrennium for moving forward the vision that General Conference adopts,” Brown said.
Ough, who leads the Dakotas and Minnesota conferences, was first elected bishop by the North Central Jurisdictional Conference in 2000. He previously served as bishop for 12 years in the West Ohio Conference and was president of the Ohio Council of Churches.
President-designate
Carter, elected bishop in 2012, told his colleagues that the call to be the council’s future president “came as a surprise to me.” As president-designate, he will serve on the council’s executive committee alongside Ough.
Since he was asked to take on this role, Carter said he finds himself praying often for three things: “the unity of the church, the faithfulness of the church and the fruitfulness of the church.”
Carter, who leads the Florida Conference, has spent much of ministry in the Western NorthCarolina Conference, where he served as a pastor of multiple congregations and later as district superintendent.
Connectional Table chair
Alsted will be the first bishop from outside the United States to lead the Connectional Table since the governing body was established in 2004.
A large part of the Connectional Table’s role is to coordinate the work of the denomination’s general agencies in carrying out General Conference’s vision. The Connectional Table also works withthe General Council on Finance and Administration in developing the general church’s proposed budget for General Conference approval.
Alsted, a native of Horsens, Denmark, has served as bishop in the Nordic and Baltic Area —encompassing Finland, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — since May 2009. He also maintains relations with the Uniting Church in Sweden, formed in 2011 by a merger of United Methodists, Baptists and the Mission Covenant Church in Sweden.
Executive secretary
Matthews, who will retire as bishop of the Baltimore-Washington Conference in 2016, will as executive secretary essentially become the council’s operations officer.
He will coordinate arrangements for council meetings and work with the council’s president and ecumenical officer in maintaining ecumenical and interfaith relationships.
As a retired bishop, Matthews will have voice but not vote in the council’s executive committee. Elected in 2004, he has been bishop in the Philadelphia Area, the New York West Area and the Washington Area.
Ecumenical officer
On his election as ecumenical officer, Watson announced his planned retirement as bishop of the North Georgia Conference, a role he has served since 2008.
He spoke with passion of taking on his next role as ecumenical officer, the council’s primary liaison for building relationships with other churches and faith groups. Since 2012, the denomination’sOffice of Christian Unity and Interreligious Relationships has reported directly to the Council of Bishops and Watson serves on the office’s steering team.
“I have experienced the great joy of being outside ourselves in the larger family of the Christian faith around the world,” he told the bishops. “One thing I hope for is that we take ecumenism out of the 30,000-foot level of world councils and national councils, so that our people are engaged in ecumenical work everywhere we are.”
Secretary
Harvey, who was re-elected as secretary, has served as bishop of the Louisiana Conference since September 2012. She has the role of the council’s parliamentarian and organizer who helps keep the bishops’ gatherings on course.
“(Christian) unity is a force that wakes me up every morning, but even more so, that there is a whole world out there that has yet to encounter the living God.” Harvey said. “If we do not keep our eye on that horizon, we will never have a vital congregation, we will never have effective clergy.”
Hahn is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.Bishops ask if agency restructure plan is constitutional
BERLIN (UMNS) — The denomination's top court will be asked to weigh in on a proposal to restructure The United Methodist Church's general agencies before General Conference delegates consider the plan in May 2016. The Council of Bishops stressed that the decision to ask for a Judicial Council review did not endorse or oppose the plan. Heather Hahn has the story.Read story and post comment
Photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS.
Members of the Virginia delegation huddle to discuss possible next steps after the United Methodist Judicial Council ruled the proposed "Plan UMC" for church restructuring to be unconstitutional during the 2012 United Methodist General Conference in Tampa, Fla.
Bishops ask if agency restructure plan is constitutional by Heather Hahn
BERLIN (UMNS)
The denomination's top court will get a chance to weigh in on a proposal to restructure The United Methodist Church’s general agencies before General Conference delegates consider the plan in May 2016.
The move comes after the Judicial Council ruled on the last day of the 2012 General Conference thata similar plan violated the denomination’s constitution.
After two hours of discussions behind closed doors, the Council of Bishops announced that it would not wait until the denomination’s top legislative assembly meets to see if a revised version of Plan UMC passes constitutional muster.
The active bishops voted to ask the Judicial Council for a declaratory decision regarding the legislation’s constitutionality. The council will next meet in October.
San Francisco Area Bishop Warner Brown Jr., the Council of Bishops president, said the decision to seek review is meant to keep delegates from spending "a great deal of time on something" only to have it ruled out of order.
“The action of the council is in no way intended as support or opposition to the proposed Plan UMC but an effort to facilitate the work of the 2016 General Conference,” Brown said.
The revised restructuring plan comes from six 2012 General Conference delegates who were among the supporters and drafters of the original Plan UMC. The Association of Annual Conference Lay Leaders also plans to submit separate legislation that deals with conference structures.
The original Plan UMC
The new plan marks a change from the 2012 restructuring effort.
Back then, the bishops took the lead in pushing to restructure the 10 church agencies that receive general church funds. The previous legislation came out of the multiyear Call to Action process launched by the Council of Bishops and Connectional Table, a church body that coordinates the denomination’s ministry and resources. The Council of Bishops endorsed the original Call to Action restructuring plan in November 2011.
The Judicial Council typically cannot rule on hypothetical actions, but the Council of Bishops can ask at any time for a review of proposed legislation.
Ohio West Area Bishop Gregory V. Palmer and Charlotte (N.C.) Area Larry M. Goodpaster each served as president of Council of Bishops during the Call to Action process. Both told United Methodist News Service that they don’t recall exactly why the council did not seek the top court’s opinion on that initial restructuring plan.
Palmer said he remembered some discussions with church law experts, but the bishops “were not convinced” the plan would give rise to constitutional questions.
In 2012, General Conference delegates by almost 60 percent approved an amended version of the Call to Action restructuring proposals, called Plan UMC. The vote was 567 to 384. The Judicial Council then overturned the legislation, leaving many of the plan’s supporters feeling stunned and hurt.
After the ruling, delegates spent the last hours of the last day of 2012 General Conference scrambling to downsize agency boards.
“There is great concern amid the Council of Bishops about the disarray at the end of (2012) General Conference,” said Great Plains Area Bishop Scott Jones. “We passed this motion ...in order to know what are the constitutional boundaries.”
He and Dallas Area Bishop Mike McKee brought the motion to the Council of Bishops at the request of drafters of the new legislation.
Jones said the bishops are not likely to make a habit of getting proposed legislation from outside groups reviewed. But because such a high percentage of General Conference delegates supported the initial plan, Jones said he thinks the revised version “is worthy of special consideration.”
What is in the new plan
The 2012 Plan UMC would have established a General Council for Strategy and Oversight to oversee the work of six of the denomination's agencies and consult on the budget of seven.
Judicial Council identified two problems: The legislation delegated authority that should remain only with General Conference, and the General Council for Strategy and Oversight would intrude into the bishops’ constitutional authority for general oversight of the denomination.
The revised version of Plan UMC aims to rectify those issues. The plan also includes the following changes to the current structure:
It gives the Connectional Table new authority to elect the top executives for the United Methodist Discipleship Ministries and the Boards of Global Ministries, Church and Society and Higher Education and Ministry once those agencies have nominated a candidate for the top post. The legislation says the top executives will be accountable programmatically to their boards and administratively to the newly created position of Connectional Table executive general secretary.
It details the Connectional Table’s authority to evaluate agencies based on how the agencies direct the flow of energy toward vital congregations and carry out the mission of the global church.
It reduces the size of agency boards and the Connectional Table, while increasing representation from outside the United States, especially Africa.
It eliminates the Commission on Archives and History, and moves its functions to the General Council on Finance and Administration.
It eliminates the United Methodist Commissions on Religion and Race and the Status and Role of Women. The plan moves the commissions’ functions, including monitoring and advocacy, to a new Connectional Table committee called the United Methodist Committee on Inclusiveness.
“The church is four years behind where it ought to be in going forward with this needed and overwhelmingly supported restructure of its general agency complex,” said the Rev. Clayton Oliphint, one of the new plan’s drafters and senior pastor of First United Methodist Church in Richardson, Texas.
“Structure isn’t our primary obstacle on the way to fulfilling our mission, but it is one obstacle with which we can and should deal in a straightforward and expeditious manner.”
Jones said the revised plan is “too timid.” He would like to see most agencies merged into one.
Hahn is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org
Rural advocates finalize General Conference petitions
United Methodist Rural Advocates Meet in Worthington
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United Methodist Council of Bishops
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 7, 2015
Berlin: The Council of Bishops, meeting in Berlin, affirmed a vision for a missional direction for the next quadrennium which includes partnering with schools to help end poverty, starting new faith communities, building a culture of call, reaching children with life-saving interventions, and equipping congregations with disciple-making processes to continue making new disciples and increasing the number of vital congregations.
“Your leadership has led to great success and has changed the denomination in a positive way. We can measure the success, in part, through the growing number of vital congregations we see across the church,” said Bishop Bruce R. Ough, chairperson of the Connectional Table.
The new strategic direction would build on and extend the Four Areas of Focus adopted in 2008 and continue the focus on creating vital congregations, but is flexible enough to allow local churches and annual conferences to adapt it according to what works best in their areas. Goals would be developed by General Conference 2016 that would include measures to aid in tracking progress.
“Developing a strategy within the Four Areas of Focus and Vital Congregations will help measure, organize, and connect the agencies and the annual conferences towards a greater impact in each area of focus so that we can tell the story of our connection … we have nearly a decade worth of success stories that show what United Methodists working together combined with great leadership can achieve,” said Bishop Sally Dyck, chair of the Missional Collaboration Group on Vital Congregations and the Four Areas of Focus.
“Recommitting to the strategic direction of the Four Areas of Focus and Vital Congregations in the next quadrennium will build on the important and fruitful ministry we have started," said Bishop John Schol, team leader for the Vital Congregations Operations Team along with Discipleship Ministries. “Embracing strategic direction and goals will align us for missional impact around the world.”
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About the Council of BishopsThe Council of Bishops provides leadership and helps set the direction of the 12.8 million-member church and its mission throughout the world. The bishops are the top clergy leaders of The United Methodist Church, the second largest Protestant denomination in the U.S.
Media contact:
Diane Degnan ddegnan@umcom.org
615.742.5406 (w) 615.483.1765 (c)
Bishops Ough, Carter elected to lead bishops
Bishop Bruce Ough speaks, as from left, Bishops Kenneth H. Carter, Marcus Matthews, Christian Alsted, Michael Watson, Warner Brown and Cynthia Fierro Harvey listen during the May 2015 meeting in Berlin. Dakotas-Minnesota Area Bishop Ough, was elected next president of the Council of Bishops.
Bishops Ough, Carter elected to lead bishops by Heather Hahn
May 4, 2015 | BERLIN (UMNS)
Dakotas-Minnesota Area Bishop Bruce R. Ough will be the next president of the Council of Bishops.
After his election, Ough told the bishops how he hoped to lead.
“I want to be a person with a passion for the saving of souls,” he said. “I want to be a person that is a strong advocate for justice in the transformation of the world. I want to be a person who lives joyfully and obediently before the Lord, day in and day out.”
On May 2, the council’s active bishops also elected:
Florida Area Bishop Kenneth H. Carter as the president-designate
Nordic and Baltic Area Bishop Christian Alsted as Connectional Table chair
Washington Area Bishop Marcus Matthews as executive secretary
North Georgia Area Bishop B. Michael Watson as ecumenical officer
Re-elected Louisiana Area Bishop Cynthia Fierro Harvey as secretary
HOW THE ELECTIONS WORK
Under the Council’s bylaws, the council’s eight-member Leadership Discernment Committee (which includes one bishop from each U.S. jurisdiction and threecentral conference bishops) selected the slate of officers. The council also can name nominees for secretary and ecumenical officer from the floor, but that didn’t happen in this case.
The officers needed to be elected by at least a two-thirds majority. Bishops could vote for the entire slate by a “yes” or “no” vote.
Ough will receive the gavel on the third day of the 2016 General Conference, and Carter is scheduled to take office as president in spring 2018. The secretary also serves a two-year term.
The executive secretary, ecumenical officer and chair of the Connectional Table each serve four-year terms, starting in 2016.
The active bishops will continue in their responsibilities to their conferences even as they on their additional roles in the council.
“It’s a wonderful privilege to be asked by your colleagues to help guide their work,” Ough told United Methodist News Service. “I think my role is to call forth the gifts of bishops … and direct those gifts toward fulfilling our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”
What the council president does
The council president is responsible for presiding over all meetings of the bishops’ executive committee and council.
Only General Conference — the denomination’s lawmaking assembly — can speak officially for The United Methodist Church. However, the council president sometimes must speak to the public on behalf of the bishops and church teachings. The president also often takes a leading role in council initiatives.
“We are entering an interesting, some would say ‘difficult,’ season in the life of the church,” Ough told his fellow bishops after his election.
Among the challenges he sees are threats of schism in the church and the racism that still bedevils church and society. He also spoke of the bishops’ commitment to foster more highly vital congregations and to live more authentically into the denomination’s global nature.
But he added that together, the bishops can “lead the church into a very bright future.”
Ough presently serves as chair of the 59-member Connectional Table, a sort of church council for the denomination that coordinates The United Methodist Church’s mission, ministry and resources.
San Francisco Area Bishop Warner H. Brown Jr., the current Council of Bishops president, said Ough’s Connectional Table experience will serve him in good stead as he takes on a new role.
“He will be able to bring an excellent perspective into the next quadrennium for moving forward the vision that General Conference adopts,” Brown said.
Ough, who leads the Dakotas and Minnesota conferences, was first elected bishop by the North Central Jurisdictional Conference in 2000. He previously served as bishop for 12 years in the West Ohio Conference and was president of the Ohio Council of Churches.
President-designate
Carter, elected bishop in 2012, told his colleagues that the call to be the council’s future president “came as a surprise to me.” As president-designate, he will serve on the council’s executive committee alongside Ough.
Since he was asked to take on this role, Carter said he finds himself praying often for three things: “the unity of the church, the faithfulness of the church and the fruitfulness of the church.”
Carter, who leads the Florida Conference, has spent much of ministry in the Western NorthCarolina Conference, where he served as a pastor of multiple congregations and later as district superintendent.
Connectional Table chair
Alsted will be the first bishop from outside the United States to lead the Connectional Table since the governing body was established in 2004.
A large part of the Connectional Table’s role is to coordinate the work of the denomination’s general agencies in carrying out General Conference’s vision. The Connectional Table also works withthe General Council on Finance and Administration in developing the general church’s proposed budget for General Conference approval.
Alsted, a native of Horsens, Denmark, has served as bishop in the Nordic and Baltic Area —encompassing Finland, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — since May 2009. He also maintains relations with the Uniting Church in Sweden, formed in 2011 by a merger of United Methodists, Baptists and the Mission Covenant Church in Sweden.
Executive secretary
Matthews, who will retire as bishop of the Baltimore-Washington Conference in 2016, will as executive secretary essentially become the council’s operations officer.
He will coordinate arrangements for council meetings and work with the council’s president and ecumenical officer in maintaining ecumenical and interfaith relationships.
As a retired bishop, Matthews will have voice but not vote in the council’s executive committee. Elected in 2004, he has been bishop in the Philadelphia Area, the New York West Area and the Washington Area.
Ecumenical officer
On his election as ecumenical officer, Watson announced his planned retirement as bishop of the North Georgia Conference, a role he has served since 2008.
He spoke with passion of taking on his next role as ecumenical officer, the council’s primary liaison for building relationships with other churches and faith groups. Since 2012, the denomination’sOffice of Christian Unity and Interreligious Relationships has reported directly to the Council of Bishops and Watson serves on the office’s steering team.
“I have experienced the great joy of being outside ourselves in the larger family of the Christian faith around the world,” he told the bishops. “One thing I hope for is that we take ecumenism out of the 30,000-foot level of world councils and national councils, so that our people are engaged in ecumenical work everywhere we are.”
Secretary
Harvey, who was re-elected as secretary, has served as bishop of the Louisiana Conference since September 2012. She has the role of the council’s parliamentarian and organizer who helps keep the bishops’ gatherings on course.
“(Christian) unity is a force that wakes me up every morning, but even more so, that there is a whole world out there that has yet to encounter the living God.” Harvey said. “If we do not keep our eye on that horizon, we will never have a vital congregation, we will never have effective clergy.”
Hahn is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.Bishops ask if agency restructure plan is constitutional
BERLIN (UMNS) — The denomination's top court will be asked to weigh in on a proposal to restructure The United Methodist Church's general agencies before General Conference delegates consider the plan in May 2016. The Council of Bishops stressed that the decision to ask for a Judicial Council review did not endorse or oppose the plan. Heather Hahn has the story.Read story and post comment
Members of the Virginia delegation huddle to discuss possible next steps after the United Methodist Judicial Council ruled the proposed "Plan UMC" for church restructuring to be unconstitutional during the 2012 United Methodist General Conference in Tampa, Fla.
Bishops ask if agency restructure plan is constitutional by Heather Hahn
BERLIN (UMNS)
The denomination's top court will get a chance to weigh in on a proposal to restructure The United Methodist Church’s general agencies before General Conference delegates consider the plan in May 2016.
The move comes after the Judicial Council ruled on the last day of the 2012 General Conference thata similar plan violated the denomination’s constitution.
After two hours of discussions behind closed doors, the Council of Bishops announced that it would not wait until the denomination’s top legislative assembly meets to see if a revised version of Plan UMC passes constitutional muster.
The active bishops voted to ask the Judicial Council for a declaratory decision regarding the legislation’s constitutionality. The council will next meet in October.
San Francisco Area Bishop Warner Brown Jr., the Council of Bishops president, said the decision to seek review is meant to keep delegates from spending "a great deal of time on something" only to have it ruled out of order.
“The action of the council is in no way intended as support or opposition to the proposed Plan UMC but an effort to facilitate the work of the 2016 General Conference,” Brown said.
The revised restructuring plan comes from six 2012 General Conference delegates who were among the supporters and drafters of the original Plan UMC. The Association of Annual Conference Lay Leaders also plans to submit separate legislation that deals with conference structures.
The original Plan UMC
The new plan marks a change from the 2012 restructuring effort.
Back then, the bishops took the lead in pushing to restructure the 10 church agencies that receive general church funds. The previous legislation came out of the multiyear Call to Action process launched by the Council of Bishops and Connectional Table, a church body that coordinates the denomination’s ministry and resources. The Council of Bishops endorsed the original Call to Action restructuring plan in November 2011.
The Judicial Council typically cannot rule on hypothetical actions, but the Council of Bishops can ask at any time for a review of proposed legislation.
Ohio West Area Bishop Gregory V. Palmer and Charlotte (N.C.) Area Larry M. Goodpaster each served as president of Council of Bishops during the Call to Action process. Both told United Methodist News Service that they don’t recall exactly why the council did not seek the top court’s opinion on that initial restructuring plan.
Palmer said he remembered some discussions with church law experts, but the bishops “were not convinced” the plan would give rise to constitutional questions.
In 2012, General Conference delegates by almost 60 percent approved an amended version of the Call to Action restructuring proposals, called Plan UMC. The vote was 567 to 384. The Judicial Council then overturned the legislation, leaving many of the plan’s supporters feeling stunned and hurt.
After the ruling, delegates spent the last hours of the last day of 2012 General Conference scrambling to downsize agency boards.
“There is great concern amid the Council of Bishops about the disarray at the end of (2012) General Conference,” said Great Plains Area Bishop Scott Jones. “We passed this motion ...in order to know what are the constitutional boundaries.”
He and Dallas Area Bishop Mike McKee brought the motion to the Council of Bishops at the request of drafters of the new legislation.
Jones said the bishops are not likely to make a habit of getting proposed legislation from outside groups reviewed. But because such a high percentage of General Conference delegates supported the initial plan, Jones said he thinks the revised version “is worthy of special consideration.”
What is in the new plan
The 2012 Plan UMC would have established a General Council for Strategy and Oversight to oversee the work of six of the denomination's agencies and consult on the budget of seven.
Judicial Council identified two problems: The legislation delegated authority that should remain only with General Conference, and the General Council for Strategy and Oversight would intrude into the bishops’ constitutional authority for general oversight of the denomination.
The revised version of Plan UMC aims to rectify those issues. The plan also includes the following changes to the current structure:
It gives the Connectional Table new authority to elect the top executives for the United Methodist Discipleship Ministries and the Boards of Global Ministries, Church and Society and Higher Education and Ministry once those agencies have nominated a candidate for the top post. The legislation says the top executives will be accountable programmatically to their boards and administratively to the newly created position of Connectional Table executive general secretary.
It details the Connectional Table’s authority to evaluate agencies based on how the agencies direct the flow of energy toward vital congregations and carry out the mission of the global church.
It reduces the size of agency boards and the Connectional Table, while increasing representation from outside the United States, especially Africa.
It eliminates the Commission on Archives and History, and moves its functions to the General Council on Finance and Administration.
It eliminates the United Methodist Commissions on Religion and Race and the Status and Role of Women. The plan moves the commissions’ functions, including monitoring and advocacy, to a new Connectional Table committee called the United Methodist Committee on Inclusiveness.
“The church is four years behind where it ought to be in going forward with this needed and overwhelmingly supported restructure of its general agency complex,” said the Rev. Clayton Oliphint, one of the new plan’s drafters and senior pastor of First United Methodist Church in Richardson, Texas.
“Structure isn’t our primary obstacle on the way to fulfilling our mission, but it is one obstacle with which we can and should deal in a straightforward and expeditious manner.”
Jones said the revised plan is “too timid.” He would like to see most agencies merged into one.
Hahn is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org
Rural advocates finalize General Conference petitions
United Methodist Rural Advocates Meet in Worthington
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United Methodist Rural Advocates Meet in Worthington
The West Ohio Conference Center was the gathering place for 15 United Methodist Rural Advocates (UMRA) leaders from across the U.S. Attendees at the April 21-24 gathering in Worthington, Ohio came from Hawaii, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi, Minnesota, Missouri, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. While the calendar showed that we are technically in the season of Spring, the temperature was more reminiscent of late February.
Left to Right: Roger Grace (West Ohio), Peggy Paige (Michigan), Mollie Stewart (Mississippi) and Randy Wall (North Carolina).
The primary purpose of the April meeting was to finalize legislation that UMRA will beproposing for General Conference 2016 in Portland, Oregon. A variety of petitions and resolutions that had been proposed for UMRA submission at the Legislative Consultation in October, 2014 were discussed and approved for sending to the General Conference for consideration.
Also in Worthington to meet with UMRA was a small group of people who are working to find innovative ways to work in solidarity with the poor to help break the cycle of poverty. UMRA is hoping to find ways to work in conjunction with this group as they seek to be in m
The West Ohio Conference Center was the gathering place for 15 United Methodist Rural Advocates (UMRA) leaders from across the U.S. Attendees at the April 21-24 gathering in Worthington, Ohio came from Hawaii, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi, Minnesota, Missouri, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. While the calendar showed that we are technically in the season of Spring, the temperature was more reminiscent of late February.
Left to Right: Roger Grace (West Ohio), Debra Ketcham (West Ohio) and Peggy Paige (Michigan).
The origins of UMRA date to the 1940 General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church when rural leaders banded together to work to have their voices heard by the general church. The mission of UMRA is to advocate for the work of Jesus Christ in rural communities. We believe that God has called and gifted us for the task.The primary purpose of the April meeting was to finalize legislation that UMRA will beproposing for General Conference 2016 in Portland, Oregon. A variety of petitions and resolutions that had been proposed for UMRA submission at the Legislative Consultation in October, 2014 were discussed and approved for sending to the General Conference for consideration.
Also in Worthington to meet with UMRA was a small group of people who are working to find innovative ways to work in solidarity with the poor to help break the cycle of poverty. UMRA is hoping to find ways to work in conjunction with this group as they seek to be in m
inistry with the poor.
NEW YORK (UMNS) — Getting help to rural villages in Nepal that were damaged by the April 25 earthquake has proved a major challenge. Katherine T. Parker, assigned by the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries to the United Mission to Nepal, said mule trains as well as helicopters may be needed. Linda Bloom reports.
Read story
Photo by Yeeshu Shukla, ACT/Christian Aid.
Earthquake survivors make their way past piles of rubble in Kathmandu, Nepal. Accessing affected rural villages remains a significant challenge, say United Methodist missionaries assigned there.
Nepal relief challenge: accessing rural villages by Linda Bloom
NEW YORK (UMNS)
Accessing rural villages in Nepal affected by the massive April 25 earthquake remains a significant challenge, say United Methodist missionaries there.
Katherine T. Parker is assigned by the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries to the United Mission to Nepal. She said the latter agency is working to bring assistance to Northern Dhading, where it has existing partnerships and knowledge of the local population.
HOW TO HELP
Donations to support the response to the earthquake in Nepal and other international disasters can be made online throughUMCOR Advance # 982450. Checks also can be made out to your local United Methodist church. Write UMCOR Advance #982450 on the memo line and put in the offering plate.
UMCOR health kits meet the practical needs of communities affected by disaster. As UMCOR works to assess needs in Nepal, donations help replenish UMCOR’s health kit inventory.
Many villages in Dhading, a district immediately west of Kathmandu, have high rates of earthquake damage, but reaching those areas is difficult.
“We are exploring both porters and mule trains as well as helicopters,” Parker said in an email to United Methodist News Service. “However, helicopters seem to be in short supply and high demand.”
As the earthquake’s death toll climbs past 7,000, the United Methodist Committee on Relief and other faith-based partners in the ACT Allianceare continuing to respond. Some 8 million people are affected and 3.5 million are in need of food assistance.
Nearly $317,000 in online gifts for UMCOR’sNepal emergency and related Advance projects and missionary support through the Board of Global Ministries had been had been donated by Monday morning, May 4. UMCOR’s partners include the United Mission to Nepal and Global Medic.
Priority on poor and marginalized
While the focus in Dhading for United Mission to Nepal will remain on the poor and marginalized, “the specific emphasis and some approaches will change” because of the earthquake, Parker noted.
“We have already been working on community-based mental health issues and trauma healing throughout Nepal and anticipate an increased role here,” Parker explained, adding that community-led total sanitation also will remain a priority.
EARTHQUAKE VIDEO UPDATE
Watch this ACT Alliance video updatefrom Nepal by ACT member Finn Church Aid.
United Mission to Nepal has been working with several relief agencies to respond to immediate needs after the earthquake, especially CASA from India, a member of the ACT Alliance and partner with UMCOR on other disasters.
“My personal role in the response has been changing day to day, but I continue to provide support to the effort, while also conscious of other responsibilities in our work in long-term development,” Parker said.
In a May 4 situation report on its website, United Mission to Nepal reported that a team of paramedics has arrived in Dhading from United Mission Hospital Tansen, and were waiting to be dispatched to North Dhading.
Warehouse space for relief supplies also has been identified in Dhading and teams of volunteers have been trained and are ready to depart, with plans to start distribution to some 8,600 households by the end of the week.
Five districts have serious damage
Dr. Mark Zimmerman, a United Methodist missionary and medical doctor serving in Kathmandu as director of the Nick Simons Institute, called Dhading one of the five districts outside the Kathmandu Valley that were most serious affected. The others are Gorkha, Rasuwa, Nuwakot, and Sindhupalchok, he noted in an April 29 report.
“There are regions of these districts with 90 percent of houses uninhabitable; food, housing, and sanitation are acute issues,” he wrote in his observations. “The districts of Lamjung, Dolakha, Makwanpur, Kabre, and Lalitpur suffered moderate effects, other districts are minimal.
The World Health Organization has linked with Nepal’s Health Ministry “to coordinate an impressive deployment of medical teams from across the world,” he said. “In addition to these, the Nepal army has linked with military teams from other countries.”
U.S. Marines have now arrived in Nepal, according to a May 4 report from National Public Radio.
As immediate needs are met, public health issues will become more prevalent, Zimmerman said.
“Rebuilding Nepal will be the major task – housing, families, and institutions. Thedevelopment organizations that have been here for decades will continue their work, only with heavier loads in these affected districts.”
Response is ‘enormous and chaotic’
In an earlier letter describing how their family and other churchgoers experienced the Nepal earthquake, his wife, Deirdre, noted that while people are being treated for their injuries “little in the way of any aid has reached the tens of thousands of people huddled around their devastated homes and villages.”
“The emergency response is enormous and chaotic as huge amounts of aid and personnel arrive into the country,” Deirdre Zimmerman wrote. “Our windows continue to tremble night and day, only now with the roar of foreign military transport planes arriving.
“Predictably, a government which struggles under the best of circumstances is now overwhelmed with both the need and the response, and much of the aid is log-jammed in Kathmandu,” she added.
Another United Methodist missionary couple serving in Nepal, Dr. Lester and Debbie Dornon,currently are in the U.S. but continue to receive updates from their daughter, Hannah, who is teaching there and from other colleagues and friends.
“The difficulty now is getting food to the villages … and getting shelter and blankets to the people who will need it until homes can be rebuilt,” they wrote in a recent blog post. “Safe drinking water is also a problem.”
Jennifer Wilson, the daughter of the Rev. Bob Wilson, pastor of First UMC in Pittsburgh, and his wife Glenna, chair of the Western Pennsylvania Conference Poverty Team, has been working as a volunteer for a project related to human trafficking victims in Kathmandu. She is safe and plans to stay in Nepal “as long as she can be helpful,” her father said.
Bloom is a United Methodist News Service multimedia reporter based in New York. Follow her athttps://twitter.com/umcscribe or contact her at (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org
UMCOR grant will bring aid to 1,000 Nepalese families
NEWS
Fighting Hunger
Ree VDC, North Dhading, is home to about 7000 people, living in scattered settlements among the steep hillsides. Fortunately, most of the people were out of their houses on Saturday 25 April, when the earthquake came, its epicentre very close to their villages. They were preparing their fields for the rice planting, looking for wood in the forests, cutting fodder for their animals - all the usual activities of rural subsistence farmers in Nepal.
Just as well, because most of the 1310 houses collapsed during the quake. Seventy-three people died, and more than 300 were injured. Families' food stocks and few treasured possessions were buried in the rubble. Now they are without shelter, hungry and afraid.
Getting help to these isolated communities has been a challenge. There is no road access; walking tracks through to Dhading district headquarters are impassable, as suspension bridges are down and landslides have carried away the paths in several places. UMN's trucks of emergency supplies left Dhading early this morning, and will reach Chimchok in neighbouring Gorkha district this afternoon, after 7 hours of difficult driving. There, they'll meet Ree villagers who have walked for 3-4 hours to get there.
Procuring materials for relief packages has been challenging too, as there is so much demand. The 400 families will receive lentils, sugar, dry noodles, salt, spices, tea, oil and 25 kg of rice. When they are available, another 50 kg rice, tarpaulins, cooking utensils and hygiene kits will be provided.
Sorting and packing of emergency supplies would not have been possible without the help of scores of volunteers. Many are from the remote northern VDCs, but are living and working in the district headquarters. Deepak Tamang, from Lapa VDC, said: "I've come to volunteer so that my village can have relief support as soon as possible. They have been fighting hunger for the last 10 days." Methodist History: Founding Mothers of Mother's Day
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMTV) — Statistics say that $20.7 billion will be spent on moms in honor of the U.S. holiday that falls on the second Sunday in May: Mother's Day. All that cash and commercialism goes against everything the women who originated the idea wanted. Meet the Methodist mother and daughter team who worked to create a day to honor a mother's love and to emphasize how important a mother's role is in building a peaceful world.
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Methodist History: The Founding Mothers of Mother’s Day
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Statistics say that 20.7 billion dollars will be spent on moms in honor of the U.S. holiday that falls on the second Sunday in May: Mother's Day. All that cash and commercialism goes against everything the women who originated the idea wanted. In this video, meet the Methodist mother and daughter team who worked to create a day to honor a mother's love and to emphasize how important a mother's role is in building a peaceful world.
Read full transcript.Transcript: The Founding Mothers of Mother’s Day
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In the late 1860s, before there was an official Mother’s Day holiday in the U.S., a Methodist mom organized “Mothers’ Friendship Day,” at which mothers gathered with former Union and Confederate soldiers to promote reconciliation. We asked Harriet Olson, the current head of United Methodist Women, and Donna Miller, archivist at Historic St. George’s United Methodist Church, to tell us more about the women behind the holiday.
Script:
(music, shots of cards, flowers)
Harriet Olson, Chief Executive, United Methodist Women: “When Ann Jarvis was working to establish Mother’s Day as a national event, and when her daughter picked up the mantle from her, they were not thinking about greeting cards and flowers.”
Instead the Methodist women who invented the idea in America wanted to honor mothers in a deeper way.
Harriet Olson, Chief Executive, United Methodist Women: “They were thinking about the work of women and the significant testimony that women could give about the need for peace.”
Ann Reeves Jarvis organized women’s clubs in the 1860s to serve suffering mothers and children.
Harriet Olson: “Women came together with their sisters in their locations to respond to the needs that they could see. For Ann, she was in a coal mining part of what is now West Virginia. And she could see the needs of women and children. And she could see the effect of the economy of her day on the people that she cared for most directly.”
Donna Miller, Archivist, Historic St. George’s United Methodist Church: “She started mothers clubs. And she talked to them about hydration for fevered babies, about sanitation and nutrition. And then the Civil War came along and they put a field hospital right outside Grafton.”
Ann recruited nurses for military hospitals, and after the war formed friendship clubs to promote reconciliation.
Harriet Olson: “Ann Jarvis was convinced that mothers, women, but especially mothers, had to work for peace because they could see the ravages of war in their husbands and in their sons, in a way that was so focused and so clear that their voices would be powerful. And that’s what’s at the genesis of the current Mother’s Day.”
Faith was always foremost. When she was older, Ann Jarvis and her daughter Anna became members of Philadelphia’s St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church.
Donna Miller: “Anna became a Sunday school teacher here at St. George’s. But she’s best known for the efforts she made to get Mother’s Day recognized as a national observance. She and John Wanamaker, who was a famous retailer here, are the ones that got Woodrow Wilson to sign the petition.”
Ann Jarvis died in 1905, before an official holiday was in place. But her daughter Anna (who was never a mother herself) stayed true to the purpose of the celebration. She envisioned Mother’s Day as a time to write a personal letter to your mother, a time to send her an inexpensive carnation (a flower in which the petals hold tight like a mother’s love) and a time to visit or attend church together. She later became an outspoken critic when the special day turned too commercial.
Donna Miller: “She was really aggravated at people that turned that observation into a commercial outlet. So she had to say to Hallmark. She had a lot to say to the Salvation Army that started selling carnations. When she made carnations the symbol of Mother’s Day they sold for pennies. But the price soon went up to $1.50, $2.00 apiece because people found they could make money off of it. And her comments about Hallmark are just wonderful. She said, ‘How lazy can you be to buy somebody else’s sentiments for your mother? One day out of the year sit down and tell your mother what you really think of her.” And she was just furious. I like that kind of spunk She would have been a really interesting person to know. And I like telling the kids about her because the history of the church isn’t a history of ministers. It’s the people that make up the church. And I think they’re such a wonderful example of that. And besides making kids think about their mothers is always a good thing to do.”
Tag:
In May 1908, Anna Jarvis organized the first official Mother’s Day celebration at a Methodist church in Grafton, West Virginia. There was also a Mother’s Day event at one of Wanamaker’s retail stores in Philadelphia on the same day.
In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a measure officially establishing the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day in the USA. Others like Julia Ward Howe and Juliet Calhoun Blakely also advocated for a Mother’s Day type recognition in the U.S. in the late 19th century also.
Mother’s Day is celebrated in a variety of countries. In Thailand, Mother’s Day is celebrated in August on the birthday of the current queen, Sirikit. In Ethiopia, families gather each fall to sing songs and eat a large feast as part of Antrosht, a multi-day celebration honoring motherhood.
This video was produced by United Methodist Communications in Nashville, TN.
Media contact is Fran Walsh, 615-742-5458.
This video was first posted on March 15, 2015.
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Making a surprise appearance at the West Ohio Conference Center was a family of foxes that live near the chapel on the UMCH Family Services grounds next door. Many times during the day meeting participants were treated to seeing the young kits and their parents playing in the bushes, running, and just being foxes.
For more information about UMRA, visit www.umruraladvocates.org. Access to villages in Nepal proves challengingNEW YORK (UMNS) — Getting help to rural villages in Nepal that were damaged by the April 25 earthquake has proved a major challenge. Katherine T. Parker, assigned by the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries to the United Mission to Nepal, said mule trains as well as helicopters may be needed. Linda Bloom reports.
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Earthquake survivors make their way past piles of rubble in Kathmandu, Nepal. Accessing affected rural villages remains a significant challenge, say United Methodist missionaries assigned there.
Nepal relief challenge: accessing rural villages by Linda Bloom
NEW YORK (UMNS)
Accessing rural villages in Nepal affected by the massive April 25 earthquake remains a significant challenge, say United Methodist missionaries there.
Katherine T. Parker is assigned by the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries to the United Mission to Nepal. She said the latter agency is working to bring assistance to Northern Dhading, where it has existing partnerships and knowledge of the local population.
HOW TO HELP
Donations to support the response to the earthquake in Nepal and other international disasters can be made online throughUMCOR Advance # 982450. Checks also can be made out to your local United Methodist church. Write UMCOR Advance #982450 on the memo line and put in the offering plate.
UMCOR health kits meet the practical needs of communities affected by disaster. As UMCOR works to assess needs in Nepal, donations help replenish UMCOR’s health kit inventory.
Many villages in Dhading, a district immediately west of Kathmandu, have high rates of earthquake damage, but reaching those areas is difficult.
“We are exploring both porters and mule trains as well as helicopters,” Parker said in an email to United Methodist News Service. “However, helicopters seem to be in short supply and high demand.”
As the earthquake’s death toll climbs past 7,000, the United Methodist Committee on Relief and other faith-based partners in the ACT Allianceare continuing to respond. Some 8 million people are affected and 3.5 million are in need of food assistance.
Nearly $317,000 in online gifts for UMCOR’sNepal emergency and related Advance projects and missionary support through the Board of Global Ministries had been had been donated by Monday morning, May 4. UMCOR’s partners include the United Mission to Nepal and Global Medic.
Priority on poor and marginalized
While the focus in Dhading for United Mission to Nepal will remain on the poor and marginalized, “the specific emphasis and some approaches will change” because of the earthquake, Parker noted.
“We have already been working on community-based mental health issues and trauma healing throughout Nepal and anticipate an increased role here,” Parker explained, adding that community-led total sanitation also will remain a priority.
EARTHQUAKE VIDEO UPDATE
Watch this ACT Alliance video updatefrom Nepal by ACT member Finn Church Aid.
United Mission to Nepal has been working with several relief agencies to respond to immediate needs after the earthquake, especially CASA from India, a member of the ACT Alliance and partner with UMCOR on other disasters.
“My personal role in the response has been changing day to day, but I continue to provide support to the effort, while also conscious of other responsibilities in our work in long-term development,” Parker said.
In a May 4 situation report on its website, United Mission to Nepal reported that a team of paramedics has arrived in Dhading from United Mission Hospital Tansen, and were waiting to be dispatched to North Dhading.
Warehouse space for relief supplies also has been identified in Dhading and teams of volunteers have been trained and are ready to depart, with plans to start distribution to some 8,600 households by the end of the week.
Five districts have serious damage
Dr. Mark Zimmerman, a United Methodist missionary and medical doctor serving in Kathmandu as director of the Nick Simons Institute, called Dhading one of the five districts outside the Kathmandu Valley that were most serious affected. The others are Gorkha, Rasuwa, Nuwakot, and Sindhupalchok, he noted in an April 29 report.
“There are regions of these districts with 90 percent of houses uninhabitable; food, housing, and sanitation are acute issues,” he wrote in his observations. “The districts of Lamjung, Dolakha, Makwanpur, Kabre, and Lalitpur suffered moderate effects, other districts are minimal.
The World Health Organization has linked with Nepal’s Health Ministry “to coordinate an impressive deployment of medical teams from across the world,” he said. “In addition to these, the Nepal army has linked with military teams from other countries.”
U.S. Marines have now arrived in Nepal, according to a May 4 report from National Public Radio.
As immediate needs are met, public health issues will become more prevalent, Zimmerman said.
“Rebuilding Nepal will be the major task – housing, families, and institutions. Thedevelopment organizations that have been here for decades will continue their work, only with heavier loads in these affected districts.”
Response is ‘enormous and chaotic’
In an earlier letter describing how their family and other churchgoers experienced the Nepal earthquake, his wife, Deirdre, noted that while people are being treated for their injuries “little in the way of any aid has reached the tens of thousands of people huddled around their devastated homes and villages.”
“The emergency response is enormous and chaotic as huge amounts of aid and personnel arrive into the country,” Deirdre Zimmerman wrote. “Our windows continue to tremble night and day, only now with the roar of foreign military transport planes arriving.
“Predictably, a government which struggles under the best of circumstances is now overwhelmed with both the need and the response, and much of the aid is log-jammed in Kathmandu,” she added.
Another United Methodist missionary couple serving in Nepal, Dr. Lester and Debbie Dornon,currently are in the U.S. but continue to receive updates from their daughter, Hannah, who is teaching there and from other colleagues and friends.
“The difficulty now is getting food to the villages … and getting shelter and blankets to the people who will need it until homes can be rebuilt,” they wrote in a recent blog post. “Safe drinking water is also a problem.”
Jennifer Wilson, the daughter of the Rev. Bob Wilson, pastor of First UMC in Pittsburgh, and his wife Glenna, chair of the Western Pennsylvania Conference Poverty Team, has been working as a volunteer for a project related to human trafficking victims in Kathmandu. She is safe and plans to stay in Nepal “as long as she can be helpful,” her father said.
Bloom is a United Methodist News Service multimedia reporter based in New York. Follow her athttps://twitter.com/umcscribe or contact her at (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org
UMCOR grant will bring aid to 1,000 Nepalese families
NEWS
Fighting Hunger
Just as well, because most of the 1310 houses collapsed during the quake. Seventy-three people died, and more than 300 were injured. Families' food stocks and few treasured possessions were buried in the rubble. Now they are without shelter, hungry and afraid.
Getting help to these isolated communities has been a challenge. There is no road access; walking tracks through to Dhading district headquarters are impassable, as suspension bridges are down and landslides have carried away the paths in several places. UMN's trucks of emergency supplies left Dhading early this morning, and will reach Chimchok in neighbouring Gorkha district this afternoon, after 7 hours of difficult driving. There, they'll meet Ree villagers who have walked for 3-4 hours to get there.
Procuring materials for relief packages has been challenging too, as there is so much demand. The 400 families will receive lentils, sugar, dry noodles, salt, spices, tea, oil and 25 kg of rice. When they are available, another 50 kg rice, tarpaulins, cooking utensils and hygiene kits will be provided.
Sorting and packing of emergency supplies would not have been possible without the help of scores of volunteers. Many are from the remote northern VDCs, but are living and working in the district headquarters. Deepak Tamang, from Lapa VDC, said: "I've come to volunteer so that my village can have relief support as soon as possible. They have been fighting hunger for the last 10 days." Methodist History: Founding Mothers of Mother's Day
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMTV) — Statistics say that $20.7 billion will be spent on moms in honor of the U.S. holiday that falls on the second Sunday in May: Mother's Day. All that cash and commercialism goes against everything the women who originated the idea wanted. Meet the Methodist mother and daughter team who worked to create a day to honor a mother's love and to emphasize how important a mother's role is in building a peaceful world.
Watch video
https://youtu.be/4dAhaLNkSNQ
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Methodist History: The Founding Mothers of Mother’s Day
View more at umc.org/videos
Statistics say that 20.7 billion dollars will be spent on moms in honor of the U.S. holiday that falls on the second Sunday in May: Mother's Day. All that cash and commercialism goes against everything the women who originated the idea wanted. In this video, meet the Methodist mother and daughter team who worked to create a day to honor a mother's love and to emphasize how important a mother's role is in building a peaceful world.
Read full transcript.Transcript: The Founding Mothers of Mother’s Day
Back to Video
In the late 1860s, before there was an official Mother’s Day holiday in the U.S., a Methodist mom organized “Mothers’ Friendship Day,” at which mothers gathered with former Union and Confederate soldiers to promote reconciliation. We asked Harriet Olson, the current head of United Methodist Women, and Donna Miller, archivist at Historic St. George’s United Methodist Church, to tell us more about the women behind the holiday.
Script:
(music, shots of cards, flowers)
Harriet Olson, Chief Executive, United Methodist Women: “When Ann Jarvis was working to establish Mother’s Day as a national event, and when her daughter picked up the mantle from her, they were not thinking about greeting cards and flowers.”
Instead the Methodist women who invented the idea in America wanted to honor mothers in a deeper way.
Harriet Olson, Chief Executive, United Methodist Women: “They were thinking about the work of women and the significant testimony that women could give about the need for peace.”
Ann Reeves Jarvis organized women’s clubs in the 1860s to serve suffering mothers and children.
Harriet Olson: “Women came together with their sisters in their locations to respond to the needs that they could see. For Ann, she was in a coal mining part of what is now West Virginia. And she could see the needs of women and children. And she could see the effect of the economy of her day on the people that she cared for most directly.”
Donna Miller, Archivist, Historic St. George’s United Methodist Church: “She started mothers clubs. And she talked to them about hydration for fevered babies, about sanitation and nutrition. And then the Civil War came along and they put a field hospital right outside Grafton.”
Ann recruited nurses for military hospitals, and after the war formed friendship clubs to promote reconciliation.
Harriet Olson: “Ann Jarvis was convinced that mothers, women, but especially mothers, had to work for peace because they could see the ravages of war in their husbands and in their sons, in a way that was so focused and so clear that their voices would be powerful. And that’s what’s at the genesis of the current Mother’s Day.”
Faith was always foremost. When she was older, Ann Jarvis and her daughter Anna became members of Philadelphia’s St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church.
Donna Miller: “Anna became a Sunday school teacher here at St. George’s. But she’s best known for the efforts she made to get Mother’s Day recognized as a national observance. She and John Wanamaker, who was a famous retailer here, are the ones that got Woodrow Wilson to sign the petition.”
Ann Jarvis died in 1905, before an official holiday was in place. But her daughter Anna (who was never a mother herself) stayed true to the purpose of the celebration. She envisioned Mother’s Day as a time to write a personal letter to your mother, a time to send her an inexpensive carnation (a flower in which the petals hold tight like a mother’s love) and a time to visit or attend church together. She later became an outspoken critic when the special day turned too commercial.
Donna Miller: “She was really aggravated at people that turned that observation into a commercial outlet. So she had to say to Hallmark. She had a lot to say to the Salvation Army that started selling carnations. When she made carnations the symbol of Mother’s Day they sold for pennies. But the price soon went up to $1.50, $2.00 apiece because people found they could make money off of it. And her comments about Hallmark are just wonderful. She said, ‘How lazy can you be to buy somebody else’s sentiments for your mother? One day out of the year sit down and tell your mother what you really think of her.” And she was just furious. I like that kind of spunk She would have been a really interesting person to know. And I like telling the kids about her because the history of the church isn’t a history of ministers. It’s the people that make up the church. And I think they’re such a wonderful example of that. And besides making kids think about their mothers is always a good thing to do.”
Tag:
In May 1908, Anna Jarvis organized the first official Mother’s Day celebration at a Methodist church in Grafton, West Virginia. There was also a Mother’s Day event at one of Wanamaker’s retail stores in Philadelphia on the same day.
In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a measure officially establishing the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day in the USA. Others like Julia Ward Howe and Juliet Calhoun Blakely also advocated for a Mother’s Day type recognition in the U.S. in the late 19th century also.
Mother’s Day is celebrated in a variety of countries. In Thailand, Mother’s Day is celebrated in August on the birthday of the current queen, Sirikit. In Ethiopia, families gather each fall to sing songs and eat a large feast as part of Antrosht, a multi-day celebration honoring motherhood.
This video was produced by United Methodist Communications in Nashville, TN.
Media contact is Fran Walsh, 615-742-5458.
This video was first posted on March 15, 2015.
Back to Video
This video was produced by United Methodist Communications in Nashville, TN.
Media contact is Fran Walsh, 615-742-5458.
This video was first posted on March 15, 2015.Mother learns first-hand about malaria during pregnancy
O'FALLON, Mo. (UMNS) — The Rev. Jennifer Long delivered a healthy baby boy even after she was diagnosed with malaria four months into her pregnancy. The experience taught the Imagine No Malaria field coordinator first-hand about the disease. "I couldn't help but think of the 3,000 mothers who were holding their babies that day, as (the infants) were dying of malaria, simply because they lived on the other side of the ocean," she said.
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Jennifer’s Story
IMAGINE NO MALARIA TEAM
Mother’s Day has a special meaning to people around the world. To celebrate Mother’s Day, we captured the story of Jennifer, one of our Imagine No Malaria field coordinators.
The Imagine No Malaria team Read story
‘Pregnant with malaria’: Mother experiences need for Imagine No Malaria
KELLY MARTINI
She named her son “Jacob,” because as in the Old Testament story, the Rev. Jennifer Long felt she and her infant had wrestled with God.
The struggle came in 2005, when four months pregnant with her fourth child, Long, of O'Fallon, Missouri, made her second trip to the emergency room. She had a fever about to hit 104 degrees and no clue about why she was so sick.
“I had just mentioned to the doctor that I had been in Central America on a mission trip about nine months prior, and it was like a light bulb went off in the doctor’s eyes,” she said in a video produced for Morning Star Church, a United Methodist congregation in O'Fallon.
When the doctor asked if she had been bitten by mosquitoes, “I knew instantly that I was lying there in a hospital in the middle of the United States of America, pregnant with malaria.”
After a week in the hospital with excellent medical staff and easily accessed medication, Jennifer went on to have a healthy full-term baby, while determined to learn as much as possible about malaria. “It was absolutely staggering,” she said of the curable disease devastating half the world.
Cradling Jacob the day he was born, she realized the disparities of the disease’s death rates.
“I couldn’t help but think of the 3,000 mothers who were holding their babies that day, as (the infants) were dying of malaria, simply because they lived on the other side of the ocean,” she said.
STRATEGIC APPROACH
When the malaria parasite enters the bloodstream, it multiplies. It passes through red blood cells from mother to child during pregnancy.
The symptoms are horrific – high fevers, convulsions, anemia, vomiting and even comas. However, the complications can be worse. Survivors may experience respiratory, kidney or liver failure, internal bleeding, brain infections and more.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 300 million to 500 million people contract the disease annually.
Since 2008, The United Methodist Church’s Imagine No Malaria campaign has been at the forefront in eradicating this disease across sub-Saharan Africa. According to the denomination’s website, death tolls in the region plummeted to 627,000 in 2012 from 1 million five years earlier.
The progress comes from a simple formula: insecticide-treated bed nets, communications, improved health facilities and education. With church-sponsored training and global partners, 11,600 community health workers have gone door-to-door dispensing information, answering questions, distributing nets and helping install the simple tool that is instrumental in the malaria battle. Delivering more than 2.3 million bed nets has had the biggest impact in confronting the disease, as it protects people sleeping when mosquitoes are most active.
The campaign also estimates that 4.6 million people have learned about the disease and its prevention via new radio stations and distribution of radios. The medium helps spread the message about things like draining standing water and improved sanitation, which can be mosquito breeding grounds. Meanwhile, diagnostic and treatment tools supplied by the church enable more than 300 United Methodist hospitals and clinics proactively to prevent, recognize and treat the disease.
No one does the work in a vacuum. To wipe out the disease, general agencies, denominational health partners, congregations and African churches have joined with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The United Nations Foundation/Nothing but Nets and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
‘WE CAN DO SOMETHING MIGHTY’
Advocates like Jennifer have made the difference with their passion and commitment to the Imagine No Malaria cause.
In the Missouri Annual (regional) Conference, cookbook writer Amy Hout donated 20 percent of her sales to the campaign. Her healthy recipes target busy families. Aconference website video teaches children how to make “netting corsages,” symbolic of bed nets as a malaria prevention tool.
The Alabama-West Florida Conference had its own monetary campaign goal this summer, raising more than $600,000 so far. Children gave from their piggy banks and opened lemonade stands. People took up Lenten fasts that included things that would normally cost $10 – routine coffee stops, meals and so forth – and donated the money they would have spent. Teenagers sponsored hoop shoots, where people pledged cash for each basketball free throw the kids made.
In an Easter message, Bishop Paul L. Leland made connections between church members and people half a world away.
“It is not difficult to find members of our congregations who can still remember when malaria was a serious threat in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s,” he said. “We eliminated malaria here, and we can do something mighty in our world by eliminating malaria elsewhere.”
Support from congregations and annual conferences has gathered momentum, and Imagine No Malaria has raised more than $66 million in cash and pledges toward a $75 million goal.
The campaign lasts until 2016, but when Jacob, the boy from Missouri, grows old enough to understand, his mother likely will tell him about the disease that threatened his life and how the church helped reduce death and suffering for children an ocean away.
Martini, a freelance writer who resides in Glen Mills, Pa., is the former communications director for the Women's Division, United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. Motherly advice for tough questions
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) — Young girls from around the United States were invited to ask their deepest questions to older women from around the world. Read the "grandmotherly wisdom" offered on such questions as "How do I know God is real?" Susan Passi-Klaus reports.
Collage by United Methodist Communications.
Young girls received wonderful advice from wise women with much to share.
‘Is God mad at me?’: Motherly advice for tough questions
A UMC.org Feature by Susan Passi-Klaus*
United Methodists believe we have a responsibility to help every person reach his or her fullest potential. One way to support others is to encourage conversation, especially between people of different ages and life experiences.
Melissa asked, “What is the key to living a good life?” Photo courtesy of Morgan Stafford.
We invited young girls from around the United States to ask their deepest questions to older women from around the world. Their "grandmotherly wisdom" follows.
“How do I know God is real?” Carola, 7th Grade
Christ’s Foundry United Methodist Mission, Dallas, Texas
“Since you were very small you have been raised by godly parents and while you are growing up you trust what your mom and dad teach you. Then as you grow older you just start to explore and figure things out for yourself. God is with you all along this journey providing experiences that hopefully lead you to him. Sometimes believing in God comes easily and other times it takes longer, but God sticks with you.” Lou Samford, Age 90, Christ United Methodist Church, Franklin, Tennessee
“Did Jesus kiss people?” Roxie, 1st Grade
United Methodist Church, Sherman Oaks, California
Vera Moore gives great advice about hugs and kisses. Photo courtesy of Vera Moore.
“Yes, Jesus kissed some people. Jesus had the ability to know if people wanted to be kissed or not. Great-grandmother is not as smart as Jesus and so may want to kiss you when you’d rather not be kissed. Great-grandmother needs you to tell her if you’d rather be hugged than kissed or if you’d rather not be touched at all. An across-the-room blown kiss is often just a good as a touching kiss or a hug. Great-grandmother is like Jesus in that most of all she wants to see you smile, be polite, and eager to help those in need. Oh, just as you talk to Jesus in your prayers, Great-grandmother likes to hear your voice. Call me sometime, but talk to Jesus morning, noon and night. Here’s a kiss that will not leave my mark on you.” Vera Moore, Age 77, Christ United Methodist Church, Mobile, Alabama
“How do I know if something is wrong and God is mad at me?” Cadence, Kindergarten
Hillcrest United Methodist Church, Nashville, Tennessee
Kindergartener Cadence wants to know how she call tell if God is unhappy with her. Photo by Dee Dee Cobb Photography.
“Your parents, grandparents and teachers all try to teach you the right thing to do. So if someone asks you to do something – like copy another person’s schoolwork or take something that doesn’t belong to you – you probably already know it is wrong. But God forgives us, even when we make mistakes. That doesn’t mean we should do wrong on purpose; it means we should try our very best to do the right thing and to talk our friends into doing the right thing, too. Unlike some people we know, God doesn’t stay mad at us. God loves us a whole bunch – always!” Barbara Dunlap-Berg, age 65, Hillcrest United Methodist Church, and grandmother of Cadence
“What if I never find someone to marry me?” Amy, 7th grade
United Methodist Church, New York, NY
“Then you’ll find lots of people who need a good friend and you’ll discover amazing things to do with your time. God will make your life beautiful in all kinds of surprising ways.”
The Rev. Marietjie Odendaal, 50-ish, United Methodist pastor in Switzerland
The Rev. Marietjie Odendaal is a United Methodist pastor in Switzerland. Photo courtesy of the Rev. Marietjie Odendaal.
“Will my hamster go to heaven?” Rebecca, 1st grade
Brentwood United Methodist Church, Brentwood, Tennessee
“God created all the animals on the earth and commanded us to take care of them. Pets are such an important part of our lives and they give us the same unconditional love that God does. I believe there’s a very special place in heaven for all the wonderful pets we have loved.” Nancy Edmunds, age 62, Christ United Methodist Church, Franklin, Tennessee
“Dad and I get along fine, but mom and I don’t talk much. I don’t think she likes me. How can I improve our relationship?” Anonymous, 13
United Methodist Church youth group, Delaware
“One thing I have done since my kids were babies is to have a 'heart-to-heart spot' where we can share and talk. Our special space is the seldom-used living room where I keep my angel collection. My granddaughters love it there. Even when they are upset with me or with each other, I usually find them there – then we talk! They may be getting too big for lap sitting (and I may have less lap to sit on than I used to) but we can sit side-by-side on the loveseat and hug. As they get older, they do often tell me I ‘talk too much’ so I try hard to LISTEN more. Maybe you can convince your mom tomeet you in a heart-to-heart place and use your time together to share your feelings.” Donna Sue Brown, age 68, Leeds United Methodist Church, Childs, Maryland
First grade student Daniela asked why the Bible seems hard to read. Photo courtesy of Morgan Stafford.
“Why is the Bible so hard to read?” Daniela, 1st Grade
Christ’s Foundry United Methodist Mission, Dallas, Texas
“It’s boring to listen to conversations about people and things we don’t know. But if we are patient and hang in there, we get clued up and can join in the conversation. Then it’s not boring at all. The Bible is just like that. As long as we aren’t part of the conversation, it’s difficult. So get to know what it’s talking about and get into the conversation. You’ll discover yourself how fascinating and fun it is.” The Rev. Marietjie Odendaal, 50-ish, United Methodist pastor in Switzerland
“Because you’re not supposed to read it until you’re old enough to understand it.” Irene Silva, 88, United Methodist Elder Care, East Providence, Rhode Island
“What is the key to living a good life?” Melissa, 6th Grade
Christ’s Foundry United Methodist Mission, Dallas, Texas
Edna Ripley advises, "Fill your life with love." Photo courtesy of United Methodist Elder Care, Rhode Island.
“Good attitude.” Terry Debuque, 89, United Methodist Elder Care, East Providence, Rhode Island
“Getting along with people,” Irene Silva, 88, United Methodist Elder Care, East Providence, Rhode Island
“What should I do with my life?” Yesenia, 7th Grade
Christ’s Foundry United Methodist Mission, Dallas, Texas
“Fill your life with love.” Edna Ripley, 87, United Methodist Elder Care, East Providence, Rhode Island
What good advice have you received from mother figures in your life? Please share with us in the comments below.
“Fill your life with love.” Wise advice to a teenage girl from an 87-year-old woman. #UMC #MothersDay
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*Susan Passi-Klaus is a freelance writer based in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Joe Iovino, UMC.org Content Manager for United Methodist Communications, 615-312-3733. Rebuilding hope in Baltimore
BALTIMORE (UMNS) — After an emotional roller coaster of a week, members and others at Ames United Methodist Church in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of Baltimore — near where recent riots took place — packed hygiene items and food provided by the United Methodist Committee on Relief to give to local residents. The Baltimore-Washington Conference has the story.
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Rebuilding Hope
It was an emotional roller coaster of a week in Baltimore as people protested, rioted, addressed the hurts and scars of the city and, on May 1, witnessed the indictment of six police officers on charges of police brutality in the case of Freddie Gray who died of injuries to his spinal cord while in custody.
At Ames UMC in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of Baltimore, near where the riots took place, United Methodists were packing hygiene items and food to give to local residents. UMCOR — the United Methodist Committee on Relief — had provided more than 1,000 health and school kits, and hundreds of layette sets.
As the group was preparing the items, the Rev. Cynthia Moore-Koikoi, superintendent of the Baltimore Metropolitan District, stepped in and reminded them that they had forgotten to pray. Prayer, she said, is action; “our doing is prayer.”
Moore-Koikoi prayed, reminding those present that God does some of God’s best work with our confused feelings and that we are a people who believe in, and count on, resurrection.
It was that kind of week in Baltimore — tears, rage and confusion intertwined with hope, faith and a vision of justice and resurrection.
The week sprang from the April 12 arrest of Freddie Gray, a resident of Sandtown-Winchester, who was picked up when he ran away from police. Police said he was carrying a switch blade, a charge later refuted. He was placed in a police van without a seat belt and experienced what has been called “a rough ride,” while his pleas for medical attention were ignored. He suffered severe injuries to his spine. Gray died April 19.
In death he joined a roster of other African-American men from across the nation recently killed or severely injured by police.
In a movement that surprised many in its swiftness, the Baltimore state’s attorney brought charges against the six officers. One of the officers, the driver of the van, was charged with second degree “depraved heart
Bishop Marcus Matthews noted the charges as “a vital step toward justice.” Throughout the week, he called for fervent prayers for peace.
“This is a moment in our city’s life that highlights a long-standing and significant issue, an issue for which the church has answers and the power to affect change,” he wrote in an email to the people of the Baltimore-Washington Conference. “This is our opportunity to be a transformative presence in the community. This is our moment to be church: Christ in the community.”
Matthews and other conference leaders are experiencing Gray’s death as a wake-up call to renew the church’s efforts to address the poverty, violence, addiction, lack of education, joblessness and hopelessness that plague significant parts of Baltimore.
“We are a church that seeks the peace of the city,” he said. He joined other city church leaders in calling for on-going action, saying, “the issues before us will not be satisfactorily resolved until all of God’s children in this city and county have the same basic human rights.”
A significant part of the church’s immediate response is addressing some of the needs of the residents of Sandtown-Winchester. This community is ranked among the poorest in Baltimore, said the Rev. Rodney Hudson, pastor of Ames UMC in that neighborhood.
Nearly 50 percent of Sandtown’s residents live below the poverty level, the unemployment rate is above 50 percent, there is as 77 percent school dropout rate and the community has the highest crime statistics in the city, Hudson said.
The riots in Baltimore on April 27 resulted in a local CVS pharmacy and other drug and grocery stores being looted, burned and closed.
Many of these smaller, corner stores were owned by Korean families, who depended upon them for their livelihood. Moore-Koikoi is investigating how to best help them to get back on their feet and providing assistance.
A collection of hygiene items and perishable food from throughout the conference was also taken to provide for the low-income residents in need of these staples.
Ophelia Brown-Carter, Lay Leader for the Baltimore Metropolitan District from New Waverly UMC in Baltimore, helped to pack food items on May 2 at Ames UMC.
“I am just pleased and overwhelmed by the response the laity has given to the city of Baltimore,” she said. “We are here to help people see God’s presence in the community.”
She, too, had experienced the roller coaster of emotions.
“I’ve been saddened, I’ve been angry,” she said. However, she also said she had been jubilant. “I had to ask God to lead me through all of this because it’s very, very difficult.”
Looking around the room at all the volunteers helping in the response, Brown-Carter said that this was an example of God’s grace in action.
The Rev. Joan Carter-Rimbach, the conference Volunteers in Mission coordinator, is directing the BWC relief efforts. “What we want to do as a church here is to be present, to be that hope and that light, because there are some dark places in the community,” she said.
This light, Moore-Koikoi said, will come in part from the $10,000 grant that UMCOR has sent to address the crisis.
But it will also come from the ongoing support and attention of the connectional system and the outreach of local churches from throughout the conference and across the nation, Moore-Koikoisaid.
The superintendent pointed out that United Methodists are known for not pulling out when the headlines fade. We are the ones that will still be there, she said.
Toward that end, Moore-Koikoi and other district and conference leaders are working on creating and strengthening a web of efforts and initiatives that will address the deep and on-going needs of the city.
Programs like “Camp Hope” will be expanded so that children who have experienced violence in their lives can attend summer camp at both West River and Manidokan, but also at John Wesley UMC in Baltimore this summer.
Strategic thinking is being done by conference and local church leaders to determine how to best politically and missionally address the needs of the city.
Ames, Metropolitan and St. Luke’s UMCs in Sandtown struggle, along with many of the other 72 Baltimore churches, with declining members, delayed building repairs and low economic resources, said Hudson.
“As tragic as Freddie Gray’s death is, it has not been in vain. It has opened the eyes of the world and forced it to see the true issues facing Baltimore,” said Hudson. “Indeed it is during moments of crisis that people see God in the faces of the oppressed and have no choice but to live out the call of Jesus and serve. It’s been a long time coming.”
On Sunday morning, May 3, many pastors in the Baltimore-Washington Conference prayed for and preached on the events in Baltimore.
The Rev. C. Anthony Hunt, pastor of Epworth Chapel UMC in Baltimore, who several years ago served as the architect of the conference’s strategic plan for the city, found himself preaching on hope.
“And yet, if the church has been, and is to be anything, we are to be that people who boldly embodies hope,” he said. “This was Paul’s very point in his words to the Christians in Rome – ‘…and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God… knowing that our suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us…’”
Hope, Hunt proclaimed, echoing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is “necessary to life. … Hope assures us that justice will come… that peace will come…. And that change is going to come.”
UMCOR, churches help those affected by Baltimore unrest
UMCOR Grant for Baltimore Fosters Dialogue, Peace, Healing
Media contact is Fran Walsh, 615-742-5458.
This video was first posted on March 15, 2015.Mother learns first-hand about malaria during pregnancy
O'FALLON, Mo. (UMNS) — The Rev. Jennifer Long delivered a healthy baby boy even after she was diagnosed with malaria four months into her pregnancy. The experience taught the Imagine No Malaria field coordinator first-hand about the disease. "I couldn't help but think of the 3,000 mothers who were holding their babies that day, as (the infants) were dying of malaria, simply because they lived on the other side of the ocean," she said.
Watch video
Jennifer’s Story
IMAGINE NO MALARIA TEAM
This Mother’s Day, please give generously – in honor of your mother or other important women in your life – to Imagine No Malaria. Join us in sharing Jennifer’s story with thevideo and resources available below.
With much love from our families to yours,The Imagine No Malaria team Read story
‘Pregnant with malaria’: Mother experiences need for Imagine No Malaria
KELLY MARTINI
The struggle came in 2005, when four months pregnant with her fourth child, Long, of O'Fallon, Missouri, made her second trip to the emergency room. She had a fever about to hit 104 degrees and no clue about why she was so sick.
“I had just mentioned to the doctor that I had been in Central America on a mission trip about nine months prior, and it was like a light bulb went off in the doctor’s eyes,” she said in a video produced for Morning Star Church, a United Methodist congregation in O'Fallon.
When the doctor asked if she had been bitten by mosquitoes, “I knew instantly that I was lying there in a hospital in the middle of the United States of America, pregnant with malaria.”
After a week in the hospital with excellent medical staff and easily accessed medication, Jennifer went on to have a healthy full-term baby, while determined to learn as much as possible about malaria. “It was absolutely staggering,” she said of the curable disease devastating half the world.
Cradling Jacob the day he was born, she realized the disparities of the disease’s death rates.
“I couldn’t help but think of the 3,000 mothers who were holding their babies that day, as (the infants) were dying of malaria, simply because they lived on the other side of the ocean,” she said.
STRATEGIC APPROACH
When the malaria parasite enters the bloodstream, it multiplies. It passes through red blood cells from mother to child during pregnancy.
The symptoms are horrific – high fevers, convulsions, anemia, vomiting and even comas. However, the complications can be worse. Survivors may experience respiratory, kidney or liver failure, internal bleeding, brain infections and more.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 300 million to 500 million people contract the disease annually.
Since 2008, The United Methodist Church’s Imagine No Malaria campaign has been at the forefront in eradicating this disease across sub-Saharan Africa. According to the denomination’s website, death tolls in the region plummeted to 627,000 in 2012 from 1 million five years earlier.
The progress comes from a simple formula: insecticide-treated bed nets, communications, improved health facilities and education. With church-sponsored training and global partners, 11,600 community health workers have gone door-to-door dispensing information, answering questions, distributing nets and helping install the simple tool that is instrumental in the malaria battle. Delivering more than 2.3 million bed nets has had the biggest impact in confronting the disease, as it protects people sleeping when mosquitoes are most active.
The campaign also estimates that 4.6 million people have learned about the disease and its prevention via new radio stations and distribution of radios. The medium helps spread the message about things like draining standing water and improved sanitation, which can be mosquito breeding grounds. Meanwhile, diagnostic and treatment tools supplied by the church enable more than 300 United Methodist hospitals and clinics proactively to prevent, recognize and treat the disease.
No one does the work in a vacuum. To wipe out the disease, general agencies, denominational health partners, congregations and African churches have joined with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The United Nations Foundation/Nothing but Nets and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
‘WE CAN DO SOMETHING MIGHTY’
Advocates like Jennifer have made the difference with their passion and commitment to the Imagine No Malaria cause.
In the Missouri Annual (regional) Conference, cookbook writer Amy Hout donated 20 percent of her sales to the campaign. Her healthy recipes target busy families. Aconference website video teaches children how to make “netting corsages,” symbolic of bed nets as a malaria prevention tool.
The Alabama-West Florida Conference had its own monetary campaign goal this summer, raising more than $600,000 so far. Children gave from their piggy banks and opened lemonade stands. People took up Lenten fasts that included things that would normally cost $10 – routine coffee stops, meals and so forth – and donated the money they would have spent. Teenagers sponsored hoop shoots, where people pledged cash for each basketball free throw the kids made.
In an Easter message, Bishop Paul L. Leland made connections between church members and people half a world away.
“It is not difficult to find members of our congregations who can still remember when malaria was a serious threat in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s,” he said. “We eliminated malaria here, and we can do something mighty in our world by eliminating malaria elsewhere.”
Support from congregations and annual conferences has gathered momentum, and Imagine No Malaria has raised more than $66 million in cash and pledges toward a $75 million goal.
The campaign lasts until 2016, but when Jacob, the boy from Missouri, grows old enough to understand, his mother likely will tell him about the disease that threatened his life and how the church helped reduce death and suffering for children an ocean away.
Martini, a freelance writer who resides in Glen Mills, Pa., is the former communications director for the Women's Division, United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. Motherly advice for tough questions
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) — Young girls from around the United States were invited to ask their deepest questions to older women from around the world. Read the "grandmotherly wisdom" offered on such questions as "How do I know God is real?" Susan Passi-Klaus reports.
Young girls received wonderful advice from wise women with much to share.
‘Is God mad at me?’: Motherly advice for tough questions
A UMC.org Feature by Susan Passi-Klaus*
United Methodists believe we have a responsibility to help every person reach his or her fullest potential. One way to support others is to encourage conversation, especially between people of different ages and life experiences.
We invited young girls from around the United States to ask their deepest questions to older women from around the world. Their "grandmotherly wisdom" follows.
“How do I know God is real?” Carola, 7th Grade
Christ’s Foundry United Methodist Mission, Dallas, Texas
“Since you were very small you have been raised by godly parents and while you are growing up you trust what your mom and dad teach you. Then as you grow older you just start to explore and figure things out for yourself. God is with you all along this journey providing experiences that hopefully lead you to him. Sometimes believing in God comes easily and other times it takes longer, but God sticks with you.” Lou Samford, Age 90, Christ United Methodist Church, Franklin, Tennessee
“Did Jesus kiss people?” Roxie, 1st Grade
United Methodist Church, Sherman Oaks, California
“Yes, Jesus kissed some people. Jesus had the ability to know if people wanted to be kissed or not. Great-grandmother is not as smart as Jesus and so may want to kiss you when you’d rather not be kissed. Great-grandmother needs you to tell her if you’d rather be hugged than kissed or if you’d rather not be touched at all. An across-the-room blown kiss is often just a good as a touching kiss or a hug. Great-grandmother is like Jesus in that most of all she wants to see you smile, be polite, and eager to help those in need. Oh, just as you talk to Jesus in your prayers, Great-grandmother likes to hear your voice. Call me sometime, but talk to Jesus morning, noon and night. Here’s a kiss that will not leave my mark on you.” Vera Moore, Age 77, Christ United Methodist Church, Mobile, Alabama
“How do I know if something is wrong and God is mad at me?” Cadence, Kindergarten
Hillcrest United Methodist Church, Nashville, Tennessee
“Your parents, grandparents and teachers all try to teach you the right thing to do. So if someone asks you to do something – like copy another person’s schoolwork or take something that doesn’t belong to you – you probably already know it is wrong. But God forgives us, even when we make mistakes. That doesn’t mean we should do wrong on purpose; it means we should try our very best to do the right thing and to talk our friends into doing the right thing, too. Unlike some people we know, God doesn’t stay mad at us. God loves us a whole bunch – always!” Barbara Dunlap-Berg, age 65, Hillcrest United Methodist Church, and grandmother of Cadence
“What if I never find someone to marry me?” Amy, 7th grade
United Methodist Church, New York, NY
“Then you’ll find lots of people who need a good friend and you’ll discover amazing things to do with your time. God will make your life beautiful in all kinds of surprising ways.”
The Rev. Marietjie Odendaal, 50-ish, United Methodist pastor in Switzerland
“Will my hamster go to heaven?” Rebecca, 1st grade
Brentwood United Methodist Church, Brentwood, Tennessee
“God created all the animals on the earth and commanded us to take care of them. Pets are such an important part of our lives and they give us the same unconditional love that God does. I believe there’s a very special place in heaven for all the wonderful pets we have loved.” Nancy Edmunds, age 62, Christ United Methodist Church, Franklin, Tennessee
“Dad and I get along fine, but mom and I don’t talk much. I don’t think she likes me. How can I improve our relationship?” Anonymous, 13
United Methodist Church youth group, Delaware
“One thing I have done since my kids were babies is to have a 'heart-to-heart spot' where we can share and talk. Our special space is the seldom-used living room where I keep my angel collection. My granddaughters love it there. Even when they are upset with me or with each other, I usually find them there – then we talk! They may be getting too big for lap sitting (and I may have less lap to sit on than I used to) but we can sit side-by-side on the loveseat and hug. As they get older, they do often tell me I ‘talk too much’ so I try hard to LISTEN more. Maybe you can convince your mom tomeet you in a heart-to-heart place and use your time together to share your feelings.” Donna Sue Brown, age 68, Leeds United Methodist Church, Childs, Maryland
“Why is the Bible so hard to read?” Daniela, 1st Grade
Christ’s Foundry United Methodist Mission, Dallas, Texas
“It’s boring to listen to conversations about people and things we don’t know. But if we are patient and hang in there, we get clued up and can join in the conversation. Then it’s not boring at all. The Bible is just like that. As long as we aren’t part of the conversation, it’s difficult. So get to know what it’s talking about and get into the conversation. You’ll discover yourself how fascinating and fun it is.” The Rev. Marietjie Odendaal, 50-ish, United Methodist pastor in Switzerland
“Because you’re not supposed to read it until you’re old enough to understand it.” Irene Silva, 88, United Methodist Elder Care, East Providence, Rhode Island
“What is the key to living a good life?” Melissa, 6th Grade
Christ’s Foundry United Methodist Mission, Dallas, Texas
“Good attitude.” Terry Debuque, 89, United Methodist Elder Care, East Providence, Rhode Island
“Getting along with people,” Irene Silva, 88, United Methodist Elder Care, East Providence, Rhode Island
“What should I do with my life?” Yesenia, 7th Grade
Christ’s Foundry United Methodist Mission, Dallas, Texas
“Fill your life with love.” Edna Ripley, 87, United Methodist Elder Care, East Providence, Rhode Island
What good advice have you received from mother figures in your life? Please share with us in the comments below.
“Fill your life with love.” Wise advice to a teenage girl from an 87-year-old woman. #UMC #MothersDay
TWEET THIS*Susan Passi-Klaus is a freelance writer based in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Joe Iovino, UMC.org Content Manager for United Methodist Communications, 615-312-3733.
BALTIMORE (UMNS) — After an emotional roller coaster of a week, members and others at Ames United Methodist Church in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of Baltimore — near where recent riots took place — packed hygiene items and food provided by the United Methodist Committee on Relief to give to local residents. The Baltimore-Washington Conference has the story.
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Rebuilding Hope
At Ames UMC in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of Baltimore, near where the riots took place, United Methodists were packing hygiene items and food to give to local residents. UMCOR — the United Methodist Committee on Relief — had provided more than 1,000 health and school kits, and hundreds of layette sets.
As the group was preparing the items, the Rev. Cynthia Moore-Koikoi, superintendent of the Baltimore Metropolitan District, stepped in and reminded them that they had forgotten to pray. Prayer, she said, is action; “our doing is prayer.”
Moore-Koikoi prayed, reminding those present that God does some of God’s best work with our confused feelings and that we are a people who believe in, and count on, resurrection.
It was that kind of week in Baltimore — tears, rage and confusion intertwined with hope, faith and a vision of justice and resurrection.
The week sprang from the April 12 arrest of Freddie Gray, a resident of Sandtown-Winchester, who was picked up when he ran away from police. Police said he was carrying a switch blade, a charge later refuted. He was placed in a police van without a seat belt and experienced what has been called “a rough ride,” while his pleas for medical attention were ignored. He suffered severe injuries to his spine. Gray died April 19.
In death he joined a roster of other African-American men from across the nation recently killed or severely injured by police.
In a movement that surprised many in its swiftness, the Baltimore state’s attorney brought charges against the six officers. One of the officers, the driver of the van, was charged with second degree “depraved heart
Bishop Marcus Matthews noted the charges as “a vital step toward justice.” Throughout the week, he called for fervent prayers for peace.
“This is a moment in our city’s life that highlights a long-standing and significant issue, an issue for which the church has answers and the power to affect change,” he wrote in an email to the people of the Baltimore-Washington Conference. “This is our opportunity to be a transformative presence in the community. This is our moment to be church: Christ in the community.”
Matthews and other conference leaders are experiencing Gray’s death as a wake-up call to renew the church’s efforts to address the poverty, violence, addiction, lack of education, joblessness and hopelessness that plague significant parts of Baltimore.
“We are a church that seeks the peace of the city,” he said. He joined other city church leaders in calling for on-going action, saying, “the issues before us will not be satisfactorily resolved until all of God’s children in this city and county have the same basic human rights.”
A significant part of the church’s immediate response is addressing some of the needs of the residents of Sandtown-Winchester. This community is ranked among the poorest in Baltimore, said the Rev. Rodney Hudson, pastor of Ames UMC in that neighborhood.
Nearly 50 percent of Sandtown’s residents live below the poverty level, the unemployment rate is above 50 percent, there is as 77 percent school dropout rate and the community has the highest crime statistics in the city, Hudson said.
The riots in Baltimore on April 27 resulted in a local CVS pharmacy and other drug and grocery stores being looted, burned and closed.
Many of these smaller, corner stores were owned by Korean families, who depended upon them for their livelihood. Moore-Koikoi is investigating how to best help them to get back on their feet and providing assistance.
A collection of hygiene items and perishable food from throughout the conference was also taken to provide for the low-income residents in need of these staples.
Ophelia Brown-Carter, Lay Leader for the Baltimore Metropolitan District from New Waverly UMC in Baltimore, helped to pack food items on May 2 at Ames UMC.
“I am just pleased and overwhelmed by the response the laity has given to the city of Baltimore,” she said. “We are here to help people see God’s presence in the community.”
She, too, had experienced the roller coaster of emotions.
“I’ve been saddened, I’ve been angry,” she said. However, she also said she had been jubilant. “I had to ask God to lead me through all of this because it’s very, very difficult.”
Looking around the room at all the volunteers helping in the response, Brown-Carter said that this was an example of God’s grace in action.
The Rev. Joan Carter-Rimbach, the conference Volunteers in Mission coordinator, is directing the BWC relief efforts. “What we want to do as a church here is to be present, to be that hope and that light, because there are some dark places in the community,” she said.
This light, Moore-Koikoi said, will come in part from the $10,000 grant that UMCOR has sent to address the crisis.
But it will also come from the ongoing support and attention of the connectional system and the outreach of local churches from throughout the conference and across the nation, Moore-Koikoisaid.
The superintendent pointed out that United Methodists are known for not pulling out when the headlines fade. We are the ones that will still be there, she said.
Toward that end, Moore-Koikoi and other district and conference leaders are working on creating and strengthening a web of efforts and initiatives that will address the deep and on-going needs of the city.
Programs like “Camp Hope” will be expanded so that children who have experienced violence in their lives can attend summer camp at both West River and Manidokan, but also at John Wesley UMC in Baltimore this summer.
Strategic thinking is being done by conference and local church leaders to determine how to best politically and missionally address the needs of the city.
Ames, Metropolitan and St. Luke’s UMCs in Sandtown struggle, along with many of the other 72 Baltimore churches, with declining members, delayed building repairs and low economic resources, said Hudson.
“As tragic as Freddie Gray’s death is, it has not been in vain. It has opened the eyes of the world and forced it to see the true issues facing Baltimore,” said Hudson. “Indeed it is during moments of crisis that people see God in the faces of the oppressed and have no choice but to live out the call of Jesus and serve. It’s been a long time coming.”
On Sunday morning, May 3, many pastors in the Baltimore-Washington Conference prayed for and preached on the events in Baltimore.
The Rev. C. Anthony Hunt, pastor of Epworth Chapel UMC in Baltimore, who several years ago served as the architect of the conference’s strategic plan for the city, found himself preaching on hope.
“And yet, if the church has been, and is to be anything, we are to be that people who boldly embodies hope,” he said. “This was Paul’s very point in his words to the Christians in Rome – ‘…and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God… knowing that our suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us…’”
Hope, Hunt proclaimed, echoing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is “necessary to life. … Hope assures us that justice will come… that peace will come…. And that change is going to come.”
UMCOR, churches help those affected by Baltimore unrest
UMCOR Grant for Baltimore Fosters Dialogue, Peace, Healing
Children gather for lunch at Metropolitan United Methodist Church in Baltimore as part of the church’s outreach ministry on Tuesday, April 28. Baltimore area churches were asked to open their doors to provide food, toiletries and prayer in the wake of the unrest in the city. Photo by Melissa Lauber.
An emergency grant and relief-supply kits help local churches to be present in challenging times by Linda Unger*
May 1, 2015—Following days of civil unrest in Baltimore, United Methodist churches there are seeking to be present to still-unfolding needs in the communities. An emergency grant from the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) will help them be a resource for dialogue, peace, and healing.
“What we want to do as a church here is to be present, to be that hope and that light, because there are some dark places in the community,” said Rev. Joan Carter-Rimbach, who heads United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) for the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church.
Carter-Rimbach said the UMCOR grant will help Baltimore churches keep their doors open, so “people can come in and not only get some immediate assistance with physical needs but for spiritual and emotional needs as well.”
After the death of Freddie Gray, 25, in police custody, days of peaceful demonstrations turned briefly but intensely violent last Monday. United Methodist churches joined other houses of worship in keeping their doors open for all in need, and clergy joined demonstrators in peaceful protest.
When classes were cancelled on Tuesday, United Methodist churches remained open to feed and care for school children who depended on school lunches.
On Friday, the state attorney of Baltimore, Marilyn J. Mosby, said Gray’s death had been ruled a homicide, news reports indicated.
‘We will partner in any way we can’
“UMCOR is looking forward to partnering with the Baltimore-Washington Conference to address issues arising from—and underlying—the civil protests, providing especially for children and young people,” said Greg Forrester, UMCOR executive in charge of U.S. Disaster Response.
“We will partner in any way we can as the churches respond to the needs of their communities,” he said.
Besides the emergency grant, UMCOR also already has facilitated the shipment of relief-supply kits to Baltimore churches. A total of 1,000 health kits, 500 layette kits, and 500 school kits were on their way Thursday afternoon and will be distributed from three Baltimore churches.
“People are unemployed because of the recent destruction or their incomes have been reduced due to the curfew,” which went into effect on April 28, Forrester said. “The relief-supply kits provide some very basic things they need, so they can use their limited resources for other things.”
Prepared
Even before the event, Forrester noted, mission leaders of the Baltimore-Washington Conference had taken advantage of a recent training in emotional and spiritual care and community outreach that UMCOR offered at the jurisdictional level.
“They were prepared,” he said. “And now they’re finding new ways to apply what they learned in the current circumstances.”
One such creative application might well be the promotion of opportunities for dialogue, which Carter-Rimbach foresaw on various levels—within the communities, with the city government, and with law enforcement.
“That has to happen,” she said. “The church is a wonderful place to bring different groups together. It is a safe place, and so it’s a great opportunity for the church, and the [UMCOR] grant will certainly be able to help us do that,” she added, as she also asked for continued prayers for the people of Baltimore.
“We’re excited to be part of a church that is indeed a connectional church,” she said. “We’re excited to receive this grant and to utilize it, because it’s not just the Baltimore-Washington Conference who is responding in this time of need but it is our whole church through this grant.”
Your gift to UMCOR U.S. Disaster Response, Advance #901670, allows UMCOR to support the church’s presence in times of civil unrest or natural disasters.
You can also help by assembling and shipping relief-supply kits, especially health kits andschool kits, to any one of the depots in the UMCOR Relief-Supply Network. Stocks are low and need to be replenished.Pastor works to bring Baltimore community together
BALTIMORE — The pastor of Ames United Methodist Church grew up with Freddie Gray, who died after being in police custody. Michael Parker found that after Gray's death, many from their old neighborhood needed an outlet for prayer and a forum to talk. So he organized a prayer vigil and began running a mediation group out of his house. The group drew police officers, pastors, and community leaders together. Erica Hellerstein reports for Think Progress.
Read story
How Freddie Gray’s Death Brought Gang Members And Pastors Together BY ERICA HELLERSTEIN
"How Freddie Gray’s Death Brought Gang Members And Pastors Together"
“Everybody knows I’m the preacher on the block,” Rev. Michael Parker chuckled, sitting in a rickety chair in the downstairs of Ames Methodist Church in Baltimore, his clerical collar peeking out of the front of a yellow Hollister sweatshirt.
The 31-year-old Reverend, now a pastor at a Methodist Church in Bel-Air, Maryland, grew up with Freddie Gray in Sandtown-Winchester, a hardscrabble neighborhood in Baltimore where more than 50 percent of households earn less than $25,000 a year and nearly one-third of families live below the poverty line. After Gray’s recent death — from severe spinal injuries sustained in police custody — Parker found that many grieving Sandtown residents needed an outlet for prayer and a forum to talk. So he sprung into action, organizing a prayer vigil and running a mediation group out of his house, which drew police officers, pastors, and community leaders together for a “fruitful time of sharing.”
“When everything happened and Freddie ended up passing, my biggest concern was that I had not heard any clergy persons just calling the community to prayer,” Parker remarked. “And I’m one that believes in the power and importance of prayer, even when prayer just means that you sit there and you have nothing that you can say.”
Following a tense evening of protests, ThinkProgress sat down with Parker at the Ames Memorial United Methodist Church in Baltimore, a large brick building in Sandtown down the street from his childhood home. He shared his memories of Freddie Gray, discussed the roots of the community’s response to Gray’s death, and next steps for reform. An excerpt of the conversation is featured below:
Rev. Parker talks to ThinkProgress about Freddie Gray’s community at Ames United Methodist Church. Photo by Erica Hellerstein.
ThinkProgress: We’ve been talking to community members in Baltimore about how they’ve been responding to Gray’s death and the protests. Could you talk a little bit about what you and other members of the clergy have been doing, as well as any plans you have?
Parker: We’ve just been doing a lot of grassroots stuff just trying to run interference and mediation, reaching out to some of the young guys in the neighborhood and hearing what they have to say. On Friday morning, in my home, we had a small gathering with some of the guys in the neighborhood, and we just talked. And tried to get a grip on what was what before all of this came about. It was a very productive, very fruitful time of sharing. Just doing that, reaching out, and trying to connect. So yesterday when everything started going and they put a call in for clergy to come out, I jumped into gear.
This is my community. So I inevitably serve. Everybody knows I’m the preacher on the block. The opportunity to be a presence and just operating out of the ministry of presence more than anything. We don’t have any answers, we don’t. My gut says it will get worse before it will get better. But just the matter of just being here and seeing people. It has been a lot to process, to contend with. Freddie grew up about four or five houses from me. We ran around together. His older brother who is deceased as well was one of my closest friends growing up.
ThinkProgress: A lot of media attention has been focused on the rioting, looting, and protests. Are there any positive outcomes you’d like to highlight?I kind of just felt like it was just a matter of time. This city has been above 212degrees for quite a long time with the cap on.
Parker: One thing this has done that I’ve experienced is that it has really brought the community together. I’ve seen people outside that I haven’t seen in years. So even in the midst of this it’s like a family reunion. Just being able to hug my people. Just being able to do that has been a blessing.
It’s amazing because the gang members are getting such a bad rap and there are so many of them that are really on our side and are hoping for change and for better. And they actually escorted the clergy down North Avenue and back up last night. They had us covered around the back. They were in front of us, they were alongside us, they pulled up their cars and said ‘put the bottles away! The preachers are getting ready to pray.’ I went up to one guy, grabbed him and just said ‘boy I love you.’ And I describe this as the best insult I ever heard, he said ‘boy I love your dumb ass too,’ with water streaming down his face. And we sat in this sanctuary down with them last night, with about 20 gang members and all of these preachers, and we just talked. And we just talked and they talked and we talked, and we heard them all say ‘you are our burden. We’re covering you, we’re protecting you. We’re not trying to tear stuff up or destroy stuff.’
Just hearing that was so encouraging, and hearing how articulate these young guys are. It’s been heavy. It has been very heavy. And I think about, I have an absolutely beautiful 1-year-old niece, and she’s growing up here now. And I think about her. And I think about the legacy that we’re leaving for her. And will the community be safeenough that my sister feels like she can go to the same school that we went to? Will she be okay to play outside?People are just tired of being tired. They’re tired of feeling like they’re not being listened to.
ThinkProgress: How has the mood changed since last night? Some people we’ve talked to have said the energy is now ‘how do we change the energy?’ What do you think?
Parker: It’s charm city. It is what we do. Baltimore is a very unique place. I tell the world we are the masters of making lemonade out of lemons, in Baltimore. So it is a much different tone today than it was yesterday.
ThinkProgress: Do you think last night was a necessary catharsis?
Parker: People are just tired of being tired. They’re tired of feeling like they’re not being listened to, they don’t have any value, things like that.
ThinkProgress: We’ve talked about your role in the community as a member of the clergy. But you also talked to members of the police force, like the police commissioner, can you talk a little more about the conversations you had? What did you learn?
Parker: They’ve been very informative. They’ve shared information that had not yet been publicized. And they’ve really, they came at us as sponges. They wanted to listen. It was initiated on our end. They were more than willing to meet with us and heard us out. And we offered points of advice.
ThinkProgress: Did you learn anything from their perspective that was instructive, that you hadn’t thought about?
Parker: I did. I was totally ignorant, I was one of the community residents that was pissed off that these officers were home with pay. I did not feel that was right, and even though there’s no proof that they are guilty or not or whatever the case may be, to me that wasn’t enough. And I learned there’s a state law that prohibits officers from being suspended without pay until actually being charged. I did not know that, that was an eye-opener for me. Because all we see is you sent them home and you’re paying them. We don’t know that your hands are tied. A lot of the residents here don’t know that. It was helpful. It was refreshing to be able to pray with them.
It’s just a bad situation but we’re hoping for the best.It’s charm city. Baltimore is a very unique place. I tell the world we are the masters of making lemonade out of lemons.
ThinkProgress: A week from now where do you see Baltimore? What do you think will be going on?
Parker: My gut says people will still be out here a week from now. There’s supposed to be announcement of preliminary findings on Friday, so my suspicion is that will heighten things yet again. My gut says there’s not going to be a criminal prosecution for any of them but it’s good to know that Commissioner Batts is thoroughly following through not just on the criminal side but the administrative side as well. We’ll see.
ThinkProgress: You grew up in the community and it’s still very close to your heart. And so as you’ve been watching these other situations unfold in other parts of the country, did you ever think ‘this could happen here?’
Parker: Absolutely. I kind of just felt like it was just a matter of time. This city has been above 212 degrees for quite a long time with the cap on. It’s sad that it was in Freddy’s name but it was just a matter of time. People are just outraged, broken. They don’t have access to everyday necessities. A lot of people in this community rely on corner stores and things like that where prices are three and four times what those of us pay who go elsewhere. It’s been a bad situation, especially in this area, Sandtown is leading the state of Maryland in incarcerations. Over 17 million dollars is pumped into the community annually for that purpose, and not enough resources are being put into building stronger community centers, stronger schools. When you don’t have those things in place, you set the community up for where we are right now.People are just outraged, broken. They don’t have access to everyday necessities.
ThinkProgress: What do you think are some of the things that distinguish Baltimore from other cities where similar incidents have emerged, problems that are unique to this place?
Parker: We’re a much larger landscape than like Ferguson, so the hard thing with a city like this is it’s hard to pocket it, it’s hard to contain it. Which is why we saw what we saw last night everywhere. That I think is one of the biggest things.
ThinkProgress: Anything else you’d like to add?
Parker: I would say that while it is a nightmare with your eyes open, this community has not given up hope, we are not hopeless. We are not desolate. We don’t feel like we can’t recover. This a community that has recovered time and time and time again. And while it may take us some time to get our footing back, we will stand strong again. Sandtown people are committed to that. We love this place. And you can only understand it if you’re from here. And we’re here for the long haul. To roll our sleeves up and together work alongside each other. To do what we gotta do to build our community up. So we are not hopeless.BMCR president calls for real action from churches
ATLANTA (UMNS) — United Methodists and their churches need to take real, intentional action in addressing deaths of young African American men in police custody, writes the Rev. Cedric Bridgeforth, head of Black Methodists for Church Renewal. "Real action at this time calls for every person who calls her or himself a follower of Jesus to ponder what righteous statement of faith or act of mercy you must perform to demonstrate your commitment to healing our land. Too many of our black men are dying and too many of us are too silent to make a difference," Bridgeforth writes.
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Real Action Real Talk
REAL TALK. REAL ACTION.
In the wake of the killing spree, social unrest and finger-pointing taking place around our country, the thing that is most disturbing is the utter silence and inertia that has distracted us from taking real action. This is a spiritual problem being played out on our streets and receiving little airtime within our churches. Our children are watching their peers be put to death by police. They are watching their hopes and dreams slip away breath-by-breath. They are watching and they are waiting for those of us who bear responsibility for their safety, security, spirituality and success to show them a more excellent way. The way forward is through real, direct and intentional action.
Real action at this time calls for each and every pastor to call her/his congregation to prayerful dialogue about racial bias, tension and privilege they endure or enjoy so there can be a time of truth-telling and healing at the base level of the church. If the community sees and hears the church having “real talk” about “real matters,” then the church’s message can be made really relevant in communities that do not know we exist. Find out who the Watch Commander or Area Supervisor is in your community and invite her/him to be in dialogue with the congregation and community about real ways all may begin walking and working together to bring about healing and wholeness at the most basic unit of our society – the hood.
Real action at this time calls for each and every caucus to engage your episcopal leader to call her/his conference(s) to a series of dialogues about the long-standing, stomach-turning, mind-boggling race-based policies and conversations that have us “ok” with a little diversity in leadership and in positions of real power. [And] when persons of color are in those positions of power, why is it so easy to second-guess their voice or to dismiss their input? Why is it so easy to assume they have an agenda that may not speak to or for the whole? Days of Dialogue or Conversations About Race must occur in every area so we stop pretending we are in a post-racial church just because there is more diversity around us because until we can truly function as though all of us have the same rights and privileges, then we will have a race problem. Unfortunately, this is a race we cannot afford to lose.
Real action at this time calls for every person who calls her or himself a follower of Jesus to ponder what righteous statement of faith or act of mercy you must perform to demonstrate your commitment to healing our land. Too many of our black men are dying and too many of us are too silent to make a difference.
Our President of the Council of Bishops (Bishop Warner Brown) delivered a staunch address that challenged the church to see the evils for what they are and to work against all the things that divide us. Bishop Gregory V. Palmer has spoken up and reminded us that our work is not done – a call to action was rendered. (www.umc.org)
We cannot stop and look back the genesis of Black Methodists for Church Renewal without hearing echoes of mercy and calls for justice reaching our ears and thumping our souls. If the church is to experience renewal, we must save our black men from the perils they now face. If we cannot see that black men are worth saving and that each of us has a viable role to play in their survival, then you cannot and will not see renewal of the church.
Several resources to help you prepare for meaningful conversations in your geographic area and electronic platforms can be accessed on Black Methodist for Church Renewal’s website (www.bmcrumc.org)
Real action is needed NOW!
Your turn.
Rev. Cedrick Bridgeforth, EdD
BMCR Chairperson
WHAT ACTION CAN WE TAKE? WHAT RESOURCES ARE AVAILABLE?
This is not the time to be bound by ineffective norms and financial scarcity induced assumptions. The charge here is to begin the work necessary to bring people together to discuss the pertinent issues of our day. We must discuss race and racism in our communities and in our churches. We must discuss the plight of our children and the policies we have in place, civilly and liturgically, that binds them and hold them at bay. The purpose of these discussions is to move from the table to the streets and to State Halls, provided we are committed to ‘righting’ our own policies, procedures and attitudes in the church and we are prepared to model what we believe to be best for our world.
The following list of resources are far from exhaustive, but they are beginnings. You may also join any/all Black Methodists for Church Renewal (BMCR) Facebook conversations and you may reach out to our Office Staff to report the actions you have taken in your geographic area or online platform.
Resources
RACE MATTERS (A toolkit to help frame and guide conversations about race)
http://www.aecf.org/m/resourcedoc/aecf-whatsracegottodowithit-2006.pdf
SACRED CONVERSATIONS ABOUT RACE (The UCC has a complete resource guide you may access to learn ways of engaging meaningful congregation and conference-based conversations. You may also consider partnering with a nearby UCC congregation to get things started and to broaden input and impact.)
http://www.uccfiles.com/pdf/SCbook-whole.pdf
DO’S AND DON’TS OF TEACHING BLACK HISTORY (It cannot be relegated to a month of activities about 5 or 6 individuals)
http://www.tolerance.org/article/dos-and-donts-teaching-black-history
HATE MAP (Know where “hate” activities are harbored within your area): http://www.splcenter.org/hate-map
SCHOOL-TO-PRISON-PIPELINE (The criminalization of our children is nothing short of inhumane) http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/america-must-stop-criminalizing-its-children
Books
A New Dawn in Beloved Community, Bishop Linda Lee, General Editor
Race and Theology by Elaine A. Robinson
Understanding & Dismantling White Racism: The Twenty-First Century Challenge to White America by Joseph BrandtNCC makes change in Bible translation management
WASHINGTON (UMNS) — Riggins International Rights Services will assume responsibility for domestic and international rights management of the Revised Standard Version and New Revised Standard Version translations of the Bible, effective June 1. The NCC owns the copyright to the RSV and NRSV translations.
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Press Release: NRSV and RSV rights licensing transition
May 5, 2015
For immediate release
Jim Winkler, President and General Secretary of the National Council of Churches
(NCC), announces that Riggins International Rights Services will assume responsibility for domestic and international rights management of the Revised Standard Version (RSV) and New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translations of the Bible effective July 1, 2015. The NCC owns the copyright to the RSV and NRSV translations.
Riggins International Rights Services (RIRS) serves as the rights department for several inspirational publishers. Their team has over 40 years’ experience with religious publishing rights management.
“After an intense and rigorous period of discernment, we are confident that Riggins International is the right fit for the NCC at this time in our history and in our work with the RSV/NRSV,” Winkler said.
Riggins International will handle licenses for complete editions of the RSV and NRSV, as well as all permissions for the use of excerpts from the translations.
Inquiries regarding use of the RSV and NRSV now can be directed to RIRS at:
RIGGINS INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS SERVICES
NRSVcopyright@rigginsrights.com
www.rigginsrights.com
Previously, RSV/NRSV rights administration work that had been managed by other agents including work conducted by Rachel Riensche since 2004. The Rev. Dr. Roy Medley, Chairman of the NCC Governing Board stated, “Rachel has shown extraordinary commitment to the NCC as RSV/NRSV copyright administrator. We are thankful for her dedicated service over many years.” According to Winkler, “Rachel helped hold things together for the NCC during some lean years. She worked sacrificially to handle licenses and rights related to the
RSV/NRSV because she believes in the work of the NCC and its bible ministry.”
Part of Rachel’s services included work with the Bible, Translation, and Utilization (BTU) Advisory Committee of the NCC. Rev. Dr. Kent H. Richards, BTU Chair, commented that “Rachel has been a faithful voice for the tradition of excellence in English Bible translation as she has provided leadership in the rights management for the RSV and NRSV for an important part of its history.
In the history of translations, the RSV and NRSV have a prominent place in the tradition of English Bible translation dating back to the King James Authorized Version of the Bible. The RSV was first published in 1952, and the NRSV first appeared in publication in 1989. These translations represent reliable and trustworthy translations of Christian scriptures to individuals, churches, and the academic community globally.
Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA has been the leading force for shared ecumenical witness among Christians in the United States. The NCC's 37 member communions -- from a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African American and Living
Peace churches -- include 45 million persons in more than 100,000 local congregations in communities across the nation.
News contact: Steven D. Martin: 202.412.4323 or steven.martin@nationalcouncilofchurches.us
Zimbabwe churches call for immediate end to xenophobia
HARARE, Zimbabwe (UMNS) — United Methodists joined other ecumenical church leaders in calling for an immediate end to xenophobic violence in South Africa. The violence against immigrants to South Africa is cause for concern because 3 million Zimbabweans live in South Africa. Taurai Emmanuel Maforo, communicator for the Zimbabwe East Conference, has the story.
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Photo by Taurai Emmanuel Maforo, UMNS
Worshippers at Harare’s Trinity Methodist Church unite hands in prayer at prayer meeting about xenophobia in South Africa.
Zimbabwe churches call for immediate end to xenophobia by Taurai Emmanuel Maforo
HARARE, Zimbabwe (UMNS)
United Methodists joined other ecumenical church leaders in calling for an immediate end to xenophobic violence in South Africa.
In calling for an immediate stop to the ongoing xenophobic violence against immigrants in South Africa, Bishop Ishmael Mukuwanda said more practical measures should be taken by Zimbabwe. Mukuwanda is the president of Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations, an umbrella organization for all Christian groups, and is also the Zimbabwe Council of Churches president. Zimbabwe United Methodist Bishop Eben Nhiwatiwa is a member of both the umbrella group and the council.
“We need to pray, and also come up with solutions and urge politicians and MPs to do something to correct the reasons why our children (Zimbabweans) are running away to South Africa, because if we do not correct that, we will not get an everlasting solution,” he said. He spoke at a prayer meeting organized by the Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations.
Zimbabwe has an estimated 3 million nationals who have fled the country for better opportunities in South Africa. Of these, more than 800 have voluntarily been repatriated back home while the majority are still living out of country.
The Rev. Shingi Munyeza, Evangelical Fellowship Zimbabwe president, represented the body of Pentecostal churches. Munyeza declared that there is no justification for the murderous acts happening in South Africa, a nation that received support from other African countries during the apartheid era.
“The Evangelical Fellowship Zimbabwe condemns this inhuman, criminal, horrendous and diabolically motivated behaviour which can neither be socially, legally nor politically justified under whatever pretext or context. The sacredness of human life cannot be compromised or exchanged for any personal or corporate gain,” he said.
His statement applauded the South African government for the public denunciation of xenophobia, but urged them to employ more effective and sustainable ways of stopping the unreasoned fear of foreigners or strangers.
‘Economic refugees’
Munyeza called on the Zimbabwean government to offer “practical, appropriate, relevant, immediate and long term remedies to the diverse categories of Zimbabwean immigrants living in South Africa.
“We further implore the government of Zimbabwe to take urgent political and economic steps to reduce the need for our people to become economic refugees in neighbouring countries where they are exposed to all kinds of humiliation and xenophobic attacks.”
“We are completely appalled. . . we have completely lost our humanity,” said Songe Chibambo the Pan African Missions director for African Enterprise from South Africa.
“The significance of this gathering is that God is calling us as the church to be our brother’s keeper. . . we must be interwoven with the cobweb of humanity,” said Bishop Guide Makore of the African Evangelistic Enterprise Zimbabwe, an interdenominational parachurch organization.
The Rev. Sabina Chikeya and the Rev. Dudzai Mutsikwi, both United Methodists, were highly optimistic that these prayers and calls by the church leaders will bring about a positive change to the happenings south of the Limpopo River.
The prayer meeting was an initiative by the Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations.
Maforo is a conference communicator in the Zimbabwe Episcopal Area.
News media contact: Vicki Brown at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Student loan application open for fall semester
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) — The United Methodist Loan application opened May 1 for students seeking loans for fall 2015. The mother of loan recipient Mikala Mayhugh credits the United Methodist student loan with helping her daughter pay for school when the family faced financial difficulties.
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Nothing is impossible, a UM loan recipient’s story
Kara Lassen Oliver
Mikala Mayhugh, a United Methodist loan recipient.
The Fall United Methodist Loan application opens May 1, for students who are enrolled between August 1 and December 31. Find out more or apply at www.gbhem.org/loans-and-scholarships/loans.
Asked to describe Mikala Mayhugh’s gifts, her mother, Lisa, said without hesitation, “Mercy. She has always stood up for the least and the lowly. I always knew that she would be a champion for a just cause.” And then Lisa told the story of five-year-old Mikala standing on the school playground between a bullied boy and those who taunted him saying, “If you want to mess with someone, mess with me.”
Mikala is quiet as her mom tells the story and explains humbly that she’s always been a mother figure with a big heart. Whether babysitting, teaching dance or working with the children’s choir at the church where her dad is a pastor, Mikala says she wants to nurture every child and to be a protector. Lisa can’t help but add, “She is always patient and never gives up on a child.”
It was no surprise to her parents that Mikala wanted to attend college and major in Elementary Education. But in her senior year of high school, her father, the Rev. Mike Mayhugh, was moved to new church and her mother was recovering from cancer treatment. As a family they experienced a reduction in salary of over $100,000. College seemed impossible. But they never gave up hope.
Mikala applied and was accepted to Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Tex. At the same time a friend and fellow preacher’s wife told the Mayhugh family about the Smart Loan available through the United Methodist General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. Immediately, Mikala created an account online, completed the five-page application and requested the required recommendations. Mikala’s family found the process easy to complete and after signing the appropriate paperwork, the check arrived in their mailbox in time to pay the bills that had already arrived from the university.
The “Smart Loan”—a loan with a 3.75 percent interest rate—saves United Methodist students a tremendous amount of money over the life of the loan. A $5,000 Smart Loan, for example, will save a student roughly $1,040 in interest compared to a $5,000 loan with a 4 percent interest rate—a 5 percent interest rate, and a Smart Loan saves you over $1,600 more. Another advantage of the Smart Loan is that it can be paid off in less than nine years instead of 14 for some of the higher percentage loans. In 2014, GBHEM loaned $2.3 million to almost 500 borrowers.
Mikala is taking full advantage of her education, proud to announce that her 3.5 GPA has earned her a place on the Dean’s List her first semester. True to her calling, she has also joined Phi Lam, the Christian service sorority on campus. Mikala knows what a blessing the Smart Loan is for her and for her family. She wants those who think education is impossible to have faith and know that “when you are at your lowest point, that’s when it’s about to go up.”
The Mayhughs credit this loan for bringing them back from the edge of broken dreams. Through tears Lisa promises other families that “nothing is impossible with God on your side.”
Oliver is freelance writer and editor, Nashville, Tenn.
Learn more or apply for a loan
Loans
Loans are provided by the people of The United Methodist Church
An emergency grant and relief-supply kits help local churches to be present in challenging times by Linda Unger*
May 1, 2015—Following days of civil unrest in Baltimore, United Methodist churches there are seeking to be present to still-unfolding needs in the communities. An emergency grant from the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) will help them be a resource for dialogue, peace, and healing.
“What we want to do as a church here is to be present, to be that hope and that light, because there are some dark places in the community,” said Rev. Joan Carter-Rimbach, who heads United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) for the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church.
Carter-Rimbach said the UMCOR grant will help Baltimore churches keep their doors open, so “people can come in and not only get some immediate assistance with physical needs but for spiritual and emotional needs as well.”
After the death of Freddie Gray, 25, in police custody, days of peaceful demonstrations turned briefly but intensely violent last Monday. United Methodist churches joined other houses of worship in keeping their doors open for all in need, and clergy joined demonstrators in peaceful protest.
When classes were cancelled on Tuesday, United Methodist churches remained open to feed and care for school children who depended on school lunches.
On Friday, the state attorney of Baltimore, Marilyn J. Mosby, said Gray’s death had been ruled a homicide, news reports indicated.
‘We will partner in any way we can’
“UMCOR is looking forward to partnering with the Baltimore-Washington Conference to address issues arising from—and underlying—the civil protests, providing especially for children and young people,” said Greg Forrester, UMCOR executive in charge of U.S. Disaster Response.
“We will partner in any way we can as the churches respond to the needs of their communities,” he said.
Besides the emergency grant, UMCOR also already has facilitated the shipment of relief-supply kits to Baltimore churches. A total of 1,000 health kits, 500 layette kits, and 500 school kits were on their way Thursday afternoon and will be distributed from three Baltimore churches.
“People are unemployed because of the recent destruction or their incomes have been reduced due to the curfew,” which went into effect on April 28, Forrester said. “The relief-supply kits provide some very basic things they need, so they can use their limited resources for other things.”
Prepared
Even before the event, Forrester noted, mission leaders of the Baltimore-Washington Conference had taken advantage of a recent training in emotional and spiritual care and community outreach that UMCOR offered at the jurisdictional level.
“They were prepared,” he said. “And now they’re finding new ways to apply what they learned in the current circumstances.”
One such creative application might well be the promotion of opportunities for dialogue, which Carter-Rimbach foresaw on various levels—within the communities, with the city government, and with law enforcement.
“That has to happen,” she said. “The church is a wonderful place to bring different groups together. It is a safe place, and so it’s a great opportunity for the church, and the [UMCOR] grant will certainly be able to help us do that,” she added, as she also asked for continued prayers for the people of Baltimore.
“We’re excited to be part of a church that is indeed a connectional church,” she said. “We’re excited to receive this grant and to utilize it, because it’s not just the Baltimore-Washington Conference who is responding in this time of need but it is our whole church through this grant.”
Your gift to UMCOR U.S. Disaster Response, Advance #901670, allows UMCOR to support the church’s presence in times of civil unrest or natural disasters.
You can also help by assembling and shipping relief-supply kits, especially health kits andschool kits, to any one of the depots in the UMCOR Relief-Supply Network. Stocks are low and need to be replenished.Pastor works to bring Baltimore community together
BALTIMORE — The pastor of Ames United Methodist Church grew up with Freddie Gray, who died after being in police custody. Michael Parker found that after Gray's death, many from their old neighborhood needed an outlet for prayer and a forum to talk. So he organized a prayer vigil and began running a mediation group out of his house. The group drew police officers, pastors, and community leaders together. Erica Hellerstein reports for Think Progress.
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How Freddie Gray’s Death Brought Gang Members And Pastors Together BY ERICA HELLERSTEIN
"How Freddie Gray’s Death Brought Gang Members And Pastors Together"
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The 31-year-old Reverend, now a pastor at a Methodist Church in Bel-Air, Maryland, grew up with Freddie Gray in Sandtown-Winchester, a hardscrabble neighborhood in Baltimore where more than 50 percent of households earn less than $25,000 a year and nearly one-third of families live below the poverty line. After Gray’s recent death — from severe spinal injuries sustained in police custody — Parker found that many grieving Sandtown residents needed an outlet for prayer and a forum to talk. So he sprung into action, organizing a prayer vigil and running a mediation group out of his house, which drew police officers, pastors, and community leaders together for a “fruitful time of sharing.”
“When everything happened and Freddie ended up passing, my biggest concern was that I had not heard any clergy persons just calling the community to prayer,” Parker remarked. “And I’m one that believes in the power and importance of prayer, even when prayer just means that you sit there and you have nothing that you can say.”
Following a tense evening of protests, ThinkProgress sat down with Parker at the Ames Memorial United Methodist Church in Baltimore, a large brick building in Sandtown down the street from his childhood home. He shared his memories of Freddie Gray, discussed the roots of the community’s response to Gray’s death, and next steps for reform. An excerpt of the conversation is featured below:
ThinkProgress: We’ve been talking to community members in Baltimore about how they’ve been responding to Gray’s death and the protests. Could you talk a little bit about what you and other members of the clergy have been doing, as well as any plans you have?
Parker: We’ve just been doing a lot of grassroots stuff just trying to run interference and mediation, reaching out to some of the young guys in the neighborhood and hearing what they have to say. On Friday morning, in my home, we had a small gathering with some of the guys in the neighborhood, and we just talked. And tried to get a grip on what was what before all of this came about. It was a very productive, very fruitful time of sharing. Just doing that, reaching out, and trying to connect. So yesterday when everything started going and they put a call in for clergy to come out, I jumped into gear.
This is my community. So I inevitably serve. Everybody knows I’m the preacher on the block. The opportunity to be a presence and just operating out of the ministry of presence more than anything. We don’t have any answers, we don’t. My gut says it will get worse before it will get better. But just the matter of just being here and seeing people. It has been a lot to process, to contend with. Freddie grew up about four or five houses from me. We ran around together. His older brother who is deceased as well was one of my closest friends growing up.
ThinkProgress: A lot of media attention has been focused on the rioting, looting, and protests. Are there any positive outcomes you’d like to highlight?I kind of just felt like it was just a matter of time. This city has been above 212degrees for quite a long time with the cap on.
Parker: One thing this has done that I’ve experienced is that it has really brought the community together. I’ve seen people outside that I haven’t seen in years. So even in the midst of this it’s like a family reunion. Just being able to hug my people. Just being able to do that has been a blessing.
It’s amazing because the gang members are getting such a bad rap and there are so many of them that are really on our side and are hoping for change and for better. And they actually escorted the clergy down North Avenue and back up last night. They had us covered around the back. They were in front of us, they were alongside us, they pulled up their cars and said ‘put the bottles away! The preachers are getting ready to pray.’ I went up to one guy, grabbed him and just said ‘boy I love you.’ And I describe this as the best insult I ever heard, he said ‘boy I love your dumb ass too,’ with water streaming down his face. And we sat in this sanctuary down with them last night, with about 20 gang members and all of these preachers, and we just talked. And we just talked and they talked and we talked, and we heard them all say ‘you are our burden. We’re covering you, we’re protecting you. We’re not trying to tear stuff up or destroy stuff.’
Just hearing that was so encouraging, and hearing how articulate these young guys are. It’s been heavy. It has been very heavy. And I think about, I have an absolutely beautiful 1-year-old niece, and she’s growing up here now. And I think about her. And I think about the legacy that we’re leaving for her. And will the community be safeenough that my sister feels like she can go to the same school that we went to? Will she be okay to play outside?People are just tired of being tired. They’re tired of feeling like they’re not being listened to.
ThinkProgress: How has the mood changed since last night? Some people we’ve talked to have said the energy is now ‘how do we change the energy?’ What do you think?
Parker: It’s charm city. It is what we do. Baltimore is a very unique place. I tell the world we are the masters of making lemonade out of lemons, in Baltimore. So it is a much different tone today than it was yesterday.
ThinkProgress: Do you think last night was a necessary catharsis?
Parker: People are just tired of being tired. They’re tired of feeling like they’re not being listened to, they don’t have any value, things like that.
ThinkProgress: We’ve talked about your role in the community as a member of the clergy. But you also talked to members of the police force, like the police commissioner, can you talk a little more about the conversations you had? What did you learn?
Parker: They’ve been very informative. They’ve shared information that had not yet been publicized. And they’ve really, they came at us as sponges. They wanted to listen. It was initiated on our end. They were more than willing to meet with us and heard us out. And we offered points of advice.
ThinkProgress: Did you learn anything from their perspective that was instructive, that you hadn’t thought about?
Parker: I did. I was totally ignorant, I was one of the community residents that was pissed off that these officers were home with pay. I did not feel that was right, and even though there’s no proof that they are guilty or not or whatever the case may be, to me that wasn’t enough. And I learned there’s a state law that prohibits officers from being suspended without pay until actually being charged. I did not know that, that was an eye-opener for me. Because all we see is you sent them home and you’re paying them. We don’t know that your hands are tied. A lot of the residents here don’t know that. It was helpful. It was refreshing to be able to pray with them.
It’s just a bad situation but we’re hoping for the best.It’s charm city. Baltimore is a very unique place. I tell the world we are the masters of making lemonade out of lemons.
ThinkProgress: A week from now where do you see Baltimore? What do you think will be going on?
Parker: My gut says people will still be out here a week from now. There’s supposed to be announcement of preliminary findings on Friday, so my suspicion is that will heighten things yet again. My gut says there’s not going to be a criminal prosecution for any of them but it’s good to know that Commissioner Batts is thoroughly following through not just on the criminal side but the administrative side as well. We’ll see.
ThinkProgress: You grew up in the community and it’s still very close to your heart. And so as you’ve been watching these other situations unfold in other parts of the country, did you ever think ‘this could happen here?’
Parker: Absolutely. I kind of just felt like it was just a matter of time. This city has been above 212 degrees for quite a long time with the cap on. It’s sad that it was in Freddy’s name but it was just a matter of time. People are just outraged, broken. They don’t have access to everyday necessities. A lot of people in this community rely on corner stores and things like that where prices are three and four times what those of us pay who go elsewhere. It’s been a bad situation, especially in this area, Sandtown is leading the state of Maryland in incarcerations. Over 17 million dollars is pumped into the community annually for that purpose, and not enough resources are being put into building stronger community centers, stronger schools. When you don’t have those things in place, you set the community up for where we are right now.People are just outraged, broken. They don’t have access to everyday necessities.
ThinkProgress: What do you think are some of the things that distinguish Baltimore from other cities where similar incidents have emerged, problems that are unique to this place?
Parker: We’re a much larger landscape than like Ferguson, so the hard thing with a city like this is it’s hard to pocket it, it’s hard to contain it. Which is why we saw what we saw last night everywhere. That I think is one of the biggest things.
ThinkProgress: Anything else you’d like to add?
Parker: I would say that while it is a nightmare with your eyes open, this community has not given up hope, we are not hopeless. We are not desolate. We don’t feel like we can’t recover. This a community that has recovered time and time and time again. And while it may take us some time to get our footing back, we will stand strong again. Sandtown people are committed to that. We love this place. And you can only understand it if you’re from here. And we’re here for the long haul. To roll our sleeves up and together work alongside each other. To do what we gotta do to build our community up. So we are not hopeless.BMCR president calls for real action from churches
ATLANTA (UMNS) — United Methodists and their churches need to take real, intentional action in addressing deaths of young African American men in police custody, writes the Rev. Cedric Bridgeforth, head of Black Methodists for Church Renewal. "Real action at this time calls for every person who calls her or himself a follower of Jesus to ponder what righteous statement of faith or act of mercy you must perform to demonstrate your commitment to healing our land. Too many of our black men are dying and too many of us are too silent to make a difference," Bridgeforth writes.
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Real Action Real Talk
REAL TALK. REAL ACTION.
In the wake of the killing spree, social unrest and finger-pointing taking place around our country, the thing that is most disturbing is the utter silence and inertia that has distracted us from taking real action. This is a spiritual problem being played out on our streets and receiving little airtime within our churches. Our children are watching their peers be put to death by police. They are watching their hopes and dreams slip away breath-by-breath. They are watching and they are waiting for those of us who bear responsibility for their safety, security, spirituality and success to show them a more excellent way. The way forward is through real, direct and intentional action.
Real action at this time calls for each and every pastor to call her/his congregation to prayerful dialogue about racial bias, tension and privilege they endure or enjoy so there can be a time of truth-telling and healing at the base level of the church. If the community sees and hears the church having “real talk” about “real matters,” then the church’s message can be made really relevant in communities that do not know we exist. Find out who the Watch Commander or Area Supervisor is in your community and invite her/him to be in dialogue with the congregation and community about real ways all may begin walking and working together to bring about healing and wholeness at the most basic unit of our society – the hood.
Real action at this time calls for each and every caucus to engage your episcopal leader to call her/his conference(s) to a series of dialogues about the long-standing, stomach-turning, mind-boggling race-based policies and conversations that have us “ok” with a little diversity in leadership and in positions of real power. [And] when persons of color are in those positions of power, why is it so easy to second-guess their voice or to dismiss their input? Why is it so easy to assume they have an agenda that may not speak to or for the whole? Days of Dialogue or Conversations About Race must occur in every area so we stop pretending we are in a post-racial church just because there is more diversity around us because until we can truly function as though all of us have the same rights and privileges, then we will have a race problem. Unfortunately, this is a race we cannot afford to lose.
Real action at this time calls for every person who calls her or himself a follower of Jesus to ponder what righteous statement of faith or act of mercy you must perform to demonstrate your commitment to healing our land. Too many of our black men are dying and too many of us are too silent to make a difference.
Our President of the Council of Bishops (Bishop Warner Brown) delivered a staunch address that challenged the church to see the evils for what they are and to work against all the things that divide us. Bishop Gregory V. Palmer has spoken up and reminded us that our work is not done – a call to action was rendered. (www.umc.org)
We cannot stop and look back the genesis of Black Methodists for Church Renewal without hearing echoes of mercy and calls for justice reaching our ears and thumping our souls. If the church is to experience renewal, we must save our black men from the perils they now face. If we cannot see that black men are worth saving and that each of us has a viable role to play in their survival, then you cannot and will not see renewal of the church.
Several resources to help you prepare for meaningful conversations in your geographic area and electronic platforms can be accessed on Black Methodist for Church Renewal’s website (www.bmcrumc.org)
Real action is needed NOW!
Your turn.
Rev. Cedrick Bridgeforth, EdD
BMCR Chairperson
WHAT ACTION CAN WE TAKE? WHAT RESOURCES ARE AVAILABLE?
This is not the time to be bound by ineffective norms and financial scarcity induced assumptions. The charge here is to begin the work necessary to bring people together to discuss the pertinent issues of our day. We must discuss race and racism in our communities and in our churches. We must discuss the plight of our children and the policies we have in place, civilly and liturgically, that binds them and hold them at bay. The purpose of these discussions is to move from the table to the streets and to State Halls, provided we are committed to ‘righting’ our own policies, procedures and attitudes in the church and we are prepared to model what we believe to be best for our world.
The following list of resources are far from exhaustive, but they are beginnings. You may also join any/all Black Methodists for Church Renewal (BMCR) Facebook conversations and you may reach out to our Office Staff to report the actions you have taken in your geographic area or online platform.
Resources
RACE MATTERS (A toolkit to help frame and guide conversations about race)
http://www.aecf.org/m/resourcedoc/aecf-whatsracegottodowithit-2006.pdf
SACRED CONVERSATIONS ABOUT RACE (The UCC has a complete resource guide you may access to learn ways of engaging meaningful congregation and conference-based conversations. You may also consider partnering with a nearby UCC congregation to get things started and to broaden input and impact.)
http://www.uccfiles.com/pdf/SCbook-whole.pdf
DO’S AND DON’TS OF TEACHING BLACK HISTORY (It cannot be relegated to a month of activities about 5 or 6 individuals)
http://www.tolerance.org/article/dos-and-donts-teaching-black-history
HATE MAP (Know where “hate” activities are harbored within your area): http://www.splcenter.org/hate-map
SCHOOL-TO-PRISON-PIPELINE (The criminalization of our children is nothing short of inhumane) http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/america-must-stop-criminalizing-its-children
Books
A New Dawn in Beloved Community, Bishop Linda Lee, General Editor
Race and Theology by Elaine A. Robinson
Understanding & Dismantling White Racism: The Twenty-First Century Challenge to White America by Joseph BrandtNCC makes change in Bible translation management
WASHINGTON (UMNS) — Riggins International Rights Services will assume responsibility for domestic and international rights management of the Revised Standard Version and New Revised Standard Version translations of the Bible, effective June 1. The NCC owns the copyright to the RSV and NRSV translations.
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Press Release: NRSV and RSV rights licensing transition
May 5, 2015
For immediate release
Jim Winkler, President and General Secretary of the National Council of Churches
(NCC), announces that Riggins International Rights Services will assume responsibility for domestic and international rights management of the Revised Standard Version (RSV) and New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translations of the Bible effective July 1, 2015. The NCC owns the copyright to the RSV and NRSV translations.
Riggins International Rights Services (RIRS) serves as the rights department for several inspirational publishers. Their team has over 40 years’ experience with religious publishing rights management.
“After an intense and rigorous period of discernment, we are confident that Riggins International is the right fit for the NCC at this time in our history and in our work with the RSV/NRSV,” Winkler said.
Riggins International will handle licenses for complete editions of the RSV and NRSV, as well as all permissions for the use of excerpts from the translations.
Inquiries regarding use of the RSV and NRSV now can be directed to RIRS at:
RIGGINS INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS SERVICES
NRSVcopyright@rigginsrights.com
www.rigginsrights.com
Previously, RSV/NRSV rights administration work that had been managed by other agents including work conducted by Rachel Riensche since 2004. The Rev. Dr. Roy Medley, Chairman of the NCC Governing Board stated, “Rachel has shown extraordinary commitment to the NCC as RSV/NRSV copyright administrator. We are thankful for her dedicated service over many years.” According to Winkler, “Rachel helped hold things together for the NCC during some lean years. She worked sacrificially to handle licenses and rights related to the
RSV/NRSV because she believes in the work of the NCC and its bible ministry.”
Part of Rachel’s services included work with the Bible, Translation, and Utilization (BTU) Advisory Committee of the NCC. Rev. Dr. Kent H. Richards, BTU Chair, commented that “Rachel has been a faithful voice for the tradition of excellence in English Bible translation as she has provided leadership in the rights management for the RSV and NRSV for an important part of its history.
In the history of translations, the RSV and NRSV have a prominent place in the tradition of English Bible translation dating back to the King James Authorized Version of the Bible. The RSV was first published in 1952, and the NRSV first appeared in publication in 1989. These translations represent reliable and trustworthy translations of Christian scriptures to individuals, churches, and the academic community globally.
Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA has been the leading force for shared ecumenical witness among Christians in the United States. The NCC's 37 member communions -- from a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African American and Living
Peace churches -- include 45 million persons in more than 100,000 local congregations in communities across the nation.
News contact: Steven D. Martin: 202.412.4323 or steven.martin@nationalcouncilofchurches.us
Zimbabwe churches call for immediate end to xenophobia
HARARE, Zimbabwe (UMNS) — United Methodists joined other ecumenical church leaders in calling for an immediate end to xenophobic violence in South Africa. The violence against immigrants to South Africa is cause for concern because 3 million Zimbabweans live in South Africa. Taurai Emmanuel Maforo, communicator for the Zimbabwe East Conference, has the story.
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Worshippers at Harare’s Trinity Methodist Church unite hands in prayer at prayer meeting about xenophobia in South Africa.
Zimbabwe churches call for immediate end to xenophobia by Taurai Emmanuel Maforo
HARARE, Zimbabwe (UMNS)
United Methodists joined other ecumenical church leaders in calling for an immediate end to xenophobic violence in South Africa.
In calling for an immediate stop to the ongoing xenophobic violence against immigrants in South Africa, Bishop Ishmael Mukuwanda said more practical measures should be taken by Zimbabwe. Mukuwanda is the president of Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations, an umbrella organization for all Christian groups, and is also the Zimbabwe Council of Churches president. Zimbabwe United Methodist Bishop Eben Nhiwatiwa is a member of both the umbrella group and the council.
“We need to pray, and also come up with solutions and urge politicians and MPs to do something to correct the reasons why our children (Zimbabweans) are running away to South Africa, because if we do not correct that, we will not get an everlasting solution,” he said. He spoke at a prayer meeting organized by the Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations.
Zimbabwe has an estimated 3 million nationals who have fled the country for better opportunities in South Africa. Of these, more than 800 have voluntarily been repatriated back home while the majority are still living out of country.
The Rev. Shingi Munyeza, Evangelical Fellowship Zimbabwe president, represented the body of Pentecostal churches. Munyeza declared that there is no justification for the murderous acts happening in South Africa, a nation that received support from other African countries during the apartheid era.
“The Evangelical Fellowship Zimbabwe condemns this inhuman, criminal, horrendous and diabolically motivated behaviour which can neither be socially, legally nor politically justified under whatever pretext or context. The sacredness of human life cannot be compromised or exchanged for any personal or corporate gain,” he said.
His statement applauded the South African government for the public denunciation of xenophobia, but urged them to employ more effective and sustainable ways of stopping the unreasoned fear of foreigners or strangers.
‘Economic refugees’
Munyeza called on the Zimbabwean government to offer “practical, appropriate, relevant, immediate and long term remedies to the diverse categories of Zimbabwean immigrants living in South Africa.
“We further implore the government of Zimbabwe to take urgent political and economic steps to reduce the need for our people to become economic refugees in neighbouring countries where they are exposed to all kinds of humiliation and xenophobic attacks.”
“We are completely appalled. . . we have completely lost our humanity,” said Songe Chibambo the Pan African Missions director for African Enterprise from South Africa.
“The significance of this gathering is that God is calling us as the church to be our brother’s keeper. . . we must be interwoven with the cobweb of humanity,” said Bishop Guide Makore of the African Evangelistic Enterprise Zimbabwe, an interdenominational parachurch organization.
The Rev. Sabina Chikeya and the Rev. Dudzai Mutsikwi, both United Methodists, were highly optimistic that these prayers and calls by the church leaders will bring about a positive change to the happenings south of the Limpopo River.
The prayer meeting was an initiative by the Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations.
Maforo is a conference communicator in the Zimbabwe Episcopal Area.
News media contact: Vicki Brown at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Student loan application open for fall semester
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) — The United Methodist Loan application opened May 1 for students seeking loans for fall 2015. The mother of loan recipient Mikala Mayhugh credits the United Methodist student loan with helping her daughter pay for school when the family faced financial difficulties.
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Nothing is impossible, a UM loan recipient’s story
Kara Lassen Oliver
The Fall United Methodist Loan application opens May 1, for students who are enrolled between August 1 and December 31. Find out more or apply at www.gbhem.org/loans-and-scholarships/loans.
Asked to describe Mikala Mayhugh’s gifts, her mother, Lisa, said without hesitation, “Mercy. She has always stood up for the least and the lowly. I always knew that she would be a champion for a just cause.” And then Lisa told the story of five-year-old Mikala standing on the school playground between a bullied boy and those who taunted him saying, “If you want to mess with someone, mess with me.”
Mikala is quiet as her mom tells the story and explains humbly that she’s always been a mother figure with a big heart. Whether babysitting, teaching dance or working with the children’s choir at the church where her dad is a pastor, Mikala says she wants to nurture every child and to be a protector. Lisa can’t help but add, “She is always patient and never gives up on a child.”
It was no surprise to her parents that Mikala wanted to attend college and major in Elementary Education. But in her senior year of high school, her father, the Rev. Mike Mayhugh, was moved to new church and her mother was recovering from cancer treatment. As a family they experienced a reduction in salary of over $100,000. College seemed impossible. But they never gave up hope.
Mikala applied and was accepted to Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Tex. At the same time a friend and fellow preacher’s wife told the Mayhugh family about the Smart Loan available through the United Methodist General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. Immediately, Mikala created an account online, completed the five-page application and requested the required recommendations. Mikala’s family found the process easy to complete and after signing the appropriate paperwork, the check arrived in their mailbox in time to pay the bills that had already arrived from the university.
The “Smart Loan”—a loan with a 3.75 percent interest rate—saves United Methodist students a tremendous amount of money over the life of the loan. A $5,000 Smart Loan, for example, will save a student roughly $1,040 in interest compared to a $5,000 loan with a 4 percent interest rate—a 5 percent interest rate, and a Smart Loan saves you over $1,600 more. Another advantage of the Smart Loan is that it can be paid off in less than nine years instead of 14 for some of the higher percentage loans. In 2014, GBHEM loaned $2.3 million to almost 500 borrowers.
Mikala is taking full advantage of her education, proud to announce that her 3.5 GPA has earned her a place on the Dean’s List her first semester. True to her calling, she has also joined Phi Lam, the Christian service sorority on campus. Mikala knows what a blessing the Smart Loan is for her and for her family. She wants those who think education is impossible to have faith and know that “when you are at your lowest point, that’s when it’s about to go up.”
The Mayhughs credit this loan for bringing them back from the edge of broken dreams. Through tears Lisa promises other families that “nothing is impossible with God on your side.”
Oliver is freelance writer and editor, Nashville, Tenn.
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Can't Pay My LoanProvides information on resolving loan account or requesting assistance due to hardship or disasterSierra Leone Conference meets amid Ebola restrictions
BO, Sierra Leone (UMNS) — Because of the Ebola crisis, the United Methodist Sierra Leone Annual Conference that ended April 26 conducted its business in two days rather than five. But Resident Bishop John Yambasu said he was grateful to God that the conference, postponed from early March, happened at all. Phileas Jusu has the story.
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Photo by Phileas Jusu, UMNS.
Due to the Ebola outbreak, Bishop John K. Yambasu uses a Bible instead of laying on of hands during the induction of clergy as deacons and elders. Senesie Rogers is being inducted as interim young adults president.
Sierra Leone Conference meets amid Ebola restrictions by Phileas Jusu
BO, Sierra Leone
Because of the Ebola crisis, the United Methodist Sierra Leone Annual Conference that ended April 26, conducted its business in two days rather than five.
Delegates meeting in Bo had just one day – Saturday – to discuss serious business, the church body elected 20 clergy and lay delegates to the 2016 West Africa Central Conference and 12 toGeneral Conference, the denomination’s top legislative body.
Many other normal conference agenda items were removed to save time to attend to priority matters. “By now, you all would have noticed that this conference is much different from the others over the years,” Resident Bishop John Yambasu told the gathering. “This is because of the prevailing Ebola epidemic in the country.”
The bishop said he was grateful to God that the conference, postponed from early March, had happened at all. “...those of us who have survived Ebola and are alive to see each other’s face have every reason to be thankful ...to God Almighty for sparing our lives to witness yet another annual gathering of United Methodists from across the country.”
A traditional march of United Methodist organizations and institutions, led by the bishop and clergy and accompanied by music from brass bands, which usually heralds the start of annual conference, was cancelled. Annual reports were not discussed but archived into the preconference journal that delegates would read at home. Two retirees were presented to the conference but a special service was not held.
Though the request to permit United Methodist clergy to hold a ministerial session on Friday initially was turned down, a compromised position was agreed after further deliberations with Bo government officials. Clergy were granted part of Friday afternoon to meet and discuss discipline, policy and welfare matters.
Ban on public gatherings
Although new Ebola infection rates have been significantly reduced to single digits in the past three weeks, a government ban on public gatherings remains in effect. Delegates were cut to a minimum of 146 — compared to more than 750 at last year’s annual conference — in an attempt to persuade The Sierra Leone government to approve the gathering of a reasonable number.
The usual talent shows featuring youth and children from the various districts of the conference competing in singing, drama and debates were cancelled due to the state of emergency in the country that forbids all entertainments at night. Men and women’s nights fund raising activities also were not observed.
Conference time is often an occasion for evangelism and outreach in the communities hosting the conference. Those in youth and young adult ministries, in collaboration with the evangelism ministry, usually organize outdoor crusades with preaching and singing through a public address system. That did not happen due to Sierra Leone’s Ebola restrictions.
A bishop’s words of hope
In his episcopal address Saturday, Yambasu thanked God for granting United Methodists the opportunity to witness the 2015 annual conference, which had looked very unlikely.
“In the almost one year since the outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease, many people had wondered whether they would ever live to see this day,” he said. “For nearly one year, we all have lived in fear, pain and frustration.
“We have lived each day as though in the ‘valley of the shadow of death’ as we witness our loved ones die of the deadly Ebola virus day by day. Indeed, it is the grace of God that has brought us thus far, and I believe that God is going to do something extraordinarily wonderful in the life of each one of you.”
Citing the 2015 conference theme, “Together, We Can Make A Difference,” Yambasu declared that togetherness is a strong administrative pillar that any leader must use to foster development. He said great strides have been made in his past six years of administration because togetherness has been used to harness all the organs of conference for growth and development.
That growth includes the repair or building of schools, churches and new congregations. Equipping hospitals and clinics to provide accessible and affordable health care has helped make the Kissy Hospital maternity complex among the best in the country, he said. The conference also has complied with the new government policy of paying a minimum monthly wage of LE 500,000 – an equivalence of $100 – in the midst of serious financial challenges.
“Together, we continue to engage in community transformation through economic development and livelihood opportunities for depraved communities, including clean drinking water, toilets facilities and training opportunities,” Yambasu said.
“Together, we continue to be actively involved in providing a leading role in the fight to eradicate the two major killer diseases —malaria and Ebola — that continue to decimate our population,” the bishop said. “And together, we have resolved to establish the United Methodist University.”
*Jusu is director of communications for The United Methodist Church in Sierra Leone. News media contact: Vicki Brown at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Bridge provides lifeline for Chitora community
CHITORA, Zimbabwe (UMNS) — Octogenarian Keresia Muzaruwetu from Nyamana village carefully minced her steps toward the newly completed Chitora-Gwarada Bridge — a bridge that had been gone since 2000. Dedicated last month, it is the first bridge project completed under The United Methodist Church's Chabadza Community Development Program. Taurai Emmanuel Maforo, Zimbabwe East Conference communicator, has the story.
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Photo by Taurai Emmanuel Maforo
Bishop Eben K. Nhiwatiwa, Zimbabwe Episcopal Area, cuts the ribbon during the dedication of the Chitora-Gwarada Bridge in Zimbabwe.
Bridge provides lifeline for Chitora community by Taurai Emmanuel Maforo
CHITORA, Zimbabwe (UMNS)
Octogenarian Keresia Muzaruwetu from Nyamana village carefully minced her steps toward the newly completed Chitora-Gwarada Bridge with eyes cast on the eastern end of the bridge. For more than a decade, Muzaruwetu could not walk across this bridge. Cyclone Eline had ravaged eastern Zimbabwe and Mozambique in 2000.
Bridge rehabilitation finished in record time – starting in November 2014 and completing in April 2015.
Muzaruwetu is one of scores of villagers who thronged to witness the dedication of the Chitora-Gwarada Bridge by the Zimbabwe Bishop Eben K. Nhiwatiwa on April 25, 2014. Gwarada is a village in Chitora, located in southern Manicaland Province, Zimbabwe, some 56 kilometers (35 miles) from the provincial capital, Mutare.
“This is the first ever bridge project by the United Methodist Chabadza Community Development Program,” said the Rev. Lloyd Nyarota, program director.
The Chitora Gwarada Bridge, built by the government in 1992, improved transport networking, trading, market linkages and easy access to the social systems of the community. Eight years later, Cyclone Eline struck the Chitora community, leaving a trail of destruction.
Immediately, nine village communities lost connection to essential services. Because of damage to the western part of the bridge, children and sick and pregnant women had to travel 10 kilometers instead of fewer than four to school and the clinic. The rehabilitation of the bridge has brought life back to normalcy.
Bishop Eben K. Nhiwatiwa has maintained the practice of planting a tree at every dedication event. Photo by Taurai Emmanuel Maforo.
‘A miracle waiting to happen’
Following repeated and unsuccessful attempts by the community to engage local authorities to repair the bridge, the community learned of the Chabadza Community Development Program.
The Chitora Gwarada Bridge project was completed successfully through the Norway-Chabadza Development project office in Mutare and the Chitora community. The Mutare Rural District Council provided technical support. This was the bishop’s 16th project to dedicate.
Community involvement amounted to providing all locally available materials – 32 loads of stones, 24 loads of river sand and 45 wheelbarrows of gravel. The Chabadza Community Development Program supported with materials worth $16,000.
Muzaruwetu described the bridge completion as “a miracle waiting to happen.”
“I thought I will never live to see this day, but when [The United Methodist Church] came in November, we were just praying for this day to come,” she said.
“Unbelievable!” she exclaimed. Her face beamed as she looked at the bridge’s concrete surface. She staggered to get balance from her staff in her right hand and continued to move stealthily. Midway, she came to a shaky halt and stretched her hand toward me to help her cross the bridge.
In 2009, the Zimbabwe Episcopal Area and the Norway Annual Conference established a partnership that extends support to communities.
Nhiwatiwa’s Chabadza Initiative created a paradigm shift in the way the denomination handles mission work – a radical departure from the traditional missionary approach where communities were recipients. Today the church and communities are both partners and participants.
*Taurai Emmanuel Maforo lives in Mutare, Zimbabwe.
Amis House designated as historic site
ROGERSVILLE, Tenn. — The Amis House, where Bishop Francis Asbury visited as he pushed the western expansion of Methodism in the late 18th century, recently achieved United Methodist Historical Site status. Holston Conference Bishop Mary Virginia Taylor and the Rev. Alfred Day, top executive for the General Commission on Archives and History, attended the dedication ceremony. Jeff Bobo reports for the Kingsport Time-News.
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'Two strong men': UMC bishops return to Amis House 225 years after Asbury's visit by JEFF BOBO
Wendy and Jake Jacobs were presented Saturday with a plaque dedicating Amis House, as a historic site of the United Methodist Church. The plaque was presented by Bishop Mary Virginia Taylor, left. (photo by Jeff Bobo)
(Scroll down for a video and photo gallery from Saturday's dedication ceremoney at Amis House.)
ROGERSVILLE — The Capt. Thomas Amis settlement property near Rogersville wasn’t placed on the United Methodist Church list of historic locations because Bishop Francis Asbury slept there a few times 225 years ago.
Asbury slept in a lot of locations during his four decade journey across colonial America, and most of them have no historical designation.
What makes Asbury’s visits to the Amis House in April and May of 1790 historically significant is the mission of westward outreach Asbury launched from there, and the effect it had on the future growth of the church.
Methodists from across the Holston Valley, as well as top national UMC officials were joined at the Amis property Saturday by history buffs and local dignitaries to celebrate the dedication of the old settlement as an official UMC historical location.
Current owners Jake and Wendy Jacobs were presented a plaque during a dedication ceremony Saturday morning by Bishop Mary Virginia Taylor of the Holston Conference of the UMC.
Wendy Jacobs is a fifth generation granddaughter of Capt. Thomas Amis, and the couple set about restoring the 60 acre farm after purchasing the property and moving there in 2008.
Bishop Asbury was one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. His traveling partner at the time of his Amis House visits was Richard Whatcoat, the third bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Rev. Grady Winegar, who is a member of the UMC General Commission on Archives and History, said during Saturday’s ceremony that Asbury was on a critical mission in the frontier when he visited the Amis property in 1790.
For the previous decade laymen had been preaching in Kenctucky, but there were no ordained preachers there.
There was also no formal organization of Methodist churches in Kentucky at that time.
“Asbury was most anxious to get into Kentucky, but it was dangerous to go there because of Native Americans were feeling the pressure of increased white settlement, and because of highwaymen and thieves and robbers who lurked about the wilderness road,” Winegar said. “The first three visits Asbury made here was to make arrangements to connect with some of the people coming down from Kentucky to help him — to gather some other forces to help him with the journey. Finally they got it all together, and 16 men went (to Kentucky) armed with 13 guns.”
While in Kentucky Asbury raised money to form a college, , he organized the circuits, and ordained numerous preachers.
“That’s why we’re remembering this place,” Winegar said. “It’s a weigh station on the Methodist frontier, on the expanding frontier of the church.”
Jake and Wendy each spoke extensively Saturday about Thomas Amis’s life and his many children.
For example, Wendy shared the story about Amis’s daughter Mary who eloped with Joseph Rogers while Amis was away.
Rogers went on to found Rogersville, although not before ignoring an invitation from Amis to come to dinner shortly after Amis’s post elopement return home.
That insult earned Rogers a personal visit from Amis who, as legend has it, proceeded to thrash the young Rogers with a cane.
Jake told the congregation that Thomas Amis was a very smart businessman. When he was asked where he wanted his land grant for services rendered to the United States during the Revolutionary War, Amis chose 1,000 acres at the end of the “Old Stage Road” — which at the time started in Philadelphia, and ended about two miles south of present day Rogersville.
Amis knew that all westward expansion would be passing right past his front porch.
“The Old Stage Road stopped at Big Creek, right there,” Jacobs said, pointing to the edge of his property. “Thomas was an entrepreneur. He not only founded a community here, but he set up a dispatch where people who came through here would disperse and go throughout all of the west. He actually hired Daniel Boone and Eli Wallen to keep the trail open between here and Cumberland because he knew it was a trade route.”
Amis built a general store, an inn and tavern, a mill, a tannery, a distillery, a blacksmith shop and other enterprises to serve people as they moved west.
But, he and Asbury didn’t exactly hit it off when they met in April of 1790. Asbury wrote in his journal that he’d complained up to that point that no one would accept money for food or services during his journey up to that point.
“That complaint has ceased,” Asbury wrote of his first arrival at the Amis settlement, on April 11, 1790.
Asbury called Amis a “poor sinner” who was “highly offended by the loud prayers.” Asbury also wasn’t shy about rebuking Amis for owning slaves and making liquor — or “poison” as Asbury called it.
“We talked very plainly, and I told him that it was of necessity, and not of choice, that we were there — that I feared the face of no man,” Asbury wrote of Amis in his journal. “He said he did not desire me to trouble myself about his soul. Perhaps the greatest offense was given by my speaking against distilling and slave holding.”
But, Asbury came back to Amis three times, Winegar noted.
He added, “Don’t ever forget that after their sharp exchanges, after these two strong men freely expressed themselves, he came back. He found hospitality here. He found the rest he needed here. He found the time and the space to make the strategic plans for his expanding mission.”
After the dedication ceremony visitors were allowed to remain on the Amis House grounds throughout the day to enjoy a variety of activities.
There was music and demonstrations, and tours were given of the 235 year old Amis House.
Asbury and Whatcoat re-enactors were on the grounds to meet with visitors and talk about their lives.
There was a colonial era campsite where period cooking lessons and samples were available throughout the day.
The newly restored Ebbing and Flowing Methodist Church located nearby was also opened for visitors, and a service was held Saturday afternoon.
Additional Photos
Sunday: Pray for peace in South Sudan
GENEVA (WCC) — Churches are invited to observe Sunday, May 10, as a special day of prayer for those affected by the conflict in South Sudan, for the revival of fruitful peace talks, and for new ways ahead. The invitation comes from the World Council of Churches, which has accompanied the churches in South Sudan for more than 40 years. In a recent visit there, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged both sides to honor a ceasefire.
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Kerry's visit to South Sudan
John Kerry visits South Sudan, warns gov't and rebels to avert "genocide"
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir Mayardit (R) shakes hands with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at the President's Office in Juba REUTERS
JUBA, South Sudan -- In a stern warning, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is urging South Sudan's warring government and rebel leaders to uphold a months-long promise to embrace a cease-fire or risk the specter of genocide throughcontinued ethnic killings.
Kerry, landing in the capital Juba on Friday, carried the threat of U.S. sanctions against prominent South Sudanese leaders if the rampant violence doesn't stop. But more than anything, he sought to compel authorities on both sides of the fight to put aside personal and tribal animosities for the good of a nation that declared independence three years ago to escape decades of war.
Now, South Sudan is engulfed in widespread killings that have largely broken down along ethnic lines and are drawing comparisons to genocide.
Crisis brewing in South SudanIt's estimated that thousands of people have been killed since the fighting began nearly six months ago, and about 1 million others have fled their homes. If that continues, Kerry said Thursday, it "could really present a very serious challenge to the international community with respect to the question of genocide."
"It is our hope that that can be avoided," he said on the eve of his daylong visit to South Sudan. "It is our hope that in these next days, literally, we can move more rapidly to put people on the ground who could begin to make a difference."
Americans evacutated from South Sudan
While in Juba, Kerry plans to meet with President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka. U.S. officials said Kerry also hopes to speak by phone with rebel leader and former Vice President Riek Machar, a Nuer.
Fears of civil war grow in South SudanViolence engulfing South Sudan since last December is largely the result of ethnic tensions between the two tribes that boiled over when Kiir accused Machar of plotting a coup. A month later, both sides agreed to a peace deal that eventually fell apart within days.
The U.S. and U.N. are threatening to bring sanctions against militants on both sides of the fighting - including, potentially, Kiir and Machar themselves. And Western officials are trying to persuade the African Union to deploy thousands of troops to South Sudan to keep the peace - or, as Kerry put it, make peace after massacres and bloody counterattacks show no sign of ceding.
Hope for a cease-fire lies largely in the hands of AU officials who are undecided on what a peacekeeping force would look like, as well as leaders of neighboring Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda who are weighing their own sanctions against South Sudan. Those penalties - likely freezing the assets and travel privileges of South Sudan's elite - would carry far more weight than sanctions by the U.S. alone, which has relatively limited interaction with the eastern African nation.
U.S. Embassy in South Sudan evacuatedU.S. lawmakers want to impose the sanctions anyway. In a letter Thursday to President Obama, nine U.S. senators, including Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J., called for targeted sanctions on militants who are believed to have directed the killings or otherwise participated in them or committed other kinds of human rights abuses. The letter also called for additional penalties by the U.N. Security Council and holding Kiir and Machar personally accountable for shepherding through a peace agreement.
"As these unconscionable acts of violence continue, South Sudan's leaders continue to prioritize military gains ahead of the well-being of their people," the senators wrote. "The South Sudanese government has an obligation to ensure that the lives of their people and future of their young country are not marred by further violence."
© 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.Positive adoption language celebrates families
MOUNT AIRY, Md. (UMNS) — Our culture and The United Methodist Church have a blind spot about how harmful the language we use about adoption might be, writes the Rev. Angela Flanagan. Flanagan, who has adopted children, offers suggestions for ways to communicate in a more positive way about adoption.
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Photo illustration courtesy of United Methodist Communications
People of faith seek to encourage and strengthen all families. The language we choose can help or hinder those efforts.
Positive adoption language celebrates families
A UMC.org Feature by the Rev. Angela Flanagan*
The Rev. Angela Flanagan is an associate pastor and adoptive parent. Photo courtesy of the Rev. Angela Flanagan.
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but…” most of us have realized that words can hurt too. While we as adults have matured and acquired to a greater or lesser degree an ability to weed out negative or hurtful language, we generally acknowledge that children are particularly susceptible to hurtful words. Language matters. We know that.
We’ve all heard a child repeat something their parents surely didn’t intend to be repeated (sometimes even in the children’s sermon!). Those situations can range from humorous to awkward, but they sure do emphasize how much children hear, retain, and are influenced by the language around them.
Overall, we as a society and as people of faith rightly put value on protecting children from language we deem negative, hurtful, or inappropriate. In the Church, we seek to nurture children in worship, expose them to the stories of our faith, and teach them the language ofprayer from the start! These words of faith shape who our children become and how they grow to see God’s world.
We know our words matter, but our culture (and the Church with it) has a blind spot when it comes to adoption language. As a parent who has adopted children, I know that no one intentionally uses harmful language to talk about adoption, but the problem is that few of us have given much thought to the effects of the language we already use.
#UMC pastor and adoptive parent, “few of us have given much thought to ... the language we … use” for #adoption.TWEET THIS
Our language can send confusing and even hurtful messages to God’s children, those who have been adopted, and those who interact with those who have been adopted (so, everybody!). This is an issue we as the church should care about.
It is nearly impossible to improve our adoption language if we don’t know a) what to avoid, b) why this language is harmful, and c) what language would more accurately and positively communicate what we are trying to say.
Click for larger version of image. Infographic by United Methodist Communications.
Sending unintended messages
For example, the common phrase “put up for adoption,” has a disturbing origin. Historically, this phrase comes from a bygone era when children from East Coast cities in the U.S. were put on trains to the Midwest where they were literally “put up” on the train platform to be selected for adoption. If this process sounds a little like the sale of slaves or the way we pick out animals or food, then you can understand why this is not a positive phrase to use. A great alternative is to talk about children being “placed for adoption,” or birthparents “making an adoption plan.”
Complimenting adoptive parents can sometimes send unintended messages as well. Phrases like, “It’s so wonderful that you adopted,” or “She’s so lucky to have you as parents,” are based on unhealthy assumptions. First, we as adoptive parents are the grateful/lucky/blessed ones to get the chance to parent these amazing children.
Adoption also involves a loss. Children grieve the loss of what could have been—the loss of their birth family raising them, the loss of a sense of connectedness, the loss of important medical and social history. It doesn’t matter how difficult the situation of their adoption was—it is still a loss. As adoptive parents we walk through that loss with our children, acknowledging that pain and grieving with them. Focusing on how “lucky” they are denies children the right and space to grieve the real loss they have experienced.
It also glorifies us as adoptive parents when in reality we are no different than any other parents. We wanted to be parents, so we became parents through adoption and we love our children. There is nothing heroic about that. Implying that there is sends the message to our children that it takes special people to love them, that somehow the love their parents have for them is charity.
Instead, saying something like, “I see how very much you love each other,” or “I’m happy for you and your family” will suffice.
This list is by no means exhaustive, but should give you a feel for the kinds of problems our current language can cause, and some suggestions for how to communicate better. I have compiled a list of more phrases to avoid, reasons why, and appropriate alternatives that you can read here. The list also includes how to ask questions and what not to ask.
We’ve made mistakes, but can do better
Yes, you’ve probably said some of these things, and of course you never meant harm by it. You care for the wellbeing of children and would never intentionally say something hurtful to them. That’s the point—to equip us to be more intentional about our adoption language.
I don’t write this to make you feel guilty. My family started our adoption journey over five years ago, and I still catch myself slipping up with some of these every now and then. It happens. Language patterns are hard to break. It takes intentionality, work, practice, and time. We didn’t know better before, but now we do.
Will you commit to changing your language around adoption? Will you help others understand the importance of positive adoption language?
Will you help others understand the importance of positive #adoption language? #UMCTWEET THIS
Do it not just for my kids, but for the thousands of children who deserve to have their identity, their story, and their family respected, valued, and protected. This is who we are as people of faith. We are people who care deeply about all God’s children. We are also people who respect the power language has to shape our self-esteem, our attitudes, and our very lives.
*The Rev. Angela Flanagan serves as Associate Pastor of Calvary United Methodist Church in Mount Airy, Maryland. News media contact: Joe Iovino, UMC.org Content Manager for United Methodist Communications, 615-312-3733.
Language to avoid
Positive adoption language examples and resources
A UMC.org Feature by the Rev. Angela Flanagan*
Sometimes we send unintended messages through the language we choose. To help avoid those types of miscommunication, I’ve compiled a list that is by no means exhaustive, but should give you a feel for the kinds of problems with our current language and some suggestions for how we can do better. (Click here for infographic of this information)
Language to avoid
“give up”
“abandon”
“leave”
“give away”
“didn’t want to keep”
Why it is problematic
This sends a clear message to children who have been adopted that they were (are?) unwanted and disposed of like an object. This may lead children to believe this was their fault—that it is because of who they are that their birthparents “didn’t want” them. It also can lead children to believe that their birthparents didn’t care about or love them. It does not reflect the reality that making an adoption plan is a very loving action.
Positive alternative
“make an adoption plan”
“place for adoption”
Language to avoid
“real” or “natural”
mother / father / sibling / family
Why it is problematic
The child has birthparents andadoptive parents and all are real, live people who are part of a real family. Calling one set of parents “real” sends the message that there is something not real about the other set of parents. Calling birthparents the “natural” parents sends the message to children that there is something unnatural or even wrong with their family and adoption.
Positive alternative
Birthparents (birthmother, birthfather, birthfamily)
First parents (first mother, first father, first family)
Mother / Father / Family if the context is clear about which parents are being referred to, or ask the family how they refer to the birth family.
Language to avoid
“put up for adoption”
Why it is problematic
Historically, this phrase comes from the era in which children from big East Coast cities were put on trains to the Midwest where they were “put up” on the train platform to be selected for adoption. If this process sounds a little like the sale of slaves or the way we pick out animals or food, then you can understand why this is not a positive phrase to use.
Positive alternative
“make an adoption plan”
“place for adoption”
Language to avoid
“adopted child”
“is adopted”
Why it is problematic
These phrases indicate that being adopted is the primary identity of the child, that adoption is who they are. Yes, a child was adopted—it is an action that happened in their past, but it is not the primary thing that defines them.
Consider if the adoption is relevant to what is being said. If adoption has nothing to do with it, then child or daughter/son will suffice. We don’t specify other details of children’s births or histories when not relevant (e.g. we don’t say “your c-section daughter” or “your near-sighted son” when those details are not relevant).
Positive alternative
If the adoption is pertinent, then “child who was adopted” is better than “adopted child,”
“was adopted” (past tense) is preferred over “is adopted.”
Language to avoid
“It’s so wonderful that you adopted,”
“She’s so lucky to have you as parents.”
“You are such good people. I couldn’t raise someone else’s child.”
“She’s so much better off with you.”
Why it is problematic
These may sound like compliments, but they have many unintended consequences and are based on unhealthy assumptions. First, we as adoptive parents are the grateful/lucky/blessed ones to get the chance to parent these amazing children.
Adoption also involves a loss though. Children grieve the loss of what could have been—the loss of their birth family raising them, the loss of a sense of connectedness, the loss of important medical and social history. It doesn’t matter how difficult the situation of their adoption was—it is still a loss.
As adoptive parents we walk through that loss with our children, acknowledging that pain and grieving with them. Focusing on how “lucky” they are denies children the right and space to grieve the real loss they have experienced.
It also glorifies us as adoptive parents when in reality we are no different than any other parents. We wanted to be parents, so we became parents through adoption and we love our children. There is nothing heroic about that. Implying that there is sends the message to our children that it takes special people to love them, that somehow the love their parents have for them is charity.
Positive alternative
“I see how very much you love each other.”
“I’m happy for you and your family.”
When asking questions
Other helpful hints when talking about adoption, especially when asking questions:
Click for larger version of image. Infographic by United Methodist Communications.
Information about why birthparents chose to make an adoption plan, details about their lives (age of birthmother, drug use, marital status): If you don’t know this information, it is probably not for you to know. This is private information that belongs to the child of whose story it is a part.
Try to avoid making assumptions. Here are corrections to some common misunderstandings about adoptions in the United States.
Not every adoption is international. Most today are domestic.
Not every birthmother is a teenager. Birthmothers cover the entire range of childbearing years.
Closed adoptions are not preferred. Researchshows it is much healthier for the child to have some contact with their birth family to allow them to understand better who they are, know where they came from, and be able to ask questions.
Secrecy is not preferred. We talk openly about adoption with our children from the day they come home. They need to know their stories. Secrecy instills shame and fear and encourages children to bottle up their emotions.
Not every parent places a child for adoption because of hardship.
Not every child is placed for adoption with consent.
Transracial adoptive families
Children notice race. They are not colorblind. We teach them to observe, name, and categorize—all important skills. There is nothing wrong with noticing differences in skin color. However, it is important to talk to all children about race and the history of racial injustice in this country.
Children repeat words they hear even when they don’t understand them. You cannot guarantee that your child won’t hear racial slurs or racist attitudes. If they do, they may repeat them, not because they are mean or racist, but because they don’t know any better. You CAN give your child a healthy understanding of race and racial prejudice so that they have a way to talk about race instead of relying on what they hear from unknown sources.
Remember that adoptive families, particularly transracial adoptive families, field questions (and endure stares) ALL the time. I get questions from strangers at the grocery store, the post office, and the pharmacy. Just because you can see that a family is formed through adoption does not mean that family is there to field your questions.
Asking appropriate questions with healthy language of friends is very different from asking questions of perfect strangers. Before you ask or comment, consider what it might feel like to have your family questioned everywhere you go by people who you don’t know and what effect that has on the children.
If you aren’t sure if a question is appropriate or if you are using appropriate language, please refrain, or at the very least, refrain while in front of the children.
*The Rev. Angela Flanagan serves as Associate Pastor of Calvary United Methodist Church in Mount Airy, Maryland. News media contact: Joe Iovino, UMC.org Content Manager for United Methodist Communications, 615-312-3733.History of Hymns: `We Cannot Measure How You Heal'DALLAS (UMNS) — John L. Bell has earned acclaim for his work as a hymn writer and the attention he has given to congregational singing. For this week's History of Hymns, Perkins School of Theology student Taylor Vancil offers background on Bell and Bell's hymn "We Cannot Measure How You Heal."
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History of Hymns: “We Cannot Measure How You Heal” by Guest Writer Taylor Vancil
"We Cannot Measure How You Heal" by John L. Bell
Worship & Song, No. 3139
or answer every sufferer’s prayer,
yet we believe your grace responds
where faith and doubt unite to care.
Your hands, though bloodied on the cross,
survive to hold and heal and warn,
to carry all through death to life
and cradle children yet unborn.*
Healing is a powerful and mysterious event. All too often we lack the words to express our own hurt and pain. In times of grief, it may be too difficult to hope for reconciliation on our own. John Bell (b. 1949) has a particular talent for addressing these issues directly, and with great sensitivity.
Many of the healing narratives in the Bible may provide inspiration for this hymn. One in particular comes from Luke 7:1-10 (verses 6-10 quoted below) where Jesus heals the Centurion’s servant.
“So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: ‘Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed.’ When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said ‘I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.’ Then the man who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well” (NIV).**
Though Jesus usually responds to the needs of the sick no matter their circumstance, here the Centurion is recognized for his “faith and doubt.” We may not understand how God heals, but with faith and humility we invite healing to take place.
Mr. Bell wastes no time in getting to the point of what he wants us to say. From the very first lines it is obvious that this hymn is about healing. In the last lines of stanza one, the Rev. Bell writes that God’s healing can occur in all times; in the present struggle, in death, and in the lives of those that have not been born.
In stanza two, Bell describes our pain, guilt, fear, agony, hurt, and haunting memories.
The pain that will not go away,
the guilt that clings from things long past,
the fear of what the future holds,
are present as if meant to last. But present too is love, which tends
the hurt we never hoped to find,
the private agonies inside,
the memories that haunt the mind.
Through the use of anaphora, a poetic device where consecutive lines begin with the same word or phrase, he develops a rhythm that throbs, pulsing the very pain we are experiencing. At the center of this stanza there is a turn from distress to healing through love.
Both the first and last stanza embrace the pains of stanza two with healing hands that “hold, heal and warn,” even through “the touch of friends.” This powerful image of the immediate presence of God in humanity is not uncommon in the Rev. Bell’s hymns. Many times his poetry illustrates the incarnation in even the most simple actions or images.
It is common for John Bell to compose new music or arrange an existing melody for his hymns. YE BANK AND BRAES is a good example of how a Scottish folk tune relates the text to the experience of ordinary people. He also constructs the stanzas in such a way that the climax of the melody coincides with the description of how and what God will heal.
This hymn would be most appropriate for healing services, particularly during intercessions, and could also be used as a general response to confession.
John Lambert Bell was born in Kilmarnock, Scotland in 1949. He studied at the University of Glasgow, receiving degrees in music, English, and theology. In 1974 he was ordained by the Church of Scotland and began working as the youth coordinator for the Presbytery of Glasgow. In 1980, the Rev. Bell became a member of the Iona community and worked in several capacities for the years following. He, along with his colleague Graham Maule, formed the Wild Goose Worship Group in 1985 and later the Wild Goose Resource Group that has been an integral part of producing the bulk of their published works, most notably hymns and various worship materials.
The Rev. Bell’s focus has been on encouraging and extending the use of congregational song inChristian worship. Theologically, he identifies with the mission of the Iona Community inspired by the Celtic spiritual traditions of Irish saints Patrick (5th cent.) and Columba (521-597). These views are, in essence, the theology of God’s presence in the world through a combination of work, creation, and worship.
John Bell is internationally called upon to preach and teach in workshops, at conferences, and in local churches. An advocate for global hymnody and especially its application in the English-language church, he continues to travel all over the world gathering music and traditions from other cultures.
* © 1989 Iona Community, GIA Publications, Inc., agent. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
**Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Taylor Vancil is a Master of Sacred Music student at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. He studies hymnology with Dr. C. Michael Hawn.
C. Michael Hawn is University Distinguished Professor of Church Music, Perkins School of Theology, SMU.
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Looking ahead:
Here are some of the activities ahead for United Methodists across the connection. If you have an item to share, email newsdesk@umcom.org and put Digest in the subject line.
Tuesday, May 12
Deadline to register for United Methodist Communications online course "United Methodism 101" — Course offered May 13-June 24 on the denomination's history, structure, ministries and challenges. $9.99.& Details.
Thursday, May 14
Deadline for nominations for the 2015 Distinguished Evangelist of The United Methodist Church Award — With this honor, the Foundation for Evangelism celebrates a United Methodist clergy or lay person whose personal ministry in evangelism is recognized throughout the denomination. Details.
You can see more educational opportunities and other upcoming events in the life of the church here.
_____________________________
United Methodist News Service is a ministry of:
United Methodist Communications
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BO, Sierra Leone (UMNS) — Because of the Ebola crisis, the United Methodist Sierra Leone Annual Conference that ended April 26 conducted its business in two days rather than five. But Resident Bishop John Yambasu said he was grateful to God that the conference, postponed from early March, happened at all. Phileas Jusu has the story.
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Due to the Ebola outbreak, Bishop John K. Yambasu uses a Bible instead of laying on of hands during the induction of clergy as deacons and elders. Senesie Rogers is being inducted as interim young adults president.
Sierra Leone Conference meets amid Ebola restrictions by Phileas Jusu
BO, Sierra Leone
Because of the Ebola crisis, the United Methodist Sierra Leone Annual Conference that ended April 26, conducted its business in two days rather than five.
Delegates meeting in Bo had just one day – Saturday – to discuss serious business, the church body elected 20 clergy and lay delegates to the 2016 West Africa Central Conference and 12 toGeneral Conference, the denomination’s top legislative body.
Many other normal conference agenda items were removed to save time to attend to priority matters. “By now, you all would have noticed that this conference is much different from the others over the years,” Resident Bishop John Yambasu told the gathering. “This is because of the prevailing Ebola epidemic in the country.”
The bishop said he was grateful to God that the conference, postponed from early March, had happened at all. “...those of us who have survived Ebola and are alive to see each other’s face have every reason to be thankful ...to God Almighty for sparing our lives to witness yet another annual gathering of United Methodists from across the country.”
A traditional march of United Methodist organizations and institutions, led by the bishop and clergy and accompanied by music from brass bands, which usually heralds the start of annual conference, was cancelled. Annual reports were not discussed but archived into the preconference journal that delegates would read at home. Two retirees were presented to the conference but a special service was not held.
Though the request to permit United Methodist clergy to hold a ministerial session on Friday initially was turned down, a compromised position was agreed after further deliberations with Bo government officials. Clergy were granted part of Friday afternoon to meet and discuss discipline, policy and welfare matters.
Ban on public gatherings
Although new Ebola infection rates have been significantly reduced to single digits in the past three weeks, a government ban on public gatherings remains in effect. Delegates were cut to a minimum of 146 — compared to more than 750 at last year’s annual conference — in an attempt to persuade The Sierra Leone government to approve the gathering of a reasonable number.
The usual talent shows featuring youth and children from the various districts of the conference competing in singing, drama and debates were cancelled due to the state of emergency in the country that forbids all entertainments at night. Men and women’s nights fund raising activities also were not observed.
Conference time is often an occasion for evangelism and outreach in the communities hosting the conference. Those in youth and young adult ministries, in collaboration with the evangelism ministry, usually organize outdoor crusades with preaching and singing through a public address system. That did not happen due to Sierra Leone’s Ebola restrictions.
A bishop’s words of hope
In his episcopal address Saturday, Yambasu thanked God for granting United Methodists the opportunity to witness the 2015 annual conference, which had looked very unlikely.
“In the almost one year since the outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease, many people had wondered whether they would ever live to see this day,” he said. “For nearly one year, we all have lived in fear, pain and frustration.
“We have lived each day as though in the ‘valley of the shadow of death’ as we witness our loved ones die of the deadly Ebola virus day by day. Indeed, it is the grace of God that has brought us thus far, and I believe that God is going to do something extraordinarily wonderful in the life of each one of you.”
Citing the 2015 conference theme, “Together, We Can Make A Difference,” Yambasu declared that togetherness is a strong administrative pillar that any leader must use to foster development. He said great strides have been made in his past six years of administration because togetherness has been used to harness all the organs of conference for growth and development.
That growth includes the repair or building of schools, churches and new congregations. Equipping hospitals and clinics to provide accessible and affordable health care has helped make the Kissy Hospital maternity complex among the best in the country, he said. The conference also has complied with the new government policy of paying a minimum monthly wage of LE 500,000 – an equivalence of $100 – in the midst of serious financial challenges.
“Together, we continue to engage in community transformation through economic development and livelihood opportunities for depraved communities, including clean drinking water, toilets facilities and training opportunities,” Yambasu said.
“Together, we continue to be actively involved in providing a leading role in the fight to eradicate the two major killer diseases —malaria and Ebola — that continue to decimate our population,” the bishop said. “And together, we have resolved to establish the United Methodist University.”
*Jusu is director of communications for The United Methodist Church in Sierra Leone. News media contact: Vicki Brown at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Bridge provides lifeline for Chitora community
CHITORA, Zimbabwe (UMNS) — Octogenarian Keresia Muzaruwetu from Nyamana village carefully minced her steps toward the newly completed Chitora-Gwarada Bridge — a bridge that had been gone since 2000. Dedicated last month, it is the first bridge project completed under The United Methodist Church's Chabadza Community Development Program. Taurai Emmanuel Maforo, Zimbabwe East Conference communicator, has the story.
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Bishop Eben K. Nhiwatiwa, Zimbabwe Episcopal Area, cuts the ribbon during the dedication of the Chitora-Gwarada Bridge in Zimbabwe.
Bridge provides lifeline for Chitora community by Taurai Emmanuel Maforo
CHITORA, Zimbabwe (UMNS)
Octogenarian Keresia Muzaruwetu from Nyamana village carefully minced her steps toward the newly completed Chitora-Gwarada Bridge with eyes cast on the eastern end of the bridge. For more than a decade, Muzaruwetu could not walk across this bridge. Cyclone Eline had ravaged eastern Zimbabwe and Mozambique in 2000.
Bridge rehabilitation finished in record time – starting in November 2014 and completing in April 2015.
Muzaruwetu is one of scores of villagers who thronged to witness the dedication of the Chitora-Gwarada Bridge by the Zimbabwe Bishop Eben K. Nhiwatiwa on April 25, 2014. Gwarada is a village in Chitora, located in southern Manicaland Province, Zimbabwe, some 56 kilometers (35 miles) from the provincial capital, Mutare.
“This is the first ever bridge project by the United Methodist Chabadza Community Development Program,” said the Rev. Lloyd Nyarota, program director.
The Chitora Gwarada Bridge, built by the government in 1992, improved transport networking, trading, market linkages and easy access to the social systems of the community. Eight years later, Cyclone Eline struck the Chitora community, leaving a trail of destruction.
Immediately, nine village communities lost connection to essential services. Because of damage to the western part of the bridge, children and sick and pregnant women had to travel 10 kilometers instead of fewer than four to school and the clinic. The rehabilitation of the bridge has brought life back to normalcy.
“In doing such activities as a church,” Nhiwatiwa said, “we are practicing what John Wesley would call ‘social holiness.’” He applauded the transformation of community life through Chabadza projects.
Bishop Eben K. Nhiwatiwa has maintained the practice of planting a tree at every dedication event. Photo by Taurai Emmanuel Maforo.
‘A miracle waiting to happen’
Following repeated and unsuccessful attempts by the community to engage local authorities to repair the bridge, the community learned of the Chabadza Community Development Program.
The Chitora Gwarada Bridge project was completed successfully through the Norway-Chabadza Development project office in Mutare and the Chitora community. The Mutare Rural District Council provided technical support. This was the bishop’s 16th project to dedicate.
Community involvement amounted to providing all locally available materials – 32 loads of stones, 24 loads of river sand and 45 wheelbarrows of gravel. The Chabadza Community Development Program supported with materials worth $16,000.
Muzaruwetu described the bridge completion as “a miracle waiting to happen.”
“I thought I will never live to see this day, but when [The United Methodist Church] came in November, we were just praying for this day to come,” she said.
“Unbelievable!” she exclaimed. Her face beamed as she looked at the bridge’s concrete surface. She staggered to get balance from her staff in her right hand and continued to move stealthily. Midway, she came to a shaky halt and stretched her hand toward me to help her cross the bridge.
In 2009, the Zimbabwe Episcopal Area and the Norway Annual Conference established a partnership that extends support to communities.
Nhiwatiwa’s Chabadza Initiative created a paradigm shift in the way the denomination handles mission work – a radical departure from the traditional missionary approach where communities were recipients. Today the church and communities are both partners and participants.
*Taurai Emmanuel Maforo lives in Mutare, Zimbabwe.
Amis House designated as historic site
ROGERSVILLE, Tenn. — The Amis House, where Bishop Francis Asbury visited as he pushed the western expansion of Methodism in the late 18th century, recently achieved United Methodist Historical Site status. Holston Conference Bishop Mary Virginia Taylor and the Rev. Alfred Day, top executive for the General Commission on Archives and History, attended the dedication ceremony. Jeff Bobo reports for the Kingsport Time-News.
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'Two strong men': UMC bishops return to Amis House 225 years after Asbury's visit by JEFF BOBO
(Scroll down for a video and photo gallery from Saturday's dedication ceremoney at Amis House.)
ROGERSVILLE — The Capt. Thomas Amis settlement property near Rogersville wasn’t placed on the United Methodist Church list of historic locations because Bishop Francis Asbury slept there a few times 225 years ago.
Asbury slept in a lot of locations during his four decade journey across colonial America, and most of them have no historical designation.
What makes Asbury’s visits to the Amis House in April and May of 1790 historically significant is the mission of westward outreach Asbury launched from there, and the effect it had on the future growth of the church.
Methodists from across the Holston Valley, as well as top national UMC officials were joined at the Amis property Saturday by history buffs and local dignitaries to celebrate the dedication of the old settlement as an official UMC historical location.
Current owners Jake and Wendy Jacobs were presented a plaque during a dedication ceremony Saturday morning by Bishop Mary Virginia Taylor of the Holston Conference of the UMC.
Wendy Jacobs is a fifth generation granddaughter of Capt. Thomas Amis, and the couple set about restoring the 60 acre farm after purchasing the property and moving there in 2008.
Bishop Asbury was one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. His traveling partner at the time of his Amis House visits was Richard Whatcoat, the third bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Rev. Grady Winegar, who is a member of the UMC General Commission on Archives and History, said during Saturday’s ceremony that Asbury was on a critical mission in the frontier when he visited the Amis property in 1790.
For the previous decade laymen had been preaching in Kenctucky, but there were no ordained preachers there.
There was also no formal organization of Methodist churches in Kentucky at that time.
“Asbury was most anxious to get into Kentucky, but it was dangerous to go there because of Native Americans were feeling the pressure of increased white settlement, and because of highwaymen and thieves and robbers who lurked about the wilderness road,” Winegar said. “The first three visits Asbury made here was to make arrangements to connect with some of the people coming down from Kentucky to help him — to gather some other forces to help him with the journey. Finally they got it all together, and 16 men went (to Kentucky) armed with 13 guns.”
While in Kentucky Asbury raised money to form a college, , he organized the circuits, and ordained numerous preachers.
“That’s why we’re remembering this place,” Winegar said. “It’s a weigh station on the Methodist frontier, on the expanding frontier of the church.”
Jake and Wendy each spoke extensively Saturday about Thomas Amis’s life and his many children.
For example, Wendy shared the story about Amis’s daughter Mary who eloped with Joseph Rogers while Amis was away.
Rogers went on to found Rogersville, although not before ignoring an invitation from Amis to come to dinner shortly after Amis’s post elopement return home.
That insult earned Rogers a personal visit from Amis who, as legend has it, proceeded to thrash the young Rogers with a cane.
Jake told the congregation that Thomas Amis was a very smart businessman. When he was asked where he wanted his land grant for services rendered to the United States during the Revolutionary War, Amis chose 1,000 acres at the end of the “Old Stage Road” — which at the time started in Philadelphia, and ended about two miles south of present day Rogersville.
Amis knew that all westward expansion would be passing right past his front porch.
“The Old Stage Road stopped at Big Creek, right there,” Jacobs said, pointing to the edge of his property. “Thomas was an entrepreneur. He not only founded a community here, but he set up a dispatch where people who came through here would disperse and go throughout all of the west. He actually hired Daniel Boone and Eli Wallen to keep the trail open between here and Cumberland because he knew it was a trade route.”
Amis built a general store, an inn and tavern, a mill, a tannery, a distillery, a blacksmith shop and other enterprises to serve people as they moved west.
But, he and Asbury didn’t exactly hit it off when they met in April of 1790. Asbury wrote in his journal that he’d complained up to that point that no one would accept money for food or services during his journey up to that point.
“That complaint has ceased,” Asbury wrote of his first arrival at the Amis settlement, on April 11, 1790.
Asbury called Amis a “poor sinner” who was “highly offended by the loud prayers.” Asbury also wasn’t shy about rebuking Amis for owning slaves and making liquor — or “poison” as Asbury called it.
“We talked very plainly, and I told him that it was of necessity, and not of choice, that we were there — that I feared the face of no man,” Asbury wrote of Amis in his journal. “He said he did not desire me to trouble myself about his soul. Perhaps the greatest offense was given by my speaking against distilling and slave holding.”
But, Asbury came back to Amis three times, Winegar noted.
He added, “Don’t ever forget that after their sharp exchanges, after these two strong men freely expressed themselves, he came back. He found hospitality here. He found the rest he needed here. He found the time and the space to make the strategic plans for his expanding mission.”
After the dedication ceremony visitors were allowed to remain on the Amis House grounds throughout the day to enjoy a variety of activities.
There was music and demonstrations, and tours were given of the 235 year old Amis House.
Asbury and Whatcoat re-enactors were on the grounds to meet with visitors and talk about their lives.
There was a colonial era campsite where period cooking lessons and samples were available throughout the day.
The newly restored Ebbing and Flowing Methodist Church located nearby was also opened for visitors, and a service was held Saturday afternoon.
Additional Photos
Sunday: Pray for peace in South SudanGENEVA (WCC) — Churches are invited to observe Sunday, May 10, as a special day of prayer for those affected by the conflict in South Sudan, for the revival of fruitful peace talks, and for new ways ahead. The invitation comes from the World Council of Churches, which has accompanied the churches in South Sudan for more than 40 years. In a recent visit there, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged both sides to honor a ceasefire.
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Kerry's visit to South Sudan
John Kerry visits South Sudan, warns gov't and rebels to avert "genocide"
JUBA, South Sudan -- In a stern warning, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is urging South Sudan's warring government and rebel leaders to uphold a months-long promise to embrace a cease-fire or risk the specter of genocide throughcontinued ethnic killings.
Kerry, landing in the capital Juba on Friday, carried the threat of U.S. sanctions against prominent South Sudanese leaders if the rampant violence doesn't stop. But more than anything, he sought to compel authorities on both sides of the fight to put aside personal and tribal animosities for the good of a nation that declared independence three years ago to escape decades of war.
Now, South Sudan is engulfed in widespread killings that have largely broken down along ethnic lines and are drawing comparisons to genocide.
"It is our hope that that can be avoided," he said on the eve of his daylong visit to South Sudan. "It is our hope that in these next days, literally, we can move more rapidly to put people on the ground who could begin to make a difference."
Americans evacutated from South Sudan
While in Juba, Kerry plans to meet with President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka. U.S. officials said Kerry also hopes to speak by phone with rebel leader and former Vice President Riek Machar, a Nuer.
The U.S. and U.N. are threatening to bring sanctions against militants on both sides of the fighting - including, potentially, Kiir and Machar themselves. And Western officials are trying to persuade the African Union to deploy thousands of troops to South Sudan to keep the peace - or, as Kerry put it, make peace after massacres and bloody counterattacks show no sign of ceding.
Hope for a cease-fire lies largely in the hands of AU officials who are undecided on what a peacekeeping force would look like, as well as leaders of neighboring Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda who are weighing their own sanctions against South Sudan. Those penalties - likely freezing the assets and travel privileges of South Sudan's elite - would carry far more weight than sanctions by the U.S. alone, which has relatively limited interaction with the eastern African nation.
"As these unconscionable acts of violence continue, South Sudan's leaders continue to prioritize military gains ahead of the well-being of their people," the senators wrote. "The South Sudanese government has an obligation to ensure that the lives of their people and future of their young country are not marred by further violence."
© 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.Positive adoption language celebrates families
MOUNT AIRY, Md. (UMNS) — Our culture and The United Methodist Church have a blind spot about how harmful the language we use about adoption might be, writes the Rev. Angela Flanagan. Flanagan, who has adopted children, offers suggestions for ways to communicate in a more positive way about adoption.
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People of faith seek to encourage and strengthen all families. The language we choose can help or hinder those efforts.
Positive adoption language celebrates families
A UMC.org Feature by the Rev. Angela Flanagan*
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but…” most of us have realized that words can hurt too. While we as adults have matured and acquired to a greater or lesser degree an ability to weed out negative or hurtful language, we generally acknowledge that children are particularly susceptible to hurtful words. Language matters. We know that.
We’ve all heard a child repeat something their parents surely didn’t intend to be repeated (sometimes even in the children’s sermon!). Those situations can range from humorous to awkward, but they sure do emphasize how much children hear, retain, and are influenced by the language around them.
Overall, we as a society and as people of faith rightly put value on protecting children from language we deem negative, hurtful, or inappropriate. In the Church, we seek to nurture children in worship, expose them to the stories of our faith, and teach them the language ofprayer from the start! These words of faith shape who our children become and how they grow to see God’s world.
We know our words matter, but our culture (and the Church with it) has a blind spot when it comes to adoption language. As a parent who has adopted children, I know that no one intentionally uses harmful language to talk about adoption, but the problem is that few of us have given much thought to the effects of the language we already use.
#UMC pastor and adoptive parent, “few of us have given much thought to ... the language we … use” for #adoption.
TWEET THISOur language can send confusing and even hurtful messages to God’s children, those who have been adopted, and those who interact with those who have been adopted (so, everybody!). This is an issue we as the church should care about.
It is nearly impossible to improve our adoption language if we don’t know a) what to avoid, b) why this language is harmful, and c) what language would more accurately and positively communicate what we are trying to say.
Sending unintended messages
For example, the common phrase “put up for adoption,” has a disturbing origin. Historically, this phrase comes from a bygone era when children from East Coast cities in the U.S. were put on trains to the Midwest where they were literally “put up” on the train platform to be selected for adoption. If this process sounds a little like the sale of slaves or the way we pick out animals or food, then you can understand why this is not a positive phrase to use. A great alternative is to talk about children being “placed for adoption,” or birthparents “making an adoption plan.”
Complimenting adoptive parents can sometimes send unintended messages as well. Phrases like, “It’s so wonderful that you adopted,” or “She’s so lucky to have you as parents,” are based on unhealthy assumptions. First, we as adoptive parents are the grateful/lucky/blessed ones to get the chance to parent these amazing children.
Adoption also involves a loss. Children grieve the loss of what could have been—the loss of their birth family raising them, the loss of a sense of connectedness, the loss of important medical and social history. It doesn’t matter how difficult the situation of their adoption was—it is still a loss. As adoptive parents we walk through that loss with our children, acknowledging that pain and grieving with them. Focusing on how “lucky” they are denies children the right and space to grieve the real loss they have experienced.
It also glorifies us as adoptive parents when in reality we are no different than any other parents. We wanted to be parents, so we became parents through adoption and we love our children. There is nothing heroic about that. Implying that there is sends the message to our children that it takes special people to love them, that somehow the love their parents have for them is charity.
Instead, saying something like, “I see how very much you love each other,” or “I’m happy for you and your family” will suffice.
This list is by no means exhaustive, but should give you a feel for the kinds of problems our current language can cause, and some suggestions for how to communicate better. I have compiled a list of more phrases to avoid, reasons why, and appropriate alternatives that you can read here. The list also includes how to ask questions and what not to ask.
We’ve made mistakes, but can do better
Yes, you’ve probably said some of these things, and of course you never meant harm by it. You care for the wellbeing of children and would never intentionally say something hurtful to them. That’s the point—to equip us to be more intentional about our adoption language.
I don’t write this to make you feel guilty. My family started our adoption journey over five years ago, and I still catch myself slipping up with some of these every now and then. It happens. Language patterns are hard to break. It takes intentionality, work, practice, and time. We didn’t know better before, but now we do.
Will you commit to changing your language around adoption? Will you help others understand the importance of positive adoption language?
Will you help others understand the importance of positive #adoption language? #UMC
TWEET THISDo it not just for my kids, but for the thousands of children who deserve to have their identity, their story, and their family respected, valued, and protected. This is who we are as people of faith. We are people who care deeply about all God’s children. We are also people who respect the power language has to shape our self-esteem, our attitudes, and our very lives.
*The Rev. Angela Flanagan serves as Associate Pastor of Calvary United Methodist Church in Mount Airy, Maryland. News media contact: Joe Iovino, UMC.org Content Manager for United Methodist Communications, 615-312-3733.
Language to avoid
Positive adoption language examples and resources
A UMC.org Feature by the Rev. Angela Flanagan*
Sometimes we send unintended messages through the language we choose. To help avoid those types of miscommunication, I’ve compiled a list that is by no means exhaustive, but should give you a feel for the kinds of problems with our current language and some suggestions for how we can do better. (Click here for infographic of this information)
Language to avoid
“give up”
“abandon”
“leave”
“give away”
“didn’t want to keep”
Why it is problematic
This sends a clear message to children who have been adopted that they were (are?) unwanted and disposed of like an object. This may lead children to believe this was their fault—that it is because of who they are that their birthparents “didn’t want” them. It also can lead children to believe that their birthparents didn’t care about or love them. It does not reflect the reality that making an adoption plan is a very loving action.
Positive alternative
“make an adoption plan”
“place for adoption”
Language to avoid
“real” or “natural”
mother / father / sibling / family
Why it is problematic
The child has birthparents andadoptive parents and all are real, live people who are part of a real family. Calling one set of parents “real” sends the message that there is something not real about the other set of parents. Calling birthparents the “natural” parents sends the message to children that there is something unnatural or even wrong with their family and adoption.
Positive alternative
Birthparents (birthmother, birthfather, birthfamily)
First parents (first mother, first father, first family)
Mother / Father / Family if the context is clear about which parents are being referred to, or ask the family how they refer to the birth family.
Language to avoid
“put up for adoption”
Why it is problematic
Historically, this phrase comes from the era in which children from big East Coast cities were put on trains to the Midwest where they were “put up” on the train platform to be selected for adoption. If this process sounds a little like the sale of slaves or the way we pick out animals or food, then you can understand why this is not a positive phrase to use.
Positive alternative
“make an adoption plan”
“place for adoption”
Language to avoid
“adopted child”
“is adopted”
Why it is problematic
These phrases indicate that being adopted is the primary identity of the child, that adoption is who they are. Yes, a child was adopted—it is an action that happened in their past, but it is not the primary thing that defines them.
Consider if the adoption is relevant to what is being said. If adoption has nothing to do with it, then child or daughter/son will suffice. We don’t specify other details of children’s births or histories when not relevant (e.g. we don’t say “your c-section daughter” or “your near-sighted son” when those details are not relevant).
Positive alternative
If the adoption is pertinent, then “child who was adopted” is better than “adopted child,”
“was adopted” (past tense) is preferred over “is adopted.”
Language to avoid
“It’s so wonderful that you adopted,”
“She’s so lucky to have you as parents.”
“You are such good people. I couldn’t raise someone else’s child.”
“She’s so much better off with you.”
Why it is problematic
These may sound like compliments, but they have many unintended consequences and are based on unhealthy assumptions. First, we as adoptive parents are the grateful/lucky/blessed ones to get the chance to parent these amazing children.
Adoption also involves a loss though. Children grieve the loss of what could have been—the loss of their birth family raising them, the loss of a sense of connectedness, the loss of important medical and social history. It doesn’t matter how difficult the situation of their adoption was—it is still a loss.
As adoptive parents we walk through that loss with our children, acknowledging that pain and grieving with them. Focusing on how “lucky” they are denies children the right and space to grieve the real loss they have experienced.
It also glorifies us as adoptive parents when in reality we are no different than any other parents. We wanted to be parents, so we became parents through adoption and we love our children. There is nothing heroic about that. Implying that there is sends the message to our children that it takes special people to love them, that somehow the love their parents have for them is charity.
Positive alternative
“I see how very much you love each other.”
“I’m happy for you and your family.”
When asking questions
Other helpful hints when talking about adoption, especially when asking questions:
Information about why birthparents chose to make an adoption plan, details about their lives (age of birthmother, drug use, marital status): If you don’t know this information, it is probably not for you to know. This is private information that belongs to the child of whose story it is a part.
Try to avoid making assumptions. Here are corrections to some common misunderstandings about adoptions in the United States.
Not every adoption is international. Most today are domestic.
Not every birthmother is a teenager. Birthmothers cover the entire range of childbearing years.
Closed adoptions are not preferred. Researchshows it is much healthier for the child to have some contact with their birth family to allow them to understand better who they are, know where they came from, and be able to ask questions.
Secrecy is not preferred. We talk openly about adoption with our children from the day they come home. They need to know their stories. Secrecy instills shame and fear and encourages children to bottle up their emotions.
Not every parent places a child for adoption because of hardship.
Not every child is placed for adoption with consent.
Transracial adoptive families
Children notice race. They are not colorblind. We teach them to observe, name, and categorize—all important skills. There is nothing wrong with noticing differences in skin color. However, it is important to talk to all children about race and the history of racial injustice in this country.
Children repeat words they hear even when they don’t understand them. You cannot guarantee that your child won’t hear racial slurs or racist attitudes. If they do, they may repeat them, not because they are mean or racist, but because they don’t know any better. You CAN give your child a healthy understanding of race and racial prejudice so that they have a way to talk about race instead of relying on what they hear from unknown sources.
Remember that adoptive families, particularly transracial adoptive families, field questions (and endure stares) ALL the time. I get questions from strangers at the grocery store, the post office, and the pharmacy. Just because you can see that a family is formed through adoption does not mean that family is there to field your questions.
Asking appropriate questions with healthy language of friends is very different from asking questions of perfect strangers. Before you ask or comment, consider what it might feel like to have your family questioned everywhere you go by people who you don’t know and what effect that has on the children.
If you aren’t sure if a question is appropriate or if you are using appropriate language, please refrain, or at the very least, refrain while in front of the children.
*The Rev. Angela Flanagan serves as Associate Pastor of Calvary United Methodist Church in Mount Airy, Maryland. News media contact: Joe Iovino, UMC.org Content Manager for United Methodist Communications, 615-312-3733.History of Hymns: `We Cannot Measure How You Heal'DALLAS (UMNS) — John L. Bell has earned acclaim for his work as a hymn writer and the attention he has given to congregational singing. For this week's History of Hymns, Perkins School of Theology student Taylor Vancil offers background on Bell and Bell's hymn "We Cannot Measure How You Heal."
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History of Hymns: “We Cannot Measure How You Heal” by Guest Writer Taylor Vancil
"We Cannot Measure How You Heal" by John L. Bell
Worship & Song, No. 3139
John L. Bell
We cannot measure how you healor answer every sufferer’s prayer,
yet we believe your grace responds
where faith and doubt unite to care.
Your hands, though bloodied on the cross,
survive to hold and heal and warn,
to carry all through death to life
and cradle children yet unborn.*
Healing is a powerful and mysterious event. All too often we lack the words to express our own hurt and pain. In times of grief, it may be too difficult to hope for reconciliation on our own. John Bell (b. 1949) has a particular talent for addressing these issues directly, and with great sensitivity.
Many of the healing narratives in the Bible may provide inspiration for this hymn. One in particular comes from Luke 7:1-10 (verses 6-10 quoted below) where Jesus heals the Centurion’s servant.
“So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: ‘Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed.’ When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said ‘I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.’ Then the man who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well” (NIV).**
Though Jesus usually responds to the needs of the sick no matter their circumstance, here the Centurion is recognized for his “faith and doubt.” We may not understand how God heals, but with faith and humility we invite healing to take place.
Mr. Bell wastes no time in getting to the point of what he wants us to say. From the very first lines it is obvious that this hymn is about healing. In the last lines of stanza one, the Rev. Bell writes that God’s healing can occur in all times; in the present struggle, in death, and in the lives of those that have not been born.
In stanza two, Bell describes our pain, guilt, fear, agony, hurt, and haunting memories.
The pain that will not go away,
the guilt that clings from things long past,
the fear of what the future holds,
are present as if meant to last. But present too is love, which tends
the hurt we never hoped to find,
the private agonies inside,
the memories that haunt the mind.
Through the use of anaphora, a poetic device where consecutive lines begin with the same word or phrase, he develops a rhythm that throbs, pulsing the very pain we are experiencing. At the center of this stanza there is a turn from distress to healing through love.
Both the first and last stanza embrace the pains of stanza two with healing hands that “hold, heal and warn,” even through “the touch of friends.” This powerful image of the immediate presence of God in humanity is not uncommon in the Rev. Bell’s hymns. Many times his poetry illustrates the incarnation in even the most simple actions or images.
It is common for John Bell to compose new music or arrange an existing melody for his hymns. YE BANK AND BRAES is a good example of how a Scottish folk tune relates the text to the experience of ordinary people. He also constructs the stanzas in such a way that the climax of the melody coincides with the description of how and what God will heal.
This hymn would be most appropriate for healing services, particularly during intercessions, and could also be used as a general response to confession.
John Lambert Bell was born in Kilmarnock, Scotland in 1949. He studied at the University of Glasgow, receiving degrees in music, English, and theology. In 1974 he was ordained by the Church of Scotland and began working as the youth coordinator for the Presbytery of Glasgow. In 1980, the Rev. Bell became a member of the Iona community and worked in several capacities for the years following. He, along with his colleague Graham Maule, formed the Wild Goose Worship Group in 1985 and later the Wild Goose Resource Group that has been an integral part of producing the bulk of their published works, most notably hymns and various worship materials.
The Rev. Bell’s focus has been on encouraging and extending the use of congregational song inChristian worship. Theologically, he identifies with the mission of the Iona Community inspired by the Celtic spiritual traditions of Irish saints Patrick (5th cent.) and Columba (521-597). These views are, in essence, the theology of God’s presence in the world through a combination of work, creation, and worship.
John Bell is internationally called upon to preach and teach in workshops, at conferences, and in local churches. An advocate for global hymnody and especially its application in the English-language church, he continues to travel all over the world gathering music and traditions from other cultures.
* © 1989 Iona Community, GIA Publications, Inc., agent. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
**Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Taylor Vancil is a Master of Sacred Music student at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. He studies hymnology with Dr. C. Michael Hawn.
C. Michael Hawn is University Distinguished Professor of Church Music, Perkins School of Theology, SMU.
____________________________
Looking ahead:
Here are some of the activities ahead for United Methodists across the connection. If you have an item to share, email newsdesk@umcom.org and put Digest in the subject line.
Tuesday, May 12
Deadline to register for United Methodist Communications online course "United Methodism 101" — Course offered May 13-June 24 on the denomination's history, structure, ministries and challenges. $9.99.& Details.
Thursday, May 14
Deadline for nominations for the 2015 Distinguished Evangelist of The United Methodist Church Award — With this honor, the Foundation for Evangelism celebrates a United Methodist clergy or lay person whose personal ministry in evangelism is recognized throughout the denomination. Details.
You can see more educational opportunities and other upcoming events in the life of the church here.
_____________________________
United Methodist News Service is a ministry of:
United Methodist Communications
810 12th Avenue South
Nashville, Tennessee 37203-4704 United States
NewsDesk@umcom.org
NewsDesk@umcom.org
Phone: 615.742.5400
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United Methodist News Service Weekly Digest for Friday, 15 May 2015
NOTE: This is a digest of news features provided by United Methodist Communications for May 11-15. It includes summaries of United Methodist News Service stories and additional briefs from around the United Methodist connection. Full versions of the stories with photographs and related features can be found at umc.org/news.
Top Stories:
U.S. tornado losses include two from Texas churchVAN, Texas (UMNS) — A church council chair and his wife, a former secretary of the church, died in likely tornadoes that roared through Van, Texas, May 10. The Rev. Mark McClanahan, pastor of Van United Methodist Church, confirmed the deaths of David and Brenda Tapley. Over the past week, tornadoes also have wreaked havoc elsewhere in Texas and in Colorado, Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Arkansas and South Dakota. Sam Hodges and Linda Bloom report.
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Aerial shot of damage in Van, Texas.PreviousNext
U.S. tornado losses include two from Texas church
Updated May 12 by Sam Hodges and Linda Bloom
UMNS
The council chair of a United Methodist Church and his wife, a former secretary of the church, died in likely tornadoes that roared through Van, Texas, May 10.
The Rev. Mark McClanahan, pastor of Van United Methodist Church, confirmed the deaths of David and Brenda Tapley, who he understood had died in their home. David Tapley was a certified lay minister in the denomination.
Funeral arrangements were still pending on May 12.
Other church members suffered property damage and the church’s youth director, Jeff Siemens, had major damage to his home in storms that clobbered this community about an hour east of Dallas.
More than 70 tornado reports were submitted to the National Weather Service over the weekend, with suspected twisters also touching down elsewhere in Texas and in Arkansas, Iowa, South Dakota, Colorado and Kansas. Earlier in the week, dozens of tornadoes wreaked havoc in Oklahoma.
The U.S. tornado season started slowly this year compared to 2014, when 50 to 60 tornadoes struck southern states in April, said Greg Forrester, U.S. disaster response coordinator for the United Methodist Committee on Relief. While the geographic location of the tornado clusters is different this spring, “the numbers are pretty similar to what we experienced at this time last year,” he added.
‘New normal’ in Van
In Van, an estimated 30 percent of the small city suffered damage. “What was normal yesterday may not be normal ever again, but we’ll find a new normal and God will see us through,” McClanahan told United Methodist News Service.
Texas Conference Bishop Janice Riggle Huie issued a statement offering prayers of support. Utility crews used the large parking lot at Van United Methodist Church and the church itself became local headquarters for Samaritan's Purse, a relief organization that is coordinating volunteers.
"Teams are going out," McClanahanan said.
Members of Van United Methodist were responding to the Tapleys' deaths with grief, but also with service.
"Most of the church folks I’m hearing form are busy doing what they can do to get the community back on its feet," McClanahan said.
Early response teams from the Texas Conference and North Texas Conference expect to be in Van by May 13.
"I have teams itching to go," said the Rev. Marji Bishir Hill, disaster response coordinator for the North Texas Conference.
DeWitt Cox, her counterpart in the Texas Conference, said the volunteers will likely be retrieving items blown from homes and bringing them to a central location for retrieval by the owners. The volunteers may also be involved in debris removal, he said.
CLOSE CALL IN MORGAN MILL
Morgan Mill (Texas) United Methodist Church lost several trees and had the power go out after a twister passed through Sunday.
“They worshipped in the dark yesterday,” said Vance Morton, communications director for the Central Texas Conference.
One of the downed trees landed on the church’s electrical box, but did not sever any wires. Had that happened, a fire could have resulted, he explained.
“The tree that hit the church was an old pecan that was planted back in the 1950s as a sign of renewal following the last confirmed touchdown of a tornado in Morgan Mill,” Morton said. -- Sam Hodges
In other areas affected by tornadoes over the weekend, Byron Mann, the disaster response co-coordinator for the Arkansas Conference, arrived in Nashville, Arkansas — where two people were killed in mobile homes — to assess damage there.
"It's bad enough," he said by phone. "We've got around 75 to 80 homes involved, including our local church parsonage. ... The damage on the houses is from trees falling on them."
The parsonage of the First United Methodist Church in Nashville will need a new roof and repairs to a couple of rooms, due to damage from a fallen tree, he said.
Mann said volunteers from various Arkansas Conference churches were expected to form a 10-person team and begin helping with tree and other debris removal on May 12.
The Arkansas conference still has teams doing recovery work in several communities hit by tornadoes on April 27, 2014. That work is part of a multi-agency effort that includes other faith-based, state and local organizations.
The long-term recovery stage is where most conference seeking disaster funding from UMCOR, said Forrester, who noted that the U.S. conferences and districts “are pretty well equipped for the relief stage.”
Still, he expects there may be a few emergency grant requests this tornado season to help with early response. Donations to UMCOR’s United States Disaster Response Advance #901670 help support the denomination’s continuing response to all U.S. disasters.
*Hodges, a United Methodist News Service writer, lives in Dallas. Bloom is a United Methodist News Service multimedia reporter based in New York. Follow her at https://twitter.com/umcscribe or contact her at (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org
Updated May 12 by Sam Hodges and Linda Bloom
UMNS
The council chair of a United Methodist Church and his wife, a former secretary of the church, died in likely tornadoes that roared through Van, Texas, May 10.
The Rev. Mark McClanahan, pastor of Van United Methodist Church, confirmed the deaths of David and Brenda Tapley, who he understood had died in their home. David Tapley was a certified lay minister in the denomination.
Funeral arrangements were still pending on May 12.
Other church members suffered property damage and the church’s youth director, Jeff Siemens, had major damage to his home in storms that clobbered this community about an hour east of Dallas.
More than 70 tornado reports were submitted to the National Weather Service over the weekend, with suspected twisters also touching down elsewhere in Texas and in Arkansas, Iowa, South Dakota, Colorado and Kansas. Earlier in the week, dozens of tornadoes wreaked havoc in Oklahoma.
The U.S. tornado season started slowly this year compared to 2014, when 50 to 60 tornadoes struck southern states in April, said Greg Forrester, U.S. disaster response coordinator for the United Methodist Committee on Relief. While the geographic location of the tornado clusters is different this spring, “the numbers are pretty similar to what we experienced at this time last year,” he added.
‘New normal’ in Van
In Van, an estimated 30 percent of the small city suffered damage. “What was normal yesterday may not be normal ever again, but we’ll find a new normal and God will see us through,” McClanahan told United Methodist News Service.
Texas Conference Bishop Janice Riggle Huie issued a statement offering prayers of support. Utility crews used the large parking lot at Van United Methodist Church and the church itself became local headquarters for Samaritan's Purse, a relief organization that is coordinating volunteers.
"Teams are going out," McClanahanan said.
Members of Van United Methodist were responding to the Tapleys' deaths with grief, but also with service.
"Most of the church folks I’m hearing form are busy doing what they can do to get the community back on its feet," McClanahan said.
Early response teams from the Texas Conference and North Texas Conference expect to be in Van by May 13.
"I have teams itching to go," said the Rev. Marji Bishir Hill, disaster response coordinator for the North Texas Conference.
DeWitt Cox, her counterpart in the Texas Conference, said the volunteers will likely be retrieving items blown from homes and bringing them to a central location for retrieval by the owners. The volunteers may also be involved in debris removal, he said.
CLOSE CALL IN MORGAN MILL
Morgan Mill (Texas) United Methodist Church lost several trees and had the power go out after a twister passed through Sunday.
“They worshipped in the dark yesterday,” said Vance Morton, communications director for the Central Texas Conference.
One of the downed trees landed on the church’s electrical box, but did not sever any wires. Had that happened, a fire could have resulted, he explained.
“The tree that hit the church was an old pecan that was planted back in the 1950s as a sign of renewal following the last confirmed touchdown of a tornado in Morgan Mill,” Morton said. -- Sam Hodges
In other areas affected by tornadoes over the weekend, Byron Mann, the disaster response co-coordinator for the Arkansas Conference, arrived in Nashville, Arkansas — where two people were killed in mobile homes — to assess damage there.
"It's bad enough," he said by phone. "We've got around 75 to 80 homes involved, including our local church parsonage. ... The damage on the houses is from trees falling on them."
The parsonage of the First United Methodist Church in Nashville will need a new roof and repairs to a couple of rooms, due to damage from a fallen tree, he said.
Mann said volunteers from various Arkansas Conference churches were expected to form a 10-person team and begin helping with tree and other debris removal on May 12.
The Arkansas conference still has teams doing recovery work in several communities hit by tornadoes on April 27, 2014. That work is part of a multi-agency effort that includes other faith-based, state and local organizations.
The long-term recovery stage is where most conference seeking disaster funding from UMCOR, said Forrester, who noted that the U.S. conferences and districts “are pretty well equipped for the relief stage.”
Still, he expects there may be a few emergency grant requests this tornado season to help with early response. Donations to UMCOR’s United States Disaster Response Advance #901670 help support the denomination’s continuing response to all U.S. disasters.
*Hodges, a United Methodist News Service writer, lives in Dallas. Bloom is a United Methodist News Service multimedia reporter based in New York. Follow her at https://twitter.com/umcscribe or contact her at (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org
UMCOR continues aid for U.S. tornado damage
UMCOR Continues Aid for U.S. Tornado Damage
____________________________
UMCOR Continues Aid for U.S. Tornado Damage
Tornado damage in Van, Texas. All Photos: Terry Cox.
UMCOR responds to an EF-2 tornado which struck Nashville, Arkansas, and provides assistance for Texas tornado damage
The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) issued an emergency grant to theArkansas Annual (regional) Conference today, after an EF-2 tornado tore through the small town of Nashville, Arkansas, on Mother’s Day, killing two, injuring eight, and causing widespread damage.
“There is more damage in Arkansas than anticipated,” said Greg Forrester, UMCOR executive in charge of U.S. disaster response. Forrester has been in contact since the storm with the conference disaster co-coordinators Byron and Janice Mann.
The twister that impacted Nashville was one of 26 tornado sightings on May 10 from Texas to South Dakota. Van, a small town in Texas about 100 miles from Dallas, also was severely affected. About 30 percent of structures there suffered damage, and some werecompletely destroyed. Early response teams from both the Texas and North Texas annual conferences are officially on the ground to aid those in need.
UMCOR also approved an emergency grant to Rio Texas Annual Conference for several homes in Aurora, San Joaquin and Colonia Azteca, among others, that experienced severe wind damage near Donna, Texas.
Forrester said, “Our trained conference disaster response coordinators and teams have responded to emergencies in their areas— it is great to see the church prepared and equipped to respond. We need more churches and congregation members to join thisgrowing movement of disaster and mission ministry to survivors.”
Forrester also said he has been in contact with United Methodist disaster coordinators in all of the affected areas and that UMCOR stands ready to assist as needed. He said the grant to the Arkansas Conference will be utilized for the cleanup efforts, temporary housing needs and equipment.
More severe weather may be on the way this coming weekend, as the slow start to the 2015 tornado season ramps up.
Please continue to pray for all who have been affected by last weekend’s storms and for those who remain in harm’s way. Visit the UMCOR website to learn how you can make a difference in crisis.
U.S. Christians lose ground in latest Pew survey
WASHINGTON (RNS) — The United States is a significantly less Christian country than it was seven years ago. That’s the top finding — one that will ricochet through American faith, culture and politics — in the Pew Research Center’s newest report, “America’s Changing Religious Landscape,” released May 12. Cathy Lynn Grossman reports for Religion News Service.
Read story
Christians lose ground, ‘nones’ soar in new portrait of US religion
Cathy Lynn Grossman
Show caption
The interior of St. Roch Church in the Staten Island borough of New York is seen between Sunday morning Masses on Nov. 2, 2014. The New York Archdiocese announced last fall that, as part of a massiveconsolidationand closingprocess involvingdozens of churches, Masses and sacraments will no longer be available on a weekly basis at St. Roch Church. RNS photo by Gregory A. Shemitz
This image is available for Web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow.
WASHINGTON (RNS) The United States is a significantly less Christian country than it was seven years ago.
That’s the top finding — one that will ricochet through American faith, culture and politics — in the Pew Research Center’s newest report, “America’s Changing Religious Landscape,” released Tuesday (May 12).
This trend “is big, it’s broad and it’s everywhere,” said Alan Cooperman, Pew’s director of religion research.
Christianity still dominates American religious identity (70 percent), but the survey showsdramatic shifts as more people move out the doors of denominations, shedding spiritual connections along the way.
Atheists and agnostics have nearly doubled their share of the religious marketplace, and overall indifference to religion of any sort is rising as well. Among the larger Christian bodies, only the historically black Protestant churches have held a steady grip through the years of change.
Show caption
Christians decline as a share of the U.S. population; other faiths and the unaffiliated are growing. Photo courtesy of Pew Research Center
This image is available for Web publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow.
Remember the familiar map of American religion? The South: a bastion of white evangelicals. The Northeast: cradle of Catholics. The Midwest: nest of mainline Protestants. The West: incubator of “nones” — people who claim no religious brand label.
Well, scratch all that in the new topography.
The shrinking numbers of Christians and their loss of market share is the most significant change between 2007 (when Pew did its first U.S. Religious Landscape survey) and the new, equally massivesurvey of 35,000 U.S. adults.
The percentage of people who describe themselves as Christians fell about 8 points — from 78.4 to 70.6. This includes people in virtually all demographic groups, whether they are “nearing retirement or just entering adulthood, married or single, living in the West or the Bible Belt,” according to the survey report.
State by state and regional data show:
Massachusetts is down on Catholics by 10 percentage points. South Carolina is down the same degree on evangelicals.
Mainline Protestants, already sliding for 40 years or more, declined all over the Midwest by 3 to 4 percentage points.
The Southern Baptist Convention and the United Methodist Church, the country’s two largest Protestant denominations, are each down roughly the same 1.4 to 1.5 percentage points.
Every tradition took a hit in in the West as the number of people who claim no religious brand continues to climb.
Christian faiths are troubled by generational change — each successive group is less connected than that group’s parents — and by “switching” at all ages, the report shows. While nearly 86 percent of Americans say they grew up as Christians, nearly one in five (19 percent) say they aren’t so anymore.
“Overall, there are more than four former Christians for every convert to Christianity,” said Cooperman.
Although evangelicals are part of the decline, their slide has been less steep. They benefit from more people joining evangelical traditions, but they’re hurt by generational change and by America’s increased diversity.
According to the survey, white “born-again or evangelical” Protestants — closely watched for their political clout within the GOP — now account for 19 percent of American adults, down slightly from 21 percent in 2007.
Politicians should take note, said Mike Hout, a sociologist and demographer at New York University who is also a co-director of the General Social Survey, a biennial national demographic survey.
“Traditionally, we thought religion was the mover and politics were the consequence,” he said. Today, it’s the opposite.
Many of today’s formerly faithful left conservative evangelical or Catholic denominations because “they saw them align with a conservative political agenda and they don’t want to be identified with that,” Hout said.
Catholics dropped both in market share and in real numbers. Despite their high retention rate for people reared in the faith, they have a low conversion rate. Today, Cooperman said, 13 percent of U.S. adults are former Catholics, up from 10 percent in 2007.
Generational shifts are also hurting Catholic numbers. Greg Smith, Pew’s associate director of research, said “just 16 percent of the 18-to-24-year-olds today are Catholic, and that is not enough to offset the numbers lost to the aging and switching.”
Where are they going? To religious nowhere.
The nones — Americans who are unaffiliated with brand-name religion — are the new major force in American faith. And they are more secular in outlook — and “more comfortable admitting it” than ever before, said John Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron.
Their growth spans the generations, as well as racial and ethnic groups, said Green, a senior fellow in religion and American politics for the Pew Research Center.
Nones, at 22.8 percent of the U.S. (up from 16 just eight years ago) run second only to evangelicals (25.4 percent) and ahead of Catholics (20.8 percent) in religious market share.
The nones’ numbers are now big enough to show noteworthy diversity:
Atheists rose from 1.6 percent to 3.1 percent, and agnostics from 2.4 to 4 percent. Combined, there are more nones than Evangelical Lutherans, United Methodists and Episcopalians all together.
Show caption
The unaffiliated make up a growing share across generations. Photo courtesy of Pew Research Center
This image is available for Web publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow.
“It’s because we’re right,” crowed David Silverman, president of American Atheists. He hadn’t yet seen the Pew findings but commented based on other surveys he said showed nones’ rising numbers. Indeed, it’s the public attention given to nones in the last decade, combined with the wide-open access to anti-religious discussion on the Internet, that drives the change, Silverman said.
“More people know the facts, and more people realize they are not alone,” Silverman said. And with these shifts, the stigma of coming out as an atheist is lessening.
“It’s now impossible for an atheist to think he is alone in this world. They are automatically empowered,” said Silverman.
The bulk of the nones (15.8 percent, up from 12.1 percent in 2007) don’t even commit to any view on God. Instead, they say they believe “nothing in particular.”
But among the “nothings, ” there’s a distinct split between “spiritual” and totally indifferent nones.
Thirty percent of all nones still showed “a sort of religious pulse” by saying that religion is still at least somewhat important to them, said Cooperman.
However, the bulk of this group (39 percent) are not agnostic, atheist or vaguely spiritual — they’re just not interested. Religion is not even somewhat important to them.
That same level of disinterest cuts into their social and political clout, said Hout.
The nothing-in-particular folks “don’t vote, don’t marry and don’t have kids,” at the same rate as other Americans, said Hout. “They are allergic to large, organized institutions — mass media, religions, big corporations and political parties.”
Show caption
Rachel and Rich Mejias wed in Paterson, N.J., with a priest and rabbi as officiants. Since 2010, nearly four in 10 Americans say they’re in religiously mixed marriages.Photo courtesy of Alison Conklin Photography
“None” is the winning category for religious switchers across society, particularly among gays and lesbians — 41 percent of gay or lesbian Americans say they have no religion, Cooperman said. “This suggests the degree of alienation and discomfort and sense of being unwelcome that they may have felt in traditional religious groups.”
Other trends of note:
Intermarriage is rising with each generation. Among Americans who have gotten married since 2010, nearly 4 in 10 (39 percent) report that they are in religiously mixed marriages, compared with 19 percent among those who got married before 1960, according to the report.
Show caption
“Interfaith Marriage Grows,” Religion News Service graphic by Tiffany McCallen
This image is available for Web and printpublication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow.
There’s an identity gender gap. Most Christians are women (55 percent) and most nones are men (57 percent). However, women’s unbelief numbers are growing: Nearly one in five (19 percent) now say they have no religious identity.
Diversity makes a difference. Racial and ethnic minorities now make up 41 percent of Catholics (up from 35 percent in 2007), 24 percent of evangelicals (up from 19 percent) and 14 percent of mainline Protestants (up from 9 percent). “The share of Americans who identify with non-Christian faiths also has inched up, rising 1.2 percentage points, from 4.7 percent in 2007 to 5.9 percent in 2014. Growth has been especially great among Muslims and Hindus,” the report says.
The latest survey was conducted among a nationally representative sample of 35,071 adults interviewed by telephone, on both cellphones and landlines, from June 4-Sept. 30, 2014. The margin of error on overall findings is plus or minus 0.6 percentage points.
KRE/MG END GROSSMAN
Pew Research Center study
More United Methodist landmarks to seeNASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) — United Methodist church members can take pride in the people and places that connect the church across the globe. In 2014, a virtual pilgrimage showed seven sites every United Methodist should see. UMC.org readers followed up with their favorite Wesleyan wonders of the world. Lilla Marigza reports on those sites.
Read story and view videos
Photo illustration by Kathleen Barry, United Methodist Communications.
Views show John Street United Methodist Church in New York City in 1768 and in 2013.
Readers’ Choice: More United Methodist landmarks
A UMC.org Feature by Lilla Marigza*
United Methodist church members can take pride in the people and places that connect us across the globe. In 2014, a virtual pilgrimage showed us Seven Sites every United Methodist should see. UMC.org readers followed up with their favorite Wesleyan wonders of the world. Pack your saddlebag. We now offer seven more spots that matter to all United Methodists.
Lionel Sahuie broadcasts from The United Methodist Church's Voice of Hope radio station in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. Photo by Mike DuBose, United Methodist Communications.
Using airwaves for outreach in Africa
The Voice of Hope Radio Station in Côte d’Ivoire transmits to more than 1 million people in 18 languages daily, reaching remote areas in the West African country. The goal is to promote and proclaim hope in Jesus Christ, but United Methodist radio goes beyond music and sermons. During the 2014 Ebola outbreak, radio was an important public health communication tool. Daily broadcasts cover environmental concerns, women’s issues, legal help, and human rights education. “We are not exclusively United Methodist. We fulfill our social mission in the audio/visual environment,” says Lydie Acquah, station director. Voice of Hope Radio transmits from the campus of the Côte d’Ivoire Conference offices in Abidjan. In 2015, Voice of Hope Radio celebrated its five-year anniversary.
Mary Johnston Hospital serves those in need in Manila, Philippines. Image courtesy of Mary Johnston Hospital.
Health care and hope in the Philippines
Mary Johnston Hospital, a Heritage Landmark of The United Methodist Church, has been providing free and low-cost healthcare to residents in the impoverished Tondo neighborhood of Manila for over 100 years. Mary Johnston serves as a training hospital for doctors and nurses. Medical Director Myrna Velasquez says suggestions have been made to relocate Mary Johnston to a more affluent part of Manila where paying patients could supplement free care, but the only Methodist Church hospital in the Philippines remains committed to ministering to the poor.
The medical mission was established in 1906 when the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society appointed Dr. Rebecca Parish to help families living with malnutrition and sanitation problems. Daniel S.B. Johnston, a Methodist layman from St. Paul, Minnesota, donated $12,500 (U.S.) to purchase the land and construct the first hospital building in memory of his late missionary wife, Mary Johnston.
Stained glass window features Shelly Gale, an early deaconess at Mother African Zoar United Methodist Church in Philadelphia, Penn. Photo by John Coleman.
Powerful preaching in Pennsylvania
Mother African Zoar and Tindley Temple United Methodist Churches are located just a couple of miles apart in Philadelphia, Penn. Members of Zoar say their church is appropriately named since Mother Zoar’s congregationhas birthed five churches over the centuries, including Tindley Temple, and was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Tindley Temple is best known as the home church of the Rev. Charles Albert Tindley, one of the founding fathers of Gospel music, and for housing one of the largest Moller pipe organs in the United States. In the 1920s, Tindley grew the congregation to a megachurch with 10,000 members. Tindley’s papers and personal artifacts are on display at the church today.
A replica of the Easter Totem Pole by the Rev. David K. Fison stands outside Saint John United Methodist Church in Anchorage, Alaska.Photo courtesy of Saint John UMC.
Sacred carvings in Alaska
The Christmas and Easter Totem Poles at Saint John United Methodist Church in Anchorage are a sacred gift to the Native Alaskan people. The poles were crafted by the Rev. David K. Fison, a retired United Methodist pastor, to tell the Christmas and Easter stories in the Native Alaskan tradition. In the cedar carvings, Joseph holds a paddle to signify the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem in a dugout canoe. Salmon and berries represent the bread and wine of the Last Supper. As an adopted member of the Killer Whale Clan of the Tsimshian people, Pastor Fison's tribal name is NADAAM NLOMSK, which means “Carver of Sacred Things.” Visitors to Saint John United Methodist can view replicas of the Easter and Christmas totem poles outside the church.
Statues of Robert and Elizabeth Strawbridge stand on the property known as "the First Home of American Methodism." Strawbridge Shrine is a landmark in Maryland. Courtesy of Lovely Lane Museum.
First Methodist meeting place
There are no stained glass windows or notable architecture at The Strawbridge Shrine. But on this hallowed ground, the seeds of Methodism were planted in the New World. Robert and Elizabeth Strawbridge came to Maryland from Ireland about 1760. Robert would travel on horseback for long periods to preach and hold circuit meetings. Elizabeth cooked meals and led Bible studies for neighbors. One of these dinners led John Evans to become the very first convert to Methodism in America. The draw of Strawbridge is in learning the story of everyday people who started the Methodist church in America in their homes.The Strawbridge and Evans’ homes and a recreation of the firstlog cabin meeting house are open for tours by appointment.
250-year-old John Street United Methodist was near 9/11 attacks in New York City. Image by Beyond My Ken, WikiMedia Commons.
Oldest Methodist congregation in the U.S.
John Street United Methodist Church is a 250-year-old treasure standing among the skyscrapers and Wall Street landmarks in the heart of New York City’s financial district. The congregation is believed to be the oldestMethodist congregation in North America, founded in 1766 as the Wesleyan Society in America. The currentchurch building dates to 1841. Francis Asbury preached at John Street many times, and early General Conferences met here. Artifacts on site include the original pulpit, church record books, and a clock given by John Wesley in 1769. UMC.org reader Deborah says, “Not only is their worship space lovely, but they have a fine small museum of early Methodism in the basement. Surrounded by skyscrapers, and just a couple of blocks from the Twin Towers, it's a great place to worship when in Manhattan.”
Video celebrates 100-year-anniversary of Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center in North Carolina. Courtesy of Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center.
United Methodist mountain retreat
Lake Junaluska is the home of the World Methodist Council. The Conference and Retreat Center in the mountains near Asheville, North Carolina is a place known for its scenic vistas. For more than 100 years, this place of respite and inspiration has been a treasured retreat for clergy meetings, family vacations, and summer camps. Visitors can immerse themselves in history with a visit to theWorld Methodist Museum. On permanent display are a lock of John Wesley’s hair and his traveling pulpit from London. Confirmation classes can study the faces of the founding fathers of Methodism in the portrait gallery and even measure themselves against a life-size mural of John Wesley preaching.
The Commission on Archives and History currently lists 46 Heritage Landmarks of The United Methodist Church. And we know there are many more places that have special meaning for church members. Tell us about your favorite spot in the comments below. And stay tuned for more travelogues in the future.
*Lilla Marigza is a freelance producer for United Methodist Communications.
Media contact: Fran Walsh, at 615-742-5458.
United Methodist annual conferences underway
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) — United Methodists in Africa, Europe, the Philippines and the United States are preparing for — or have already attended — annual conference meetings. During these regional legislative meetings, clergy and laity elected by local churches will establish 2015 budgets, consider resolutions regarding social justice issues and recognize retiring clergy. The ordination service for clergy is a highlight of every session. UMNS posts reports from communicators in each conference.
Read conference reports
2015 Annual Conference Reports
Bulgaria-Romania Provisional Annual Conference
This year’s gathering of Bulgaria-Romania Provisional Annual Conference took place from April 2-5, 2015, in Shumen (Bulgaria). Read More
Liberia Annual Conference
This year’s gathering of Liberia Annual Conference took place from April 15-18, 2015. Read More
Serbia-Macedonia Provisional Annual Conference
For the first time in 26 years, the meeting of the Serbia-Macedonia Provisional Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church took place in Monospitovo, a farm town in Macedonia’s Strumica... Read More
Establishing new churches in Hungary
Church planting was the main theme of this year’s meeting of Hungary Provisional Conference on April 23-26. Read More
Sierra Leone Conference meets amid Ebola restrictions
Despite trickle of new cases, government ban on public gatheringsreduces time, participants in annual meeting of United Methodists. Read More
Upcoming Meetings
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Meeting ↑ ↓Agency ↑ ↓City ↑ ↓State↑ ↓Start Date ↑ ↓
Summer Board Meeting General Commission on the Status and Role of Women Chicago IL 08/06/15
AC-Norddeutsche Jahrliche Konferenz Annual Conference Kreuzkirche Lankwitz - Berlin Select State 04/09/15
AC-Germany East Annual Conference Erloeserkirche Plauen - Plauen Select State 05/27/15
AC-Zambia Annual Conference New Life Centre - Kitwe, Copper Belt Zambia Select State 07/05/15
AC-Visayas Philippines Annual Conference Galilean UMC - Baybay, Leyte, Philippines Select State 03/26/15
AC-Tarlac Philippines Annual Conference The United Methodist Church - La Paz, Tarlac Select State 05/28/15
AC-Switzerland-France-North Africa Annual Conference AARAU - Aarau, Switzerland Select State 06/18/15
AC-South Congo Annual Conference Gailee - Jolie Site - Lubumbashi, Katanga Select State 07/12/15
AC-Sierra Leone Annual Conference Date provided: May, 2015 - 31, Lightfoot Boston Street - Freetown, Sierra Leone Select State 05/01/15
AC-Serbia-Macedonia Annual Conference - Select State 04/16/15
AC-Serbia-Macedonia Annual Conference - Select State 04/16/15
AC-Poland Annual Conference Ostroda UMC N/A - Not In USA 06/26/15
AC-Pangasinan Philippines Annual Conference The United Methodist Church - San Carlos City, Philippines N/A - Not In USA 04/23/15
AC-Northwest Philippines Annual Conference The United Methodist Church - Salcedo, Illocos Sur - Philippines N/A - Not In USA 03/05/15
AC-Northwest Mindanao Philippines Annual Conference Sta. Cruz UMC - Plaridel, Misamis Occidental - Philippines N/A - Not In USA 04/23/15
AC-Northern Philippines Annual Conference The United Methodist Church - Gattara, Cagayan Philippines N/A - Not In USA 04/09/15
AC-Northeast Philippines Annual Conference The United Methodist Church - Maddela, Quirino - Philippines N/A - Not In USA 05/14/15
AC-Northeast Luzon Philippines Annual Conference The United Methodist Church - Virgoneza, San Agustin, Isabela Philippines N/A - Not In USA 04/16/15
AC-North Central Philippines Annual Conference The United Methodist Church - Tumauini, Isabela, Philippines Select State 02/19/15
AC-Mozambique South Annual Conference Maputo, Mozambique Select State 12/10/14
AC-Mozambique North Annual Conference Rua Centro Comercial 2311, Sofala, Beira Select State 11/19/14
AC-Mindanao Philippines Annual Conference Branscomb UMC, Spottswood Methodist Mission Center - Kidapawan City, Philippines Select State 04/09/15
AC-Lukoshi Annual Conference Dilolo Gare - Dilolo, Katanga Select State 07/26/15
AC-Kivu Annual Conference - Select State 06/16/15
AC-Hungary Provisional Annual Conference Budakeszi UMC - Budakeszi, Hungary Select State 04/23/15
AC-East Mindanao Philippines Annual Conference New Corella UMC - New Corella, Davao del Norte, Philippines Select State 03/19/15
AC-East Congo Annual Conference - Select State 07/12/15
AC-East Angola Annual Conference Malanje, Angola Select State 08/12/15
AC-Czech and Slovak Republics Annual Conference Bratislava-Mesco UMC - Bratslava, Slovakia Select State 06/05/15
AC-Central Luzon Philippines Annual Conference The United Methodist Church - Science City of Munoz, Nueva Ecija - Philippines Select State 05/21/15
AC-Central Congo Annual Conference Lodja City, Democratic Republic of Congo Select State 07/01/15
AC-Kasai Annual Conference Kananga, Democratic Republic of Congo Select State 06/17/15
AC-Western Congo Annual Conference Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo Select State 05/27/15
AC-Bulgaria-Romania Annual Conference Shumen UMC - Shumen, Bulgaria Select State 04/02/15
AC-Bicol Philippines Provisional Annual Conference First UMC - Naga City, Philippines Select State 04/16/15
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AC-Peninsula Delaware Annual Conference University of Maryland-Eastern Shore - Princess Anne, MD MD 06/04/15
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AC-Wisconsin Annual Conference Madison Marriott West - Middleton, WI WI 06/12/15
AC-West Michigan Annual Conference Calvin College Fine Arts Center - Grand Rapids, MI MI 06/04/15
AC-Northern Illinois Annual Conference Pheasant Run Resort - St. Charles, IL IL 06/14/15
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Leadership Development Days United Methodist Women Lake Junaluska NC 01/08/16
Leadership Development Days United Methodist Women Lake Junaluska NC 01/08/16
Leadership Development Days United Methodist Women Tempe AZ 11/20/15
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MARCHA: 2018 Asamblea Anual de MARCHA MARCHA (Metodistas Asociados Representando la Causa Hispana Americana) TBD Select State 08/16/18
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MARCHA: 2016 Asamblea Anual de MARCHA MARCHA (Metodistas Asociados Representando la Causa Hispana Americana) San Juan, Puerto Rico Select State 08/11/16
MARCHA 2015 Asamblea Anual de MARCHAMARCHA (Metodistas Asociados Representando la Causa Hispana Americana)Crowne Plaza, Madison, WisconsinSelect State08/13/15Connectional TableConnectional TableOklahoma CityOK11/05/14GCFA: Full Council MeetingGeneral Council on Finance and AdministrationNashvilleTN02/18/16National Committee of the National Plan for Hispanic and Latino MinistryGeneral Board of Global MinistriesOklahomaAnnual ConferenceOK02/18/16UMC Global AIDS Fund CommitteeInter-AgencyTBDTBD02/10/16GCFA: Full Council MeetingGeneral Council on Finance and AdministrationNashvilleTN11/19/15CT: Fall MeetingConnectional TableNashvilleTN11/16/15United Methodist Publishing House Board MeetingUnited MethodistPublishing HouseNashvilleTN10/27/15National Committee of the National Plan for Hispanic and Latino MinistryGeneral Board of Global MinistriesFlorida Annual ConferenceFL10/22/15Discipleship Ministries Full Board MeetingGeneral Board of DiscipleshipPittsburghPA10/08/15GBOD/UMPH: Curriculum Resources CommitteeGeneral Board of Discipleship and UM Publishing HouseTBDTBD10/07/15United Methodist Women: Annual Board MeetingUnited Methodist WomenNew YorkNY10/03/15General Board of Global Ministries Board MeetingGeneral Board of Global MinistriesTBDTBD10/01/15GCOC: Annual MeetingGeneral Commission on CommunicationNashvilleTN09/25/15GBCS: Fall Board MeetingGeneral Board of Church and SocietyTBDTBD09/16/15UMC Global AIDS Fund CommitteeInter-AgencyTBDTBD09/09/15GCUMM: Board MeetingGeneral Commission onUnited Methodist MenNashvilleTN08/20/15GCSRW 2015 Board MeetingGeneral Commission on the Status and Role of WomenTBDTBD08/06/15GBHEM Board of Directors MeetingGeneral Board of Higher Education and MinistryNashvilleTN08/05/15Discipleship Ministries Full Board MeetingGeneral Board of DiscipleshipNashvilleTN07/23/15GBOD: Young People’s Ministries Division MeetingGeneral Board of DiscipleshipTBDTBD07/19/15GCFA: Full Council MeetingGeneral Council on Finance and AdministrationNashvilleTN07/16/15GBOD: Youth 2015General Board of DiscipleshipOrlandoFL06/24/15GCFA/CT: Full Council Joint Meeting with Connectional TableSelect an AgencyNashvilleTN05/17/15Council of BishopsCouncil of BishopsBerlinGermany05/03/15General Board of Global Ministries Board MeetingGeneral Board of Global MinistriesTBDTBD04/16/1548th Annual Meeting-BMCRBlack Methodists for Church RenewalOrlandoFL04/16/15Leadership Development DaysUnited Methodist WomenLake JunaluskaNC04/10/15National Consultation on Hispanic/Latino MinistryGeneral Board of Global MinistriesDurhamNY03/12/15Discipleship Ministries Full Board MeetingGeneral Board of DiscipleshipNashvilleTN03/12/15National Consultation on Hispanic/Latino MinistryGeneral Board of Discipleship and General Board of Global MinistriesDurhamNC03/12/15GBHEM Board of Directors MeetingGeneral Board of Higher Education and MinistryNashvilleTN03/11/15GBOD/UMPH: Curriculum Resources CommitteeGeneral Board of Discipleship and UM Publishing HouseTBDTBD03/11/15GCSRW Spring 2015 Board MeetingGeneral Commission on the Status and Role of WomenTBDTBD03/11/15United Methodist Women: Semi-Annual Board MeetingUnited Methodist WomenNashvilleTN03/05/15GBOD: Young People’s Ministries Executive TableGeneral Board of DiscipleshipTBDTBD03/05/15GBCS: Spring Board MeetingGeneral Board of Church and SocietyTBDTBD02/25/15GCFA: Full Council MeetingGeneral Council on Finance and AdministrationNashvhilleTN02/19/15UMC Global AIDS Fund CommitteeInter-AgencyTBDTBD02/11/15CT Joint Meeting with Standing Committee on Central Conference MattersConnectional TableTBD - Not in the USTBD02/04/15Leadership Development DaysUnited Methodist WomenTempeAZ11/21/14GCFA Full Council MeetingGeneral Council on Finance and AdministrationNashvilleTN11/20/14Board of Directors MeetingGeneral Board of Pension and Health BenefitsAtlantaGA11/13/14Leadership Development DaysUnited Methodist WomenSt. LouisMO11/07/14CT: Fall MeetingThe Connectional TableOklahoma CityOK11/07/14Clergy Benefits AcademyGeneral Board of Pension and Health BenefitsSacramentoCA11/03/14Council of BishopsCouncil of BishopsOklahoma CityOK11/02/14United Methodist Publishing House Board MeetingUnited Methodist Publishing HouseNashvilleTN10/28/14National Committee of the National Plan for Hispanic and Latino MinistryGeneral Board of Global MinistriesAlbuquerqueNM10/23/14HealthFlex SummitGeneral Board of Pension and Health BenefitsSan DiegoCalifornia10/21/14Commission on the General ConferenceGeneral Council on Finance and Administration and The Connectional TableLake JunaluskaNorth Carolina10/12/14GBOD Full Board MeetingGeneral Board of DiscipleshipDes MoinesIowa10/09/14GBOD/UMPH: Curriculum Resources CommitteeGeneral Board of Discipleship and United Methodist Publishing HouseTBDTBD09/08/14Annual Meeting of the United Methodist Council on Korean MinistriesGeneral Board of Global MinistriesTBDVirginia10/06/14United Methodist Women Annual Board MeetingUnited Methodist WomenNew YorkNY10/04/14General Board of Global Ministries Board MeetingGeneral Board of Global MinistriesNew YorkNY10/02/14National Committee of the National Plan for Hispanic and Latino Ministry 2016General Board of Global MinistriesOklahomaOK02/18/16GCFA: Full Council Meeting 02-2016General Council on Finance and AdministrationNashvilleTN02/18/16GBHEM Board of Directors Meeting 2016General Board of Higher Education and MinistryNashvilleTN02/24/16GBOD: Young People’s Ministries Executive Table 2016General Board of DiscipleshipTBDTBD03/03/16United Methodist Women: Semi-Annual Board Meeting 2016United Methodist WomeNashvilleTN03/03/16GBOD/UMPH: Curriculum Resources Committee 2016General Board of Discipleship and UM Publishing HouseTBDTBD03/09/16GBOD Full Board Meeting 2016General Board of DiscipleshipSacramentoCA03/10/16CT: Spring Meeting 2016Connectional TableTBDTBD03/14/16General Board of Global Ministries Board Meeting 2016General Board of Global MinistriesTBDTBD03/17/16GCFA: Full Board Meeting 2016General Council on Finance and AdministrationPortlandOR05/05/16GBHEM Board of Directors MeetingGeneral Board of Higher Education and MinistryNashvilleTN09/14/16GBCS: Fall Board MeetingGeneral Board of Church and SocietyTBDTBD09/21/16GBOD Organizational MeetingGeneral Board of DiscipleshipNashvlleTN09/21/16GCOC: Organizational MeetingGeneral Commission on CommunicationNashvilleTN09/22/16GCUMM: Board Meeting-Organizational meetingGeneral Commission on United Methodist MenNashvilleTN09/22/16GBOD Organizational Meeting 2016General Board of DiscipleshipNashvilleSelect State10/06/16UMC Global AIDS Fund CommitteeInter-AgencyTBDTBD10/19/16UMW Assembly 2018United Methodist WomenColumbusOH05/18/18
United Methodist Communications leader dies at 87NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) — Roger L. Burgess, a layman who had a distinguished career as leader in several international agencies of The United Methodist Church over nearly 50 years, including United Methodist Communications, died May 10. He was 87. Thomas McAnally has the story.
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United Methodist communications leader dies at 87
Roger L. Burgess, a layman who had a distinguished career as leader in several international agencies of the United Methodist Church over a period of nearly 50 years, died May 10 at St. Thomas West Hospital in Nashville. He was 87.
He retired from United Methodist Communications in 1994 after serving 10 years as its top executive. He previously worked for the denomination’s social service agencies and the publishing house .
“From his early years as a preacher’s kid, Roger strived for little else than to serve God and his beloved church,” said Robert Feaster, retired president of the United Methodist Publishing House.
“This he did, and he accomplished his task with great commitment and good humor for his entire life. I am sure The United Methodist Church is grateful, as I am, to have known Roger as colleague in the work of the general church.”
Burgess was born October 7, 1927, in Sioux City, Iowa. His parents were the Rev. F. Earl Burgess, a prominent Methodist pastor and district superintendent in Iowa, and Mabel Irwin Burgess.
He enjoyed telling of his first publishing experience as editor of an unofficial seventh grade newspaper sold outside school in Spencer, Iowa. The publication ceased, he recalled, when his father discovered why his paper supply in the church office kept running low.
Roger L. Burgess, a layman who had a distinguished career as leader in several international agencies of the United Methodist Church over a period of nearly 50 years, died May 10 at St. Thomas West Hospital in Nashville. He was 87.
He retired from United Methodist Communications in 1994 after serving 10 years as its top executive. He previously worked for the denomination’s social service agencies and the publishing house .
“From his early years as a preacher’s kid, Roger strived for little else than to serve God and his beloved church,” said Robert Feaster, retired president of the United Methodist Publishing House.
“This he did, and he accomplished his task with great commitment and good humor for his entire life. I am sure The United Methodist Church is grateful, as I am, to have known Roger as colleague in the work of the general church.”
Burgess was born October 7, 1927, in Sioux City, Iowa. His parents were the Rev. F. Earl Burgess, a prominent Methodist pastor and district superintendent in Iowa, and Mabel Irwin Burgess.
He enjoyed telling of his first publishing experience as editor of an unofficial seventh grade newspaper sold outside school in Spencer, Iowa. The publication ceased, he recalled, when his father discovered why his paper supply in the church office kept running low.
Serving the church
After earning his undergraduate degree from United Methodist-related Morningside College in Sioux City in 1950, Burgess served as managing editor of Methodist youth publications Concern andPower, with offices in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1953, he moved to Washington, where he served as an executive with the Methodist Board of Temperance.
Roger Burgess, general secretary of United Methodist Communications, died on May 10. Photo courtesy of his family.
When that board was merged into a new Board of Christian Social Concerns — now the Board of Church and Society — Burgess was named as its director of communications in 1960 and later given administrative responsibility for its Division of Alcohol Problems andGeneral Welfare .
He also served as top executive for the Evanston, Illinois-based Methodist Board of Hospitals and Homes. When that agency became part of the New York-based United Methodist Board of Global Ministries in 1972, he continued as head of the division.
Two years later, Burgess joined the staff of the United Methodist Publishing House in Nashville. He served two years as editorial director of General Church Publications and eight years as vice president forpublic relations before his election before assuming leadership of United Methodist Communications in 1984.
After earning his undergraduate degree from United Methodist-related Morningside College in Sioux City in 1950, Burgess served as managing editor of Methodist youth publications Concern andPower, with offices in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1953, he moved to Washington, where he served as an executive with the Methodist Board of Temperance.
Roger Burgess, general secretary of United Methodist Communications, died on May 10. Photo courtesy of his family.
When that board was merged into a new Board of Christian Social Concerns — now the Board of Church and Society — Burgess was named as its director of communications in 1960 and later given administrative responsibility for its Division of Alcohol Problems andGeneral Welfare .
He also served as top executive for the Evanston, Illinois-based Methodist Board of Hospitals and Homes. When that agency became part of the New York-based United Methodist Board of Global Ministries in 1972, he continued as head of the division.
Two years later, Burgess joined the staff of the United Methodist Publishing House in Nashville. He served two years as editorial director of General Church Publications and eight years as vice president forpublic relations before his election before assuming leadership of United Methodist Communications in 1984.
Launching ‘Catch the Spirit’
During his tenure, the agency launched “Catch the Spirit,” a media ministry that had as its centerpiece a national weekly television program by that name. The program’s executive producer was Nelson Price, a long-time friend, colleague and classmate at Morningside College.
“He was not fearful of work and led his staff by example,” Price said. “Roger loved a good time, and encouraged his staff to balance hard work with fun. He was not fearful of change, and in each position initiated dramatic and positive change. He was an effective leader who brought out the best in his staff.”
Quick to express gratitude to friends and colleagues for jobs well done, Burgess is remembered for often using the phrase, “Thanks a million.”
Burgess supported the creation of the Odyssey Cable Network in 1987, an interfaith enterprise committed to presenting TV programs dealing with faith, family values and ethical issues. In 1992, Price became the network’s president and chief executive.
He was preceded in death by his wife of 59 years, Donah Jean Salyers Burgess, who died in 2012.
Burgess is survived by three sons and a daughter: Cole and his wife Pat, Nashville; Chris and his wife Sharon, Mt. Juliet, Tennessee; Kyle and his wife J, Denver, Colorado, and Candice and her husband Frederic Nancel, Chantilly, France, along with a sister Muriel Nelson of Spirit Lake, Iowa, and five grandchildren: Brandon, Kylan, and Justin Burgess and Nicolas and Natasha Nancel.
A memorial service will be held at West End United Methodist Church in Nashville in August. Memorial gifts may be sent to West End United Methodist Church, 2200 West End Avenue, Nashville, TN, 37203.
McAnally, retired director of United Methodist News Service, resides in Nashville. News mediacontact: Linda Bloom (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org
Central conference retirees: From destitution to hopeMAPUTO, Mozambique (UMNS) — The pension Felicidade Manguele gets as a United Methodist pastor’s widow provides the necessities of life for the orphaned 8-year-old granddaughter she is raising. Lifting retired United Methodist pastors in the central conferences out of poverty has taken nearly 15 years, but the denomination’s pension board is now celebrating that every pastor throughout the worldwide denomination has a pension. A group of church agencies, led by the board, collaborated to make that a reality. Sandra Long Weaver reports.
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Photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS
A child walks up to the United Methodist church in Kortihun near Bo, Sierra Leone.
Central conference retirees: From destitution to hope by Sandra Long Weaver
For Felicidade Manguele, the pension she receives because she is a widow of a United Methodist pastor provides the necessities to live and hope for the orphaned 8-year-old granddaughter she is raising.
Pastor Filimao P. Vilanculo said the quarterly pension allows 80-year-old Manguele to buy food and pay her water and electric bills in Maputo City, Mozambique.
Pastor Filimao P. Vilanculo
Photos courtesy of Central Conference Pensions.
Felicidade Manguele and her husband, Rodrigues, started their ministry in 1978 and worked in several parishes, including an appointment to district superintendent in Nampula and Niassa, before he died in 2004.
“The first year they have a pension, they all report the same thing,” said the Rev. Paul Dirdak, now retired from the United Methodist Board of Pension and Health Benefits. “They buy the food they need for themselves and whoever is living with them. They help their children, grandchildren and sometimes their great-grandchildren to survive. They have small gardens that supply some food, and they buy a small bag of rice.”
Lifting retired United Methodist pastors in the central conferences out of poverty has taken nearly 15 years, but the Board of Pension and Health Benefits is now celebrating that every pastor throughout the worldwide denomination has a pension. A group of church agencies, led by the board, collaborated to make that a reality.
Having a guaranteed pension for retired pastors and surviving spouses has changed lives in the central conferences. “It’s so rewarding to see people able to take care of themselves,” Dirdak said.
The idea to make sure pastors from the central conferences would no longer “retire into homelessness” took hold in the late 1990s when United Methodist Board of Global Ministries’ members saw too many retired pastors who had nothing. In 2007, the first pension payments went to Liberia; the Democratic Republic of the Congo was the last country added in 2013.
“There had never been money put aside for the fastest-growing area of the church,” said Barbara Boigegrain, top executive of the Board of Pension and Health Benefits.
The Rev. William Joseph
Building capacity
The two boards began working together to come up with a model for a pension, realizing the countries in the central conferences were all very different. “In the U.S., it was easier to define,” Boigegrain said. “It wasn’t simply to be a money or gift program. It needed to be an ongoing money stream.”
That regular pension has made the difference in other lives as well. Throughout districts in Liberia, retired pastors or widows bought materials to build or purchase homes. The Rev. G. Solomon Gueh, pension and health benefits director for the Liberia Annual Conference, shared stories about people who used their pensions to improve their lives.
The Rev. William Joseph from Morweh purchased three bundles of zinc sheeting to build a house.
The Rev. Philip Mayson, also from Morweh, constructed a two-bedroom house, as did Nyeni Smith from Kokoyah District with her late husband’s pension benefit.
The Rev. Willie Wesseh from Cape Palmas District bought five bundles of zinc sheeting for his house.
The Rev. Lewis Tompoe of Gompa District purchases medicine and food with his pension.
When three other agencies — The United Methodist Publishing House, Discipleship Ministries (Board of Discipleship) and United Methodist Communications — became part of the Central Conference Pension Initiative (now called “Central Conference Pension”), the United Nations administered the only working model they found. “It lasted for 10 weeks,” she said. That would not work.
“We knew we wanted to raise money,” Boigegrain said. “We didn’t want to do a lump sum. That’s not what the church does. We try to build capacity. We wanted to do teaching and training as we went along.”
The 2000 General Conference approved the establishment of a pension plan for the central conferences. After initial research, a committee formed in 2002 to research what was available to people in the central conferences.
CENTRAL CONFERENCE PENSION
BY THE NUMBERS
$4.8 million distributed since 2007 (as of April 30, 2015)
5.5 million United Methodist members in the central conferences
2.5 million United Methodist members in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, representing 19 percent of the entire denomination
9,000 active clergy in the 66 conferences in which Central Conference Pension
actively provides support
1,418 surviving spouses in those 66 conferences
1,399 retired pastors in those 66 conferences
100 percent of U.S. annual conferences contributing to the $25 million pension fund
75 annual conferences in the central conferences
53 countries in the central conferences
20 offices handling pension plans in Africa, Europe and Asia (Philippines)
13 official pension plans
Information provided by Tim Koch, chief financial officer, Central Conference Pension, and Colette Nies, managing director, communications, General Board of Pension and Health Benefits
‘Teaching them how to fish’
They found retired pastors and surviving spouses had little or nothing. During the interviews, Boigegrain said, “we emptied our pockets. We did emergency grants.” They provided $80 a year (per retiree/surviving spouse) on an emergency basis once the central conferences submitted retirees’ names.
In 2004, General Conference approved fundraising by the General Council on Finance and Administration to establish a pension and charged each of the five agencies initially with raising $50,000 to get the initiative off the ground.
The pension goal was set at $20 million and eventually increased to $25 million to help retired pastors and surviving spouses as well as set up pensions for future retirees.
Tim Koch, CCP chief financial officer, said they wanted to avoid just giving money. “Things that are pure charity can be the cruelest gift of all,” he said. “The money can suddenly dry up. We’re not just providing fish; we’re teaching them how to fish.”
The two kinds of pensions cover past and future liabilities, he said.
Koch added that the central conferences “made me think the pension plans could not have been set up before the Internet. Before the Internet, it would have been done by mail. When doing things live, you can follow up more quickly.”
He said CCP would like to get to the point where people could receive the funds through theircellphones. Some people now get the pension in cash, and some may walk up to 50 miles to receive it.
Having the pension plan in place is “not just a win situation but a win, win, win, win,” Koch continued. “People are able to pay for food for themselves, and their children and grandchildren don’t have to do subsistence farming. Grandchildren can go to school and become educated … doctors, lawyers or social workers.”
Some of the annual conferences in the central conferences did not think of the surviving spouses. “They were not thinking about women. But the church values both,” Boigegrain said. “In every place, we insisted the benefits go to surviving spouses. Because of the church’s values, surviving spouses are now receiving benefits.”
A justice issue
One of the most challenging concepts to teach was “saying ‘put money away for later,’” Boigegrain said. “Deferring money … was a hard concept. Some annual conferences had just come out of civil wars, and the people didn’t trust banks.”
Retired U.S. Bishop Benjamin Chamness, who chaired Pension and Health Benefits from 2004 to 2008, said the board viewed the pension plan as a justice issue. “We had a large group of retirees living in poverty,” he recalled. “Now people could buy mattresses or go to the doctor.”
Dirdak said that a year after people receive the first pension payments, “you see how (they) are doing even more ingenious things with the money. They raise more food; they’ve repaired their homes – some that were damaged in wars – and they provide for their grandchildren.”
Dan O’Neill, CCP director since 2006, said they set up the first quarterly pensions in 2007 in Liberia because “they had reasonable records identifying recipients.”
Because no pension existed, retirees or surviving spouses saw no need to stay in touch with the offices in their country. “In many cases,” he said, “we didn’t know if the survivors were alive. There were no mailings, emails or, in some cases, telephones to stay in touch.”
He said when they travel to the central conferences, they make sure funds are arriving, document recipients’ names and signatures and visit retirees’ homes to make sure written records are accurate.
“It’s good to get into the homes and to talk with the retirees about their ministry,” O’Neill said. “It’s a chance to honor the work they’ve done over 30, 40 or 45 years. They really appreciate it.”
People can now pay their own way, he said. It adds to their self-worth. Now their grandchildren can go to school because they can pay the fee.
“They know now that every quarter, the money will come. I know one retiree who is expanding the home he is living in. He buys cement blocks every quarter. He knows the pension is reliable enough to do that.”
‘Pure joy’
The goal now is to make sure everyone follows standards and procedures. The plan must be sustainable. “They need to be self-governed, self-funded and sustainable into the future,” he said.
CENTRAL CONFERENCE PENSION TIMELINE
Central Conference Pension serves 2,831 retired clergy/surviving spouses and 9,000 active clergy in the central conferences (conferences outside the U.S.).
Learn about the history of this initiative»
The pension program’s success is evident globally. Rose Beverly Jerusalem has handled distribution in the Philippines Central Conference since the pension plan started there in 2013, “Although, the Philippines Central Conference had an existing pension fund for our clergy,” she said, “it was so meager that it (could) not sustain the pension needs of our clergy in the next three or four years to come.” She added that CCP “was very timely because we are at the brink of bankruptcy” and that it “brought great hope and assurance to the clergy.”
She travels to districts in the Philippines Central Conference to explain the benefits for churches and clergy. She said only 10 percent of those who qualify currently participate.
The CCP, she noted, “requires that the plan should be contributory, both from the clergy themselves and the local churches/institutions where they are assigned. This is a struggle on the part of the clergy and the local churches because the old pension program was noncontributory. Some pastors are hesitant to give their share, while others could hardly give their share because of low salary/support from the local churches.” They are slowly reaching more people and getting them to enroll.
“Now that we have the pension plan in place, the work goes on to make sure it stays in place,” Boigegrain said. “The teaching and training is ongoing.”
She said U.S. annual conferences stepped up and did a great deal. Some bishops did fundraising, and laity contributed.
Although active fundraising for the initiative has stopped, Boigegrain said, “we are still taking contributions.” Boigegrain recognized the five agencies for their work. The efforts were worth it, she said.
“I have met some of the retirees, and it is pure joy to know they are getting something. They are no longer destitute.”
Weaver is a freelance contributor and former staff person with United Methodist Communications living in Nashville, Tennessee.
Seeking children’s prayers for Peace with Justice SundayWASHINGTON (UMNS) — Children are invited to submit original prayers for peace to the United Methodist Board of Church and Society as part of the denomination’s Peace with Justice Sundayobservance. The multi-faceted initiative, “Hate Hurts, Peace Heals,” includes a reading list on peace for children and Sunday school classes and an opportunity to gather offerings for peace. Wayne Rhodes reports.
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Hate Hurts, Peace Heals’
Turn Peace with Justice Sunday into a month of peace during May by Wayne Rhodes, Editor, Faith in Action on May 07, 2015
To download an invitation suitable for inclusion in worship bulletins to share among your friends, congregation, and other networks, go to “Hate Hurts, Peace Heals.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Children are invited to make peace a priority this month, both at home and abroad. The Rev. Dr. Susan Henry-Crowe, chief executive of the United Methodist General Board of Church & Society, invites children to take the lead in pursuing the peace that will ensure they have any chance for an abundant future.
Children [invited] to take the lead in pursuing the peace that will ensure they have any chance for an abundant future.
Henry-Crowe has proposed a multi-faceted initiative, led by children, to engage all generations in the United Methodist Peace with Justice Sunday, which is May 31 this year, but can be observed at any time amenable to a congregation’s programming schedule.
The initiative, “Hate Hurts, Peace Heals,” will include a reading list on peace for children and Sunday school classes, an opportunity to submit original prayers for peace, and gathering offerings for peace. The offerings should be presented during the local church’s Peace with Justice observance.
Original prayers should be sent to the General Board of Church & Society, 100 Maryland Ave., NE, Washington, D.C. 20002, or via email to peaceheals@umc-gbcs.org.
Peace with Justice Sunday
Peace with Justice Sunday is one of the six United Methodist Special Sundays with offering. Peace with Justice Sunday supports programs that advocate peace and justice at home and around the world. Half of the Special Sunday offering is retained in annual conferences to fund local Peace with Justice ministries. Half of the offering is remitted to GBCS to help fund U.S. and global work in social action, public-policy education and advocacy.
God invites us into a way of blessedness for peace.
Henry-Crowe cited the Beatitudes as inspiration for the observance: “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9). “With the hope, inspiration, curiosity and playfulness of children, God invites us into a way of blessedness for peace,” she emphasized.
Children themselves inspired “Hate Hurts, Peace Heals,” according to Henry-Crowe. She mentioned her grandsons Lauch and Dash, and Maya and Ella, children of GBCS staff members, but also children she encountered this past year at the Lydia Patterson Institute in El Paso, Texas, boys and girls in Baltimore, in the Philippines and the Democratic Republic of Congress.
“Every child deserves to live in communities of peace,” Henry-Crowe said. “This month, we invite families, friends and congregations to read, pray and give towards peace forour communities and around the world.”
Downlodable resources
You can use a downloadable invitation suitable for worship bulletins to help spread the word about this endeavor to instill a vision of peace among the youngest in our communities. The invitation describing the aspects of “Hate Hurts, Peace Heals” can be shared in local congregations, Wesley Foundations and United Methodist Women’s circles, for example.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu's God's Dream is the suggested first book to read this month. A companion study guide has been prepared to facilitate discussions. A morecomprehensive reading list is available also with books broken down by subject and age appropriatness.
More information can be obtained at “Hate Hurts, Peace Heals.”
Other resources are available such as a Peace with Justice e-book that describes 15 ways to observe the Special Sunday, along with basic information about the Special Sunday itself.
The General Board of Church & Society is one of four international general program boards of The United Methodist Church. Prime responsibility of the board is to seek implementation of the Social Principles and other policy statements on Christian social concerns of the General Conference, the denomination’s highest policy-making body. The board’s primary areas of ministry are Advocacy, Education & Leadership Formation, United Nations & International Affairs, and resourcing these areas for the denomination. It has offices on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York City.Former House Speaker Wright was faithful United Methodist
FORT WORTH, Texas (UMNS) — The May 6 death of Jim Wright, former U.S. Speaker of the House, yielded many news stories about his political career. But United Methodists are remembering him as a faithful member of First United Methodist Church of Fort Worth, and a leader in the Central Texas Conference. Vance Morton, director of communications for the conference, reports.
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Remembering Jim Wright: Skilled Politician, Captivating Storyteller, Persuasive Orator, Loving Servant of Jesus Christ. by Vance Morton*
Much has been written and remembered about the political life and impact of James Claude “Jim” Wright Jr. since his passing last Wednesday, May 6, at the age of 92, and rightfully so. Jim Wright served the country, the state and, most directly, the Fort Worth and North Texas area as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for more than 30 years, culminating in his election as Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives in 1987.
“Jim represented the people of his beloved Texas for over three decades,” President Barack Obama said in a statement. “He was a committed public leader and a proud World War II veteran who dedicated much of his life to serving his country.”
“Speaker Jim Wright’s footprint in Fort Worth and North Texas is large,” said U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, the Republican who now represents the 12th District. “He was instrumental in projects that helped build this state and particularly North Texas to the prominent place it holds today.”
Yes, Jim Wright will be long-remembered as a dedicated and influential public servant, However, beyond his steadfast leadership and dedication to the people of the Fort Worth area and all of America, Speaker Wright was also quite active in the workings of the Central Texas Conference in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, and a faithful member of First Fort Worth UMC until the day he died.
“Jim Wright was a vital and vibrant part of the Central Texas Conference for many years following his retirement from Congress,” observed Bishop Mike Lowry, episcopal leader for the Central Texas Conference. “He was a gifted, loving servant of Christ who brought the same level of focus and dedication to his work in the conference as he did in Congress. Our prayers and thoughts and gratitude go out to his family and those closest to him.”
Following his retirement from Congress and up until his health dictated otherwise, Speaker Wright served and/or led many different committees, boards and foundations within the CTC, including director of the Texas Methodist Foundation, the District Committee on Ministry (DCOM) and a lay member to Annual Conference.
Those that served with him found him to be down to earth, dedicated and quite serious about the business at hand.
“Even though he introduced himself to me the first time we met as Jim, I always referred to him as Mr. Speaker,” remembered Dr. Randy Wild, executive director, Central Texas Conference Center for Mission Support and Conference Secretary. “His dedication to the church was strong and powerful and I’ll always admire him for the seriousness that he brought to every task. Whether it was interviewing a potential clergy member, debating the merits of a sermon, or simply in conversation about life in general, he took it as serious as if it was debating the merits of any bill he ever debated in Congress.”
His dedication to the church wasn’t reserved for high-profile conference-level committees and events. Speaker Wright understood that the local churches are the most vital component in our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ and was an active member of First UMC Fort Worth. According to those he called his church family, he lived out the vows to uphold the church with his prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness in every aspect of his life.
“Jim was an outstanding leader whose deep faith was lived out in the way he treated others, his passion for justice and his own relationship with God,” said Dr. Tim Bruster, senior pastor, First UMC Fort Worth. “He lived out the words of Micah: he did justice, he loved kindness and he walked humbly with God. When I visited him in the hospital and ended my prayer with him, he always prayed after me and always included me and others in his prayer. What a gifted, loving servant of Christ!”
*Vance is the director of Communications & IT for the CTC. vance@ctcumc.org
Denzel Washington: ‘Put God first’NEW ORLEANS — Actor Denzel Washington gave Dillard University graduates four life goals, starting with “Put God first.” Washington gave the commencement address on May 9, receiving an honorary doctorate before leaving to give another commencement address at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas. Dillard and Wiley are two of the historically black colleges supported by The United Methodist Church’s Black College Fund. Washington’s 2007 film “The Great Debaters” tells the story of a Wiley College debate team. Sue Strachan reported for NOLA.com and The Times-Picayune.
Read The Times-Picayune story
Denzel Washington gives Dillard University students four life goals in commencement speech
Denzel Washington receives an honorary degree at the Dillard Commencement featuring Denzel Washington at Dillard University. Saturday, May 9, 2015. (Josh Brasted Photo)
Josh Brasted
by Sue Strachan, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
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Denzel and Dillard: A successful partnership that on Saturday (May 9) made for a specialcommencement for Dillard University's Class of 2015.
The commencement took place at the university's Rosa Freeman Keller Avenue of the Oaks, where 218 students received diplomas for their degreesfrom the College of Business, College of Arts and Sciences, and Nursing. The highlight of the ceremony featured Academy and Tony award-winning actor Denzel Washington as the keynote speaker.
Introduced by senior class vice president Joy Semien, Washington took to the podium to impart four goals for graduating seniors, and for the audience, as well: "Congratulations to all of you... First: Put God first ... Second: Fail big... a dream without goals, is just a dream ...Third: You will never see a U-Haul behind a hearse ... and Four: Say thank-you in advance for what is already yours." He concluded with, "Don't aspire to make a living, aspire to make a difference." (Also during the speech, Washington very candidly said he once had a 1.7 grade point average in college.)
Afterward, Washington was bestowed an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, before he had to leave early to give another commencement speech at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas; like Dillard, an HBCU (historically black colleges and universities). Other luminaries who received Honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters were Dr. Victoria H. Barbosa, David J. Dennis Sr. ('68) and Alden J. McDonald Jr.,president of Liberty Bank.
Washington's connection to the university is through a scholarship program he set up for students in the theater department, eight of whom were graduating. The program is the oldest among HBCU. Valedictorian Ariel Lucius, who spoke, was a recipient of a scholarship set up by Washington.
More awards were given out, including the Presidential Medal of Honor presented by university President Walter M. Kimbrough to Joyce M. Roché ('70).
Click here to hear audio of Denzel Washington's Dillard University commencement speech.
*****
To reach Sue Strachan, send an email to socialscene@nola.com or call 504.450.5904. Find her on Twitter and Instagram as @suestrachan504, with the hashtag #nolasocialscene. Visit her on Facebook. And, come back toNOLA.com/society for more New Orleans area event and party news and photos.Support the Black College Fund
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Between 1866 and 1882, following the Civil War, the former Methodist Episcopal Church organized the Freedmen’s Aid Society to help educate black people newly freed from slavery. Between 1866 and 1882, the society established more than 70 schools in the U.S. South and Southwest.
In 1972, The United Methodist Church established the Black College Fund to provide a constant reliable way to support United Methodist-related historically Black colleges. Today we support more historically Black colleges and universities than any other religious denomination.
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Through United Methodist Church giving, we’re supporting the important work of 11 schools committed to academic excellence based on the Christian perspective of community service and social responsibility—where students are interacting with academic staffs that serve as strong cultural and spiritual mentors.
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United Methodists pitch in to feed children, distribute medications
BALTIMORE — Metropolitan United Methodist Church’s fellowship hall became a cafeteria and gathering space for children after school closures in the wake of riots. Volunteers and friends from surrounding cities sent food, clothing, toiletries and medical supplies to the church. The Rev. Eric King talks about distributing meals and creating care packages for community members who have been without medication since a nearby pharmacy went up in flames. Think Progress reports.
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In A Moment Of Civil Unrest, Baltimoreans Are Creating A Movement That’s Built To Last BY SAM P.K. COLLINS
"In A Moment Of Civil Unrest, Baltimoreans Are Creating A Movement That’s Built To Last"
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Rev. Eric King of United Methodist Church in Baltimore (far left) with volunteers and children.
CREDIT: DYLAN PETROHILOS/THINKPROGRESS
In the days after civil unrest in Baltimore overtook the news coverage on the mysterious death of Freddie Gray, Baltimoreans redoubled their effort to show what Charm City is really about.
Community members came out in droves towing brooms, trash bags, and trash cans — maneuvering around the flurry of protestors, fully armored police officers, and a bevy of news cameras — to clean up and restore order to their community after Monday night’s melee. Church and community groups served food to kids who wouldn’t get free lunch with schools closed.
But it turns out these efforts may be more than a stopgap to address the immediate needs of residents adversely affected by around-the-clock police presence. Slowly but surely, a movement has been coalescing in Baltimore through the collaborative efforts of clergy people, educators, youth advocates, and members of street gangs – key players who have the clout to unite their groups around the pressing needs of the community and start the long-term planning to address the city’s long-ignored plight.
“This is ongoing because we in Baltimore are in this for the long haul. People under their own initiative and creativity have brought supplies that have transformed Baltimore beyond what the city has seen,” Reverend Eric King of Metropolitan United Methodist Church in Baltimore told ThinkProgress.
Volunteers at United Methodist Church in Baltimore spent much of Tuesday preparing and distributing food packages for residents.
CREDIT: DYLAN PETROHILOS/THINKPROGRESS
This week, United Methodist’s fellowship hall morphed into a cafeteria and gathering space for children who King said most likely wouldn’t have been able to eat in lieu of school closures on Tuesday. That day, more than 100 youngsters converged on the grounds of the church where they feasted on pizza, sandwiches, granola bars, and fruit snacks while gulping down cold water and juice. An interdenominational group of volunteers that included teachers and parents watched as children frolicked around the space.
In the days since outside police forces entered Baltimore and city officials imposed a curfew, local volunteers and allies from surrounding cities have funneled in pounds of food, clothing, toiletries, and medical supplies to United Methodist Church. During his interview with ThinkProgress, King discussed plans to distribute meals and create care packages for community members who have been without medication since the nearby pharmacy went up in flames.
It doesn’t stop there. With the help of local activist groups and Pastor Willie Johnson, a Ferguson protester, King and other church leaders said they want to spark conversation with the disillusioned youth about their frustration and help them channel their energy to create substantial, long-term solutions to combat decades of harsh policing, high unemployment, neighborhood decay, and other social ills that affected residents long before the cameras showed up.
“Ministers across the country have walked through a community that has been looted and talked to the people. We met with gang members from different sets and learned that there were many who tried to get looters to stop robbing the store. This has opened up conversation about what we could do to better our community,” King said.
For Baltimore teacher Chelseay Parks, that conversation with her second graders has to take place amid the chaos, especially since many of them have most likely heard accounts of the protests from their older siblings. Parks, a native of Atlanta, spent much of the morning assisting other volunteers with food distribution and conversing with parents about how she should best address the events that have unfolded in the last couple of weeks.
“Part of our job is giving them a little more info without sacrificing their childhood. Kids in this environment always have teaching moments about the injustices they face,” Parks told ThinkProgress. Parks recounted an instance when she taught a group of fourth graders about implicit bias with what she described as the “blue eyes, brown eyes exercise,” a teaching tool that has been used since the 1960s to explain racial discrimination in a tangible manner by dividing students by eye color and giving the blue-eyed students special privileges.
“It’s difficult to communicate with the younger students because they won’t understand structural racism and how things are stacked against them,” Parks said. “It’s difficult to navigate but we want to have a conversation about it. In education, it’s important to understand what you’re going through and how external influences put you in your current position.”
Niya Rucker, a 21-year-old Park Heights resident, was counted among the volunteers Tuesday morning. Despite reaching the height of her frustration with the outsiders who came into Baltimore after the riots broke out, Rucker remained determined to beautify her neighborhood and talk to her contemporaries who have neglected the words of cautious adults.
“If you’re not from Baltimore, you wouldn’t understand,” Rucker told ThinkProgress. While she condemned the actions of those who looted stores, Rucker, who recounted a dismal childhood, said their anger resonated with her. That’s why she has recently taken more of an interest in advising younger residents. “The children here don’t have proper guidance. This stuff kicked off because a post was made for them. They don’t know what they’re fighting for.”
However, Baltimore-area youth advocate Craig Jernigan said the young looters are the exception rather than the majority. After watching the high point of the conflict around the corner from his house on Monday, Jernigan met with other youth advocates. He said that plans are in motion to pass out supplies to families affected by the fires and give fire fighters moral support. This project, set to jump off with the help of allies from Harrisburg, PA, will be led by at least 20 young people currently under state supervision.
“These young people weren’t out there looting and rioting and I’m really impressed with that,” Jernigan, program director at the Baltimore Youth Advocate Project told ThinkProgress. “Many of the advocates told me that their youth were safe at home and accounted for. The ones I’m talking to are frustrated. They are all saying the same message about being treated wrongly by police and getting racially profiled. They see it all of the time. It’s not just about Freddie Gray. It’s bigger than that. It’s about all of their peers. They’ve calmed down and their focus has increased.”Liberia gives thanks for freedom from Ebola
MONROVIA, Liberia (UMNS) — United Methodist leaders joined in as Liberia gave thanks for the declaration that the country is free of Ebola. But church leaders also recalled the many lives lost and counseled continued vigilance in public health. Julu Swen reports.
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Photo by Julu Swen, UMNS
These women were among the Liberians celebrating and giving thanks in Monrovia on May 11 after the announcement by the World Health Organization that Liberia is free of the Ebola virus.PreviousNext
Liberia gives thanks for freedom from Ebola by Julu Swen MONROVIA, Liberia (UMNS)
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia and a United Methodist, led an array ofgovernment officials and foreign dignitaries in a May 11 service offering thanks for the World Health Organization’s declaration that Liberia is free of the Ebola virus.
Sirleaf said Liberia would be offering to help two other West African countries, Sierra Leone and Guinea, as they continue to fight the disease.
“Until our neighbors are totally free, we are not free,” Sirleaf warned.
She also called on Liberians to remain vigilant in using public health measures that ultimately helped contain Ebola in their country.
“Let us do those simple things like washing hands, reporting when someone is sick, and making sure that there is safe and dignify burial,” she said.
And while the virus may be gone, Liberia will be struggling with the effects of the outbreak for a long time, including reinstating routine vaccinations of children, suspended during the outbreak for lack of resources. The United Nations announced the launch of a massive effort to vaccinate children against measles and polio.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
The United Methodist Churches in Sierra Leone and Liberia are struggling to recover from the Ebola epidemic. You can donate to the conference relief efforts online through the Advance.
Sierra Leone Undesignated Advance #00387A
Liberia Undesignated Advance #00382A
You can donate to the Bishop Judith Craig Children Village through Advance #11820A.
You can also give to the International Disaster Response fund Advance #982450 of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
Read full coverage of Ebola and The United Methodist Church.
The thanksgiving service was held at Centennial Memorial Pavilion in central Monrovia. It celebrated the end of 14 months of battling Ebola, including an excruciating wait of more than a month for the expected WHO declaration, which came on May 9.
Tolbert Nyenswah, Liberia’s deputy minister of health and head of the ministry’s Ebola incidentmanagement team, announced that the work he had begun last August was over. Nyenswah is also a United Methodist.
“With my team of capable Liberian professionals we have conquered the deadly Ebola virus and can now deal with any Ebola virus whether it is of animal origin or human person to person transmission,” he said.
Nyenswah credited the Liberian people and theinternational community as crucial partners in the effort to stop the disease in Liberia.
Lost lives remembered
The Rev. Cooper Mondolo, superintendent of the Weala District, was not among the United Methodist clergy present to give thanks, but he shared in the sentiment. In an interview, he also recalled the many lost lives.
The toll included 189 health care workers.
“The scorching effects are still in the minds of the people and several persons wept in our district meeting when the WHO declaration was announced,” Mondolo said. “There will always be tears and joy every time Ebola is mentioned in our United Methodist churches in Liberia.”
The Rev. Karyidia Gartor, superintendent of the Kakata-Farmington River District, elaborated on the disease’s costs.
“It left behind . . . 26 orphans who now live with relations who cannot afford to take care of them properly,” the clergyman lamented.
Gartor said his district, in partnership with the Iroquois River District of the Illinois Great River Conference, is making sure that children are in school and getting at least the basic help they need. Already eight of the children have been placed in the Bishop Judith Craig Children Village while the rest are with family members who are getting help from the district. The village cares for orphaned children.
“The Ebola virus has awakened in us, the people of the Kakata-Farmington River District, the spirit of cooperation,” Gartor said.
The Rev. George Wilson, director of Connectional Ministries for the Liberia conference, said The United Methodist Church in Liberia has not decided whether to have its own thanksgiving service. He echoed the president’s call to remain vigilant.
“As someone who presided over the UMC Liberia Task Force, I will prefer that all of the preventive measures that were practiced during the crisis should now be regarded as standard practices for the Liberian people,” Wilson said.
Liberia was seeing 300 to 400 new Ebola cases a week last August and September. The country has no cases currently, and the country’s last death from the disease occurred March 27.
The WHO statement credited Sirleaf Johnson’s strong leadership with helping end the outbreak.
“Her swift and sometimes tough decisions, frequent public communications, and presence at outbreak sites were expressions of this leadership,” the statement said.
*Swen is editor and publisher of West African Writers, an online publication about United Methodist happenings in West Africa and assists the denomination in Liberia with coverage for United Methodist Communications.
Christian Unity gathering draws 200-plus in D.C.
WASHINGTON (UMNS) — More than 200 Christian leaders, scholars, activists and ecumenists, including United Methodists, were part of the second annual Christian Unity Gathering held by the National Council of Churches May 7-9. Participants also were among the more than 2,500 people at the Washington National Cathedral for a worship service commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
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2015 Christian Unity Gathering Brings Inspiration, Focus, Spectacle
WASHINGTON: The National Council of Churches held its second annual Christian Unity Gathering, May 7-9, in Washington, DC with over 200 Christian leaders, scholars, activists, and ecumenists present from across the United States to focus on the NCC’s priority of interfaith peacemaking.
The NCC pursues two main areas in its ecumenical work: to build interfaith relations with an emphasis on peacemaking, and to end mass incarceration.
Leymah Gbowee, the Liberian Nobel Peace Prize winner, keynoted the Gathering and shared the powerful story of a mass movement of Christian and Muslims known as Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace that helped end the Liberian civil war that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.
Ms. Gbowee stood at the Gathering as a remarkably clear voice for women across the globe. “Do one good thing every day that everyone else is scared to do,” Gbowee proclaimed. “It is time for the Church to be crazy… like Jesus was in the Temple.”
On the evening of May 7, more than 2500 people gathered at the Washington National Cathedral for a moving worship service sponsored by the NCC commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians and His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia spoke. The homily was delivered by Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches.
Also in attendance were US Vice President Joe Biden; His Excellency Serzh Sargsyan, President of the Republic of Armenia; and His Holiness Ignatius Aphrem II, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, Supreme Head of the Syriac Orthodox Church.
Central to the Gathering was the work of the Council’s four Convening Tables. Ample time was allotted to these tables to plan and further their work in pursuit of Christian unity, advocacy for justice, interfaith relations and collaboration, and Christian education and ecumenical formation.
Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit addressed the Gathering during several key moments in the Gathering. Participating in a panel on peacemaking with Naeem Baig, President of the Islamic Circle of North America and part of the NCC’s long-standing Muslim-Christian dialogue, and Rabbi Gerry Serotta, Executive Director of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington, Tveit spoke about the common theological convictions in Islam, Judaism, and Christianity that together form an interfaith imperative to work for peace and justice. He also stressed the necessity of Christian unity on behalf of all humanity, because it is only in unity that the Christian churches can ultimately proclaim the fullness of the Gospel. “Let us talk of a Christian unity that serves a wider unity of all people, all creation, unity for the sake of the world,” he proclaimed.
Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA has been the leading force for shared ecumenical witness among Christians in the United States. The NCC's 37 member communions -- from a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African American and Living Peace churches -- include 45 million persons in more than 100,000 local congregations in communities across the nation.
NCC News contact: Steven D. Martin: 202.412.4323 or steven.martin@nationalcouncilofchurches.usWalking to Emmaus in Holy Land, Sweden
GENEVA (WCC) — In a feature for the World Council of Churches, Peter Kenny shares how the biblical story of Emmaus motivated 60 young people from Palestine, South Africa, Germany and Sweden to make a two-stage peace pilgrimage in the Holy Land and Sweden.
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Walking to Emmaus in the Holy Land, and Sweden
Salam M. Qumsiyeh, whose first name means Peace, was one of the participants in the pilgrimage. *by Peter Kenny
It was a peace hike inspired by the biblical story of Emmaus, crisscrossing part of the Holy Land, following the footsteps of Jesus.
Luke’s gospel describes how two men saw the resurrected Jesus at the town of Emmaus, thereby regaining hope.
Emmaus motivated a group of 60 young women and men from places such as Palestine, South Africa, Germany and Sweden to embark on their two-stage peace pilgrimage.
They shared life experiences and their faith during their hikes, each a week long. They walked, danced, sang, talked and travelled together by bus in one land where there is peace, and another that is in conflict.
The mighty barrier wall between Israel and Palestine and western Sweden’s golden wheat fields are far from Qunu, South Africa, where Yolanda Ngxishe grew up on the same rolling hills as Nelson Mandela.
Like the great South African apartheid fighter and peacemaker, Ngxishe is a member of the Xhosa-speaking Madiba clan.
Ngxishe belongs to South Africa’s “Born Frees” post-apartheid generation, but said, “Many people in South Africa are not feeling the freedom our people have been fighting for.”
Thinking of Mandela
He said, “I thought about the man [Mandela]. He fought for freedom, and it made me think of the movie ‘Long walk to freedom’. It was a great moment to think about the man. We are now able to move about freely, but that is not so here.”
Noting that in South Africa economic apartheid still exists, Ngxishe said, for Palestinians, “Economically they are not equal. They don’t get enough water. Water is life.” He said it was difficult for Palestinians to move easily.
He gained a lot from the group finding that music was something they had in common and said, “I can think about positive things. My mind is more open.”
Ngxishe said, “The best thing I learned is that the group take education very seriously; unlike we do in South Africa. Most of our young people are not into education. If you get an education, you become better people.”
Palestinian Bishop Munib A. Younan, blessing the first stage of the walk, said, "You are now missionaries for a worldwide pilgrimage about the risen Lord Jesus Christ!”
“When we speak about peace, it’s larger than those countries in which people are living in a perilous situation, as we are, living under occupation,” said Younan. “It’s because sometimes it is very easy in comfortable and democratic societies to develop xenophobia or racism.”
Younan is bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan & the Holy Land, a member church of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and is president of the Lutheran World Federation.
The pilgrimage began at Church of Sweden’s Skara Diocese 1,000-year celebration in August 2014. The diocese hosted young people from diverse backgrounds for a week-long walking pilgrimage as a jubilee project.
The second part of "Walking to Emmaus" continued in The Holy Land from 4-12 April, 2015, with 60 young people along with three bishops and church leaders from Germany, Palestine, South Africa and Sweden.
In the Holy Land they stayed in iconic biblical places such as Bethlehem, Jericho and Nazareth.
German student Mario Münsterer said, “It was a great new experience meeting people in Sweden and Palestine. “I was born after the fall of the wall,” he said, referring the Berlin Wall erected to divide East from West Germany during the Cold War.
He said that since that wall started to come down around 1989-1990 people could move around freely in a united Germany. That is, however, not the case in the Holy Land where Israel has erected a wall and barrier to Palestine.
Reflecting on how they were away from their mobiles phones, Münsterer said: “on the pilgrimage we had time to ourselves, to reflect, and by walking we had direct contact with, and could understand the essence of the problems. This was much better.”
Salam M. Qumsiyeh, whose first name means Peace, is a Palestinian from Beit Sahur. She was able to tell the peace hikers about, and then show them, how she lives by the barrier.
“I was disappointed all the checkpoints went normally.
“For Palestinians it is different, we have to line up and be body-searched; we have to have a permit to get into Israel. They [our group] won’t understand that unless they experience it.” She said the group could experience the roadblocks but not undergo the same experience that Palestinians endure at them.
“I love hiking and this hike has a purpose, walking to Emmaus. There were people getting to know each other; people knowing what we are doing and how we live,” Qumsiyeh said during the journey.
She spoke of the questions she had from her fellow travelers on the bus and noted, “You live the answers. I wanted to tell a lot of things about what we experience.
“For me fighting for Palestine is to spread the word to the world and tell others about our reality. They only know what they see in the media and that does not show our reality.”
Divided young Israelis and Palestinians
She spoke of the divisions between young Palestinians and Israelis who live so close to one another but live such different lives.
“I don’t mind having an Israeli friend if they understand what I feel, but if they are kind of racist or extremist, then why would I be willing to be friends with them?
"From my point of view mostly they are like that. Because they don't understand what Palestinians are like; they think we are terrorists. They are not educated about Palestinians,” said Qumsiyeh.
The Palestinian student explained, “Acceptance is the answer. If you only think you are the one who is right, then you don’t see the existence of the others' thoughts, or other ethnicities.
“If you understand and see what they are in regards to you, I think this will achieve peace.”
Walking, talking, reflecting
“When you are walking together it's a good way of talking and reflecting together, that is basically the idea,” said Daniel Uddling, the project leader from the Church of Sweden.
Also on the pilgrimage were Swedish television journalist Marika Griehsel and her husband South Africa TV cameraman Simon Stanford who filmed the journey in Sweden and the Holy Land. Stanford recorded the ending of apartheid in the 1990s and the struggle against it in the 1980s for international television.
“It was inspirational being with this group and learning how people can learn about peace by sharing experiences,” said Stanford.
Göran Rask, the chair person and the initiator of the project, spoke to the young people when they had finished their pilgrimage and thanked them.
“A long walk”
“We made it! We walked to Emmaus! It was a long walk.
“We have come from South Africa, Germany, Sweden and from Bethlehem, Beit Sahour, Beit Jala, Ramallah and Jerusalem in Palestine to this 'Emmaus'. It was a long walk especially since we took a detour to Skara in Sweden – to Flämslätt, Husaby, Forshem, Kungslena, Gudhem and Varnhem.”
He observed that one person in the group, Khaleed, said at Flämslätt, “dancing seems to be our common language”.
“Through singing and dancing we have shared faith and life in a special way,” said Rask.
He noted that, more important than walking, the group shared life expectations, dreams, daily life routines, sorrows and difficulties. They examined the effect of the suffering of the unjust, and how unlawful occupation affects the lives of their friends living in Palestine.
They also shared their faith through the life of Jesus and the Gospel of Luke, through bible texts relating to their five themes of sustainability, baptism, mission, pluralism and peace. They exchanged testimonies and faith in the daily lives among themselves.
“My dream is that you will see your mission in continuing to dream and work for peace and justice, advocating for a pluralistic, sustainable world,” said Rask.
He wanted the group to remember, “God is with us and Jesus walks by our side, just as he did with the disciples to Emmaus and our baptism is our sign from God that Jesus walks beside us.”
The project was carried out in close cooperation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria (ELKB), the South-Eastern Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa (ELCSA), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan & the Holy Land (ELCJHL), the Church of Sweden Youth Skara and Sensus districts as well as Church of Sweden International department.
*Peter Kenny is a journalist and communications consultant. He writes for Ecumenical News, The Wall Street Journal, The Star in Johannesburg and other media organizations.
Blog post by Palestinian participant Salam M. Qumsiyeh
Blog post by South African participant Bandile Vukani Ndaba
Photos in high resolution are available via photos.oikoumene.org
United one of 12 seminaries to double enrollmentDAYTON, Ohio (UMNS) — A report from the Association of Theological Schools listed United Theological Seminary as one of only 12 seminaries to have doubled enrollment over the past five years. United President Wendy Deichmann credits much of the United Methodist school’s recent success to its online education programs. “We have a really compelling, relevant program, and because of that, we’ve been able to connect with a whole new population of students,” she said.
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United Theological Seminary Ranks among Fastest-Growing Seminaries in North America
UNITED NEWS
by UNITED on
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A recent report from the Association of Theological Schools shows the Ohio seminary to be one of the 12 fastest-growing in the last five years.
In an April report from the Association of Theological Schools, United Theological Seminary of Dayton, Ohio, was named one of only 12 schools to have grown by at least 50 percent over the past five years. With an enrollment of 538 in the fall of 2014, United Theological Seminary is the second largest on the association’s list of fastest-growing schools.
Seminary president Wendy Deichmann attributes much of the school’s recent success to itsonline education programs.
“We have a really compelling, relevant program, and because of that we’ve been able to connect with a whole new population of students,” she said.
United is among 46 percent of ATS member schools approved to offer comprehensive online education (i.e., six or more courses). In fact, the number of online students at ATS schools has increased so significantly over the past five years that the association granted exceptions to some of its member schools, allowing them to forgo the one-year residency requirement for Master of Divinity programs.
With this freedom, United has become one of 12 schools approved to offer a fully online M.Div. degree and one of only 10 schools to offer a fully online Master of Arts degree, the most popular new degree program among ATS member schools.
Although the ATS report highlights certain factors of sustained growth, it also recognizes that enrollment figures don’t tell the whole story.
“The reasons that some schools have enjoyed extraordinary enrollment growth during the past five years are idiosyncratic,” said Daniel Aleshire, executive director of ATS. “Each growing school has its own success story to tell.”
President Deichmann says that United’s story is one of renewal. Just 10 years ago, United was struggling, enrolling fewer than 200 students at its lowest point. But once the Seminary adopted a curriculum focused on church renewal, things began to change.
President Deichmann credits that focus on renewal with the school’s turnaround and its continued growth over the last five years. The school’s primary goal continues to be to prepare church leaders who will renew and lead vibrant, faithful churches.
“With mainline Protestant denominations experiencing decreased membership, we realized that we couldn’t be just one more seminary contributing to that trajectory of decline,” she said. “We believe God is always working to bring hope, new life and renewal to the church, so if it’s struggling, then something is wrong and we have to address it.”
United Theological Seminary is a graduate professional school of The United Methodist Church offering masters and doctoral theological degrees and continuing education with programs offered on campus and online. United’s goal is to educate dynamic, Spirit-led leaders who will renew the church for the mission of Jesus Christ in the world.Read report
MARCH 31, 2015 1 Approximately 37 percent of ATS member schools have grown during the past five years. Among the 100 schools that have grown, 34 have grown at least 25 percent, of which 12 have grown by at least 50 percent. Nearly half (44%) of the growing schools show five-year enrollment gains even despite declines during the past year. While there is no single factor accounting for this sustained growth, given the diverse universe of ATS schools, some factors are worth noting. Size is not necessarily a factor. Seminary growth is not simply a case of “the big getting bigger” nor is it only a function of small incremental changes to small numbers that yield high percentage rates. Growth during the past five years has been fairly evenly distributed among schools of various student body sizes, as shown in the table below. The list of 100 growing seminaries divides between 43 percent above the current ATS median size of 150 students and 57 percent below. New degree programs and delivery systems can make a difference. Certainly new degree programs and delivery systems have had an impact on the most recent enrollment Why 100 ATS member schools have grown By Tom Tanner and Eliza Smith Brown COMPARISON OF GROWING SCHOOLS BY SIZE OF STUDENT BODY (2009–2014) Schools by Size in 20091 All Schools Growing Schools 25%+ Growth 500+ students 32 (12%) 13 (13%) 1 (3%) 200–499 students 84 (32%) 25 (25%) 6 (18%) 100–199 students 85 (32%) 29 (29%) 13 (38%) < 100 students 65 (24%) 33 (33%) 14 (41%) Totals 266 (100%)2 100 (100%) 34 (100%) from Annual Data Tables of The Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada __________________________________________________________________1 Twelve of the 100 schools that have grown were not yet members of ATS in 2009; each of those is listed according to its size the year it joined the Association. 2 Seven of the 273 member schools just joined in 2014, so no growth data are available. MARCH 31, 2015 2 growth—that experienced from 2013–2014. Looking at this past year alone, nearly two thirds (65 percent) of the 40 schools with double-digit percentage increases have recently implemented new degree programs or new delivery systems or both. The most popular new degree programs are two-year professional MAs, which had record numbers of students and graduates this year (see Seminaries Set Six Enrollment Records in the February Colloquy Online). The 273 ATS member schools now offer more than 250 different professional MA programs—the most ever. Peter Meehan, principal at St. Mark’s College, oversees a program that caters to lay Catholics who are interested in parish work and education—a growing and eclectic constituency. Some 95 percent of St. Mark’s students are lay people sent by the Archdiocese to build the permanent deaconate or drawn by the school’s new Master of Catholic Leadership, a stream for educational leaders. The school’s enrollment has grown 64 percent during the past five years. The most common new delivery systems are distance (online) education and extension education. More than half (145 schools or 53 percent) of all ATS members now offer distance education, as contrasted with less than 10 percent just a decade ago. Of those 145, 125 have approval to offer comprehensive distance education (i.e., more than five courses; see list of approved schools on the ATS website). While distance education enrollments are difficult to count (partly due to recent changes in how those numbers are reported), it appears that the number of online students in ATS schools has increased by as much as 35 percent since 2009 (from around 13,750 to around 18,500). This past fall, about one-fourth of all ATS students were enrolled in at least one online course, whereas a decade ago fewer than one-tenth were. Enrollment trends in extension education, on the other hand, are more mixed, at least as reported by the 78 schools with extension sites. Extension enrollment peaked at 15,024 in 2012, but declined to 12,126 a year ago—and is down even more significantly this past fall to less than 8,000, though most of that decline is likely due to a change in how those numbers are reported. Even accounting for that change, the number of extension students this year would still likely be fewer than six years ago. It seems more and more students are choosing online education over extension education. Further evidence of the growing popularity of online programs among ATS seminaries may be found in the initial results from recent exceptions and experiments granted to member schools under the 2012 revision of the ATS Commission Standards. The vast majority of those exceptions and experiments allow seminaries to offer MDiv and professional MA programs either completely or almost completely online. Among the seven schools granted exceptions to the one-year residency requirement for MDiv programs, five saw those programs grow an average of 10 percent this past year (vs. a 6 percent loss for MDiv programs in general). Among the eight schools granted exceptions to the one-third In search of creative new models and practices Most schools don’t have risk capital to provide a cushion for experimentation, but many are developing innovative models and practices nonetheless. Over the next year, as part of its Lilly-funded Educational Models Project, ATS will conduct a comprehensive study of educational program developments in ATS schools. This mapping survey will gather information on the variety of educational practices that have developed during the past several decades, often to address new constituencies, to increase accessibility of theological education, or to address patterns of ministry that have been underattended by the dominant educational models. The entire Association stands to gain from this investigation. MARCH 31, 2015 3 residency requirement for professional MA programs, six experienced an amazing average growth of 94 percent this past year (vs. 4 percent growth for all MA programs). It should be noted, however, that insufficient longitudinal data have been collected to project how the growth from exceptions and experimental initiatives might continue. As Jason Allen, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and College (MBTS), says, “The online MTS degree, which the seminary launched approximately five years ago, has certainly expanded our reach. Our fully online MDiv, however, is too new to have affected our enrollment.” Notably, 11 of the 24 schools with approved exceptions and seven schools with approved experiments appear on the double-digit growth list for 2009–2014. But there is no silver bullet. As for other reasons why certain seminaries are growing, that is difficult to discern. “There is no silver bullet,” says Daniel O. Aleshire, executive director of ATS. “The reasons that some schools have enjoyed extraordinary enrollment growth during the past five years are idiosyncratic. Each growing school has its own success story to tell.” Philip Attebery, dean at Baptist Missionary Association Theological Seminary (BMATS), sums up the reason for the school’s significant enrollment growth (94% over five years) in one word: convenience. Attebery says that students are increasingly choosing online options over extension sites, valuing the convenience of time as much as location. He also notes that enrollment jumped 36 percent at the time of BMATS’s initial accreditation with __________________________________________________________________ The reasons that some schools have enjoyed extraordinary enrollment growth during the past five years are idiosyncratic. Each growing school has its own success story to tell. —Daniel O. Aleshire, ATS __________________________________________________________________ THE 12 FASTEST-GROWING ATS SEMINARIES DURING THE PAST FIVE YEARS (SCHOOLS THAT HAVE EXPERIENCED AT LEAST 50 PERCENT ENROLLMENT GROWTH) School Location 2014 Enrollment Baptist Missionary Association Theological Seminary Jacksonville, TX 68 Central Baptist Theological Seminary Shawnee, KS 287 Christian Witness Theological Seminary San Jose, CA 78 Immaculate Conception Seminary Seton Hall University South Orange, NJ 334 Knox Theological Seminary Ft. Lauderdale, FL 277 Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Kansas City, MO 804 Mount Angel Seminary St. Benedict, OR 87 Northwest Baptist Seminary Langley, BC 34 Notre Dame Seminary New Orleans, LA 200 St. Mark’s College Vancouver, BC 54 University of Notre Dame Department of Theology Notre Dame, IN 318 United Theological Seminary Dayton, OH 538 MARCH 31, 2015 4 ATS, but he further observes, “the increase of ministry and bible programs in regional universities is drawing off enrollment from the freestanding seminary.” Molly T. Marshall, in her eleventh year as president of Central Baptist Theological Seminary, has overseen a record growth of more than 179 percent during the past five years—without petitioning for any exceptions or experiments. “We have been strategic,” she explains, “by experimenting within the already approved program offerings.” Two of Central’s most successful programs have been fully funded to recruit and build cohorts of students. The CREATE program has added 12 new MDiv students each year for six years, and a women’s leadership initiative is following the same model. Students learn entrepreneurial skills and financial literacy, preparing them for a capstone project in which they launch a startup ministry. Marshall also attributes Central’s success to its nine off-campus sites—four of them for Korean language students and all with integrated online learning and an active social media program. “We have learned that it is absolutely critical to try to offer relevant and contextual theological education to support the school’s mission and values,” she adds. Allen at MBTS agrees that building the student body with robust numbers of Korean, Hispanic, and African American students has yielded sustainable growth. In describing the dramatic growth at MBTS during the past two years, Allen adds, “For fall 2014 and spring 2015, both semesters saw headcount and hours sold surge approximately 20 percent from the previous, comparable semesters. We have fundamentally rebuilt our student recruiting, retention, and institutional communication and marketing efforts—like most every other area of the institution.” “But,” Allen concludes, “while these steps have doubtlessly helped, I believe the most important steps we’ve taken are convictional and missiological. We have repurposed the institution to give its very best energies to serving the local Southern Baptist Church. Our doctrinal convictions and our missiological clarity both have accelerated our growth. Everyone knows precisely who we are, what our theological convictions are, and what we see as our chief ambition—to train pastors, ministers, and evangelists for the church.” Tom Tanner is Director, Accreditation and Institutional Evaluation and Eliza Smith Brown is Director, Communications and External Relations for The Association of Theological Schools in Pittsburgh.U.S. should finalize tobacco rules, health agencies say
WASHINGTON (UMNS) — The United Methodist Board of Church and Society has joined public health and medical organizations in urging President Obama quickly to finalize long-overdue U.S. rules covering all tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes, cigars and hookah.
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Final rules on tobacco sought
31 health groups send letter to President Obama
May 07, 2015
Thirty-one public health and medical organizations have urged President Obama to quickly finalize long-overdue rules covering all tobacco products.
WASHINGTON, DC – The United Methodist General Board of Church & Society is among 31 public health and medical organizations that urged President Obama April 28 to quickly finalize long-overdue rules covering all tobacco products, includingelectronic cigarettes, cigars and hookah.
Continued lack of federal oversight of these products is putting the health of America’s kids at risk.
In a letter to the president, the groups said the continued lack of federal oversight of these products is putting the health of America’s kids at risk.
Endorsers of the letter inclue the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, American Lung Assn., American Heart Assn., American Dental Assn. and the Cancer Action Network.
Underscoring the urgent need for action, a recent government survey showed that youth e-cigarette use tripled from 2013 to 2014, and now exceeds youth cigarette smoking for the first time.
“In the absence of regulation, we have seen irresponsible marketing of unregulated products such as cigars and electronic cigarettes, often using tactics and sweet flavors that clearly appeal to youths. It’s no wonder use of e-cigarettes by youths has skyrocketed,” the letter states. “This process has already taken far too long. We cannot afford more delays that allow tobacco companies to target our kids with a new generation of tobacco products.”
Food & Drug Administration
The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) regulates cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco. The FDA can extend its jurisdiction to all other tobacco products under a 2009 law, the Family Smoking Prevention & Tobacco Control Act. Although the agency announced its intention to regulate all tobacco products in April 2011, it did not issue a proposed rule until April 25, 2014. It has yet to issue a final rule or set a firm date to do so.
The letter expresses concern about recent trends that demonstrate the need for quick action to protect kids. These include:
E-cigarette use by youths has exploded. From 2013 to 2014, e-cigarette use rose from 4.5% to 13.4% among high-school students, and from 1.1% to 3.9% among middle-school students. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) estimated there were 2.4 million youth e-cigarette users in 2014.
Cigar use among teens remains a concern. While overall youth cigar use declined from 2013 to 2014, high-school boys smoke cigars at about the same rate as cigarettes (10.8% for cigars and 10.6% for cigarettes). Cigars are the most commonly used tobacco product among African-American high-school students, who smoke cigars at nearly twice the rate of cigarettes. Health advocates have called on the FDA to regulate all cigars and reject calls to exempt some cigars.
Hookah use roughly doubled for both middle- and high-school students, with past-month use among high-school students rising from 5.2% in 2013 to 9.4% in 2014. Hookah tobacco is available in a variety of fruit and candy flavors that can be attractive to youths. According to the CDC, hookah smoking exposes smokers to many toxic substances and has many of the same health risks as cigarettesmoking.
Health advocates have called on the FDA not only to finalize the rule, but also to strengthen it by extending current FDA restrictions on cigarette marketing to newly regulated products and prohibiting the use of flavorings that appeal to kids.
Read the letter.
Ministry guide available in Spanish
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) — An updated, Spanish-language version of “The Christian as Minister: An Exploration into the Meaning of God’s Call” is now available. The book, published by the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry, is required reading for ministry candidates in The United Methodist Church.
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New resource for Spanish-speaking United Methodists responding to God’s call
Tom Gillem
Spanish-speaking members of The United Methodist Church who are considering God’s call to ministry now have an updated, in-language edition of The Christian as Minister: An Exploration into the Meaning of God’s Call, required reading for ministry candidates.
El Cristiano como Ministro: Explora el significado del Ilamado de Dios al ministerio is a direct translation of the revised and edited eighth edition of the book, published in 2013 by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM).
“The Christian as Minister is the introduction text for any candidate who is considering licensed or ordained ministry in The United Methodist Church,” said the Rev. Meg Lassiat, director of Candidacy, Mentoring and Conference Relations at GBHEM.
“It provides a basic overview of ways that people can serve as lay, licensed or ordained clergy and information about moving forward in the process as people begin to discern their call to ministry,” Lassiat said.
The Christian as Minister is used for candidates entering the ministry process in the United States because the process varies regionally elsewhere in the world. Approximately 1,600 to 1,800 new candidates begin the process each year in the U.S.
The Spanish language edition is designed to serve as an added resource to those candidates who would be more comfortable reading and conversing in Spanish.
“This book gives more people the opportunity to explore their call. God’s call is for all disciples who want to serve God with all their hearts because you know and recognize that God is great and powerful. This resource explores ways that everyone can be in ministry,” said David Martinez, director of Specialized Programs of Theological Education at GBHEM.
Lassiat, who serves as the editor of The Christian as Minister, said the updated book, unlike earlier editions, is not tied as closely to the current Book of Discipline. Previous editions referenced the Discipline extensively and required updates each time the Discipline was changed.
At the end of each section in The Christian as Minister, new “Reflections” are included for use in group mentoring sessions, a Candidacy Summit or an Orientation to Ministry event.
A digital e-Book version of the English edition is also available.
Both the Spanish edition (ISBN 13: 978-0-938162-78-0) and the English edition (ISBN 13: 978-0-938162-63-6), along with the e-Book version, are available for $9.99 at Cokesbury, either online at www.cokesbury.com or by phone at (800) 672-1789.
Gillem is a writer and photographer in Brentwood, Tenn.
Remembering Del KetchamHENDERSONVILLE, N.C. (UMNS) — Delbert “Del” Ketcham, a former staff member of the Commission on United Methodist Men, died recently after a battle with lung cancer. He was passionate about gardening and improving food security.
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News
In Memoriam – Del Ketcham
May 7th, 2015
HENDERSONVILLE, N.C.––Delbert "Del" Ketcham, a former staff member of the General Commission on UM Men, died April 29, following a five-month battle with lung cancer.
Del served as Hunger Relief Advocate in the Nashville office of GCUMM from 2001 to 2007. During that time, he edited “Mission News” in UM Men magazine, and led potato drops and gleaning efforts for the Society of St. Andrew.
In Nashville, Del and his wife, Sheila, were members of Edgehill UMC and Del managed the Edgehill Community Garden. His efforts to provide food security for the city resulted in the 2007 creation of Food Security Partners of Middle Tennessee. That organization continues Del’s work today.
In late 2007, Del and Sheila moved from Nashville to Wiscasset, Maine, where he served as a substitute teacher at the high school, manager of the Margaret Ellis Community Garden, and founder of the Morris Farm Store. He also served on the board of the Wiscasset Public Library and provided backpacks for Wiscasset children. The couple attended East Boothbay UMC and Bath UMC prior to their 2014 move to North Carolina to be near their children and granddaughter.
Del was passionate about injustices and could make a speech without notes or notice to shed light on a problem and offer a solution. He took personal risks to work for improvements in education, housing, hunger relief, food security, environmental justice and for a politically informed public.
Del was born in Biddeford, Maine, in 1939 and moved to Weymouth, Mass., in 1947. His famous "green thumb" began in his family's commercial greenhouses there, where he learned to propagate plants and help in all aspects of the family business, Ketcham Flowers. He was a member of the Future Farmers of America through the 1950s and won many prizes in local and state fairs and 4H groups.
Del graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1963 with degrees in biology and education and a minor in political science. He taught junior high students in Grafton and Brockton, Mass., for more than 10 years. In the 1970s, he managed restaurants in Boston and New Orleans. Del owned G&P Expeditors in Quincy, Mass., in the 1980s and 1990s. During these decades, he was an early advocate for community access television in Weymouth, Mass., producing programs and hosting two weekly interview shows that examined local and national issues for the community.
Del is survived by his beloved wife, Sheila deBettencourt; son, Jason Ketcham; step-children, Angie Buxton, Christina Souza, Dan deBettencourt and their spouses; as well as his precious grand-daughter, Aquinnah deBettencourt. He was predeceased by his son Delbert Blois Ketcham.
To leave a condolence for the Ketcham family, please visit "obituaries" at www.moore-fh.com.
Photo 1 - Del and his granddaughter plant seeds together.
Photo 2 - Del shows off his harvest of brocolli.
Church’s pension fund ranked 10th on climate change
GLENVIEW, Ill. (UMNS) — The United Methodist Church’s pension fund ranked 10th out of 500 international investors in management of climate risk and opportunities. The United Methodist Board of Pension and Health Benefits and its Wespath Investment Management division got the top-10 ranking from the Asset Owners Disclosure Project. The pension board instituted a specific climate-change investment policy guideline in 2015.
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Press Release: GBPHB Pension Fund Ranked 10th of 500 Global Asset Owners in Climate Change Risk Management
For Immediate Release
May 11, 2015
Contact: M. Colette Nies, Managing Director, Communications
(847) 866-4296 or cnies@gbophb.org
Glenview, IL—The General Board of Pension and Health Benefits (GBPHB)*, and its Wespath Investment Management division, was ranked tenth of 500 international investors in the latest index from the Asset Owners Disclosure Project (AODP). The AODP is the world’s only independent examination of pension and superannuation funds’ management of climate risks and opportunities. It provides research and tools for asset owners and managers, supporting them in the transition to an investment world in which the impacts of climate change will become ever more integrated into their core decision-making processes.
Asset Owners Disclosure Project
According to the AODP, “Nearly 85% of the world’s largest investors have failed to implement climate-risk management systems. Institutional investors have much to do to mitigate and hedge climate change risk in their portfolios.” From a study of more than 1,000 of the world’s largest asset owners, representing more than $40 trillion, AODP found 85% were lagging in executing and implementing what they deemed to be effective climate-risk management systems.
The advocacy group studied asset owners’ climate change performance from factors such as transparency, risk management, levels of low-carbon investments and active ownership.
Only three U.S. pension funds were in the Top 10: CalPERS (California Public Employees Retirement System) ranked third; the New York State Common Retirement Fund ranked sixth; and GBPHB ranked tenth of the 500 completing the AODP survey of 1,000 asset owners. GBPHB moved up in the rankings from 35th overall in 2013 to tenth in 2014.
GBPHB Managing Director, Sustainable Investment Strategies, Kirsty Jenkinson was pleased with the survey results, noting, “We are in the ‘Top 10’ of a very important list that people around the world are paying attention to. It’s exciting to see that we are placed among peers considered to be the global leaders in sustainable investment, with an emphasis on the risks climate change poses for us all.” In 2015, GBPHB instituted a specific climate change (thermal coal) investment policy guideline: www.gbophb.org/climatechange.
The AODP survey background and rankings can be viewed at:
aodproject.net/climate-ratings/aodp-global-climate-500-index.html
aodproject.net/news/85-world-s-largest-investors-continue-to-gamble-on-climate-risk.html
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About the General Board
The General Board of Pension and Health Benefits (GBPHB) is a not-for-profit administrative agency of The United Methodist Church, with Church-authorized fiduciary responsibility for the benefit plans it administers and the assets it invests.
Prudent investment management decisions are an ongoing, long-term priority, supporting benefit plans for over 91,000 participants and approximately $21 billion in *assets managed on their behalf, and for many United Methodist-affiliated endowments, foundations and other institutions. This fiduciary obligation reflects the stated values of the Church and helps ensure financial, environmental and social sustainability across all investments.
GBPHB is the largest reporting faith-based pension fund and among the top 100 pension funds in the United States. As a sustainable investor, GBPHB is committed to active ownership through corporate and public policy engagement, proxy voting and the management of excessive sustainability risk. Through its Positive Social Purpose Lending program, GBPHB invests in affordable housing, community development and expanded loan opportunities for disadvantaged communities worldwide.
About the Asset Owners Disclosure Project (AODP)
The Asset Owners Disclosure Project is an independent not-for-profit global organization based in the U.K. whose objective is to protect asset owners from the risks posed by climate change. It does this by working with pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, foundations and universities to improve the level of disclosure and industry best practice.
AODP encourages investors to redress the huge imbalance in their investments between high- and low-carbon assets, while realigning the investment chain to adopt long-term investment practices.
Key elements of the initiative are:
Conducting an annual survey and assessment of the world’s 1,000 largest asset owners pertaining to their management of climate change risks and opportunities.
Publishing rankings of the world’s 1,000 largest asset owners to allow members, stakeholders and industry to see which funds are better than others at managing climate risk.
Providing and promoting climate change best practice to drive and improve climate change management and capability of asset owners.
Developing consumer-facing programs to educate asset owner members or stakeholders of the financial risks associated with climate change.
Researching trends in climate risk, member behavior and institutional investment.
Creating frameworks to encourage active ownership.
Read climate change policy
“All creation is the Lord’s, and we are responsible for the ways in which we use and abuse it.” (The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church 2012, ¶160.)
Unfortunately, the citizens of the world over many generations have not been good stewards of God’s creation. The Social Principles of The United Methodist Church acknowledge that “the current utilization of energy resources threatens…creation at its very foundation.” (¶160B.)
Greenhouse gas emissions have had a profound effect on our planet. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2014 was the warmest year in recorded history and the U.S. temperature exceeded the 20th century average for the 18th year in a row.
Greenhouse gas emissions are at the center of the problem. According to theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change–IPCC (an international scientific body created by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization to review and evaluate scientific, technical and socio-economic information on climate change), “Human influence on the climate system is clear, and recent anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are the highest in history. … Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes in all components of the climate system, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems. Limiting climate change would require substantial and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions which, together with adaptation, can limit climate change risks.” (2014 Climate Change: Synthesis Report.)
For the Church, the solution is clear: “We … support efforts of all governments to require mandatory reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and call on individuals, congregations, business, industries, and communities to reduce their emissions.” (¶160D.)
Companies face risks from both the physical and the economic impacts of climate change—from sea level rises to changing government regulations and the potential risk of “stranded assets.” Companies may be unable to produce their proven fossil fuel reserves, because doing so would result in an increase in atmospheric temperatures above the two-degree Centigrade threshold. Investors increasingly expect companies to be able to demonstrate how they are strategically planning for and responding to climate change, in order to protect the value of their investments.
Sustainable Investment Strategies
Active Ownership Addressing Climate Change
Equity Social Values Plus Fund
Managing Excessive Sustainability Risk Linked to Climate Change
Climate Change (Thermal Coal) Guideline
Questions and Answers: Managing Excessive Sustainability Risk Guidelines
Questions and Answers: Climate Change (Thermal Coal) Guideline
Sustainable Investment Strategies
The General Board’s Wespath Investment Management division has a comprehensive sustainable investment strategy with three core components:
Ethical Exclusions: excluding the securities of companies from our investment funds that are not aligned with United Methodist values (includes companies that derive more than 10% of revenue from alcohol, tobacco, gambling, adult entertainment, weapons and privately operated prisons).
Active Ownership: addressing public policy and seeking to improve company performance relating to material environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues (including climate change) through engagement and proxy voting.
Positive social purpose lending: supporting affordable housing, community development and microfinance projects.
Active Ownership Addressing Climate Change
Wespath’s active ownership strategy addresses climate change through public policy and corporate engagement, proxy voting and the filing of shareholder resolutions. Our engagement has encouraged companies to be more energy efficient, to disclose greenhouse gas emissions, to set emissions-reduction goals, and to strategically factor potential regulatory changes intobusiness plans and core operations—in order to reduce carbon-related risk.
In 2014, Wespath focused its efforts on the oil and gas sector, including:
ConocoPhillips—a collaborative investor engagement to discuss carbon asset risk with company executives. Shortly thereafter, the company announced its first public greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal.
Chevron—a meeting with corporate management to discuss multiple aspects of the company’s environmental performance, specifically focusing on greenhouse gas emissions, development of renewable energy sources, long-term sustainability risks related to reliance on carbon assets, and environmentally-related political spending.
Exelon—an engagement with company leadership to discuss greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals and water management strategy.
Exxon Mobil—a dialogue with corporate management regarding the company’s environmental policies and performance, including the establishment and disclosure of goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, efforts to find non fossil-based sources of energy, and corporate political spending. Subsequent to the meeting, Wespath co-filed a shareholder resolution asking Exxon Mobil to include sustainability as a performance measure when setting executive compensation levels.
Marathon Petroleum and Valero Energy—an engagement with both management teams to follow-up on shareholder resolutions seeking a report on greenhouse gas reduction goals (engagement led by fellow investor, Mercy Investment Services).
Suncor Energy—a tour of the company’s oil sands mining operation in Alberta, Canada, to learn more about the industry, its financial performance and its environmental, social and governance (ESG) impacts. Tour participants—members of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment—met with company representatives and representatives from First Nations, NGOs, and the wider Canadian oil industry.
In addition, Wespath:
Participated and presented at a multi-denominational roundtable that discussed a broad spectrum of investment-related responses to climate change.
Endorsed a letter to President Obama in support of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan. The Plan’s goal is to make existing power plants more efficient and less harmful to the environment and human health by calling for a 30% reduction in power plant carbon emissions by the year 2030.
Signed the Global Investor Statement on Climate Change outlining several actions intended to increase low carbon and climate-resilient investments while calling upon governments “to develop an ambitious global agreement on climate change by the end of 2015.” The statement was directed to heads of state attending the 2014 U.N. Climate Summit in New York City.
Equity Social Values Plus Fund
On December 31, 2014, Wespath launched a new investment fund: the Equity Social Values Plus Fund (ESVPF). The new fund is intended for investors who prefer to achieve long-term investment growth by investing in a fund that applies additional selection criteria to companies regarding their human rights and environmental policies and practices, in addition to the General Board’s six ethical exclusions.
The ESVPF replaces the Balanced Social Values Plus Fund and will broaden our suite of sustainable investment options.
Questions and Answers
Managing Excessive Sustainability Risk Guidelines
Managing Excessive Sustainability Risk Linked to Climate Change
As a long-term investor, Wespath favors investing in companies that have sustainable business practices. The General Board’s board of directors (board) in 2014 adopted a policy on themanagement of excessive sustainability risk to assist in identifying and managing environmental, social and governance (ESG)-related risk in general.
The policy recognizes that there may be instances when a particular issue, set of companies and/or industries pose high levels of risk to investors. In such instances, the board will approve an investment guideline to inform the execution of Wespath’s active ownership strategy.
The new policy, “Management of Excessive Sustainability Risk,” is found in Wespath’s Statement of Administrative Investment Policy, Section III.D.2.:
ESG issues can present an excessive degree of sustainability risk to the General Board’s funds due to their fiduciary implications and their importance to The United Methodist Church. When the General Board identifies such issues, it will develop a guideline regarding its company-specific engagement priorities. This guideline may also lead to the exclusion of certain companies until the risk of holding securities in the affected companies has been resolved, or if the General Board believes that it cannot reasonably mitigate the sustainability risk.
The Fiduciary Committee and UMC Principles Committee must approve all guidelines relating to the management of excessive sustainability risk.
In 2014, the board approved an investment guideline for climate change, with a specific focus on thermal coal.
Questions and Answers
Climate Change (Thermal Coal) Guideline
Climate Change (Thermal Coal) Guideline
Wespath’s research has shown that developed nations are shifting away from electricity generated from coal (known as “thermal coal”) to other fuel sources. Thermal coal is the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel and—absent the development of technologies to mitigate coal’s environmental impact—we believe that in many markets in response to the need to address climate change, coal will be heavily taxed or significantly replaced by alternative fuel sources. This would result in a meaningful deterioration in the value of securities in companies that derive a significant portion of their revenues from the production and consumption of thermal coal.
The Climate Change guideline focuses on companies with the highest exposure to thermal coal—through “pure play” extraction and mining activities. In developed markets, companies receiving 50% or more of their revenues from thermal coal will be excluded from investment. In developing markets, companies receiving 50% or more of their revenues from thermal coal and in the bottom half of their peer group on ESG performance will be excluded from investment. As mined thermal coal predominantly supplies the electric utility industry in developed markets, the guideline also applies to this industry and focuses on companies with the highest supply chain risk, as defined by their reliance on coal (more than 75%) for their fuel mix.
In developed countries, the guideline protects Wespath’s funds from the current financial challenges associated with thermal coal production while supporting opportunities for the transition to a lower-carbon economy. In developing countries, the guideline recognizes that thermal coal continues to offer access to energy that is critical to economic development.
Wespath continues to believe that constructive engagement is the most powerful tool for effecting corporate change and supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy. Engagement may therefore be employed for companies in the mining and electric utility sectors that are close to the threshold for exclusion. In these cases, Wespath will review the company’s historic and projected involvement in the coal industry before recommending engagement or exclusion.
Complete text of the Climate Change (thermal coal) guideline is provided below:
The management of the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits/Wespath Investment Management division will evaluate the environmental impacts of the companies in which we invest and will use engagement to improve corporate environmental and financial performance. In addition, to manage excessive sustainability risk, management may choose to exclude from investment:
1. In developed countries
a) Any company deriving approximately 50% of revenues from the extraction and/or mining of thermal coal
b) Electric utilities deriving 75% or more of their overall fuel mix from coal, unless a company has demonstrated its intent to transition from coal by sourcing 10% or more of its energy from renewable sources
2. In developing countries (except those eligible for assistance through the World Bank’s International Development Association Program*) any company deriving approximately 50% of revenues from the extraction and/or mining of thermal coal. Exceptions may be granted if the company’s overall ESG performance rank or rating by the General Board/Wespath’s ESG service provider is within the top half of its peer group.
* Countries eligible for assistance through the World Bank’s International Development Association Program—many of the world’s poorest—are exempt.
The Climate Change (thermal goal) guideline, which responds to both fiduciary and environmental concerns, is in alignment with the many United Methodist Church statements on environmental protection. The Social Principles “strongly advocate for the priority of the development of renewable energies,” (¶160B) and Resolution 1002, US Energy Policy and United Methodist Responsibility, declares, “the United States must move beyond its dependence on high carbon fossil fuels that produce emissions leading to climate change…”
Pastor seeks stronger link between Native Americans, church
LANCASTER, Pa. (UMNS) — Does Christianity end at the church door? Is it a religion in which people of different backgrounds come together to pray, but separate as they leave? That has long been what Native Americans have found it to be, said the Rev. Calvin Hill. A full-blooded Navajo and United Methodist minister in Montana, he and countless other Native Americans were taught to be good Christians while in church, but were left at the curb by society and the church once the religious services ended. Earle Cornelius reports for Lancaster Online.
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Native American minister seeks support for Blackfeet Nation plan
Story
Kirk Neidermyer
Reverend Calvin Hill at Hosanna HosannaChristian Fellowship in Lititz.
By EARLE CORNELIUS | Staff Writer
Does Christianity end at the church door? Is it a religion in which people of different backgrounds come together to pray, but separate as they leave?
That has long been what Native Americans have found it to be, said the Rev. Calvin Hill.
He should know. A full-blooded Navajo and Methodist minister, he and countless other Native Americans were taught to be good Christians while in church, but were left at the curb by society and the church once the religious services ended.
“What has not happened,” Hill said Wednesday prior to addressing an audience at Hosanna Christian Fellowship in Lititz, “is that none of the missionaries, none of the churches, have done an effective discipleship. No one has equipped us Native Americans to live outside the church.
“How do I become a believer in Christ, a believer in God … and prosper?” he asked.
Hill pastors in Browning, Montana, in one of three churches that make up the Blackfeet United Methodist Parish. He is the first Native American to assume that role. The 3,000-square-mile reservation sits at the foot of Glacier National Park — a national landmark that once was owned by the Blackfeet Nation. Like many tribal reservations, it is impoverished.
When Hill met with tribal leaders before taking over as pastor, he presented his personal mission statement, which was to develop a Christ-centered community that would create disciples to serve all people.
That involves more than just preaching. He needed a hook to bring reservation residents back to the church. A parish leader suggested leasing part of the 340 acres of church land to nearby cattle ranchers as a way to generate revenue for the church. Hill saw that as a way to establish a relationship with ranchers and reservation residents who would be involved.
He took that plan and built upon it, suggesting that the church plant alfalfa to sell. That would provide employment and teach community members farming and marketing skills. All of which leads to his most ambitious plan — building an indoor arena for equine training. The program, he said would offer certificate courses for those who train horses to become veterinary assistants, and for those involved in the construction of the building to learn a trade.
Though the project sounds modest, it represents a huge obstacle for the church. That is why Hill came to Lancaster. He is looking for help — not just monetarily, but through prayer and messages of hope via social media. (“Facebook,” he joked, “is our new smoke signal.”)
Hill’s visit to Lancaster County was arranged by Mike Shifflet, a member of Oregon United Methodist Church. Shifflet was part of a mission team that went to Blackfeet United Methodist Parish in Montana where Hill preaches.
Their work consisted of helping renovate the Heart Butte United Methodist Church and inviting community members to come to church.
Sharon Wilson, an English and creative writing teacher at Warwick High School, has led two previous mission trips to the Blackfeet Nation. She went there the first time out of curiosity. She returned because of their nature.
“I like their gentleness. I like their grace and their story telling. I like that part of their culture,” she said.
At Wednesday evening’s service, Hill asked Wilson to light sage in a bowl. In the Native American culture, he said, sage is burned in a vessel to create relationships and to reconcile differences.
Native Americans, he said, know about Jesus Christ. Their problem is not with Christianity, he said, it’s with a Christian culture that has tried to convert them while committing genocide against native peoples.
That is why the sage was lit and passed among the audience members Wednesday evening. The time, he said, has come for churches to build a meaningful relationship with Native Americans.
Leaving a preaching legacy at Candler
ATLANTA (UMNS) — As a passionate Atlanta Braves fan, the Rev. Thomas G. Long probably wouldn’t object to his career being described as a “grand slam.” The widely respected preacher, professor, author and mentor retires this spring as the Bandy Professor of Preaching at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. But he’s not quite finished there. Valerie Loner has the story for Candler, one of 13 United Methodist seminaries.
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The Gift of a Long Legacy
By Valerie Loner 10T
Media Contact: Laurel Hanna
If you had to describe Thomas G. Long’s career in two words, “grand slam” would be a good choice.
The baseball metaphor is appropriate for the Atlanta native and passionate Braves fan, who also happens to be a widely respected preacher, professor, author and mentor. Long, named in 1996 as “one of the 12 most effective preachers in the English-speaking world,” arrived at Candler in 2000 in the midst of a distinguished career in academia, religious publishing, and the local church. He retires as Candler’s Bandy Professor of Preaching this spring.
During his fifteen years at Candler, Long has been popular with students and colleagues alike. In addition to university-wide honors such as the 2011 Emory Williams Teaching Award and the 2015 Scholar/Teacher Award, Long recently received the “On Eagle’s Wings” Excellence in Teaching Award, which is presented by Candler’s senior class in recognition of faithful and dedicated service. In the words of one student nominator, Long "does more than simply teach students; he prepares them for growth in ministry with helpful, critical feedback, and a spirit of encouragement, which creates stronger preachers and leaders."
The award is particularly meaningful for Long, as it speaks to what he calls the “heart” of his primary vocation.
“I was really honored,” he says. “The student is the whole object for a teacher. A teacher who doesn't keep the students in view is missing the objective.”
Long’s former students also laud his encouraging spirit and ability to coach developing preachers.
Daniel Ogle 08T, now an ordained United Methodist pastor serving in Tennessee, recalls that Long unfailingly found something good in every student sermon and worked to help each student improve.
“He is really an encourager of young pastors and young preachers,” notes Ogle, who also served as Long’s teaching assistant during his student days. “He has this unique gift and calling to help people see the gifts that God has given them for ministry even if they can't see it in themselves."
Ogle remembers well his mindset when he started classes at Candler.
“If there was one thing I knew, it was that I wasn't going to be preaching in the local church every week,” he says. “But I remember constantly being affirmed in his class. I was told that I could do it and bless people through preaching, which was the last thing I thought I would do. I think there are hundreds of stories like that.”
Ogle is right in saying that many students enter Introduction to Preaching with deep apprehension about preaching. While some students arrive with a strong call to preach, others aren’t as certain. "Some of them are quite tentative about a call to ministry, and are there in an exploratory mode," Long explains. To assist students who are discerning their callings, Long emphasizes the theological focus of preaching.
It’s one of the ways in which the professor and preacher also serves as coach and talent scout, always looking to help the next generation of leaders develop its gifts. Some students will become church leaders, while others will use their gifts in chaplaincy roles, in non-profits and in community development.
And some, like Kimberly Wagner 09T, may become professors themselves. Wagner, who is working on her PhD in homiletics at Emory’s Graduate Division of Religion, will be Long’s last doctoral advisee. She feels the weight of that, but in a good way.
"I feel very blessed and very lucky," says Wagner, who is an ordained Presbyterian minister and served a church in Virginia prior to starting the PhD program.
Part of the blessing, she says, is that Long gently but steadily encouraged her for years to pursue her PhD. When she was an MDiv student, Long asked Wagner if she had considered doctoral work. She laughed, but the talent scout didn’t give up. He continued to encourage her to pursue teaching. Even after she earned her MDiv and left Candler, Long kept in touch with Wagner, calling her every few months during her pastoral ministry. He’d ask about her ministry and encourage her about doctoral work.
Wagner, who had been a middle and high school science teacher before coming to Candler, initially thought teaching was the last thing she wanted, but Long’s instincts were right on the mark.
"In his always quiet, steady way, he just kept approaching me," she recalls. “He said, ‘Have you thought about teaching? Have you thought about preaching?’"
During her third year as an MDiv student, Wagner served as Long’s research assistant on Accompany Them with Singing, one of Long’s many books that garnered praise in both the church and the academy. Today Wagner serves as Long’s teaching assistant, and she’s had the opportunity to learn from the way he interacts with his students.
What amazes her is Long’s generosity with his time. Because of his stature in the church and academy, he receives numerous requests to preach, teach, review books, critique articles, and the list goes on. In spite of all these demands, Long continues to unselfishly spend time with students in meaningful ways.
Some of the resulting stories are funny, like the time Ogle met Long at Turner Field to take in a Braves game. Ogle carried with him an image of Tom Long the distinguished preacher regally watching a baseball game. He could only laugh when Long showed up to the game casually carrying a bucket of Church’s fried chicken.
Other stories are touching. Wagner witnessed Long’s generosity firsthand when he preached her ordination service in Virginia several years ago. His mother had died days earlier, but he didn’t tell Wagner. He simply arrived for the dinner party the evening before, preached the service the next day and skipped the luncheon following so that he could return home for the visitation.
"That's the kind of commitment he has to his students and those he takes under his mentorship and his wing," Wagner explains.
Long garners similar respect among his faculty colleagues as well.
Ted A. Smith, associate professor of preaching and ethics, joined Candler’s faculty in 2012, but he’s known Long for decades, starting when he was an undergraduate. He later took two of Long’s courses at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Even though Smith had significant preaching experience prior to seminary, his first course under Long changed the way he preached. “My whole preaching style, which I still carry with me, came out of that class,” he says.
Smith later served as Long’s teaching assistant, and today calls him a colleague and friend.
“I think that's pretty rare in the academy,” Smith notes. “The real mark of friendship is steadiness over time. I see that in Tom’s friendships.”
Smith also appreciates Long’s gift for writing and his prolific body of work, which includes 21 books and scores of articles in both professional journals and popular periodicals.
“Tom’s ability to combine writing for the academy and writing for a broader public is truly remarkable,” Smith says. “The thinking is original and insightful, and it's informed by a huge body of research.”
Smith isn’t alone in praising Long’s work. Long’s 1989 book The Witness of Preaching—now in its second edition—is one of the most widely used texts on preaching, appearing on class reading lists in seminaries throughout the world. In 2010, Preaching magazine named The Witness of Preaching one of the 25 most influential books on preaching from the last 25 years. The Academy of Parish Clergy named his Preaching from Memory to Hope as one of the “top ten books for parish ministry published in 2009” and What Shall We Say? Evil, Suffering, and the Crisis of Faith as the 2011 Book of the Year.
Yet Long is as quick to offer praise as he is to receive it, especially where Candler is concerned.
"Candler is the best place I know that blends not just academy and church, but a love for scholarship with kindness and compassion,” Long says. “Candler is a deeply compassionate and kind place, faculty to faculty and in the entire community."
Long laughs as he recalls his first day at Candler and launches into a delightful story, a gift that has served him well in both preaching and teaching. He admits he was already nervous because he was filling the position first held by legendary preacher and teacher Fred Craddock. Then he was shown to his office in Cannon Chapel. The most recent inhabitant of the office had been Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was a visiting professor the previous year.
“I turned to Steve Kraftchick, who was then the academic dean, and said: ‘Is it not enough that I have to follow Fred Craddock? You’re giving me Bishop Tutu’s office?’”
Smith notes that Long’s retirement will leave a tremendous gap in the academy, both as a scholar and teacher of seminary and doctoral students, adding that Long trained a large percentage of the current crop of homiletics scholars.
“He's been at the top of his field for 20 or more years,” Smith says. “That’s very rare.” But Smith knows that Long’s work isn’t finished. “I'm not ready to talk about the field without him yet.”
And that’s good, because Long isn’t finished yet. Even though he is officially retiring, it would be incorrect to say that he is giving up work or even working at Candler. For the next five years, Long will direct a new Candler initiative aimed at helping recent alumni become leaders in their communities. The program, which is made possible by a grant from the Lilly Endowment, will offer two cohorts of alumni a two-year program of leadership education and pastoral formation incorporating important community issues like transportation, immigration and education. The goal is to prepare adaptive leaders who are able to exercise theological discernment and articulation regarding public issues.
In addition, he has a full slate of dates to preach and teach, including a gig as a visiting professor at Yale University in the spring of 2016.
Somewhere in all of that, Long hopes to spend more time with his wife at their home on the Chesapeake Bay, where he enjoys sailing. He also wants to see more of his grandchildren, who range in age from seven months to a sophomore in college.
And, of course, there will be lots of Braves baseball. Some things don’t change.
Bias joins Foundation for Evangelism trustees
LAKE JUNALUSAKA, N.C. (UMNS) — The Rev. Tim Bias, top executive of United Methodist Discipleship Ministries, is a new trustee for The Foundation for Evangelism.
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General Secretary Named Trustee
Dr. Tim Bias, General Secretary of Discipleship Ministries of The United Methodist Church (formerly the General Board of Discipleship), was welcomed as a trustee by The Foundation for Evangelism on April 23, 2015. A local church pastor for 36 years, Dr. Bias served as senior pastor of Hyde Park Community United Methodist Church (Cincinnati, Ohio) and has served the denomination in three Annual Conferences.
In his introduction to the board, Dr. Larry Klemann, Board Chair, stated, “I am thrilled to welcome Rev. Dr. Tim Bias as an Ex. Officio member of The Foundation for Evangelism’s Board of Trustees. Tim’s leadership on the General Board of Global Ministry, and most recently as Director of Discipleship Ministries brings valued perspective and experience to our work to raise up leaders with a passion for evangelism and disciple making for the United Methodist Church.”
Founded in 1949 by the late Dr. Harry Denman, the Foundation provides resources to enable The United Methodist Church to bring persons into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Grant focuses include E. Stanley Jones Professors of Evangelism, initiatives with young people, and excellence in local church evangelism.
Full Press Release from Foundation for Evangelism
Tim Bias Photo
Mothers are vital to food security in Congo
KAMINA, Congo (UMNS) — Working with the United Methodist Committee on Relief and Foods Resource Bank, about 500 people in the rural communities surrounding Kamina have been able to pull themselves out of malnutrition. Educating and training parents, especially mothers, has been a key strategy, writes Susan Kim for UMCOR.
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Mothers Are Vital to DRC Food Security
New crops are growing — and so is a stronger sense of trust -- in the rural communities surrounding Kamina. Photo: Margot Bokanga.
Tnough food—and a sense of trust by Susan Kim*
May 14, 2015—In the rural communities surrounding Kamina, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), about 500 people have been able to pull themselves out of malnutrition by working with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) and Foods Resource Bank (FRB) to improve their access to nutritious food and a balanced diet.
Over the past few decades, the area has been stricken with many crises, including civil war that led to widespread displacement, coupled with a high rate of HIV infection and sexual violence. Once a commercial hub, Kamina was home to many businesses that were forced to close. As increasing numbers of people faced malnutrition, gaining access to the area was difficult.
The malnutrition rate in Kamina is as high as 37 percent, and another 35 percent of the people have contracted waterborne diseases.
UMCOR and FRB work with three clinics in Kamina that are providing food support. “We emphasize the use of Moringa, which is easily grown and can be used in various local dishes,” said Margot Bokanga, UMCOR program manager for the DRC and Zimbabwe. Soy is another crop being revitalized in the area.
Teaching parents—particularly mothers—as well as community health workers how to grow Moringa and soy helps promote food security into the future. “We also emphasize good use of clean water to minimize exposure to waterborne diseases,” said Bokanga.
No simple answer
UMCOR and FRB work within local communities using local staff, leading to a sense of lasting trust that develops as people get enough food to feed their families.
“There is never one simple answer to the many complexities that have led to the situation of people struggling to raise enough food to feed themselves and their families,” said Eric Mattson, an associate director of development for FRB.
“But, with strategies that have been developed with communities and local staff, you can most times see people in these programs achieving a lot of success,” he said.
In Kamina, the food security program is about more than just meals, Mattson added. “It is really neat to see people believing in themselves again enough to provide for themselves, as well as learning to trust their neighbors enough to begin becoming a healthy communityagain,” he said.
Your gift to Democratic Republic of the Congo, Advance #198400, supports the work of UMCOR’s country office in DRC and projects like this one.
*Susan Kim is a journalist and a regular contributor to www.umcor.org.
Machel joins call for accountability of U.N. peacekeepersNEW YORK (UMNS) — Graça Machel, a United Methodist from Mozambique and the widow of Nelson Mandela, was among those joining AIDS-Free World, an international advocacy organization, May 13 to launch Code Blue, a U.N. peacekeepers campaign to end immunity for sexual exploitation and abuse.
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Press Release: Experts launch 'Code Blue,' demand end to UN immunity for peacekeeper sex abuse
Contact:
Coimbra Sirica: +1 301-943-3287, csirica@burness.com
Wanda Bautista: +1 301-280-5760, wbautista@burness.com
Gill Mathurin: + 1 646-924-1710, gm@aidsfreeworld.org
Experts launch ‘Code Blue,’ demand end to UN immunity when peacekeepers commit sexual exploitation and abuse
— AIDS-Free World’s campaign calls for removal of immunity and Commission of Inquiry into UN’s handling of sexual violence in peacekeeping missions —
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New York, May 13, 2015 — Speaking just steps from UN headquarters today, celebrated experts Ms. Graça Machel, Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire, Ms. Theo Sowa, and Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury joined international advocacy organization AIDS-Free World to launch Code Blue, a campaign to end immunity for sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers.
Recent revelations of child sexual abuse by French and other troops in the Central African Republic, the UN’s documentation of those crimes, and its failure over the next year to report the perpetrators or to protect the victims, are just the latest in a shameful litany of tolerance for sexual abuse and subsequent UN cover-ups.
For more than two decades, the media and non-governmental organizations have uncovered depraved acts by UN peacekeepers, including human trafficking in Bosnia, sex-for-food scandals in West Africa, and the rapes of women and children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. With each new exposé, the UN re-asserts its policy of ‘zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse.’
In practice, the UN’s zero tolerance policy amounts to zero justice for victims.
With Code Blue, AIDS-Free World is determined to change that. As a first crucial step, it will seek the removal of any possibility of immunity1 for the UN’s own personnel—the UN’s non-military staff, police, and experts on mission2 — when they are accused of sexual exploitation or abuse, sending a powerful message to countries that supply military peacekeepers. Code Blue will also call for the creation of an entirelyindependent, external Commission of Inquiry to examine every facet of sexual exploitation and abuse in peacekeeping operations, and to investigate the way the UN system is handling the problem: from its missions on the ground, right up through the chain of command to the Secretary-General.
“UN immunity is a protective cloak that allows peacekeepers to commit atrocities knowing how unlikely it is that they will ever be stopped, investigated or punished for their crimes,” said Paula Donovan, co-director of AIDS-Free World. “The presumption that UN peacekeeping personnel may be immune from legal process triggers a chain reaction that most often ends in gross miscarriages of justice. Instead of prompting immediate action, reports of abuse are caught up in a tangle of red tape while the Secretary-General decides whether to waive immunity. Meanwhile, suspects and their accomplices have time to destroy evidence, silence witnesses, and threaten or pay off victims or their families, making justice virtually unattainable.”
The scale of sex abuse among UN peacekeepers, both military and non-military, is shocking, and the United Nations is well aware that it does not know the true extent of its own problem. In a suppressed 2013 report3commissioned by Ban Ki-moon, an Expert Team found that “the official numbers mask what appears to be significant amounts of underreporting,” and that “UN personnel in all the missions we visited could point to numerous suspected or quite visible cases of [sexual exploitation and abuse] that are not being counted or investigated.”
Among incidents that are recorded, an appalling number of UN peacekeeper sexual exploitation and abuse allegations are marked “unsubstantiated,” and cases are closed by the UN because any evidence that might have led to a conviction has disappeared. Sexual abusers among the UN’s staff, experts, and police remain within the system, undetected, unpunished, and eligible for posting to the next peacekeeping mission.
“When I released [the landmark UN study] The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children in 1996, we highlighted the rise of child sex abuse associated with UN peacekeeping operations,” said Graça Machel. “At the time, we found that the investigation and punishment of peacekeepers for sexual exploitation and abuse was the exception rather than the rule. Nearly two decades later, virtually nothing has changed. Nearly two decades later, vulnerable women and children remain at unacceptable risk. Today a new chapter begins."
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AIDS-Free World is an international advocacy organization that exposes injustice, abuse and inequality, the social ills that underpin and continue to sustain HIV. We apply high-level advocacy, targeted legal strategies and creative communication to work for a more just world. www.aidsfreeworld.org
[1] For more on UN immunity and how it applies, please read the fact sheet on AIDS-Free World’s Code Blue Campaign website atwww.codebluecampaign.com.
[2] The term ‘peacekeepers’ applies not only to soldiers, but also to the thousands of UN police, officials, and experts who staff peacekeeping missions around the world. For more information on UN peacekeepers and sexual exploitation and abuse, please see the fact sheet on the Code Blue website: www.codebluecampaign.com.[3] Final report. Expert Mission to Evaluate Risks to SEA Prevention Efforts in MINUSTAH, UNMIL, MONUSCO, AND UNMISS [Expert Team’s Report]. http://aidsfreeworld.org/Newsroom/Press-Releases/2015/Open-Letter-to-UN-Missions.aspx
Coming next week: The struggle to recover from EbolaThe United Methodist Church in West Africa has been on the frontlines of the fight against Ebola since the outbreak began in May 2014. As the deadly virus shows signs of retreating, United Methodist News Service visited Sierra Leone to chronicle the many challenges that lie ahead for the church and the country in overcoming the devastation of the outbreak. Jan Snider’s four-part special report begins May 18 with stories and video.
During his tenure, the agency launched “Catch the Spirit,” a media ministry that had as its centerpiece a national weekly television program by that name. The program’s executive producer was Nelson Price, a long-time friend, colleague and classmate at Morningside College.
“He was not fearful of work and led his staff by example,” Price said. “Roger loved a good time, and encouraged his staff to balance hard work with fun. He was not fearful of change, and in each position initiated dramatic and positive change. He was an effective leader who brought out the best in his staff.”
Quick to express gratitude to friends and colleagues for jobs well done, Burgess is remembered for often using the phrase, “Thanks a million.”
Burgess supported the creation of the Odyssey Cable Network in 1987, an interfaith enterprise committed to presenting TV programs dealing with faith, family values and ethical issues. In 1992, Price became the network’s president and chief executive.
He was preceded in death by his wife of 59 years, Donah Jean Salyers Burgess, who died in 2012.
Burgess is survived by three sons and a daughter: Cole and his wife Pat, Nashville; Chris and his wife Sharon, Mt. Juliet, Tennessee; Kyle and his wife J, Denver, Colorado, and Candice and her husband Frederic Nancel, Chantilly, France, along with a sister Muriel Nelson of Spirit Lake, Iowa, and five grandchildren: Brandon, Kylan, and Justin Burgess and Nicolas and Natasha Nancel.
A memorial service will be held at West End United Methodist Church in Nashville in August. Memorial gifts may be sent to West End United Methodist Church, 2200 West End Avenue, Nashville, TN, 37203.
McAnally, retired director of United Methodist News Service, resides in Nashville. News mediacontact: Linda Bloom (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org
Central conference retirees: From destitution to hopeMAPUTO, Mozambique (UMNS) — The pension Felicidade Manguele gets as a United Methodist pastor’s widow provides the necessities of life for the orphaned 8-year-old granddaughter she is raising. Lifting retired United Methodist pastors in the central conferences out of poverty has taken nearly 15 years, but the denomination’s pension board is now celebrating that every pastor throughout the worldwide denomination has a pension. A group of church agencies, led by the board, collaborated to make that a reality. Sandra Long Weaver reports.
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Central conference retirees: From destitution to hopeMAPUTO, Mozambique (UMNS) — The pension Felicidade Manguele gets as a United Methodist pastor’s widow provides the necessities of life for the orphaned 8-year-old granddaughter she is raising. Lifting retired United Methodist pastors in the central conferences out of poverty has taken nearly 15 years, but the denomination’s pension board is now celebrating that every pastor throughout the worldwide denomination has a pension. A group of church agencies, led by the board, collaborated to make that a reality. Sandra Long Weaver reports.
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A child walks up to the United Methodist church in Kortihun near Bo, Sierra Leone.
Central conference retirees: From destitution to hope by Sandra Long Weaver
For Felicidade Manguele, the pension she receives because she is a widow of a United Methodist pastor provides the necessities to live and hope for the orphaned 8-year-old granddaughter she is raising.
Pastor Filimao P. Vilanculo said the quarterly pension allows 80-year-old Manguele to buy food and pay her water and electric bills in Maputo City, Mozambique.
Photos courtesy of Central Conference Pensions.
Felicidade Manguele and her husband, Rodrigues, started their ministry in 1978 and worked in several parishes, including an appointment to district superintendent in Nampula and Niassa, before he died in 2004.
“The first year they have a pension, they all report the same thing,” said the Rev. Paul Dirdak, now retired from the United Methodist Board of Pension and Health Benefits. “They buy the food they need for themselves and whoever is living with them. They help their children, grandchildren and sometimes their great-grandchildren to survive. They have small gardens that supply some food, and they buy a small bag of rice.”
Lifting retired United Methodist pastors in the central conferences out of poverty has taken nearly 15 years, but the Board of Pension and Health Benefits is now celebrating that every pastor throughout the worldwide denomination has a pension. A group of church agencies, led by the board, collaborated to make that a reality.
Having a guaranteed pension for retired pastors and surviving spouses has changed lives in the central conferences. “It’s so rewarding to see people able to take care of themselves,” Dirdak said.
The idea to make sure pastors from the central conferences would no longer “retire into homelessness” took hold in the late 1990s when United Methodist Board of Global Ministries’ members saw too many retired pastors who had nothing. In 2007, the first pension payments went to Liberia; the Democratic Republic of the Congo was the last country added in 2013.
“There had never been money put aside for the fastest-growing area of the church,” said Barbara Boigegrain, top executive of the Board of Pension and Health Benefits.
Building capacity
The two boards began working together to come up with a model for a pension, realizing the countries in the central conferences were all very different. “In the U.S., it was easier to define,” Boigegrain said. “It wasn’t simply to be a money or gift program. It needed to be an ongoing money stream.”
That regular pension has made the difference in other lives as well. Throughout districts in Liberia, retired pastors or widows bought materials to build or purchase homes. The Rev. G. Solomon Gueh, pension and health benefits director for the Liberia Annual Conference, shared stories about people who used their pensions to improve their lives.
The Rev. William Joseph from Morweh purchased three bundles of zinc sheeting to build a house.
The Rev. Philip Mayson, also from Morweh, constructed a two-bedroom house, as did Nyeni Smith from Kokoyah District with her late husband’s pension benefit.
The Rev. Willie Wesseh from Cape Palmas District bought five bundles of zinc sheeting for his house.
The Rev. Lewis Tompoe of Gompa District purchases medicine and food with his pension.
When three other agencies — The United Methodist Publishing House, Discipleship Ministries (Board of Discipleship) and United Methodist Communications — became part of the Central Conference Pension Initiative (now called “Central Conference Pension”), the United Nations administered the only working model they found. “It lasted for 10 weeks,” she said. That would not work.
“We knew we wanted to raise money,” Boigegrain said. “We didn’t want to do a lump sum. That’s not what the church does. We try to build capacity. We wanted to do teaching and training as we went along.”
The 2000 General Conference approved the establishment of a pension plan for the central conferences. After initial research, a committee formed in 2002 to research what was available to people in the central conferences.
CENTRAL CONFERENCE PENSION
BY THE NUMBERS
$4.8 million distributed since 2007 (as of April 30, 2015)
5.5 million United Methodist members in the central conferences
2.5 million United Methodist members in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, representing 19 percent of the entire denomination
9,000 active clergy in the 66 conferences in which Central Conference Pension
actively provides support
1,418 surviving spouses in those 66 conferences
1,399 retired pastors in those 66 conferences
100 percent of U.S. annual conferences contributing to the $25 million pension fund
75 annual conferences in the central conferences
53 countries in the central conferences
20 offices handling pension plans in Africa, Europe and Asia (Philippines)
13 official pension plans
Information provided by Tim Koch, chief financial officer, Central Conference Pension, and Colette Nies, managing director, communications, General Board of Pension and Health Benefits
‘Teaching them how to fish’
They found retired pastors and surviving spouses had little or nothing. During the interviews, Boigegrain said, “we emptied our pockets. We did emergency grants.” They provided $80 a year (per retiree/surviving spouse) on an emergency basis once the central conferences submitted retirees’ names.
In 2004, General Conference approved fundraising by the General Council on Finance and Administration to establish a pension and charged each of the five agencies initially with raising $50,000 to get the initiative off the ground.
The pension goal was set at $20 million and eventually increased to $25 million to help retired pastors and surviving spouses as well as set up pensions for future retirees.
Tim Koch, CCP chief financial officer, said they wanted to avoid just giving money. “Things that are pure charity can be the cruelest gift of all,” he said. “The money can suddenly dry up. We’re not just providing fish; we’re teaching them how to fish.”
The two kinds of pensions cover past and future liabilities, he said.
Koch added that the central conferences “made me think the pension plans could not have been set up before the Internet. Before the Internet, it would have been done by mail. When doing things live, you can follow up more quickly.”
He said CCP would like to get to the point where people could receive the funds through theircellphones. Some people now get the pension in cash, and some may walk up to 50 miles to receive it.
Having the pension plan in place is “not just a win situation but a win, win, win, win,” Koch continued. “People are able to pay for food for themselves, and their children and grandchildren don’t have to do subsistence farming. Grandchildren can go to school and become educated … doctors, lawyers or social workers.”
Some of the annual conferences in the central conferences did not think of the surviving spouses. “They were not thinking about women. But the church values both,” Boigegrain said. “In every place, we insisted the benefits go to surviving spouses. Because of the church’s values, surviving spouses are now receiving benefits.”
A justice issue
One of the most challenging concepts to teach was “saying ‘put money away for later,’” Boigegrain said. “Deferring money … was a hard concept. Some annual conferences had just come out of civil wars, and the people didn’t trust banks.”
Retired U.S. Bishop Benjamin Chamness, who chaired Pension and Health Benefits from 2004 to 2008, said the board viewed the pension plan as a justice issue. “We had a large group of retirees living in poverty,” he recalled. “Now people could buy mattresses or go to the doctor.”
Dirdak said that a year after people receive the first pension payments, “you see how (they) are doing even more ingenious things with the money. They raise more food; they’ve repaired their homes – some that were damaged in wars – and they provide for their grandchildren.”
Dan O’Neill, CCP director since 2006, said they set up the first quarterly pensions in 2007 in Liberia because “they had reasonable records identifying recipients.”
Because no pension existed, retirees or surviving spouses saw no need to stay in touch with the offices in their country. “In many cases,” he said, “we didn’t know if the survivors were alive. There were no mailings, emails or, in some cases, telephones to stay in touch.”
He said when they travel to the central conferences, they make sure funds are arriving, document recipients’ names and signatures and visit retirees’ homes to make sure written records are accurate.
“It’s good to get into the homes and to talk with the retirees about their ministry,” O’Neill said. “It’s a chance to honor the work they’ve done over 30, 40 or 45 years. They really appreciate it.”
People can now pay their own way, he said. It adds to their self-worth. Now their grandchildren can go to school because they can pay the fee.
“They know now that every quarter, the money will come. I know one retiree who is expanding the home he is living in. He buys cement blocks every quarter. He knows the pension is reliable enough to do that.”
‘Pure joy’
The goal now is to make sure everyone follows standards and procedures. The plan must be sustainable. “They need to be self-governed, self-funded and sustainable into the future,” he said.
CENTRAL CONFERENCE PENSION TIMELINE
Central Conference Pension serves 2,831 retired clergy/surviving spouses and 9,000 active clergy in the central conferences (conferences outside the U.S.).
Learn about the history of this initiative»
The pension program’s success is evident globally. Rose Beverly Jerusalem has handled distribution in the Philippines Central Conference since the pension plan started there in 2013, “Although, the Philippines Central Conference had an existing pension fund for our clergy,” she said, “it was so meager that it (could) not sustain the pension needs of our clergy in the next three or four years to come.” She added that CCP “was very timely because we are at the brink of bankruptcy” and that it “brought great hope and assurance to the clergy.”
She travels to districts in the Philippines Central Conference to explain the benefits for churches and clergy. She said only 10 percent of those who qualify currently participate.
The CCP, she noted, “requires that the plan should be contributory, both from the clergy themselves and the local churches/institutions where they are assigned. This is a struggle on the part of the clergy and the local churches because the old pension program was noncontributory. Some pastors are hesitant to give their share, while others could hardly give their share because of low salary/support from the local churches.” They are slowly reaching more people and getting them to enroll.
“Now that we have the pension plan in place, the work goes on to make sure it stays in place,” Boigegrain said. “The teaching and training is ongoing.”
She said U.S. annual conferences stepped up and did a great deal. Some bishops did fundraising, and laity contributed.
Although active fundraising for the initiative has stopped, Boigegrain said, “we are still taking contributions.” Boigegrain recognized the five agencies for their work. The efforts were worth it, she said.
“I have met some of the retirees, and it is pure joy to know they are getting something. They are no longer destitute.”
Weaver is a freelance contributor and former staff person with United Methodist Communications living in Nashville, Tennessee.
Seeking children’s prayers for Peace with Justice SundayWASHINGTON (UMNS) — Children are invited to submit original prayers for peace to the United Methodist Board of Church and Society as part of the denomination’s Peace with Justice Sundayobservance. The multi-faceted initiative, “Hate Hurts, Peace Heals,” includes a reading list on peace for children and Sunday school classes and an opportunity to gather offerings for peace. Wayne Rhodes reports.
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Hate Hurts, Peace Heals’
Turn Peace with Justice Sunday into a month of peace during May by Wayne Rhodes, Editor, Faith in Action on May 07, 2015
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Children are invited to make peace a priority this month, both at home and abroad. The Rev. Dr. Susan Henry-Crowe, chief executive of the United Methodist General Board of Church & Society, invites children to take the lead in pursuing the peace that will ensure they have any chance for an abundant future.
Children [invited] to take the lead in pursuing the peace that will ensure they have any chance for an abundant future.
Henry-Crowe has proposed a multi-faceted initiative, led by children, to engage all generations in the United Methodist Peace with Justice Sunday, which is May 31 this year, but can be observed at any time amenable to a congregation’s programming schedule.
The initiative, “Hate Hurts, Peace Heals,” will include a reading list on peace for children and Sunday school classes, an opportunity to submit original prayers for peace, and gathering offerings for peace. The offerings should be presented during the local church’s Peace with Justice observance.
Original prayers should be sent to the General Board of Church & Society, 100 Maryland Ave., NE, Washington, D.C. 20002, or via email to peaceheals@umc-gbcs.org.
Peace with Justice Sunday
Peace with Justice Sunday is one of the six United Methodist Special Sundays with offering. Peace with Justice Sunday supports programs that advocate peace and justice at home and around the world. Half of the Special Sunday offering is retained in annual conferences to fund local Peace with Justice ministries. Half of the offering is remitted to GBCS to help fund U.S. and global work in social action, public-policy education and advocacy.
God invites us into a way of blessedness for peace.
Henry-Crowe cited the Beatitudes as inspiration for the observance: “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9). “With the hope, inspiration, curiosity and playfulness of children, God invites us into a way of blessedness for peace,” she emphasized.
Children themselves inspired “Hate Hurts, Peace Heals,” according to Henry-Crowe. She mentioned her grandsons Lauch and Dash, and Maya and Ella, children of GBCS staff members, but also children she encountered this past year at the Lydia Patterson Institute in El Paso, Texas, boys and girls in Baltimore, in the Philippines and the Democratic Republic of Congress.
“Every child deserves to live in communities of peace,” Henry-Crowe said. “This month, we invite families, friends and congregations to read, pray and give towards peace forour communities and around the world.”
Downlodable resources
You can use a downloadable invitation suitable for worship bulletins to help spread the word about this endeavor to instill a vision of peace among the youngest in our communities. The invitation describing the aspects of “Hate Hurts, Peace Heals” can be shared in local congregations, Wesley Foundations and United Methodist Women’s circles, for example.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu's God's Dream is the suggested first book to read this month. A companion study guide has been prepared to facilitate discussions. A morecomprehensive reading list is available also with books broken down by subject and age appropriatness.
More information can be obtained at “Hate Hurts, Peace Heals.”
Other resources are available such as a Peace with Justice e-book that describes 15 ways to observe the Special Sunday, along with basic information about the Special Sunday itself.
The General Board of Church & Society is one of four international general program boards of The United Methodist Church. Prime responsibility of the board is to seek implementation of the Social Principles and other policy statements on Christian social concerns of the General Conference, the denomination’s highest policy-making body. The board’s primary areas of ministry are Advocacy, Education & Leadership Formation, United Nations & International Affairs, and resourcing these areas for the denomination. It has offices on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York City.Former House Speaker Wright was faithful United Methodist
FORT WORTH, Texas (UMNS) — The May 6 death of Jim Wright, former U.S. Speaker of the House, yielded many news stories about his political career. But United Methodists are remembering him as a faithful member of First United Methodist Church of Fort Worth, and a leader in the Central Texas Conference. Vance Morton, director of communications for the conference, reports.
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Remembering Jim Wright: Skilled Politician, Captivating Storyteller, Persuasive Orator, Loving Servant of Jesus Christ. by Vance Morton*
Much has been written and remembered about the political life and impact of James Claude “Jim” Wright Jr. since his passing last Wednesday, May 6, at the age of 92, and rightfully so. Jim Wright served the country, the state and, most directly, the Fort Worth and North Texas area as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for more than 30 years, culminating in his election as Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives in 1987.
“Jim represented the people of his beloved Texas for over three decades,” President Barack Obama said in a statement. “He was a committed public leader and a proud World War II veteran who dedicated much of his life to serving his country.”“Speaker Jim Wright’s footprint in Fort Worth and North Texas is large,” said U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, the Republican who now represents the 12th District. “He was instrumental in projects that helped build this state and particularly North Texas to the prominent place it holds today.”
Yes, Jim Wright will be long-remembered as a dedicated and influential public servant, However, beyond his steadfast leadership and dedication to the people of the Fort Worth area and all of America, Speaker Wright was also quite active in the workings of the Central Texas Conference in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, and a faithful member of First Fort Worth UMC until the day he died.
“Jim Wright was a vital and vibrant part of the Central Texas Conference for many years following his retirement from Congress,” observed Bishop Mike Lowry, episcopal leader for the Central Texas Conference. “He was a gifted, loving servant of Christ who brought the same level of focus and dedication to his work in the conference as he did in Congress. Our prayers and thoughts and gratitude go out to his family and those closest to him.”
Following his retirement from Congress and up until his health dictated otherwise, Speaker Wright served and/or led many different committees, boards and foundations within the CTC, including director of the Texas Methodist Foundation, the District Committee on Ministry (DCOM) and a lay member to Annual Conference.
Those that served with him found him to be down to earth, dedicated and quite serious about the business at hand.
“Even though he introduced himself to me the first time we met as Jim, I always referred to him as Mr. Speaker,” remembered Dr. Randy Wild, executive director, Central Texas Conference Center for Mission Support and Conference Secretary. “His dedication to the church was strong and powerful and I’ll always admire him for the seriousness that he brought to every task. Whether it was interviewing a potential clergy member, debating the merits of a sermon, or simply in conversation about life in general, he took it as serious as if it was debating the merits of any bill he ever debated in Congress.”
His dedication to the church wasn’t reserved for high-profile conference-level committees and events. Speaker Wright understood that the local churches are the most vital component in our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ and was an active member of First UMC Fort Worth. According to those he called his church family, he lived out the vows to uphold the church with his prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness in every aspect of his life.
“Jim was an outstanding leader whose deep faith was lived out in the way he treated others, his passion for justice and his own relationship with God,” said Dr. Tim Bruster, senior pastor, First UMC Fort Worth. “He lived out the words of Micah: he did justice, he loved kindness and he walked humbly with God. When I visited him in the hospital and ended my prayer with him, he always prayed after me and always included me and others in his prayer. What a gifted, loving servant of Christ!”
*Vance is the director of Communications & IT for the CTC. vance@ctcumc.org
Denzel Washington: ‘Put God first’NEW ORLEANS — Actor Denzel Washington gave Dillard University graduates four life goals, starting with “Put God first.” Washington gave the commencement address on May 9, receiving an honorary doctorate before leaving to give another commencement address at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas. Dillard and Wiley are two of the historically black colleges supported by The United Methodist Church’s Black College Fund. Washington’s 2007 film “The Great Debaters” tells the story of a Wiley College debate team. Sue Strachan reported for NOLA.com and The Times-Picayune.
Read The Times-Picayune story
Denzel Washington gives Dillard University students four life goals in commencement speech
Denzel Washington receives an honorary degree at the Dillard Commencement featuring Denzel Washington at Dillard University. Saturday, May 9, 2015. (Josh Brasted Photo)
Josh Brasted
by Sue Strachan, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune BIG EASY' PARTY PHOTOS
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Denzel and Dillard: A successful partnership that on Saturday (May 9) made for a specialcommencement for Dillard University's Class of 2015.
The commencement took place at the university's Rosa Freeman Keller Avenue of the Oaks, where 218 students received diplomas for their degreesfrom the College of Business, College of Arts and Sciences, and Nursing. The highlight of the ceremony featured Academy and Tony award-winning actor Denzel Washington as the keynote speaker.
Introduced by senior class vice president Joy Semien, Washington took to the podium to impart four goals for graduating seniors, and for the audience, as well: "Congratulations to all of you... First: Put God first ... Second: Fail big... a dream without goals, is just a dream ...Third: You will never see a U-Haul behind a hearse ... and Four: Say thank-you in advance for what is already yours." He concluded with, "Don't aspire to make a living, aspire to make a difference." (Also during the speech, Washington very candidly said he once had a 1.7 grade point average in college.)
Afterward, Washington was bestowed an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, before he had to leave early to give another commencement speech at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas; like Dillard, an HBCU (historically black colleges and universities). Other luminaries who received Honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters were Dr. Victoria H. Barbosa, David J. Dennis Sr. ('68) and Alden J. McDonald Jr.,president of Liberty Bank.
Washington's connection to the university is through a scholarship program he set up for students in the theater department, eight of whom were graduating. The program is the oldest among HBCU. Valedictorian Ariel Lucius, who spoke, was a recipient of a scholarship set up by Washington.
More awards were given out, including the Presidential Medal of Honor presented by university President Walter M. Kimbrough to Joyce M. Roché ('70).
Click here to hear audio of Denzel Washington's Dillard University commencement speech.
*****
To reach Sue Strachan, send an email to socialscene@nola.com or call 504.450.5904. Find her on Twitter and Instagram as @suestrachan504, with the hashtag #nolasocialscene. Visit her on Facebook. And, come back toNOLA.com/society for more New Orleans area event and party news and photos.Support the Black College Fund
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United Methodists pitch in to feed children, distribute medications
BALTIMORE — Metropolitan United Methodist Church’s fellowship hall became a cafeteria and gathering space for children after school closures in the wake of riots. Volunteers and friends from surrounding cities sent food, clothing, toiletries and medical supplies to the church. The Rev. Eric King talks about distributing meals and creating care packages for community members who have been without medication since a nearby pharmacy went up in flames. Think Progress reports.
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In A Moment Of Civil Unrest, Baltimoreans Are Creating A Movement That’s Built To Last BY SAM P.K. COLLINS
"In A Moment Of Civil Unrest, Baltimoreans Are Creating A Movement That’s Built To Last"
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CREDIT: DYLAN PETROHILOS/THINKPROGRESS
In the days after civil unrest in Baltimore overtook the news coverage on the mysterious death of Freddie Gray, Baltimoreans redoubled their effort to show what Charm City is really about.
Community members came out in droves towing brooms, trash bags, and trash cans — maneuvering around the flurry of protestors, fully armored police officers, and a bevy of news cameras — to clean up and restore order to their community after Monday night’s melee. Church and community groups served food to kids who wouldn’t get free lunch with schools closed.
But it turns out these efforts may be more than a stopgap to address the immediate needs of residents adversely affected by around-the-clock police presence. Slowly but surely, a movement has been coalescing in Baltimore through the collaborative efforts of clergy people, educators, youth advocates, and members of street gangs – key players who have the clout to unite their groups around the pressing needs of the community and start the long-term planning to address the city’s long-ignored plight.
“This is ongoing because we in Baltimore are in this for the long haul. People under their own initiative and creativity have brought supplies that have transformed Baltimore beyond what the city has seen,” Reverend Eric King of Metropolitan United Methodist Church in Baltimore told ThinkProgress.
CREDIT: DYLAN PETROHILOS/THINKPROGRESS
This week, United Methodist’s fellowship hall morphed into a cafeteria and gathering space for children who King said most likely wouldn’t have been able to eat in lieu of school closures on Tuesday. That day, more than 100 youngsters converged on the grounds of the church where they feasted on pizza, sandwiches, granola bars, and fruit snacks while gulping down cold water and juice. An interdenominational group of volunteers that included teachers and parents watched as children frolicked around the space.
In the days since outside police forces entered Baltimore and city officials imposed a curfew, local volunteers and allies from surrounding cities have funneled in pounds of food, clothing, toiletries, and medical supplies to United Methodist Church. During his interview with ThinkProgress, King discussed plans to distribute meals and create care packages for community members who have been without medication since the nearby pharmacy went up in flames.
It doesn’t stop there. With the help of local activist groups and Pastor Willie Johnson, a Ferguson protester, King and other church leaders said they want to spark conversation with the disillusioned youth about their frustration and help them channel their energy to create substantial, long-term solutions to combat decades of harsh policing, high unemployment, neighborhood decay, and other social ills that affected residents long before the cameras showed up.
“Ministers across the country have walked through a community that has been looted and talked to the people. We met with gang members from different sets and learned that there were many who tried to get looters to stop robbing the store. This has opened up conversation about what we could do to better our community,” King said.
For Baltimore teacher Chelseay Parks, that conversation with her second graders has to take place amid the chaos, especially since many of them have most likely heard accounts of the protests from their older siblings. Parks, a native of Atlanta, spent much of the morning assisting other volunteers with food distribution and conversing with parents about how she should best address the events that have unfolded in the last couple of weeks.
“Part of our job is giving them a little more info without sacrificing their childhood. Kids in this environment always have teaching moments about the injustices they face,” Parks told ThinkProgress. Parks recounted an instance when she taught a group of fourth graders about implicit bias with what she described as the “blue eyes, brown eyes exercise,” a teaching tool that has been used since the 1960s to explain racial discrimination in a tangible manner by dividing students by eye color and giving the blue-eyed students special privileges.
“It’s difficult to communicate with the younger students because they won’t understand structural racism and how things are stacked against them,” Parks said. “It’s difficult to navigate but we want to have a conversation about it. In education, it’s important to understand what you’re going through and how external influences put you in your current position.”
Niya Rucker, a 21-year-old Park Heights resident, was counted among the volunteers Tuesday morning. Despite reaching the height of her frustration with the outsiders who came into Baltimore after the riots broke out, Rucker remained determined to beautify her neighborhood and talk to her contemporaries who have neglected the words of cautious adults.
“If you’re not from Baltimore, you wouldn’t understand,” Rucker told ThinkProgress. While she condemned the actions of those who looted stores, Rucker, who recounted a dismal childhood, said their anger resonated with her. That’s why she has recently taken more of an interest in advising younger residents. “The children here don’t have proper guidance. This stuff kicked off because a post was made for them. They don’t know what they’re fighting for.”
However, Baltimore-area youth advocate Craig Jernigan said the young looters are the exception rather than the majority. After watching the high point of the conflict around the corner from his house on Monday, Jernigan met with other youth advocates. He said that plans are in motion to pass out supplies to families affected by the fires and give fire fighters moral support. This project, set to jump off with the help of allies from Harrisburg, PA, will be led by at least 20 young people currently under state supervision.
“These young people weren’t out there looting and rioting and I’m really impressed with that,” Jernigan, program director at the Baltimore Youth Advocate Project told ThinkProgress. “Many of the advocates told me that their youth were safe at home and accounted for. The ones I’m talking to are frustrated. They are all saying the same message about being treated wrongly by police and getting racially profiled. They see it all of the time. It’s not just about Freddie Gray. It’s bigger than that. It’s about all of their peers. They’ve calmed down and their focus has increased.”Liberia gives thanks for freedom from Ebola
MONROVIA, Liberia (UMNS) — United Methodist leaders joined in as Liberia gave thanks for the declaration that the country is free of Ebola. But church leaders also recalled the many lives lost and counseled continued vigilance in public health. Julu Swen reports.
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These women were among the Liberians celebrating and giving thanks in Monrovia on May 11 after the announcement by the World Health Organization that Liberia is free of the Ebola virus.PreviousNext
Liberia gives thanks for freedom from Ebola by Julu Swen MONROVIA, Liberia (UMNS)
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia and a United Methodist, led an array ofgovernment officials and foreign dignitaries in a May 11 service offering thanks for the World Health Organization’s declaration that Liberia is free of the Ebola virus.
Sirleaf said Liberia would be offering to help two other West African countries, Sierra Leone and Guinea, as they continue to fight the disease.
“Until our neighbors are totally free, we are not free,” Sirleaf warned.
She also called on Liberians to remain vigilant in using public health measures that ultimately helped contain Ebola in their country.
“Let us do those simple things like washing hands, reporting when someone is sick, and making sure that there is safe and dignify burial,” she said.
And while the virus may be gone, Liberia will be struggling with the effects of the outbreak for a long time, including reinstating routine vaccinations of children, suspended during the outbreak for lack of resources. The United Nations announced the launch of a massive effort to vaccinate children against measles and polio.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
The United Methodist Churches in Sierra Leone and Liberia are struggling to recover from the Ebola epidemic. You can donate to the conference relief efforts online through the Advance.
Sierra Leone Undesignated Advance #00387A
Liberia Undesignated Advance #00382A
You can donate to the Bishop Judith Craig Children Village through Advance #11820A.
You can also give to the International Disaster Response fund Advance #982450 of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
Read full coverage of Ebola and The United Methodist Church.
The thanksgiving service was held at Centennial Memorial Pavilion in central Monrovia. It celebrated the end of 14 months of battling Ebola, including an excruciating wait of more than a month for the expected WHO declaration, which came on May 9.
Tolbert Nyenswah, Liberia’s deputy minister of health and head of the ministry’s Ebola incidentmanagement team, announced that the work he had begun last August was over. Nyenswah is also a United Methodist.
“With my team of capable Liberian professionals we have conquered the deadly Ebola virus and can now deal with any Ebola virus whether it is of animal origin or human person to person transmission,” he said.
Nyenswah credited the Liberian people and theinternational community as crucial partners in the effort to stop the disease in Liberia.
Lost lives remembered
The Rev. Cooper Mondolo, superintendent of the Weala District, was not among the United Methodist clergy present to give thanks, but he shared in the sentiment. In an interview, he also recalled the many lost lives.
The toll included 189 health care workers.
“The scorching effects are still in the minds of the people and several persons wept in our district meeting when the WHO declaration was announced,” Mondolo said. “There will always be tears and joy every time Ebola is mentioned in our United Methodist churches in Liberia.”
The Rev. Karyidia Gartor, superintendent of the Kakata-Farmington River District, elaborated on the disease’s costs.
“It left behind . . . 26 orphans who now live with relations who cannot afford to take care of them properly,” the clergyman lamented.
Gartor said his district, in partnership with the Iroquois River District of the Illinois Great River Conference, is making sure that children are in school and getting at least the basic help they need. Already eight of the children have been placed in the Bishop Judith Craig Children Village while the rest are with family members who are getting help from the district. The village cares for orphaned children.
“The Ebola virus has awakened in us, the people of the Kakata-Farmington River District, the spirit of cooperation,” Gartor said.
The Rev. George Wilson, director of Connectional Ministries for the Liberia conference, said The United Methodist Church in Liberia has not decided whether to have its own thanksgiving service. He echoed the president’s call to remain vigilant.
“As someone who presided over the UMC Liberia Task Force, I will prefer that all of the preventive measures that were practiced during the crisis should now be regarded as standard practices for the Liberian people,” Wilson said.
Liberia was seeing 300 to 400 new Ebola cases a week last August and September. The country has no cases currently, and the country’s last death from the disease occurred March 27.
The WHO statement credited Sirleaf Johnson’s strong leadership with helping end the outbreak.
“Her swift and sometimes tough decisions, frequent public communications, and presence at outbreak sites were expressions of this leadership,” the statement said.
*Swen is editor and publisher of West African Writers, an online publication about United Methodist happenings in West Africa and assists the denomination in Liberia with coverage for United Methodist Communications.
Christian Unity gathering draws 200-plus in D.C.
WASHINGTON (UMNS) — More than 200 Christian leaders, scholars, activists and ecumenists, including United Methodists, were part of the second annual Christian Unity Gathering held by the National Council of Churches May 7-9. Participants also were among the more than 2,500 people at the Washington National Cathedral for a worship service commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
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2015 Christian Unity Gathering Brings Inspiration, Focus, Spectacle
WASHINGTON: The National Council of Churches held its second annual Christian Unity Gathering, May 7-9, in Washington, DC with over 200 Christian leaders, scholars, activists, and ecumenists present from across the United States to focus on the NCC’s priority of interfaith peacemaking.
The NCC pursues two main areas in its ecumenical work: to build interfaith relations with an emphasis on peacemaking, and to end mass incarceration.
Leymah Gbowee, the Liberian Nobel Peace Prize winner, keynoted the Gathering and shared the powerful story of a mass movement of Christian and Muslims known as Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace that helped end the Liberian civil war that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.
Ms. Gbowee stood at the Gathering as a remarkably clear voice for women across the globe. “Do one good thing every day that everyone else is scared to do,” Gbowee proclaimed. “It is time for the Church to be crazy… like Jesus was in the Temple.”
On the evening of May 7, more than 2500 people gathered at the Washington National Cathedral for a moving worship service sponsored by the NCC commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians and His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia spoke. The homily was delivered by Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches.
Also in attendance were US Vice President Joe Biden; His Excellency Serzh Sargsyan, President of the Republic of Armenia; and His Holiness Ignatius Aphrem II, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, Supreme Head of the Syriac Orthodox Church.
Central to the Gathering was the work of the Council’s four Convening Tables. Ample time was allotted to these tables to plan and further their work in pursuit of Christian unity, advocacy for justice, interfaith relations and collaboration, and Christian education and ecumenical formation.
Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit addressed the Gathering during several key moments in the Gathering. Participating in a panel on peacemaking with Naeem Baig, President of the Islamic Circle of North America and part of the NCC’s long-standing Muslim-Christian dialogue, and Rabbi Gerry Serotta, Executive Director of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington, Tveit spoke about the common theological convictions in Islam, Judaism, and Christianity that together form an interfaith imperative to work for peace and justice. He also stressed the necessity of Christian unity on behalf of all humanity, because it is only in unity that the Christian churches can ultimately proclaim the fullness of the Gospel. “Let us talk of a Christian unity that serves a wider unity of all people, all creation, unity for the sake of the world,” he proclaimed.
Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA has been the leading force for shared ecumenical witness among Christians in the United States. The NCC's 37 member communions -- from a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African American and Living Peace churches -- include 45 million persons in more than 100,000 local congregations in communities across the nation.
NCC News contact: Steven D. Martin: 202.412.4323 or steven.martin@nationalcouncilofchurches.usWalking to Emmaus in Holy Land, Sweden
GENEVA (WCC) — In a feature for the World Council of Churches, Peter Kenny shares how the biblical story of Emmaus motivated 60 young people from Palestine, South Africa, Germany and Sweden to make a two-stage peace pilgrimage in the Holy Land and Sweden.
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Walking to Emmaus in the Holy Land, and Sweden
NCC News contact: Steven D. Martin: 202.412.4323 or steven.martin@nationalcouncilofchurches.usWalking to Emmaus in Holy Land, Sweden
GENEVA (WCC) — In a feature for the World Council of Churches, Peter Kenny shares how the biblical story of Emmaus motivated 60 young people from Palestine, South Africa, Germany and Sweden to make a two-stage peace pilgrimage in the Holy Land and Sweden.
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Walking to Emmaus in the Holy Land, and Sweden
It was a peace hike inspired by the biblical story of Emmaus, crisscrossing part of the Holy Land, following the footsteps of Jesus.
Luke’s gospel describes how two men saw the resurrected Jesus at the town of Emmaus, thereby regaining hope.
Emmaus motivated a group of 60 young women and men from places such as Palestine, South Africa, Germany and Sweden to embark on their two-stage peace pilgrimage.
They shared life experiences and their faith during their hikes, each a week long. They walked, danced, sang, talked and travelled together by bus in one land where there is peace, and another that is in conflict.
The mighty barrier wall between Israel and Palestine and western Sweden’s golden wheat fields are far from Qunu, South Africa, where Yolanda Ngxishe grew up on the same rolling hills as Nelson Mandela.
Like the great South African apartheid fighter and peacemaker, Ngxishe is a member of the Xhosa-speaking Madiba clan.
Ngxishe belongs to South Africa’s “Born Frees” post-apartheid generation, but said, “Many people in South Africa are not feeling the freedom our people have been fighting for.”
Thinking of Mandela
He said, “I thought about the man [Mandela]. He fought for freedom, and it made me think of the movie ‘Long walk to freedom’. It was a great moment to think about the man. We are now able to move about freely, but that is not so here.”
Noting that in South Africa economic apartheid still exists, Ngxishe said, for Palestinians, “Economically they are not equal. They don’t get enough water. Water is life.” He said it was difficult for Palestinians to move easily.
He gained a lot from the group finding that music was something they had in common and said, “I can think about positive things. My mind is more open.”
Ngxishe said, “The best thing I learned is that the group take education very seriously; unlike we do in South Africa. Most of our young people are not into education. If you get an education, you become better people.”
Palestinian Bishop Munib A. Younan, blessing the first stage of the walk, said, "You are now missionaries for a worldwide pilgrimage about the risen Lord Jesus Christ!”
“When we speak about peace, it’s larger than those countries in which people are living in a perilous situation, as we are, living under occupation,” said Younan. “It’s because sometimes it is very easy in comfortable and democratic societies to develop xenophobia or racism.”
Younan is bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan & the Holy Land, a member church of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and is president of the Lutheran World Federation.
The pilgrimage began at Church of Sweden’s Skara Diocese 1,000-year celebration in August 2014. The diocese hosted young people from diverse backgrounds for a week-long walking pilgrimage as a jubilee project.
The second part of "Walking to Emmaus" continued in The Holy Land from 4-12 April, 2015, with 60 young people along with three bishops and church leaders from Germany, Palestine, South Africa and Sweden.
In the Holy Land they stayed in iconic biblical places such as Bethlehem, Jericho and Nazareth.
German student Mario Münsterer said, “It was a great new experience meeting people in Sweden and Palestine. “I was born after the fall of the wall,” he said, referring the Berlin Wall erected to divide East from West Germany during the Cold War.
He said that since that wall started to come down around 1989-1990 people could move around freely in a united Germany. That is, however, not the case in the Holy Land where Israel has erected a wall and barrier to Palestine.
Reflecting on how they were away from their mobiles phones, Münsterer said: “on the pilgrimage we had time to ourselves, to reflect, and by walking we had direct contact with, and could understand the essence of the problems. This was much better.”
Salam M. Qumsiyeh, whose first name means Peace, is a Palestinian from Beit Sahur. She was able to tell the peace hikers about, and then show them, how she lives by the barrier.
“I was disappointed all the checkpoints went normally.
“For Palestinians it is different, we have to line up and be body-searched; we have to have a permit to get into Israel. They [our group] won’t understand that unless they experience it.” She said the group could experience the roadblocks but not undergo the same experience that Palestinians endure at them.
“I love hiking and this hike has a purpose, walking to Emmaus. There were people getting to know each other; people knowing what we are doing and how we live,” Qumsiyeh said during the journey.
She spoke of the questions she had from her fellow travelers on the bus and noted, “You live the answers. I wanted to tell a lot of things about what we experience.
“For me fighting for Palestine is to spread the word to the world and tell others about our reality. They only know what they see in the media and that does not show our reality.”
Divided young Israelis and Palestinians
She spoke of the divisions between young Palestinians and Israelis who live so close to one another but live such different lives.
“I don’t mind having an Israeli friend if they understand what I feel, but if they are kind of racist or extremist, then why would I be willing to be friends with them?
"From my point of view mostly they are like that. Because they don't understand what Palestinians are like; they think we are terrorists. They are not educated about Palestinians,” said Qumsiyeh.
The Palestinian student explained, “Acceptance is the answer. If you only think you are the one who is right, then you don’t see the existence of the others' thoughts, or other ethnicities.
“If you understand and see what they are in regards to you, I think this will achieve peace.”
Walking, talking, reflecting
“When you are walking together it's a good way of talking and reflecting together, that is basically the idea,” said Daniel Uddling, the project leader from the Church of Sweden.
Also on the pilgrimage were Swedish television journalist Marika Griehsel and her husband South Africa TV cameraman Simon Stanford who filmed the journey in Sweden and the Holy Land. Stanford recorded the ending of apartheid in the 1990s and the struggle against it in the 1980s for international television.
“It was inspirational being with this group and learning how people can learn about peace by sharing experiences,” said Stanford.
Göran Rask, the chair person and the initiator of the project, spoke to the young people when they had finished their pilgrimage and thanked them.
“A long walk”
“We made it! We walked to Emmaus! It was a long walk.
“We have come from South Africa, Germany, Sweden and from Bethlehem, Beit Sahour, Beit Jala, Ramallah and Jerusalem in Palestine to this 'Emmaus'. It was a long walk especially since we took a detour to Skara in Sweden – to Flämslätt, Husaby, Forshem, Kungslena, Gudhem and Varnhem.”
He observed that one person in the group, Khaleed, said at Flämslätt, “dancing seems to be our common language”.
“Through singing and dancing we have shared faith and life in a special way,” said Rask.
He noted that, more important than walking, the group shared life expectations, dreams, daily life routines, sorrows and difficulties. They examined the effect of the suffering of the unjust, and how unlawful occupation affects the lives of their friends living in Palestine.
They also shared their faith through the life of Jesus and the Gospel of Luke, through bible texts relating to their five themes of sustainability, baptism, mission, pluralism and peace. They exchanged testimonies and faith in the daily lives among themselves.
“My dream is that you will see your mission in continuing to dream and work for peace and justice, advocating for a pluralistic, sustainable world,” said Rask.
He wanted the group to remember, “God is with us and Jesus walks by our side, just as he did with the disciples to Emmaus and our baptism is our sign from God that Jesus walks beside us.”
The project was carried out in close cooperation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria (ELKB), the South-Eastern Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa (ELCSA), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan & the Holy Land (ELCJHL), the Church of Sweden Youth Skara and Sensus districts as well as Church of Sweden International department.
*Peter Kenny is a journalist and communications consultant. He writes for Ecumenical News, The Wall Street Journal, The Star in Johannesburg and other media organizations.
Blog post by Palestinian participant Salam M. Qumsiyeh
Blog post by South African participant Bandile Vukani Ndaba
Photos in high resolution are available via photos.oikoumene.org
United one of 12 seminaries to double enrollmentDAYTON, Ohio (UMNS) — A report from the Association of Theological Schools listed United Theological Seminary as one of only 12 seminaries to have doubled enrollment over the past five years. United President Wendy Deichmann credits much of the United Methodist school’s recent success to its online education programs. “We have a really compelling, relevant program, and because of that, we’ve been able to connect with a whole new population of students,” she said.
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United Theological Seminary Ranks among Fastest-Growing Seminaries in North America
UNITED NEWS
by UNITED on
↔In an April report from the Association of Theological Schools, United Theological Seminary of Dayton, Ohio, was named one of only 12 schools to have grown by at least 50 percent over the past five years. With an enrollment of 538 in the fall of 2014, United Theological Seminary is the second largest on the association’s list of fastest-growing schools.
Seminary president Wendy Deichmann attributes much of the school’s recent success to itsonline education programs.
“We have a really compelling, relevant program, and because of that we’ve been able to connect with a whole new population of students,” she said.
United is among 46 percent of ATS member schools approved to offer comprehensive online education (i.e., six or more courses). In fact, the number of online students at ATS schools has increased so significantly over the past five years that the association granted exceptions to some of its member schools, allowing them to forgo the one-year residency requirement for Master of Divinity programs.
With this freedom, United has become one of 12 schools approved to offer a fully online M.Div. degree and one of only 10 schools to offer a fully online Master of Arts degree, the most popular new degree program among ATS member schools.
Although the ATS report highlights certain factors of sustained growth, it also recognizes that enrollment figures don’t tell the whole story.
“The reasons that some schools have enjoyed extraordinary enrollment growth during the past five years are idiosyncratic,” said Daniel Aleshire, executive director of ATS. “Each growing school has its own success story to tell.”
President Deichmann says that United’s story is one of renewal. Just 10 years ago, United was struggling, enrolling fewer than 200 students at its lowest point. But once the Seminary adopted a curriculum focused on church renewal, things began to change.
President Deichmann credits that focus on renewal with the school’s turnaround and its continued growth over the last five years. The school’s primary goal continues to be to prepare church leaders who will renew and lead vibrant, faithful churches.
“With mainline Protestant denominations experiencing decreased membership, we realized that we couldn’t be just one more seminary contributing to that trajectory of decline,” she said. “We believe God is always working to bring hope, new life and renewal to the church, so if it’s struggling, then something is wrong and we have to address it.”
United Theological Seminary is a graduate professional school of The United Methodist Church offering masters and doctoral theological degrees and continuing education with programs offered on campus and online. United’s goal is to educate dynamic, Spirit-led leaders who will renew the church for the mission of Jesus Christ in the world.Read report
MARCH 31, 2015 1 Approximately 37 percent of ATS member schools have grown during the past five years. Among the 100 schools that have grown, 34 have grown at least 25 percent, of which 12 have grown by at least 50 percent. Nearly half (44%) of the growing schools show five-year enrollment gains even despite declines during the past year. While there is no single factor accounting for this sustained growth, given the diverse universe of ATS schools, some factors are worth noting. Size is not necessarily a factor. Seminary growth is not simply a case of “the big getting bigger” nor is it only a function of small incremental changes to small numbers that yield high percentage rates. Growth during the past five years has been fairly evenly distributed among schools of various student body sizes, as shown in the table below. The list of 100 growing seminaries divides between 43 percent above the current ATS median size of 150 students and 57 percent below. New degree programs and delivery systems can make a difference. Certainly new degree programs and delivery systems have had an impact on the most recent enrollment Why 100 ATS member schools have grown By Tom Tanner and Eliza Smith Brown COMPARISON OF GROWING SCHOOLS BY SIZE OF STUDENT BODY (2009–2014) Schools by Size in 20091 All Schools Growing Schools 25%+ Growth 500+ students 32 (12%) 13 (13%) 1 (3%) 200–499 students 84 (32%) 25 (25%) 6 (18%) 100–199 students 85 (32%) 29 (29%) 13 (38%) < 100 students 65 (24%) 33 (33%) 14 (41%) Totals 266 (100%)2 100 (100%) 34 (100%) from Annual Data Tables of The Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada __________________________________________________________________1 Twelve of the 100 schools that have grown were not yet members of ATS in 2009; each of those is listed according to its size the year it joined the Association. 2 Seven of the 273 member schools just joined in 2014, so no growth data are available. MARCH 31, 2015 2 growth—that experienced from 2013–2014. Looking at this past year alone, nearly two thirds (65 percent) of the 40 schools with double-digit percentage increases have recently implemented new degree programs or new delivery systems or both. The most popular new degree programs are two-year professional MAs, which had record numbers of students and graduates this year (see Seminaries Set Six Enrollment Records in the February Colloquy Online). The 273 ATS member schools now offer more than 250 different professional MA programs—the most ever. Peter Meehan, principal at St. Mark’s College, oversees a program that caters to lay Catholics who are interested in parish work and education—a growing and eclectic constituency. Some 95 percent of St. Mark’s students are lay people sent by the Archdiocese to build the permanent deaconate or drawn by the school’s new Master of Catholic Leadership, a stream for educational leaders. The school’s enrollment has grown 64 percent during the past five years. The most common new delivery systems are distance (online) education and extension education. More than half (145 schools or 53 percent) of all ATS members now offer distance education, as contrasted with less than 10 percent just a decade ago. Of those 145, 125 have approval to offer comprehensive distance education (i.e., more than five courses; see list of approved schools on the ATS website). While distance education enrollments are difficult to count (partly due to recent changes in how those numbers are reported), it appears that the number of online students in ATS schools has increased by as much as 35 percent since 2009 (from around 13,750 to around 18,500). This past fall, about one-fourth of all ATS students were enrolled in at least one online course, whereas a decade ago fewer than one-tenth were. Enrollment trends in extension education, on the other hand, are more mixed, at least as reported by the 78 schools with extension sites. Extension enrollment peaked at 15,024 in 2012, but declined to 12,126 a year ago—and is down even more significantly this past fall to less than 8,000, though most of that decline is likely due to a change in how those numbers are reported. Even accounting for that change, the number of extension students this year would still likely be fewer than six years ago. It seems more and more students are choosing online education over extension education. Further evidence of the growing popularity of online programs among ATS seminaries may be found in the initial results from recent exceptions and experiments granted to member schools under the 2012 revision of the ATS Commission Standards. The vast majority of those exceptions and experiments allow seminaries to offer MDiv and professional MA programs either completely or almost completely online. Among the seven schools granted exceptions to the one-year residency requirement for MDiv programs, five saw those programs grow an average of 10 percent this past year (vs. a 6 percent loss for MDiv programs in general). Among the eight schools granted exceptions to the one-third In search of creative new models and practices Most schools don’t have risk capital to provide a cushion for experimentation, but many are developing innovative models and practices nonetheless. Over the next year, as part of its Lilly-funded Educational Models Project, ATS will conduct a comprehensive study of educational program developments in ATS schools. This mapping survey will gather information on the variety of educational practices that have developed during the past several decades, often to address new constituencies, to increase accessibility of theological education, or to address patterns of ministry that have been underattended by the dominant educational models. The entire Association stands to gain from this investigation. MARCH 31, 2015 3 residency requirement for professional MA programs, six experienced an amazing average growth of 94 percent this past year (vs. 4 percent growth for all MA programs). It should be noted, however, that insufficient longitudinal data have been collected to project how the growth from exceptions and experimental initiatives might continue. As Jason Allen, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and College (MBTS), says, “The online MTS degree, which the seminary launched approximately five years ago, has certainly expanded our reach. Our fully online MDiv, however, is too new to have affected our enrollment.” Notably, 11 of the 24 schools with approved exceptions and seven schools with approved experiments appear on the double-digit growth list for 2009–2014. But there is no silver bullet. As for other reasons why certain seminaries are growing, that is difficult to discern. “There is no silver bullet,” says Daniel O. Aleshire, executive director of ATS. “The reasons that some schools have enjoyed extraordinary enrollment growth during the past five years are idiosyncratic. Each growing school has its own success story to tell.” Philip Attebery, dean at Baptist Missionary Association Theological Seminary (BMATS), sums up the reason for the school’s significant enrollment growth (94% over five years) in one word: convenience. Attebery says that students are increasingly choosing online options over extension sites, valuing the convenience of time as much as location. He also notes that enrollment jumped 36 percent at the time of BMATS’s initial accreditation with __________________________________________________________________ The reasons that some schools have enjoyed extraordinary enrollment growth during the past five years are idiosyncratic. Each growing school has its own success story to tell. —Daniel O. Aleshire, ATS __________________________________________________________________ THE 12 FASTEST-GROWING ATS SEMINARIES DURING THE PAST FIVE YEARS (SCHOOLS THAT HAVE EXPERIENCED AT LEAST 50 PERCENT ENROLLMENT GROWTH) School Location 2014 Enrollment Baptist Missionary Association Theological Seminary Jacksonville, TX 68 Central Baptist Theological Seminary Shawnee, KS 287 Christian Witness Theological Seminary San Jose, CA 78 Immaculate Conception Seminary Seton Hall University South Orange, NJ 334 Knox Theological Seminary Ft. Lauderdale, FL 277 Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Kansas City, MO 804 Mount Angel Seminary St. Benedict, OR 87 Northwest Baptist Seminary Langley, BC 34 Notre Dame Seminary New Orleans, LA 200 St. Mark’s College Vancouver, BC 54 University of Notre Dame Department of Theology Notre Dame, IN 318 United Theological Seminary Dayton, OH 538 MARCH 31, 2015 4 ATS, but he further observes, “the increase of ministry and bible programs in regional universities is drawing off enrollment from the freestanding seminary.” Molly T. Marshall, in her eleventh year as president of Central Baptist Theological Seminary, has overseen a record growth of more than 179 percent during the past five years—without petitioning for any exceptions or experiments. “We have been strategic,” she explains, “by experimenting within the already approved program offerings.” Two of Central’s most successful programs have been fully funded to recruit and build cohorts of students. The CREATE program has added 12 new MDiv students each year for six years, and a women’s leadership initiative is following the same model. Students learn entrepreneurial skills and financial literacy, preparing them for a capstone project in which they launch a startup ministry. Marshall also attributes Central’s success to its nine off-campus sites—four of them for Korean language students and all with integrated online learning and an active social media program. “We have learned that it is absolutely critical to try to offer relevant and contextual theological education to support the school’s mission and values,” she adds. Allen at MBTS agrees that building the student body with robust numbers of Korean, Hispanic, and African American students has yielded sustainable growth. In describing the dramatic growth at MBTS during the past two years, Allen adds, “For fall 2014 and spring 2015, both semesters saw headcount and hours sold surge approximately 20 percent from the previous, comparable semesters. We have fundamentally rebuilt our student recruiting, retention, and institutional communication and marketing efforts—like most every other area of the institution.” “But,” Allen concludes, “while these steps have doubtlessly helped, I believe the most important steps we’ve taken are convictional and missiological. We have repurposed the institution to give its very best energies to serving the local Southern Baptist Church. Our doctrinal convictions and our missiological clarity both have accelerated our growth. Everyone knows precisely who we are, what our theological convictions are, and what we see as our chief ambition—to train pastors, ministers, and evangelists for the church.” Tom Tanner is Director, Accreditation and Institutional Evaluation and Eliza Smith Brown is Director, Communications and External Relations for The Association of Theological Schools in Pittsburgh.U.S. should finalize tobacco rules, health agencies say
WASHINGTON (UMNS) — The United Methodist Board of Church and Society has joined public health and medical organizations in urging President Obama quickly to finalize long-overdue U.S. rules covering all tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes, cigars and hookah.
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Final rules on tobacco sought
31 health groups send letter to President Obama
May 07, 2015
WASHINGTON, DC – The United Methodist General Board of Church & Society is among 31 public health and medical organizations that urged President Obama April 28 to quickly finalize long-overdue rules covering all tobacco products, includingelectronic cigarettes, cigars and hookah.
Continued lack of federal oversight of these products is putting the health of America’s kids at risk.
In a letter to the president, the groups said the continued lack of federal oversight of these products is putting the health of America’s kids at risk.
Endorsers of the letter inclue the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, American Lung Assn., American Heart Assn., American Dental Assn. and the Cancer Action Network.
Underscoring the urgent need for action, a recent government survey showed that youth e-cigarette use tripled from 2013 to 2014, and now exceeds youth cigarette smoking for the first time.
“In the absence of regulation, we have seen irresponsible marketing of unregulated products such as cigars and electronic cigarettes, often using tactics and sweet flavors that clearly appeal to youths. It’s no wonder use of e-cigarettes by youths has skyrocketed,” the letter states. “This process has already taken far too long. We cannot afford more delays that allow tobacco companies to target our kids with a new generation of tobacco products.”
Food & Drug Administration
The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) regulates cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco. The FDA can extend its jurisdiction to all other tobacco products under a 2009 law, the Family Smoking Prevention & Tobacco Control Act. Although the agency announced its intention to regulate all tobacco products in April 2011, it did not issue a proposed rule until April 25, 2014. It has yet to issue a final rule or set a firm date to do so.
The letter expresses concern about recent trends that demonstrate the need for quick action to protect kids. These include:
E-cigarette use by youths has exploded. From 2013 to 2014, e-cigarette use rose from 4.5% to 13.4% among high-school students, and from 1.1% to 3.9% among middle-school students. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) estimated there were 2.4 million youth e-cigarette users in 2014.
Cigar use among teens remains a concern. While overall youth cigar use declined from 2013 to 2014, high-school boys smoke cigars at about the same rate as cigarettes (10.8% for cigars and 10.6% for cigarettes). Cigars are the most commonly used tobacco product among African-American high-school students, who smoke cigars at nearly twice the rate of cigarettes. Health advocates have called on the FDA to regulate all cigars and reject calls to exempt some cigars.
Hookah use roughly doubled for both middle- and high-school students, with past-month use among high-school students rising from 5.2% in 2013 to 9.4% in 2014. Hookah tobacco is available in a variety of fruit and candy flavors that can be attractive to youths. According to the CDC, hookah smoking exposes smokers to many toxic substances and has many of the same health risks as cigarettesmoking.
Health advocates have called on the FDA not only to finalize the rule, but also to strengthen it by extending current FDA restrictions on cigarette marketing to newly regulated products and prohibiting the use of flavorings that appeal to kids.
Read the letter.
Ministry guide available in Spanish
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) — An updated, Spanish-language version of “The Christian as Minister: An Exploration into the Meaning of God’s Call” is now available. The book, published by the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry, is required reading for ministry candidates in The United Methodist Church.
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New resource for Spanish-speaking United Methodists responding to God’s call
Tom Gillem
El Cristiano como Ministro: Explora el significado del Ilamado de Dios al ministerio is a direct translation of the revised and edited eighth edition of the book, published in 2013 by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM).
“The Christian as Minister is the introduction text for any candidate who is considering licensed or ordained ministry in The United Methodist Church,” said the Rev. Meg Lassiat, director of Candidacy, Mentoring and Conference Relations at GBHEM.
“It provides a basic overview of ways that people can serve as lay, licensed or ordained clergy and information about moving forward in the process as people begin to discern their call to ministry,” Lassiat said.
The Christian as Minister is used for candidates entering the ministry process in the United States because the process varies regionally elsewhere in the world. Approximately 1,600 to 1,800 new candidates begin the process each year in the U.S.
The Spanish language edition is designed to serve as an added resource to those candidates who would be more comfortable reading and conversing in Spanish.
“This book gives more people the opportunity to explore their call. God’s call is for all disciples who want to serve God with all their hearts because you know and recognize that God is great and powerful. This resource explores ways that everyone can be in ministry,” said David Martinez, director of Specialized Programs of Theological Education at GBHEM.
Lassiat, who serves as the editor of The Christian as Minister, said the updated book, unlike earlier editions, is not tied as closely to the current Book of Discipline. Previous editions referenced the Discipline extensively and required updates each time the Discipline was changed.
At the end of each section in The Christian as Minister, new “Reflections” are included for use in group mentoring sessions, a Candidacy Summit or an Orientation to Ministry event.
A digital e-Book version of the English edition is also available.
Both the Spanish edition (ISBN 13: 978-0-938162-78-0) and the English edition (ISBN 13: 978-0-938162-63-6), along with the e-Book version, are available for $9.99 at Cokesbury, either online at www.cokesbury.com or by phone at (800) 672-1789.
Gillem is a writer and photographer in Brentwood, Tenn.
Remembering Del KetchamHENDERSONVILLE, N.C. (UMNS) — Delbert “Del” Ketcham, a former staff member of the Commission on United Methodist Men, died recently after a battle with lung cancer. He was passionate about gardening and improving food security.
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News
In Memoriam – Del Ketcham
May 7th, 2015
Del served as Hunger Relief Advocate in the Nashville office of GCUMM from 2001 to 2007. During that time, he edited “Mission News” in UM Men magazine, and led potato drops and gleaning efforts for the Society of St. Andrew.
In Nashville, Del and his wife, Sheila, were members of Edgehill UMC and Del managed the Edgehill Community Garden. His efforts to provide food security for the city resulted in the 2007 creation of Food Security Partners of Middle Tennessee. That organization continues Del’s work today.
In late 2007, Del and Sheila moved from Nashville to Wiscasset, Maine, where he served as a substitute teacher at the high school, manager of the Margaret Ellis Community Garden, and founder of the Morris Farm Store. He also served on the board of the Wiscasset Public Library and provided backpacks for Wiscasset children. The couple attended East Boothbay UMC and Bath UMC prior to their 2014 move to North Carolina to be near their children and granddaughter.
Del was passionate about injustices and could make a speech without notes or notice to shed light on a problem and offer a solution. He took personal risks to work for improvements in education, housing, hunger relief, food security, environmental justice and for a politically informed public.
Del was born in Biddeford, Maine, in 1939 and moved to Weymouth, Mass., in 1947. His famous "green thumb" began in his family's commercial greenhouses there, where he learned to propagate plants and help in all aspects of the family business, Ketcham Flowers. He was a member of the Future Farmers of America through the 1950s and won many prizes in local and state fairs and 4H groups.
Del graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1963 with degrees in biology and education and a minor in political science. He taught junior high students in Grafton and Brockton, Mass., for more than 10 years. In the 1970s, he managed restaurants in Boston and New Orleans. Del owned G&P Expeditors in Quincy, Mass., in the 1980s and 1990s. During these decades, he was an early advocate for community access television in Weymouth, Mass., producing programs and hosting two weekly interview shows that examined local and national issues for the community.
Del is survived by his beloved wife, Sheila deBettencourt; son, Jason Ketcham; step-children, Angie Buxton, Christina Souza, Dan deBettencourt and their spouses; as well as his precious grand-daughter, Aquinnah deBettencourt. He was predeceased by his son Delbert Blois Ketcham.
To leave a condolence for the Ketcham family, please visit "obituaries" at www.moore-fh.com.
Photo 1 - Del and his granddaughter plant seeds together.
Photo 2 - Del shows off his harvest of brocolli.
Church’s pension fund ranked 10th on climate change
GLENVIEW, Ill. (UMNS) — The United Methodist Church’s pension fund ranked 10th out of 500 international investors in management of climate risk and opportunities. The United Methodist Board of Pension and Health Benefits and its Wespath Investment Management division got the top-10 ranking from the Asset Owners Disclosure Project. The pension board instituted a specific climate-change investment policy guideline in 2015.
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Press Release: GBPHB Pension Fund Ranked 10th of 500 Global Asset Owners in Climate Change Risk Management
For Immediate Release
May 11, 2015
Contact: M. Colette Nies, Managing Director, Communications
(847) 866-4296 or cnies@gbophb.org
Glenview, IL—The General Board of Pension and Health Benefits (GBPHB)*, and its Wespath Investment Management division, was ranked tenth of 500 international investors in the latest index from the Asset Owners Disclosure Project (AODP). The AODP is the world’s only independent examination of pension and superannuation funds’ management of climate risks and opportunities. It provides research and tools for asset owners and managers, supporting them in the transition to an investment world in which the impacts of climate change will become ever more integrated into their core decision-making processes.
Asset Owners Disclosure Project
According to the AODP, “Nearly 85% of the world’s largest investors have failed to implement climate-risk management systems. Institutional investors have much to do to mitigate and hedge climate change risk in their portfolios.” From a study of more than 1,000 of the world’s largest asset owners, representing more than $40 trillion, AODP found 85% were lagging in executing and implementing what they deemed to be effective climate-risk management systems.
The advocacy group studied asset owners’ climate change performance from factors such as transparency, risk management, levels of low-carbon investments and active ownership.
Only three U.S. pension funds were in the Top 10: CalPERS (California Public Employees Retirement System) ranked third; the New York State Common Retirement Fund ranked sixth; and GBPHB ranked tenth of the 500 completing the AODP survey of 1,000 asset owners. GBPHB moved up in the rankings from 35th overall in 2013 to tenth in 2014.
GBPHB Managing Director, Sustainable Investment Strategies, Kirsty Jenkinson was pleased with the survey results, noting, “We are in the ‘Top 10’ of a very important list that people around the world are paying attention to. It’s exciting to see that we are placed among peers considered to be the global leaders in sustainable investment, with an emphasis on the risks climate change poses for us all.” In 2015, GBPHB instituted a specific climate change (thermal coal) investment policy guideline: www.gbophb.org/climatechange.
The AODP survey background and rankings can be viewed at:
aodproject.net/climate-ratings/aodp-global-climate-500-index.html
aodproject.net/news/85-world-s-largest-investors-continue-to-gamble-on-climate-risk.html
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About the General BoardThe General Board of Pension and Health Benefits (GBPHB) is a not-for-profit administrative agency of The United Methodist Church, with Church-authorized fiduciary responsibility for the benefit plans it administers and the assets it invests.
Prudent investment management decisions are an ongoing, long-term priority, supporting benefit plans for over 91,000 participants and approximately $21 billion in *assets managed on their behalf, and for many United Methodist-affiliated endowments, foundations and other institutions. This fiduciary obligation reflects the stated values of the Church and helps ensure financial, environmental and social sustainability across all investments.
GBPHB is the largest reporting faith-based pension fund and among the top 100 pension funds in the United States. As a sustainable investor, GBPHB is committed to active ownership through corporate and public policy engagement, proxy voting and the management of excessive sustainability risk. Through its Positive Social Purpose Lending program, GBPHB invests in affordable housing, community development and expanded loan opportunities for disadvantaged communities worldwide.
About the Asset Owners Disclosure Project (AODP)
The Asset Owners Disclosure Project is an independent not-for-profit global organization based in the U.K. whose objective is to protect asset owners from the risks posed by climate change. It does this by working with pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, foundations and universities to improve the level of disclosure and industry best practice.
AODP encourages investors to redress the huge imbalance in their investments between high- and low-carbon assets, while realigning the investment chain to adopt long-term investment practices.
Key elements of the initiative are:
Conducting an annual survey and assessment of the world’s 1,000 largest asset owners pertaining to their management of climate change risks and opportunities.
Publishing rankings of the world’s 1,000 largest asset owners to allow members, stakeholders and industry to see which funds are better than others at managing climate risk.
Providing and promoting climate change best practice to drive and improve climate change management and capability of asset owners.
Developing consumer-facing programs to educate asset owner members or stakeholders of the financial risks associated with climate change.
Researching trends in climate risk, member behavior and institutional investment.
Creating frameworks to encourage active ownership.
Read climate change policy
Unfortunately, the citizens of the world over many generations have not been good stewards of God’s creation. The Social Principles of The United Methodist Church acknowledge that “the current utilization of energy resources threatens…creation at its very foundation.” (¶160B.)
Greenhouse gas emissions have had a profound effect on our planet. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2014 was the warmest year in recorded history and the U.S. temperature exceeded the 20th century average for the 18th year in a row.
Greenhouse gas emissions are at the center of the problem. According to theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change–IPCC (an international scientific body created by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization to review and evaluate scientific, technical and socio-economic information on climate change), “Human influence on the climate system is clear, and recent anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are the highest in history. … Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes in all components of the climate system, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems. Limiting climate change would require substantial and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions which, together with adaptation, can limit climate change risks.” (2014 Climate Change: Synthesis Report.)
For the Church, the solution is clear: “We … support efforts of all governments to require mandatory reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and call on individuals, congregations, business, industries, and communities to reduce their emissions.” (¶160D.)
Companies face risks from both the physical and the economic impacts of climate change—from sea level rises to changing government regulations and the potential risk of “stranded assets.” Companies may be unable to produce their proven fossil fuel reserves, because doing so would result in an increase in atmospheric temperatures above the two-degree Centigrade threshold. Investors increasingly expect companies to be able to demonstrate how they are strategically planning for and responding to climate change, in order to protect the value of their investments.
Sustainable Investment Strategies
Active Ownership Addressing Climate Change
Equity Social Values Plus Fund
Managing Excessive Sustainability Risk Linked to Climate Change
Climate Change (Thermal Coal) Guideline
Questions and Answers: Managing Excessive Sustainability Risk Guidelines
Questions and Answers: Climate Change (Thermal Coal) Guideline
Sustainable Investment Strategies
The General Board’s Wespath Investment Management division has a comprehensive sustainable investment strategy with three core components:
Ethical Exclusions: excluding the securities of companies from our investment funds that are not aligned with United Methodist values (includes companies that derive more than 10% of revenue from alcohol, tobacco, gambling, adult entertainment, weapons and privately operated prisons).
Active Ownership: addressing public policy and seeking to improve company performance relating to material environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues (including climate change) through engagement and proxy voting.
Positive social purpose lending: supporting affordable housing, community development and microfinance projects.
Active Ownership Addressing Climate Change
Wespath’s active ownership strategy addresses climate change through public policy and corporate engagement, proxy voting and the filing of shareholder resolutions. Our engagement has encouraged companies to be more energy efficient, to disclose greenhouse gas emissions, to set emissions-reduction goals, and to strategically factor potential regulatory changes intobusiness plans and core operations—in order to reduce carbon-related risk.
In 2014, Wespath focused its efforts on the oil and gas sector, including:
ConocoPhillips—a collaborative investor engagement to discuss carbon asset risk with company executives. Shortly thereafter, the company announced its first public greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal.
Chevron—a meeting with corporate management to discuss multiple aspects of the company’s environmental performance, specifically focusing on greenhouse gas emissions, development of renewable energy sources, long-term sustainability risks related to reliance on carbon assets, and environmentally-related political spending.
Exelon—an engagement with company leadership to discuss greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals and water management strategy.
Exxon Mobil—a dialogue with corporate management regarding the company’s environmental policies and performance, including the establishment and disclosure of goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, efforts to find non fossil-based sources of energy, and corporate political spending. Subsequent to the meeting, Wespath co-filed a shareholder resolution asking Exxon Mobil to include sustainability as a performance measure when setting executive compensation levels.
Marathon Petroleum and Valero Energy—an engagement with both management teams to follow-up on shareholder resolutions seeking a report on greenhouse gas reduction goals (engagement led by fellow investor, Mercy Investment Services).
Suncor Energy—a tour of the company’s oil sands mining operation in Alberta, Canada, to learn more about the industry, its financial performance and its environmental, social and governance (ESG) impacts. Tour participants—members of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment—met with company representatives and representatives from First Nations, NGOs, and the wider Canadian oil industry.
In addition, Wespath:
Participated and presented at a multi-denominational roundtable that discussed a broad spectrum of investment-related responses to climate change.
Endorsed a letter to President Obama in support of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan. The Plan’s goal is to make existing power plants more efficient and less harmful to the environment and human health by calling for a 30% reduction in power plant carbon emissions by the year 2030.
Signed the Global Investor Statement on Climate Change outlining several actions intended to increase low carbon and climate-resilient investments while calling upon governments “to develop an ambitious global agreement on climate change by the end of 2015.” The statement was directed to heads of state attending the 2014 U.N. Climate Summit in New York City.
Equity Social Values Plus Fund
On December 31, 2014, Wespath launched a new investment fund: the Equity Social Values Plus Fund (ESVPF). The new fund is intended for investors who prefer to achieve long-term investment growth by investing in a fund that applies additional selection criteria to companies regarding their human rights and environmental policies and practices, in addition to the General Board’s six ethical exclusions.
The ESVPF replaces the Balanced Social Values Plus Fund and will broaden our suite of sustainable investment options.
Questions and Answers
Managing Excessive Sustainability Risk Guidelines
Managing Excessive Sustainability Risk Linked to Climate Change
As a long-term investor, Wespath favors investing in companies that have sustainable business practices. The General Board’s board of directors (board) in 2014 adopted a policy on themanagement of excessive sustainability risk to assist in identifying and managing environmental, social and governance (ESG)-related risk in general.
The policy recognizes that there may be instances when a particular issue, set of companies and/or industries pose high levels of risk to investors. In such instances, the board will approve an investment guideline to inform the execution of Wespath’s active ownership strategy.
The new policy, “Management of Excessive Sustainability Risk,” is found in Wespath’s Statement of Administrative Investment Policy, Section III.D.2.:
ESG issues can present an excessive degree of sustainability risk to the General Board’s funds due to their fiduciary implications and their importance to The United Methodist Church. When the General Board identifies such issues, it will develop a guideline regarding its company-specific engagement priorities. This guideline may also lead to the exclusion of certain companies until the risk of holding securities in the affected companies has been resolved, or if the General Board believes that it cannot reasonably mitigate the sustainability risk.
The Fiduciary Committee and UMC Principles Committee must approve all guidelines relating to the management of excessive sustainability risk.
In 2014, the board approved an investment guideline for climate change, with a specific focus on thermal coal.
Questions and Answers
Climate Change (Thermal Coal) Guideline
Climate Change (Thermal Coal) Guideline
Wespath’s research has shown that developed nations are shifting away from electricity generated from coal (known as “thermal coal”) to other fuel sources. Thermal coal is the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel and—absent the development of technologies to mitigate coal’s environmental impact—we believe that in many markets in response to the need to address climate change, coal will be heavily taxed or significantly replaced by alternative fuel sources. This would result in a meaningful deterioration in the value of securities in companies that derive a significant portion of their revenues from the production and consumption of thermal coal.
The Climate Change guideline focuses on companies with the highest exposure to thermal coal—through “pure play” extraction and mining activities. In developed markets, companies receiving 50% or more of their revenues from thermal coal will be excluded from investment. In developing markets, companies receiving 50% or more of their revenues from thermal coal and in the bottom half of their peer group on ESG performance will be excluded from investment. As mined thermal coal predominantly supplies the electric utility industry in developed markets, the guideline also applies to this industry and focuses on companies with the highest supply chain risk, as defined by their reliance on coal (more than 75%) for their fuel mix.
In developed countries, the guideline protects Wespath’s funds from the current financial challenges associated with thermal coal production while supporting opportunities for the transition to a lower-carbon economy. In developing countries, the guideline recognizes that thermal coal continues to offer access to energy that is critical to economic development.
Wespath continues to believe that constructive engagement is the most powerful tool for effecting corporate change and supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy. Engagement may therefore be employed for companies in the mining and electric utility sectors that are close to the threshold for exclusion. In these cases, Wespath will review the company’s historic and projected involvement in the coal industry before recommending engagement or exclusion.
Complete text of the Climate Change (thermal coal) guideline is provided below:
The management of the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits/Wespath Investment Management division will evaluate the environmental impacts of the companies in which we invest and will use engagement to improve corporate environmental and financial performance. In addition, to manage excessive sustainability risk, management may choose to exclude from investment:
1. In developed countries
a) Any company deriving approximately 50% of revenues from the extraction and/or mining of thermal coal
b) Electric utilities deriving 75% or more of their overall fuel mix from coal, unless a company has demonstrated its intent to transition from coal by sourcing 10% or more of its energy from renewable sources
2. In developing countries (except those eligible for assistance through the World Bank’s International Development Association Program*) any company deriving approximately 50% of revenues from the extraction and/or mining of thermal coal. Exceptions may be granted if the company’s overall ESG performance rank or rating by the General Board/Wespath’s ESG service provider is within the top half of its peer group.
* Countries eligible for assistance through the World Bank’s International Development Association Program—many of the world’s poorest—are exempt.
The Climate Change (thermal goal) guideline, which responds to both fiduciary and environmental concerns, is in alignment with the many United Methodist Church statements on environmental protection. The Social Principles “strongly advocate for the priority of the development of renewable energies,” (¶160B) and Resolution 1002, US Energy Policy and United Methodist Responsibility, declares, “the United States must move beyond its dependence on high carbon fossil fuels that produce emissions leading to climate change…”
Pastor seeks stronger link between Native Americans, church
LANCASTER, Pa. (UMNS) — Does Christianity end at the church door? Is it a religion in which people of different backgrounds come together to pray, but separate as they leave? That has long been what Native Americans have found it to be, said the Rev. Calvin Hill. A full-blooded Navajo and United Methodist minister in Montana, he and countless other Native Americans were taught to be good Christians while in church, but were left at the curb by society and the church once the religious services ended. Earle Cornelius reports for Lancaster Online.
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Native American minister seeks support for Blackfeet Nation plan
Story
Kirk Neidermyer
Reverend Calvin Hill at Hosanna HosannaChristian Fellowship in Lititz.
By EARLE CORNELIUS | Staff Writer
Does Christianity end at the church door? Is it a religion in which people of different backgrounds come together to pray, but separate as they leave?That has long been what Native Americans have found it to be, said the Rev. Calvin Hill.
He should know. A full-blooded Navajo and Methodist minister, he and countless other Native Americans were taught to be good Christians while in church, but were left at the curb by society and the church once the religious services ended.
“What has not happened,” Hill said Wednesday prior to addressing an audience at Hosanna Christian Fellowship in Lititz, “is that none of the missionaries, none of the churches, have done an effective discipleship. No one has equipped us Native Americans to live outside the church.
“How do I become a believer in Christ, a believer in God … and prosper?” he asked.
Hill pastors in Browning, Montana, in one of three churches that make up the Blackfeet United Methodist Parish. He is the first Native American to assume that role. The 3,000-square-mile reservation sits at the foot of Glacier National Park — a national landmark that once was owned by the Blackfeet Nation. Like many tribal reservations, it is impoverished.
When Hill met with tribal leaders before taking over as pastor, he presented his personal mission statement, which was to develop a Christ-centered community that would create disciples to serve all people.
That involves more than just preaching. He needed a hook to bring reservation residents back to the church. A parish leader suggested leasing part of the 340 acres of church land to nearby cattle ranchers as a way to generate revenue for the church. Hill saw that as a way to establish a relationship with ranchers and reservation residents who would be involved.
He took that plan and built upon it, suggesting that the church plant alfalfa to sell. That would provide employment and teach community members farming and marketing skills. All of which leads to his most ambitious plan — building an indoor arena for equine training. The program, he said would offer certificate courses for those who train horses to become veterinary assistants, and for those involved in the construction of the building to learn a trade.
Though the project sounds modest, it represents a huge obstacle for the church. That is why Hill came to Lancaster. He is looking for help — not just monetarily, but through prayer and messages of hope via social media. (“Facebook,” he joked, “is our new smoke signal.”)
Hill’s visit to Lancaster County was arranged by Mike Shifflet, a member of Oregon United Methodist Church. Shifflet was part of a mission team that went to Blackfeet United Methodist Parish in Montana where Hill preaches.
Their work consisted of helping renovate the Heart Butte United Methodist Church and inviting community members to come to church.
Sharon Wilson, an English and creative writing teacher at Warwick High School, has led two previous mission trips to the Blackfeet Nation. She went there the first time out of curiosity. She returned because of their nature.
“I like their gentleness. I like their grace and their story telling. I like that part of their culture,” she said.
At Wednesday evening’s service, Hill asked Wilson to light sage in a bowl. In the Native American culture, he said, sage is burned in a vessel to create relationships and to reconcile differences.
Native Americans, he said, know about Jesus Christ. Their problem is not with Christianity, he said, it’s with a Christian culture that has tried to convert them while committing genocide against native peoples.
That is why the sage was lit and passed among the audience members Wednesday evening. The time, he said, has come for churches to build a meaningful relationship with Native Americans.
Leaving a preaching legacy at Candler
ATLANTA (UMNS) — As a passionate Atlanta Braves fan, the Rev. Thomas G. Long probably wouldn’t object to his career being described as a “grand slam.” The widely respected preacher, professor, author and mentor retires this spring as the Bandy Professor of Preaching at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. But he’s not quite finished there. Valerie Loner has the story for Candler, one of 13 United Methodist seminaries.
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By Valerie Loner 10T
Media Contact: Laurel Hanna
If you had to describe Thomas G. Long’s career in two words, “grand slam” would be a good choice.
The baseball metaphor is appropriate for the Atlanta native and passionate Braves fan, who also happens to be a widely respected preacher, professor, author and mentor. Long, named in 1996 as “one of the 12 most effective preachers in the English-speaking world,” arrived at Candler in 2000 in the midst of a distinguished career in academia, religious publishing, and the local church. He retires as Candler’s Bandy Professor of Preaching this spring.
During his fifteen years at Candler, Long has been popular with students and colleagues alike. In addition to university-wide honors such as the 2011 Emory Williams Teaching Award and the 2015 Scholar/Teacher Award, Long recently received the “On Eagle’s Wings” Excellence in Teaching Award, which is presented by Candler’s senior class in recognition of faithful and dedicated service. In the words of one student nominator, Long "does more than simply teach students; he prepares them for growth in ministry with helpful, critical feedback, and a spirit of encouragement, which creates stronger preachers and leaders."The award is particularly meaningful for Long, as it speaks to what he calls the “heart” of his primary vocation.
“I was really honored,” he says. “The student is the whole object for a teacher. A teacher who doesn't keep the students in view is missing the objective.”
Long’s former students also laud his encouraging spirit and ability to coach developing preachers.
Daniel Ogle 08T, now an ordained United Methodist pastor serving in Tennessee, recalls that Long unfailingly found something good in every student sermon and worked to help each student improve.
“He is really an encourager of young pastors and young preachers,” notes Ogle, who also served as Long’s teaching assistant during his student days. “He has this unique gift and calling to help people see the gifts that God has given them for ministry even if they can't see it in themselves."
Ogle remembers well his mindset when he started classes at Candler.
“If there was one thing I knew, it was that I wasn't going to be preaching in the local church every week,” he says. “But I remember constantly being affirmed in his class. I was told that I could do it and bless people through preaching, which was the last thing I thought I would do. I think there are hundreds of stories like that.”
Ogle is right in saying that many students enter Introduction to Preaching with deep apprehension about preaching. While some students arrive with a strong call to preach, others aren’t as certain. "Some of them are quite tentative about a call to ministry, and are there in an exploratory mode," Long explains. To assist students who are discerning their callings, Long emphasizes the theological focus of preaching.
It’s one of the ways in which the professor and preacher also serves as coach and talent scout, always looking to help the next generation of leaders develop its gifts. Some students will become church leaders, while others will use their gifts in chaplaincy roles, in non-profits and in community development.
And some, like Kimberly Wagner 09T, may become professors themselves. Wagner, who is working on her PhD in homiletics at Emory’s Graduate Division of Religion, will be Long’s last doctoral advisee. She feels the weight of that, but in a good way.
"I feel very blessed and very lucky," says Wagner, who is an ordained Presbyterian minister and served a church in Virginia prior to starting the PhD program.
Part of the blessing, she says, is that Long gently but steadily encouraged her for years to pursue her PhD. When she was an MDiv student, Long asked Wagner if she had considered doctoral work. She laughed, but the talent scout didn’t give up. He continued to encourage her to pursue teaching. Even after she earned her MDiv and left Candler, Long kept in touch with Wagner, calling her every few months during her pastoral ministry. He’d ask about her ministry and encourage her about doctoral work.
Wagner, who had been a middle and high school science teacher before coming to Candler, initially thought teaching was the last thing she wanted, but Long’s instincts were right on the mark.
"In his always quiet, steady way, he just kept approaching me," she recalls. “He said, ‘Have you thought about teaching? Have you thought about preaching?’"
During her third year as an MDiv student, Wagner served as Long’s research assistant on Accompany Them with Singing, one of Long’s many books that garnered praise in both the church and the academy. Today Wagner serves as Long’s teaching assistant, and she’s had the opportunity to learn from the way he interacts with his students.
What amazes her is Long’s generosity with his time. Because of his stature in the church and academy, he receives numerous requests to preach, teach, review books, critique articles, and the list goes on. In spite of all these demands, Long continues to unselfishly spend time with students in meaningful ways.
Some of the resulting stories are funny, like the time Ogle met Long at Turner Field to take in a Braves game. Ogle carried with him an image of Tom Long the distinguished preacher regally watching a baseball game. He could only laugh when Long showed up to the game casually carrying a bucket of Church’s fried chicken.
Other stories are touching. Wagner witnessed Long’s generosity firsthand when he preached her ordination service in Virginia several years ago. His mother had died days earlier, but he didn’t tell Wagner. He simply arrived for the dinner party the evening before, preached the service the next day and skipped the luncheon following so that he could return home for the visitation.
"That's the kind of commitment he has to his students and those he takes under his mentorship and his wing," Wagner explains.
Long garners similar respect among his faculty colleagues as well.
Ted A. Smith, associate professor of preaching and ethics, joined Candler’s faculty in 2012, but he’s known Long for decades, starting when he was an undergraduate. He later took two of Long’s courses at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Even though Smith had significant preaching experience prior to seminary, his first course under Long changed the way he preached. “My whole preaching style, which I still carry with me, came out of that class,” he says.
Smith later served as Long’s teaching assistant, and today calls him a colleague and friend.
“I think that's pretty rare in the academy,” Smith notes. “The real mark of friendship is steadiness over time. I see that in Tom’s friendships.”
Smith also appreciates Long’s gift for writing and his prolific body of work, which includes 21 books and scores of articles in both professional journals and popular periodicals.
“Tom’s ability to combine writing for the academy and writing for a broader public is truly remarkable,” Smith says. “The thinking is original and insightful, and it's informed by a huge body of research.”
Smith isn’t alone in praising Long’s work. Long’s 1989 book The Witness of Preaching—now in its second edition—is one of the most widely used texts on preaching, appearing on class reading lists in seminaries throughout the world. In 2010, Preaching magazine named The Witness of Preaching one of the 25 most influential books on preaching from the last 25 years. The Academy of Parish Clergy named his Preaching from Memory to Hope as one of the “top ten books for parish ministry published in 2009” and What Shall We Say? Evil, Suffering, and the Crisis of Faith as the 2011 Book of the Year.
Yet Long is as quick to offer praise as he is to receive it, especially where Candler is concerned.
"Candler is the best place I know that blends not just academy and church, but a love for scholarship with kindness and compassion,” Long says. “Candler is a deeply compassionate and kind place, faculty to faculty and in the entire community."
Long laughs as he recalls his first day at Candler and launches into a delightful story, a gift that has served him well in both preaching and teaching. He admits he was already nervous because he was filling the position first held by legendary preacher and teacher Fred Craddock. Then he was shown to his office in Cannon Chapel. The most recent inhabitant of the office had been Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was a visiting professor the previous year.
“I turned to Steve Kraftchick, who was then the academic dean, and said: ‘Is it not enough that I have to follow Fred Craddock? You’re giving me Bishop Tutu’s office?’”
Smith notes that Long’s retirement will leave a tremendous gap in the academy, both as a scholar and teacher of seminary and doctoral students, adding that Long trained a large percentage of the current crop of homiletics scholars.
“He's been at the top of his field for 20 or more years,” Smith says. “That’s very rare.” But Smith knows that Long’s work isn’t finished. “I'm not ready to talk about the field without him yet.”
And that’s good, because Long isn’t finished yet. Even though he is officially retiring, it would be incorrect to say that he is giving up work or even working at Candler. For the next five years, Long will direct a new Candler initiative aimed at helping recent alumni become leaders in their communities. The program, which is made possible by a grant from the Lilly Endowment, will offer two cohorts of alumni a two-year program of leadership education and pastoral formation incorporating important community issues like transportation, immigration and education. The goal is to prepare adaptive leaders who are able to exercise theological discernment and articulation regarding public issues.
In addition, he has a full slate of dates to preach and teach, including a gig as a visiting professor at Yale University in the spring of 2016.
Somewhere in all of that, Long hopes to spend more time with his wife at their home on the Chesapeake Bay, where he enjoys sailing. He also wants to see more of his grandchildren, who range in age from seven months to a sophomore in college.
And, of course, there will be lots of Braves baseball. Some things don’t change.
Bias joins Foundation for Evangelism trustees
LAKE JUNALUSAKA, N.C. (UMNS) — The Rev. Tim Bias, top executive of United Methodist Discipleship Ministries, is a new trustee for The Foundation for Evangelism.
Read press release
Dr. Tim Bias, General Secretary of Discipleship Ministries of The United Methodist Church (formerly the General Board of Discipleship), was welcomed as a trustee by The Foundation for Evangelism on April 23, 2015. A local church pastor for 36 years, Dr. Bias served as senior pastor of Hyde Park Community United Methodist Church (Cincinnati, Ohio) and has served the denomination in three Annual Conferences.
In his introduction to the board, Dr. Larry Klemann, Board Chair, stated, “I am thrilled to welcome Rev. Dr. Tim Bias as an Ex. Officio member of The Foundation for Evangelism’s Board of Trustees. Tim’s leadership on the General Board of Global Ministry, and most recently as Director of Discipleship Ministries brings valued perspective and experience to our work to raise up leaders with a passion for evangelism and disciple making for the United Methodist Church.”
Founded in 1949 by the late Dr. Harry Denman, the Foundation provides resources to enable The United Methodist Church to bring persons into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Grant focuses include E. Stanley Jones Professors of Evangelism, initiatives with young people, and excellence in local church evangelism.
Full Press Release from Foundation for Evangelism
Tim Bias Photo
Mothers are vital to food security in Congo
KAMINA, Congo (UMNS) — Working with the United Methodist Committee on Relief and Foods Resource Bank, about 500 people in the rural communities surrounding Kamina have been able to pull themselves out of malnutrition. Educating and training parents, especially mothers, has been a key strategy, writes Susan Kim for UMCOR.
Read story
Mothers Are Vital to DRC Food Security
New crops are growing — and so is a stronger sense of trust -- in the rural communities surrounding Kamina. Photo: Margot Bokanga.
Tnough food—and a sense of trust by Susan Kim*
May 14, 2015—In the rural communities surrounding Kamina, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), about 500 people have been able to pull themselves out of malnutrition by working with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) and Foods Resource Bank (FRB) to improve their access to nutritious food and a balanced diet.
Over the past few decades, the area has been stricken with many crises, including civil war that led to widespread displacement, coupled with a high rate of HIV infection and sexual violence. Once a commercial hub, Kamina was home to many businesses that were forced to close. As increasing numbers of people faced malnutrition, gaining access to the area was difficult.
The malnutrition rate in Kamina is as high as 37 percent, and another 35 percent of the people have contracted waterborne diseases.
UMCOR and FRB work with three clinics in Kamina that are providing food support. “We emphasize the use of Moringa, which is easily grown and can be used in various local dishes,” said Margot Bokanga, UMCOR program manager for the DRC and Zimbabwe. Soy is another crop being revitalized in the area.
Teaching parents—particularly mothers—as well as community health workers how to grow Moringa and soy helps promote food security into the future. “We also emphasize good use of clean water to minimize exposure to waterborne diseases,” said Bokanga.
No simple answer
UMCOR and FRB work within local communities using local staff, leading to a sense of lasting trust that develops as people get enough food to feed their families.
“There is never one simple answer to the many complexities that have led to the situation of people struggling to raise enough food to feed themselves and their families,” said Eric Mattson, an associate director of development for FRB.
“But, with strategies that have been developed with communities and local staff, you can most times see people in these programs achieving a lot of success,” he said.
In Kamina, the food security program is about more than just meals, Mattson added. “It is really neat to see people believing in themselves again enough to provide for themselves, as well as learning to trust their neighbors enough to begin becoming a healthy communityagain,” he said.
Your gift to Democratic Republic of the Congo, Advance #198400, supports the work of UMCOR’s country office in DRC and projects like this one.
*Susan Kim is a journalist and a regular contributor to www.umcor.org.
Machel joins call for accountability of U.N. peacekeepersNEW YORK (UMNS) — Graça Machel, a United Methodist from Mozambique and the widow of Nelson Mandela, was among those joining AIDS-Free World, an international advocacy organization, May 13 to launch Code Blue, a U.N. peacekeepers campaign to end immunity for sexual exploitation and abuse.
Read press release
Press Release: Experts launch 'Code Blue,' demand end to UN immunity for peacekeeper sex abuse
Contact:
Coimbra Sirica: +1 301-943-3287, csirica@burness.com
Wanda Bautista: +1 301-280-5760, wbautista@burness.com
Gill Mathurin: + 1 646-924-1710, gm@aidsfreeworld.org
Experts launch ‘Code Blue,’ demand end to UN immunity when peacekeepers commit sexual exploitation and abuse
— AIDS-Free World’s campaign calls for removal of immunity and Commission of Inquiry into UN’s handling of sexual violence in peacekeeping missions —
Download as a PDF
New York, May 13, 2015 — Speaking just steps from UN headquarters today, celebrated experts Ms. Graça Machel, Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire, Ms. Theo Sowa, and Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury joined international advocacy organization AIDS-Free World to launch Code Blue, a campaign to end immunity for sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers.
Recent revelations of child sexual abuse by French and other troops in the Central African Republic, the UN’s documentation of those crimes, and its failure over the next year to report the perpetrators or to protect the victims, are just the latest in a shameful litany of tolerance for sexual abuse and subsequent UN cover-ups.
For more than two decades, the media and non-governmental organizations have uncovered depraved acts by UN peacekeepers, including human trafficking in Bosnia, sex-for-food scandals in West Africa, and the rapes of women and children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. With each new exposé, the UN re-asserts its policy of ‘zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse.’
In practice, the UN’s zero tolerance policy amounts to zero justice for victims.
With Code Blue, AIDS-Free World is determined to change that. As a first crucial step, it will seek the removal of any possibility of immunity1 for the UN’s own personnel—the UN’s non-military staff, police, and experts on mission2 — when they are accused of sexual exploitation or abuse, sending a powerful message to countries that supply military peacekeepers. Code Blue will also call for the creation of an entirelyindependent, external Commission of Inquiry to examine every facet of sexual exploitation and abuse in peacekeeping operations, and to investigate the way the UN system is handling the problem: from its missions on the ground, right up through the chain of command to the Secretary-General.
“UN immunity is a protective cloak that allows peacekeepers to commit atrocities knowing how unlikely it is that they will ever be stopped, investigated or punished for their crimes,” said Paula Donovan, co-director of AIDS-Free World. “The presumption that UN peacekeeping personnel may be immune from legal process triggers a chain reaction that most often ends in gross miscarriages of justice. Instead of prompting immediate action, reports of abuse are caught up in a tangle of red tape while the Secretary-General decides whether to waive immunity. Meanwhile, suspects and their accomplices have time to destroy evidence, silence witnesses, and threaten or pay off victims or their families, making justice virtually unattainable.”
The scale of sex abuse among UN peacekeepers, both military and non-military, is shocking, and the United Nations is well aware that it does not know the true extent of its own problem. In a suppressed 2013 report3commissioned by Ban Ki-moon, an Expert Team found that “the official numbers mask what appears to be significant amounts of underreporting,” and that “UN personnel in all the missions we visited could point to numerous suspected or quite visible cases of [sexual exploitation and abuse] that are not being counted or investigated.”
Among incidents that are recorded, an appalling number of UN peacekeeper sexual exploitation and abuse allegations are marked “unsubstantiated,” and cases are closed by the UN because any evidence that might have led to a conviction has disappeared. Sexual abusers among the UN’s staff, experts, and police remain within the system, undetected, unpunished, and eligible for posting to the next peacekeeping mission.
“When I released [the landmark UN study] The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children in 1996, we highlighted the rise of child sex abuse associated with UN peacekeeping operations,” said Graça Machel. “At the time, we found that the investigation and punishment of peacekeepers for sexual exploitation and abuse was the exception rather than the rule. Nearly two decades later, virtually nothing has changed. Nearly two decades later, vulnerable women and children remain at unacceptable risk. Today a new chapter begins."
—30—
AIDS-Free World is an international advocacy organization that exposes injustice, abuse and inequality, the social ills that underpin and continue to sustain HIV. We apply high-level advocacy, targeted legal strategies and creative communication to work for a more just world. www.aidsfreeworld.org
[1] For more on UN immunity and how it applies, please read the fact sheet on AIDS-Free World’s Code Blue Campaign website atwww.codebluecampaign.com.
[2] The term ‘peacekeepers’ applies not only to soldiers, but also to the thousands of UN police, officials, and experts who staff peacekeeping missions around the world. For more information on UN peacekeepers and sexual exploitation and abuse, please see the fact sheet on the Code Blue website: www.codebluecampaign.com.[3] Final report. Expert Mission to Evaluate Risks to SEA Prevention Efforts in MINUSTAH, UNMIL, MONUSCO, AND UNMISS [Expert Team’s Report]. http://aidsfreeworld.org/Newsroom/Press-Releases/2015/Open-Letter-to-UN-Missions.aspx
Coming next week: The struggle to recover from EbolaThe United Methodist Church in West Africa has been on the frontlines of the fight against Ebola since the outbreak began in May 2014. As the deadly virus shows signs of retreating, United Methodist News Service visited Sierra Leone to chronicle the many challenges that lie ahead for the church and the country in overcoming the devastation of the outbreak. Jan Snider’s four-part special report begins May 18 with stories and video.
Tnough food—and a sense of trust by Susan Kim*
May 14, 2015—In the rural communities surrounding Kamina, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), about 500 people have been able to pull themselves out of malnutrition by working with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) and Foods Resource Bank (FRB) to improve their access to nutritious food and a balanced diet.
Over the past few decades, the area has been stricken with many crises, including civil war that led to widespread displacement, coupled with a high rate of HIV infection and sexual violence. Once a commercial hub, Kamina was home to many businesses that were forced to close. As increasing numbers of people faced malnutrition, gaining access to the area was difficult.
The malnutrition rate in Kamina is as high as 37 percent, and another 35 percent of the people have contracted waterborne diseases.
UMCOR and FRB work with three clinics in Kamina that are providing food support. “We emphasize the use of Moringa, which is easily grown and can be used in various local dishes,” said Margot Bokanga, UMCOR program manager for the DRC and Zimbabwe. Soy is another crop being revitalized in the area.
Teaching parents—particularly mothers—as well as community health workers how to grow Moringa and soy helps promote food security into the future. “We also emphasize good use of clean water to minimize exposure to waterborne diseases,” said Bokanga.
No simple answer
UMCOR and FRB work within local communities using local staff, leading to a sense of lasting trust that develops as people get enough food to feed their families.
“There is never one simple answer to the many complexities that have led to the situation of people struggling to raise enough food to feed themselves and their families,” said Eric Mattson, an associate director of development for FRB.
“But, with strategies that have been developed with communities and local staff, you can most times see people in these programs achieving a lot of success,” he said.
In Kamina, the food security program is about more than just meals, Mattson added. “It is really neat to see people believing in themselves again enough to provide for themselves, as well as learning to trust their neighbors enough to begin becoming a healthy communityagain,” he said.
Your gift to Democratic Republic of the Congo, Advance #198400, supports the work of UMCOR’s country office in DRC and projects like this one.
*Susan Kim is a journalist and a regular contributor to www.umcor.org.
Machel joins call for accountability of U.N. peacekeepersNEW YORK (UMNS) — Graça Machel, a United Methodist from Mozambique and the widow of Nelson Mandela, was among those joining AIDS-Free World, an international advocacy organization, May 13 to launch Code Blue, a U.N. peacekeepers campaign to end immunity for sexual exploitation and abuse.
Read press release
Press Release: Experts launch 'Code Blue,' demand end to UN immunity for peacekeeper sex abuse
Contact:
Coimbra Sirica: +1 301-943-3287, csirica@burness.com
Wanda Bautista: +1 301-280-5760, wbautista@burness.com
Gill Mathurin: + 1 646-924-1710, gm@aidsfreeworld.org
Experts launch ‘Code Blue,’ demand end to UN immunity when peacekeepers commit sexual exploitation and abuse
— AIDS-Free World’s campaign calls for removal of immunity and Commission of Inquiry into UN’s handling of sexual violence in peacekeeping missions —
Download as a PDF
New York, May 13, 2015 — Speaking just steps from UN headquarters today, celebrated experts Ms. Graça Machel, Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire, Ms. Theo Sowa, and Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury joined international advocacy organization AIDS-Free World to launch Code Blue, a campaign to end immunity for sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers.
Recent revelations of child sexual abuse by French and other troops in the Central African Republic, the UN’s documentation of those crimes, and its failure over the next year to report the perpetrators or to protect the victims, are just the latest in a shameful litany of tolerance for sexual abuse and subsequent UN cover-ups.
For more than two decades, the media and non-governmental organizations have uncovered depraved acts by UN peacekeepers, including human trafficking in Bosnia, sex-for-food scandals in West Africa, and the rapes of women and children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. With each new exposé, the UN re-asserts its policy of ‘zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse.’
In practice, the UN’s zero tolerance policy amounts to zero justice for victims.
With Code Blue, AIDS-Free World is determined to change that. As a first crucial step, it will seek the removal of any possibility of immunity1 for the UN’s own personnel—the UN’s non-military staff, police, and experts on mission2 — when they are accused of sexual exploitation or abuse, sending a powerful message to countries that supply military peacekeepers. Code Blue will also call for the creation of an entirelyindependent, external Commission of Inquiry to examine every facet of sexual exploitation and abuse in peacekeeping operations, and to investigate the way the UN system is handling the problem: from its missions on the ground, right up through the chain of command to the Secretary-General.
“UN immunity is a protective cloak that allows peacekeepers to commit atrocities knowing how unlikely it is that they will ever be stopped, investigated or punished for their crimes,” said Paula Donovan, co-director of AIDS-Free World. “The presumption that UN peacekeeping personnel may be immune from legal process triggers a chain reaction that most often ends in gross miscarriages of justice. Instead of prompting immediate action, reports of abuse are caught up in a tangle of red tape while the Secretary-General decides whether to waive immunity. Meanwhile, suspects and their accomplices have time to destroy evidence, silence witnesses, and threaten or pay off victims or their families, making justice virtually unattainable.”
The scale of sex abuse among UN peacekeepers, both military and non-military, is shocking, and the United Nations is well aware that it does not know the true extent of its own problem. In a suppressed 2013 report3commissioned by Ban Ki-moon, an Expert Team found that “the official numbers mask what appears to be significant amounts of underreporting,” and that “UN personnel in all the missions we visited could point to numerous suspected or quite visible cases of [sexual exploitation and abuse] that are not being counted or investigated.”
Among incidents that are recorded, an appalling number of UN peacekeeper sexual exploitation and abuse allegations are marked “unsubstantiated,” and cases are closed by the UN because any evidence that might have led to a conviction has disappeared. Sexual abusers among the UN’s staff, experts, and police remain within the system, undetected, unpunished, and eligible for posting to the next peacekeeping mission.
“When I released [the landmark UN study] The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children in 1996, we highlighted the rise of child sex abuse associated with UN peacekeeping operations,” said Graça Machel. “At the time, we found that the investigation and punishment of peacekeepers for sexual exploitation and abuse was the exception rather than the rule. Nearly two decades later, virtually nothing has changed. Nearly two decades later, vulnerable women and children remain at unacceptable risk. Today a new chapter begins."
—30—
AIDS-Free World is an international advocacy organization that exposes injustice, abuse and inequality, the social ills that underpin and continue to sustain HIV. We apply high-level advocacy, targeted legal strategies and creative communication to work for a more just world. www.aidsfreeworld.org
[1] For more on UN immunity and how it applies, please read the fact sheet on AIDS-Free World’s Code Blue Campaign website atwww.codebluecampaign.com.
[2] The term ‘peacekeepers’ applies not only to soldiers, but also to the thousands of UN police, officials, and experts who staff peacekeeping missions around the world. For more information on UN peacekeepers and sexual exploitation and abuse, please see the fact sheet on the Code Blue website: www.codebluecampaign.com.[3] Final report. Expert Mission to Evaluate Risks to SEA Prevention Efforts in MINUSTAH, UNMIL, MONUSCO, AND UNMISS [Expert Team’s Report]. http://aidsfreeworld.org/Newsroom/Press-Releases/2015/Open-Letter-to-UN-Missions.aspx
Coming next week: The struggle to recover from EbolaThe United Methodist Church in West Africa has been on the frontlines of the fight against Ebola since the outbreak began in May 2014. As the deadly virus shows signs of retreating, United Methodist News Service visited Sierra Leone to chronicle the many challenges that lie ahead for the church and the country in overcoming the devastation of the outbreak. Jan Snider’s four-part special report begins May 18 with stories and video.
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Phone: 615.742.5400
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