NOTE: This is a digest of news features provided by United Methodist Communications for Nov. 17-21. 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
Church mourns Ebola death of Sierra Leone surgeonNASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) By Kathy L. Gilbert
Mike DuBose, United Methodist News ServiceDr. Martin Salia is shown at United Methodist Kissy Hospital outside Freetown, Sierra Leone, in April, 2014.
The Sierra Leone United Methodist Conference is in shock over the death of Dr. Martin Salia from Ebola. Salia, who was the chief medical officer and only surgeon at United Methodist Kissy Hospital, died after he was airlifted to the United States for treatment.
“We are trying to come to terms with the reality of his death,” said Bishop John K. Yambasu. “We never thought we would be losing one of our head doctors to Ebola.”
“He was everything to us,” Yambasu said, adding Salia was one of only a very few surgeons in the country.
Nicole Hornbaker (left) and Megan Griffiths attend a prayer service for Dr. Martin Salia at Hanscom Park United Methodist Church in Omaha, Neb., Nov. 16. Salia, chief medical officer and surgeon at United Methodist Kissy Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone, died at Nebraska Medical Center Nov. 17 from Ebola. Photos by Kent Taylor, UMNS.The bishop reported that everyone in the United Methodist office in Sierra Leone was crying and reeling from the sad news.
The conference office closed on Nov. 17 as soon as they got word that Salia had died around 4 a.m. CT at Nebraska Medical Center, where he had been taken on Saturday, Nov. 14. The office will remain closed Nov. 18, for a day of mourning, with a memorial service planned for Salia the following day.
“Scripture abounds in calling us to give thanksgiving in all situations, but sometimes it is hard,” Yambasu said. “We are all in prayer for his wife and children.”
Kissy was shut down Nov. 11 as soon as staff received word Salia had tested positive for Ebola. The doctor quarantined himself as soon as he started feeling ill, which was around Nov. 4.
Kissy is not an Ebola center and Salia was not treating anyone with Ebola at Kissy, Yambasu said.
However, Salia did work at other hospitals because he was in such demand as a surgeon. “He did not knowingly treat any Ebola patients,” Yambasu said, however he added, many people who come into the hospitals think they have malaria or other common diseases and are not aware they are Ebola positive.
Kissy Hospital’s staff of approximately 91 people are home under quarantine for the next 21 days. Three people who did have contact with Salia after he got sick but before he tested positive for Ebola are under quarantine at Kissy. None of the three are sick.
The Ministry of Health has started the first of five rounds of decontamination at the hospital.
The Rev. Dan Flanagan (standing) helps lead a prayer service for Dr. Martin Salia at Hanscom Park United Methodist Church in Omaha, Neb., Nov. 16. Salia, chief medical officer and surgeon at United Methodist Kissy Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone, died at Nebraska Medical Center Nov. 17 from Ebola. Seated is the Rev. Portia Cavitt. Doctor never recovered
Nebraska Medical Center is one of four centers in the United States designated to treat Ebola patients. Two Americans, Dr. Rick Sacra and Ashoka Mukpo, a freelance cameraman who worked for NBC, were treated there and released last month.
The private plane carrying Salia arrived at Omaha’s Eppley Airfield at 2:44 p.m. local time (3:44 p.m. ET) Saturday. As snow fell, people dressed in bright yellow protective clothing loaded Salia onto an isolation pad and then into the back of an ambulance.
The medical crew transporting Salia, 44, had determined that his condition was stable enough for him to make the lengthy flight to Omaha, but he was very ill.
In announcing Salia’s death, Dr. Phil Smith, medical director of the biocontainment unit at Nebraska Medical Center said, “It is with extremely heavy heart that we share this news. Dr. Salia was extremely critical when he arrived here, and unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we weren’t able to save him.”
Doctors said Salia was suffering from kidney and respiratory failure when he arrived and was placed on dialysis, a ventilator and multiple medications including a dose of ZMapp. He also received a plasma transfusion from a patient who had recovered from Ebola.
During a Nov. 17 press conference, Dr. Daniel Johnson, division chief for critical care anesthesiology, said he was proud of the team’s work. “We really, really gave it everything we could,” he said.
Doctors in Nebraska could not say how Salia contracted the disease, but Smith noted the first Ebola test, performed Nov.7, was negative, which is not uncommon. A Nov. 10 test confirmed Salia had Ebola and he arrived in the U.S. on Day 13 of his illness.
Because an Ebola patient’s body remains contagious, public health mandates cremation. As a precaution, hospital staff who treated Salia will follow self-monitoring protocols for possible symptoms of infection.
Rosanna Morris, chief nursing officer, called it “an absolute honor to care for Dr. Salia” and praised his wife, who was at the medical center when he died. “She is an incredibly strong, stoic, brave individual who really taught us a lot about someone going through these circumstances,” she said.
Morris also praised the medical center staff. “I want to thank our local heroes who took care of a global hero these past few days,” she said.
‘Grateful for efforts’
In a statement released by the medical center, Isatu Salia expressed thanks for her husband’s care. “We’re very grateful for the efforts of the team led by Dr. Smith,” she said.
“In the short time we spent here, it was apparent how caring and compassionate everyone was. We are so appreciative of the opportunity for my husband to be treated here and believe he was in the best place possible.”
United Methodist Bishop Scott Jones, episcopal leader for the Great Plains Conference, which includes Kansas East, Kansas West and Nebraska, invited Mrs. Salia to attend a special prayer service Sunday, Nov. 16, at Hanscom Park United Methodist Church in Omaha, Nebraska.
"I prayed with her and assured her that the United Methodist people of Nebraska and Kansas will be keeping her and her husband in our prayers," he said.
After getting word of Salia’s death, Jones said everyone in the Great Plains Conference was mourning the news.
“We are grateful to God for his sacrificial service in caring for the people of Sierra Leone,” Jones said. “The United Methodist Church continues its commitment to helping to eradicate the global Ebola epidemic and we pray for all of the victims and those fighting this disease.”
Jones said the conference would continue to seek funds to help Salia’s family pay medical and transportation expenses. The State Department reported Mrs. Salia, who is a U.S. citizen and a resident of Maryland, requested the evacuation. Her husband was a lawful permanent resident of the U.S.
Bishop Marcus Matthews, Baltimore-Washington Conference,said his conference is joining the Great Plains Conference in supporting the Salia family with donations.
People gather to pray for Dr. Martin Salia at Hanscom Park United Methodist Church in Omaha, Neb., Nov. 16. Prayer service
More than 50 people prayed, lit candles and wrote notes of encouragement to Salia during the prayer vigil at Hanscom Park Church, located just blocks from the medical center.
Missouri River District Superintendent Dan Flanagan urged United Methodists to help the Salia family by donating to fund set up to help them deal with the $200,000 cost of transport to the United States.
He also hoped efforts to support Salia and his family would encourage United Methodists to “be health advocates for all and respond more quickly to global health issues.”
Bishop Warner H. Brown Jr., president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, said the church is deeply saddened by the news of Salia’s passing, calling him “a dedicated Christian physician who was living out a calling to serve others.”
“We are inspired by his faith and by other health care workers like him around the world who provide medical care to those who might not otherwise have care, even at risk to themselves," Brown said.
‘Trained as a Christian surgeon’
In an interview with United Methodist Communications earlier this year, Salia talked about how important it was for him to work at a Christian hospital.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be rosy, but why did I decide to choose this job? I firmly believe God wanted me to do it. And I knew deep within myself. There was just something inside of me that the people of this part of Freetown needed help,” Salia said.
"I see it as God’s own desired framework for me. I took this job not because I want to, but I firmly believe that it was a calling and that God wanted me to. ... And I’m pretty sure, I’m confident that I just need to lean on him, trust him, for whatever comes in, because he sent me here. And that’s my passion,” Salia said.
Kissy serves one of the poorest neighborhoods in Freetown. The 60-bed United Methodist hospital is part of a larger community outreach that includes a school, an eye clinic, and a newly updated maternal and child health facility.
Salia said his philosophy was simple: “God will heal them. And money comes.
“I firmly believe God wanted me to do this job. It was a calling.”
Gilbert is a multimedia reporter for United Methodist News Service. Phileas Jusu, director of communications for The United Methodist Church in Sierra Leone, contributed to this story.
News media contact: Diane Degnan at (615) 483-1765 or DDegnan@umcom.org.
____________________________
Photo by Julu Swen, UMNSTwo young girls receive meals from a program started by a United Methodist pastor for children living in West Point, a slum in Monrovia.
United Methodist pastors feeding Ebola orphans
Share via EmailPrint by Julu Swen, MONROVIA, Liberia (UMNS)
The cases of Ebola infection seem to be decreasing in Liberia and while that is something to celebrate, many are still facing starvation — including Ebola orphans.
Two United Methodist pastors have started feeding programs to address the needs in two communities not receiving any government assistance.
Be sure to add the alt. text
The Rev. Agrippa Nyanti, pastor of Grace United Methodist Church, coordinates the Alpha Liberia program for hundreds of children in the slum community of West Point in Monrovia.
The program started as an initiative to feed children made orphans by the Ebola crisis, as well as quarantined families. It now provides food for more than 400 children whose parents cannot afford to feed them more than one decent meal a week, Nyanti said.
“Beside the children, the feeding initiative is catering to pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers in the entire West Point community,” Nyanti said.
The program is expected to phase out at the end of November, according to Jefferson Knight, coordinator of Alpha Liberia and director of the Liberia United Methodist Church’s human rights department.
Knight is also collaborating with the Rev. Cecilia Marpleh, superintendent for Voinjama District, in caring for more than 50 children in Gorlu Town, Lofa County, in northern Liberia. Thirteen of the orphans lost their parents to Ebola, Marpleh said.
“On several occasions I noticed these children walking around the community in tattered clothes with no attention given to them, so I decided to care for them,” Marpleh said. She also indicated that some of the children were abandoned by their parents due to the prevailing hardships in the country.
“At the moment, we are feeding them three times a day with funding assistance from the UMC Liberia Human Rights department while, the Gorlu Health Team is assisting us in caring for the children medically,” she said, stressing that much is needed to care for the children adequately.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Donate online to the United Methodist Women's efforts to fight Ebola.
The United Methodist Committee on Relief has to date sent $400,000 in grants to Sierra Leone and Liberia. Donate online.
Read full coverage of The United Methodist Church’s response to the Ebola outbreak at www.umc.org/ebola.
Donate online to United Methodist Communication’s efforts to help the denomination distribute information about the disease.
The United Nations World Food Programme is reporting emerging evidence of a shortage of food because local farmers could not work because of Ebola. Though the food program is providing food assistance in other communities in Liberia, the need to support initiatives such as the Alpha Liberia Feeding program in West Point and the Voinjama District Caring Home remain high in Liberia, Marpleh said.
Hopeful signs
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a United Methodist, has set a national goal for eliminating Ebola in Liberia by Christmas day. However, she did caution people not to relax precautionary measures to stop the spread of the deadly disease.
Declining numbers of Ebola cases have been reported across the county with the exception of a few spots in River Cess, Montserrado and Grand Cape, according to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. Person-to-person transmission had dropped from 45 percent to 18 percent, and the number of reported cases has fallen from 75 to 25 daily.
Another encouraging sign that life is returning to normal in Liberia is more people are getting married and having weddings, according to news reports.
FrontPageAfrica reported Dickson T. Gbarjolo and Quoisey B. Korzu were married on Nov. 15 with a reception at S. Trowen Nagbe United Methodist Church Edifice.
The groom said he could no longer wait for Ebola to go away, but with faith, he took the bold step.
“I chose to get married because I felt it is time,” he said. “Even though the epidemic exists, I felt I was above it because I am a child of God and I am a concern to God.”
Swen is the United Methodist Communicator for the Liberia Conference. Gilbert is a multimedia reporter for United Methodist News Service in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Kathy Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
____________________________
We must support Dr. Salia, Ebola caregivers in 21st Century Faith,Fascinating People,Global Citizenship,Global Health
Dr. Martin Salia, shown at the United Methodist Church's Kissy Hospital outside Freetown, Sierra Leone, in April, has tested positive for Ebola. Photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS.Dr. Martin Salia, shown at The United Methodist Church’s Kissy Hospital outside Freetown, Sierra Leone, in April, has tested positive for Ebola. Photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS.
In an interview with United Methodist Communications in April, Dr. Martin Salia explains why he works in Sierra Leone. He provides health care to all who come to the hospitals where he serves. “I took this job not because I want to but because it was a calling and that God wanted me to,” he said.
Like many health care workers across the African continent, Dr. Salia’s motivation is deeply religious.
Dr. Salia is a key figure at Kissy Hospital run by The United Methodist Church of Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone has three physicians for every 100,000 persons in the country. Kissy is one of the facilities that Dr. Salia has been serving.
The average income in Sierra Leone is $347 per year. According to the U.S. State Department, this translates to “over 72 percent of the population living on less than $1 a day, in extreme poverty.”
Kissy serves those who cannot afford to pay for medical care. It is one of the faith-based hospitals that provide 40 percent of the health care across Africa. In the course of my work in reporting on Africa, I’ve been in clinics and hospitals like Kissy. I’ve seen people pay for services with chickens, goats and mangoes.
The world owes a debt of gratitude, and more, to health care workers like Dr. Salia. We should do all in our power and our resources to assist them.
At great personal cost, Dr. Salia’s spouse has arranged for him to come to the U.S. for treatment for Ebola. A physician who has given so much of himself in treating others, Dr. Salia is now an Ebola patient himself. Kissy Hospital has been forced to close temporarily.
This complicates the challenge of controlling this virus. It also adds to the burden of untreated cases of malaria, diarrhea and other killer diseases of poverty.
Tragedy upon tragedy. And yet, heroic individuals like Dr. Salia put themselves in harm’s way to bring well-being to West Africa.
Dr. Salia is going to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha for treatment. I’ve had intimate experience with this medical center. It’s among the nation’s best. I think the state can take great pride in its personnel to care for Dr. Salia.
We know that with proper care, equipment and interventions, the survival rate for Ebola patients treated in the U.S. is favorable. It’s understandable that people fear Ebola, but we know that control of the virus is possible. And after missteps in Dallas, the health care community has shown it can self-correct. It has demonstrated a capacity to care for this disease responsibly.
If ever there were a time for welcoming and hospitality, it is now. And if ever there were a time for the world to contain its fears about Ebola and act responsibly toward those who are working under extraordinarily difficult conditions to contain this virus, this is it.
______________________
The Foundation for United Methodist Communications has established an emergency communications fund. With your help, we can provide communications support in the event of a crisis or disaster. Donate here.
______________________
The Great Plains Conference of The United Methodist Church has established a fund to receive gifts toward the cost of his transportation to Omaha and related medical costs not covered by other sources. Contributions can be made through any United Methodist church, or sent directly to: Great Plains Conference Office, 4201 SW 15th, PO Box 4187, Topeka, KS 66604. Please put “Dr. Salia Fund” on the memo line.
____________________________
New churches rise; overall vitality dipsMOUNT JULIET, Tenn. (UMNS) - Photo courtesy of Providence United Methodist Church.
New churches rise, but overall vitality dips by Heather Hahn, MOUNT JULIET, Tenn. (UMNS)
If you invite them, they will come.
Just ask the Rev. Jacob Armstrong, pastor of Providence United Methodist Church in this Nashville suburb. Six years ago, the church held its first service in a city park with about 140 people. About half were visitors who came to show the support of a nearby United Methodist congregation.
Today, Providence has a regular worship attendance of about 1,000 — enough to fill a drafty middle school gym for two services even on a cold, rainy Sunday morning. Many of those worshipers are new to church.
“I think it attests that people are looking to connect with Christ and connect with each other,” Armstrong said. “What we’ve learned from new people is that people come because someone invited them.”
The young congregation is so successful it is now helping to mentor other church planters, including a pastor who started a United Methodist congregation in a neighboring town last year.
Providence is a bright spot highlighted in the Congregational Vitality Report presented to the Council of Bishops earlier this month.
The news on the vitality front is decidedly mixed.
What the numbers show
The report showed U.S. church starts are on the rise — from 116 in 2012, to 145 last year.
FACTORS CALCULATED IN VITALITY
To be considered “highly vital,” a congregation must be in the top 25 percent of all U.S. congregations in two of the four major areas and cannot be in the bottom 25 percent in any one of the areas.
Growth
A) Five-year change in average worship attendance, divided by five-year average of worship attendance.
B) Five-year change in person received by profession of faith and faith restored, divided by five-year average professions and faith restored.
Involvement
A) Number of people (all ages) in small groups, Bible study and Sunday school as a percent of worship attendance.
B) Number of young adults in Christian formation activities as a percentage of worship attendance.
C) Average worship attendance as a percentage of professing membership.
Engagement in the Community
A) Number of people engaged in mission as a percent of worship attendance.
B) Number of professions of faith and faith restored (who are not confirmands) as a percent of worship attendance.
Giving
A) Apportionment percentage paid for most current year.
B) Five-year change in mission giving per attendee, divided by five-year average of mission giving per attendee.
C) Five-year change in giving (defined as total non-capital local church spending) per attendee, divided by five-year average of non-capital spending per attendee.
Source: General Council on Finance and Administration
Over the past two years, 688 new faith communities have started in the denomination’s central conferences — church regions in Africa, Asia and Europe. Faith communities include small worship groups that may never grow big enough to be considered churches.
The same period saw a drop in what the denomination defines as “highly vital congregations.” Such congregations in the U.S. dipped 7 percent from 34 percent in 2012 to 27 percent in 2013.
The denomination measures a congregation’s vitality by growth, member involvement in church, engagement in the community and giving.
The recent data follows another report earlier this year that showed in 2012 a surge in U.S. vital congregations as well as an increase in professions of faith.
“We’re in a time of transition and working on turning things around,” New Jersey Area Bishop John R. Schol, a leader of the denomination’s Vital Congregations Initiative, told United Methodist News Service. “Any time you’re in transition and turnaround, you’re going to see progress and you’re going to see unevenness in the progress.”
In 2013, six U.S. conferences increased in highly vital congregations, while 47 decreased. Ten conferences increased the percentage of congregations growing in worship attendance, while 42 conferences saw declines. Overall, U.S. churches saw a 2 percent reduction in worship attendance.
Worship attendance is growing in only about a third of U.S. churches.
Still, the denomination is ahead of where it was in 2010, when it began its current focus on vital congregations. That year, only about 14.8 percent of U.S. United Methodist churches were identified as highly vital.
“We saw good progress immediately after conferences and congregations set goals,” Schol said. But he added other factors could have contributed to last year’s decrease, including clergy retirements.
To reverse decades of declining U.S. membership, Schol and other denominational leaders say United Methodists will need to maintain focus on congregational vitality. Planting churches is part of that focus.
Indeed, Schol said, new congregations are often among the most vital. They have a sense of calling, know their communities’ needs and can prioritize reaching new people for Christ.
Also, they tend to be planted where the population is growing.
Being where the people are
Providence is in Mount Juliet, a growing Nashville suburb, with residents from around the world.
Be sure to add the alt. text
A card from Providence United Methodist Church in Mount Juliet, Tenn., proclaims “Growing” which is part of the reason that the church is considered a highly vital congregation. Photo by Ronny Perry, United Methodist CommunicationsIt began as a vision of a group of church leaders in the district who saw a need for a new United Methodist presence in the area. Armstrong, a Mount Juliet native, and his wife, Rachel, felt called to help start a new church.
“Studies show new people are drawn to new places,” Armstrong said. “If someone is moving from Indiana, that person is more likely to check us out than an older church because we’re new, they’re new. We’re all starting on the same foot.”
One of the biggest challenges the denomination has faced in recent decades is the result of Methodism’s early success. In the 19th century, the movement spread rapidly across the United States with new churches sprouting in just about every human settlement.
Today, about 60 percent of U.S. United Methodist churches are in rural communities. Problem is about 80 percent of the U.S. population now lives in urban areas.
While many rural churches are doing vital ministry, church leaders have long known growth comes where more people are.
How Path1 helps
For many decades in many conferences, planting churches was not a priority, said Fort Worth (Texas) Area Bishop J. Michael Lowry. Some conferences were planting two or three a decade rather two or three a year.
That began to change in 2008 with the founding of Path1 New Church Starts, part of the denomination’s Discipleship Ministries.
Path1 works with conferences to provide coaching, training and other resources for new church developers.
The Rev. Candace M. Lewis, Path1’s executive director, said her division helps “the denomination see the big picture” as it goes about starting new faith communities.
Lowry, who chairs Path1’s advisory board, said the group’s work has made the biggest difference in conferences too small to hire a full-time new church development staff person. It’s also helping the denomination stay focused on cultivating church planters.
For example, Path1 also helps fund residency programs where aspiring church planters work side-by-side with the leaders of large churches.
Providence is now part of that residency program.
“I believe healthy churches can plant healthy churches,” Armstrong said. “It’s in their DNA.”
Getting to 1,000
Between 2008 and 2012, United Methodists started 684 congregations in the United States, exceeding the denomination’s goal of 650. Most of those churches are going strong, Lewis said, but Path1 is still working on tracking closures of the new congregations.
By the end of 2016, the goal is to start 1,000 more.
Lewis acknowledged that looks daunting, but Path1 has plans to expand its efforts.
Leaders are using various strategies to start congregations. They can start as an additional campus of an existing congregation or receive support from a congregation or group of congregations, as Providence did. They can target a specific ethnic or language group or even be what the denomination calls a vital merger, when two or more churches consolidate into a new congregation. Often these vital mergers are finally free from costly, difficult-to-maintain buildings and better able to focus on ministries.
Lowry said starting churches requires more than “following the rooftops” to new leafy, affluent suburbs. United Methodists have started fruitful congregations in settings as varied as bars and prisons.
The denomination is still closing more churches than opening new ones. In 2013, 375 churches closed, according to United Methodist Council on Finance and Administration statistics.
Lowry envisions that trend changing in 20 or 30 years if the denomination keeps an emphasis on establishing new congregations.
“Can you imagine Paul (the Apostle) saying we have enough churches? He never would,” Lowry said. “There are always new groups of people to reach.”
Hahn is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
____________________________
Tax break for clergy housing allowance stands
CHICAGO (UMNS) - Photo courtesy of the General Council on Finance and Administration.
Steven Lambert, general counsel for The United Methodist Church’s General Council on Finance and Administration.Tax break for clergy housing allowance stands by Heather Hahn and Sam Hodges, (UMNS)
A new federal appeals court ruling means United Methodist clergy and clergy of other faiths in the United States can keep getting housing allowances tax free.
In a unanimous decision released Thursday, Nov. 13, three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit reversed a 2013 federal court ruling, which had found that the tax exemption amounted to an unconstitutional establishment of religion.
“The ruling by the 7th Circuit is a great relief for clergy who have benefitted from the housing exclusion,” said the Rev. Steve Zekoff, the United Methodist Wisconsin Conference’s benefits officer. The case started in Wisconsin.
Zekoff added, “Had the lower court ruling been upheld, the jump in income tax obligations at both the federal and state level would have created a significant financial burden for most of our clergy receiving a housing allowance.”
The appellate court panel said the plaintiff, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, did not have standing to sue in the case. The panel vacated the earlier ruling, which had been on hold as the appeal went forward, and ordered the lower court to dismiss the case.
However, the appeals court also noted that it did not tackle whether the housing allowance tax break passes constitutional muster.
That point was emphasized by Zekoff and by Steven Lambert, general counsel for The United Methodist Church’s General Council on Finance and Administration.
“The 7th Circuit opinion does not discuss the merits of the case and thus it does not provide insight regarding the ultimate result of these challenges to the clergy housing allowance exemption,” Lambert said. “However, the 7th Circuit’s decision does ensure that judicial treatment of the underlying issue will await another day.”
The stakes are large for denominations.
In 2013, 20,783 churches of The United Methodist Church, about 64 percent of the denomination's total number of churches in the United States, paid some amount of housing allowance to clergy, said Scott Brewer, GCFA's associate general secretary for connectional relations.
Religious tax exemptions
Religious groups have long provided homes, often called parsonages, for their ministers. Parsonages have been tax-free since the United States enacted federal income tax in 1913. This case did not deal with the tax exemptions for parsonages.
Congress, in 1954, extended the tax exemption to cash housing benefits for any “minister of the gospel.” But the exemption has long applied to clergy in varied faiths.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty filed an amicus brief in support of the housing allowance tax exemption on behalf of a group that included Hindu, Muslim and Christian organizations. The Becket Fund also represented Hobby Lobby in its successful case before the U.S. Supreme Court this year.
The housing allowance tax exemption serves three purposes, the Becket Fund said in a statement:
• it ensures that ministers are treated the same as similar nonreligious employees
• it reduces tax discrimination among ministers from wealthy and poor denominations
• it keeps the government from making intrusive judgments about how ministers use their homes.
GCFA joined numerous other religious groups in an amicus brief, which argued that the Supreme Court “has long distinguished between affirmative assistance to religious organizations and merely lifting government imposed- burdens so as to allow those organizations to exercise their religious mission more freely.”
The brief continued: “When Congress chooses not to impose a burden on religious organizations — whether by means of tax exemption or regulatory exemption — it honors, rather than transgresses, this Nation’s long tradition of separation between church and state. It does not establish religion to leave it alone.”
‘Suffered no injury’
The Freedom from Religion Foundation, a Madison, Wisconsin-based group that seeks to support “freethinkers,” provides its co-presidents with a housing allowance. But they never sought the tax break from the Internal Revenue Service.
Never having requested the exemption, “they have suffered no injury” and have no standing to sue, the appeals court panel said.
Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, the foundation’s co-presidents, released a statement disputing that they suffered no injury. “We will continue to challenge this indefensible favoritism for religion in other forums until the issue cannot be circumvented,” Barker said.
Since the initial federal court ruling in the case was in Wisconsin, United Methodists in that state have particularly watched the case with in interest.
Zekoff said that of the Wisconsin’s roughly 350 active clergy members, about 20 percent are on housing allowances. Many more live in parsonages, and would not have been threatened financially even if the 7th Circuit had affirmed the lower court ruling.
The Freedom from Religion Foundation had conceded in federal district court proceedings that it did not have standing to challenge the tax code law as it applies to religious groups providing “in-kind” housing to ministers.
Zekoff said he believes the Freedom from Religion Foundation will indeed persist.
“They have a track record of being very tenacious pursuing their causes,” Zekoff said. “I anticipate we will likely see future challenges to the clergy housing exclusion before the courts in Madison (Wisconsin) or elsewhere.”
Hahn is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service. Hodges is a Dallas-based writer for UMNS. Contact them at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
____________________________
Kassig family remembers hostage son's desire to help
INDIANAPOLIS (UMNS) - Photo courtesy of Kassig family
Abdul-Rahman Peter Kassig was executed by the Islamic State group, but his parents want people to remember his dedication to assisting Syrians suffering during the civil war.Kassig family remembers hostage son’s desire to help by Linda Bloom, NEW YORK (UMNS)
The United Methodist parents of the latest hostage executed by the Islamic State group are remembering his dedication to assisting those who have suffered during Syria’s civil war.
“We are heartbroken to learn that our son, Abdul-Rahman Peter Kassig, has lost his life as a result of his love for the Syrian people and his desire to ease their suffering,” said Ed and Paula Kassig, members of Epworth United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, in a statement posted Nov. 16 on the family’s Twitter account and Facebook page. “Our heart also goes out to the families of the Syrians who lost their lives along with our son.”
The Rev. Bill Hoopes, Epworth’s senior pastor, told United Methodist News Service Nov. 17 he would be meeting with the family in the evening to start planning a memorial service. Kassig was 26 years old.
The White House confirmed Kassig’s death after a video surfaced claiming that the Islamic State group, also known as ISIL or ISIS, had killed him. The Indianapolis native was taken hostage on Oct. 1, 2013, while traveling in an ambulance to deliver medical supplies and equipment and provide medical first-responder training to civilians in eastern Syria.
In a statement, President Barack Obama contrasted the “act of pure evil by a terrorist group that the world rightly associates with inhumanity” with Kassig’s work at a hospital treating Syrian refugees and the aid group he established to further assist Syrian refugees and the displaced in Lebanon and Syria.
Kassig converted to the Muslim faith while in captivity, and the president noted that his actions represented his adopted faith while ISIL’s actions represented no faith at all.
“Today we grieve together, yet we also recall that the indomitable spirit of goodness and perseverance that burned so brightly in Abdul-Rahman Kassig, and which binds humanity together, ultimately is the light that will prevail over the darkness of ISIL,” Obama said.
“We are incredibly proud of our son for living his life according to his humanitarian calling,” his parents said. “We will work every day to keep his legacy alive as best we can.”
Inspired by grandfather
Kassig’s inspiration to pursue humanitarian work, according to a recent story by Indianapolis Star reporter Brian Eason, came from his maternal grandfather, the Rev. Jerry Hyde, a United Methodist pastor who died in 2008.
Hyde was a leader of the Indianapolis Committee for Peace and Justice in the Mid-East, now known as Christians for Peace and Justice in the Mid-East, and an advocate for Muslim victims of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
His grandson, who briefly served as an Army ranger in Iraq, took a leave of absence in 2012 from his studies at Butler University in Indianapolis to work with the Syrian people through an aid group he founded, Special Emergency Response and Assistance or SERA. Kassig was interviewed by CNN in June 2012 while assisting Syrian refugees at a hospital in Lebanon.
According to the United Nations, some 2.5 million Syrian refugees are living in neighboring countries, and at least 10.8 million people – including 6.5 million who are internally displaced –need assistance inside Syria.
In an email message, the denomination’s Indiana Conference encouraged all its members “to pray for the Kassig family and the Epworth community.”
Those wishing to honor Kassig’s dedication to the Syrian people can contribute to the Syrian American Medical Society, his parents said.
They also remembered the families of the other hostages executed by ISIL– James Foley, Steven Sotloff, David Haines and Alan Henning.
“We ask people to continue to pray for the safe return of all captives being held unjustly and all people being oppressed around the world, and especially for the people of Syria, a land our son loved,” the Kassigs said.
Bloom is a United Methodist News Service multimedia reporter based in New York. Follow her at http://twitter.com/umcscribe or contact her at (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org
____________________________
Campus ministry offers support, prayers after FSU shootings
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (UMNS) - Photo by Alvaro Gabaldon, Florida State University
Members of the university community kneel in prayer during a service at Landis Green at Florida State University in Tallahassee following a shooting in the school's library. Campus ministry offers support, prayers after FSU shootings by Sam Hodges, UMNS
The shootings at a Florida State University library early Thursday had United Methodists on that campus gathering for prayer and mutual support.
“Everyone’s pretty emotionally shaken,” said the Rev. Mike Toluba, pastor of the Wesley Foundation at FSU and Tallahassee Community College in Tallahassee.
A man opened fire at Strozier Library about 12:30 a.m. Eastern time on Nov. 20. Three students were shot, with two hospitalized and one released. Police shot and killed the assailant.
The Associated Press identified the latter as Myron May, a lawyer who earned an undergraduate degree from FSU.
The victims’ names had not been released as of Thursday afternoon.
Toluba said he had no indication any Wesley Foundation student was injured or in shooting range.
“We had a few students who were just outside the library when it happened,” he said. “I haven’t heard from anybody who actually heard the gunshot yet.”
Some 400 students are involved in FSU’s Wesley Foundation, and Toluba had not heard from all of them.
Strozier Library is at one end of Landis Green, a well-known campus public space. The Wesley Foundation is on Jefferson Street, not far from the other end of Landis Green.
“It’s less than a five-minute walk,” said the Rev. Vance Rains, pastor of Ortega United Methodist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., and leader of the FSU Wesley Foundation for 11 years.
Students gather at the Florida State University Wesley Foundation in Tallahassee for a prayer service in the wake of a shooting in which three students were injured. Photo courtesy of Mike Toluba, FSU Wesley Foundation.The Wesley Foundation had its Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday, Nov. 19, serving about 500 people. Some 19 residential student staff members live in Wesley Foundation apartments, and learned of the shooting through an alert from the university.
They were told to remain indoors, away from windows. The all-clear did not come until about 3 a.m.
Ben Spangler, a senior from Fort Lauderdale who lives at the Wesley Foundation, had been studying when he first suspected trouble. He heard a siren that normally only sounds for dangerous weather.
When the alert came, he rounded up others on the property.
"We went to one apartment and sat together and prayed and contacted our parents, to let everyone know we were safe," he said.
The Wesley Foundation had a staff retreat planned for Thursday, but Toluba cancelled it and asked everyone to report to work early, to offer support to students.
A campus-wide prayer vigil occurred at 10 a.m. on Landis Green, and some Wesley Foundation students and staff, including Toluba, were among the hundreds participating.
The Wesley Foundation had its own service at 2 p.m. Eastern time Thursday.
"That was a time of prayer and reflection," Spangler said. "We did a call and response to Psalm 91, which was really great, because it provided a sense of unity."
Classes were called off and the library closed Thursday, but both were to be back on schedule Friday.
The Rev. David Fuquay, director of the Board of Higher Education and Campus Ministry for the Florida Conference, praised Toluba and his staff for reacting quickly to offer support.
“You never these things to happen, but when they do, you’re glad you have a strong ministry there,” Fuquay said.
At Gator Wesley, the United Methodist ministry at the University of Florida, students gathered at 10 a.m. Thursday to pray for FSU, knowing students there would be praying at the same time.
The Gator Wesley students also made cards to send to FSU’s Wesley Foundation.
“Anything we can do to be in solidarity because it’s tragic that students who went to the library to study during crunch time ended up getting shot,” said the Rev. Narcie Jeter, pastor and executive director of Gator Wesley. “All of our campus ministries and collegiate ministries can understand that.”
United Methodist leaders elsewhere expressed concern.
“Our hearts are broken by the senseless act of violence on the campus of Florida State University this morning,” said the Rev. Kim Cape, top executive of the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry. “We are praying for the students and their families as they come to terms with this tragedy.
Bishop Kenneth H. Carter Jr. of the Florida Conference said he too was praying for those affected. He offered thanks for the Wesley Foundation at FSU.
“The students and leaders have an amazing capacity to care for each other and to draw others into a Christian community of grace and acceptance,” Carter said. “In a time of violent chaos, the church is called to claim its true purpose: to be a sanctuary, a safe place.”
Hodges, a United Methodist News Service writer, lives in Dallas. Contact him at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org
Category: Top News, Archives, North America
Tags: Florida Conference, Fsu, Campus Ministry, News
____________________________
Iowa clergyman faces complaint for same-sex wedding
DES MOINES, Iowa (UMNS) - A Pastoral Letter from Bishop Julius C. Trimble
A formal complaint has been filed against Rev. Dr. Larry Sonner, alleging, “practices declared by The United Methodist Church to be incompatible with Christian teachings…performing same-sex wedding ceremonies.” [2012 Book of Discipline ¶ 2702.1(b)]The Appointive Cabinet, in accordance with ¶ 363.1 of the 2012 Book of Discipline, filed the formal complaint when it became aware of his actions. At the time of a consultation with the Bishop, the Appointive Cabinet entered into a time of prayer and commitment to promote and engage in Holy Conversation around the ways in which our church is in distress and disagreement. Matters of human sexuality, race, and gender beg for honest commitment to listening and respecting the stories of all of Gods children as we pray for unity in the perfecting love of Jesus.
While your Bishop and Appointive Cabinet grieve over the pain that our church exhibits, we do not proceed as people without hope. We acknowledge our commitment to welcome all people and our prohibitions regarding same-gender weddings.
We live as "prisoners of Hope." As “prisoners of Hope” we believe that a time such as this is ripe for engaging in that which promotes unity, deep prayer, gracefulness and mutual respect.
A formal complaint against a clergyperson, when accused of violating the sacred trust of The United Methodist Church, results in that person’s membership of his or her ministerial office being subject to review. "This review that begins with the bishop...shall have as its primary purpose a just resolution of any violations of this sacred trust, in hope that God’s work of justice, reconciliation and healing may be realized in the body of Christ." (2012 Book of Discipline, ¶ 363)
What does it mean for us to fully claim our identities as followers of Jesus Christ during this prolonged season of disagreement regarding same-gender weddings, biblical interpretation, and what constitutes full inclusion?
We are one family! I began my 2014 Episcopal Address by reminding United Methodists in Iowa that this is who we are - we are all children of the “Most High God." That, too, is the answer towhose we are.
I invite you to a season of prayer as the supervisory response to Rev. Sonner’s action is directed toward a just resolution.
I invite you to join me in reading the book Finding Our Way, Love and Law in The United Methodist Church. “By reflecting on the ties that connect as well as on issues and words that divide us, we find hope in our common baptism as the central covenant that ultimately defines and binds us. ‘Through baptism we are initiated into Christ holy church. We are incorporated into Gods mighty acts of salvation and given new birth through water and the spirit. All this is God’s gift, offered to us without price.’” (The United Methodist Hymnal, p.33)
Again, I ask you to join me in a season of prayer. May God’s will for the church be done. May we be found praying as “prisoners of Hope” bound together in love.
Be encouraged,
Bishop Julius Calvin Trimble
Light and Life Church rises from typhoon wreckage
TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines (UMNS) - File photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS
The Rev. Iris Picardal Terana describes how Typhoon Yolanda, also known as Typhoon Haiyan, destroyed Light and Life United Methodist Church in Tacloban City, Philippines in November 2013. The church is using a temporary building one year after the storm.Light and Life Church rises from typhoon wreckage by Gladys P. Mangiduyos, TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines (UMNS)
Life is moving on for members of a United Methodist church destroyed by Typhoon Yolanda, also known as Typhoon Haiyan.
Many have returned to work, but others are still living in bunkhouses built for disaster victims.
The Light and Life United Methodist Church is still using a temporary building a year after the Category 5 storm wiped out the city, said the Rev. Iris Picardal Terana, a Christian educator at the church who was serving as pastor when the storm struck.
Picardal Terana says that there have been many blessings, too. One of those is the lot where the church now stands.
"We have seen blessings from this disaster, we have felt our global Methodist connections, we realized how God love us when we were reached out to by others whom we did not even know,” said Picardal Terana, who was initially thought to be missing in the storm.
She also has faith that with continued prayer, God will provide a new church building.
Picardal Terana, a deacon of The United Methodist Church, is in charge of the children and youth ministry of the church. She is also part of the Eastern Waray Bible Translation Project, which started in September 2014.
Moving past the storm
Picardal Terana said in a telephone interview that many women are involved in job projects provided by the office of Bishop Ciriaco Francisco, leader of the Davao Episcopal Area, or through other United Methodist connections and non-government organizations.
Further financial support from the government is unlikely, she said. The Department of Social Welfare and Development gave a supply of rice, noodles, and canned foods that was used up by August 2014.
The six families living in the bunkhouses still get 20 kilograms of rice and canned goods each month from the department.
Picardal Terana said storm survivors really appreciated the help they got from the Tzu Chi Foundation, a Buddhist organization.
"Tzu Chi came and encouraged each one here in Tacloban City to clean up, just to clean up. . . even in our own surroundings,” she said. The foundation paid anyone who cleaned up debris 500 Philippine pesos, or about $11, a day.
Another blessing that emerged from the disaster was rediscovering the Filipino spirit of caring for one another, she said.
"By God's grace, we are still here, we think of others' losses, but we stay and we hold on, but if circumstances trigger the pains, the wound is still there,” she said.
Ecumenical Worship
The Rev. Joseph Cornito, the current pastor of the Light and Life United Methodist Church, said the church participated in an ecumenical worship service on the anniversary of the typhoon on Nov. 8, 2014. Hundreds of Taclobon City residents attended.
Cornito visits the residents who will occupy the 218 houses being built by the United Methodist Committee on Relief project in Calogcog. The most recent status update received by UMCOR showed that 16 homes had been completed and 24 were in progress.
Calogcog has been the focus of UMCOR’s commitment to help the rebuilding of houses and village resources in the municipality of Tanauan in Leyte Province. It has concentrated on providing new houses for those who lost their old homes — and in the same locality rather than requiring families to move elsewhere.
Using the “build back better” principle, the completed houses will have solid foundations, with an abundant use of concrete, to help them withstand future typhoons.
Cornito and the Light and Life church have also worked with projects to provide school materials and income-generating projects for the Pacao and Hinyangan islands.
First Filipino United Methodist Church in Houston donated resources for medical and dental missions, and also provided four pedicabs. Church members can earn and income by driving the small three-wheeled vehicles. In addition, each cab generates about 50 Philippine pesos or $1.20 a day ($1.20) for the children's Christian education and feeding program.
Tacloban City is still a long way from recovery. Basic education schools only hold half-day classes because classrooms still need repair. In their local dialect, residents use the word "Tabangunon" to describe Tacloban City, which means "It needs help."
Cornito said that although Tacloban City has not recovered, he has faith that God will continue to provide help.
"Let us continue praying, that God will bless the hearts of people, that they will be able to see and feel what God is asking us to do — that survivors need to be understood and need to be listened to, that the survivors need food, a permanent house not a bunkhouse, and that they need to move on and have life."
Mangiduyos is a deaconess in the United Methodist Philippines Central Conference and a professor at Wesleyan University-Philippines in Cabanatuan City.
News media contact: Vicki Brown, news editor, newsdesk@umcom.org or 615-742-5469.
____________________________
'Jesus wept': Finding God's comfort when times are bad
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - File photo by Ronny Perry, United Methodist Communications
A statue of “Weeping Jesus” is found near the memorial site in Oklahoma City where 168 perished in the 1995 terrorist bombing.‘Jesus wept’: Finding God’s comfort when times are bad by Joe Iovino*
The average week's worth of news can seem so bleak sometimes. It can feel like the rug has been pulled out from beneath us.
We read about the death of Dr. Martin Salia of Kissy United Methodist Hospital in Sierra Leone due to advanced Ebola.
We read about two girls from one Kansas high school who took their own lives on the same weekend, and how Grace United Methodist Church in Olathe offered the community a candlelight vigil. “It's another step in the healing process,” senior pastor, the Rev. Nanette Roberts, was quoted as saying in the Kansas City Star.
Soon we will mark the anniversaries of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
We also know people who have received devastating diagnoses, and others who were called into the boss’ office and in an instant were unemployed.
When we hear distressing stories like these, we turn to our faith for answers, but often the answers don’t come easily. There are mostly questions. What are people of faith to do in the midst of overwhelming tragedy and strife?
Jesus wept
The shortest verse in the Bible, in the King James Version at least, is just two words, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). Though only 10 characters, too short even to tweet, that verse has tremendous significance, especially when we are struggling to find hope.
Jesus weeps in the midst of comforting his friends Mary and Martha who are grieving the death of their brother Lazarus. Yes, that Lazarus. The one famous for being raised by Jesus.
Jesus is out of town when he hears of Lazarus’ illness. Rather than adjusting his plans to go visit this friend whom he loves (John 11:3), Jesus instead decides to stay where he is for a couple of days. He tells the disciples Lazarus’ illness will somehow serve the glory of God, and that God’s Son will be glorified through it (John 11: 4).
By the time Jesus arrives, Lazarus has been dead four days. Mary and Martha, Lazarus’ sisters, are understandably miffed at the lack of urgency Jesus showed. In their own way, each of them expresses their frustration with him. They are convinced their brother would not have died if Jesus had come when he was first summoned (John 11: 21, 32).
There, watching the grief of this family and community, Jesus begins to cry. There is debate as to why, John doesn’t tell us, but I am convinced it is out of empathy for the pain of those he loves. In that moment, Jesus was feeling Mary and Martha’s grief, their sense of hopelessness, their pain and loss. So he cries.
Comfort
There is comfort in knowing we don’t worship a stoic God. The God we know in Christ Jesus feels our pain and knows our loss. He weeps with us.
We also worship a God who can take our frustration. Mary and Martha vent, and so can we. As it is in any healthy relationship, we need to be open and honest with those we love, even when we are angry with them. If anyone can take it, certainly Jesus can.
It is also a comforting reminder that even while we are going through our pain, and Jesus feels far from us, it is not because he doesn’t love us. He loved Lazarus, the Bible tells us, even while not taking his illness from him.
New life
Lazarus’ story does not end with his death. At his tomb, Jesus calls Lazarus’ name and the crowds watch in disbelief as Lazarus emerges…alive. While Mary and Martha thought Jesus had come too late to help, we learn there is never a “too late” with God.
We may believe our situation is hopeless. We may not see a solution. We may not have a clue how to get out of the mess in which we find ourselves. In Jesus, though, there is always hope. There is always the possibility of new life, not just some day in the great by-and-by, but here in this life. This is the whole point of Jesus’ resurrection – new life today, and a new life to come.
Questions
When I finish reading the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, I still have questions. Why did Lazarus have to go through all of this? Why did Jesus come too late to keep him from dying? Why did Mary and Martha have to experience grief?
In the tragedies I experience and read about, I am left with questions also. Why do some feel so hopeless they take their own lives? Why do people of faith receive devastating diagnoses? Why isn’t a doctor and hospital doing so much good, supernaturally protected from illness? Why are families rattled by unemployment and lives lost in natural disasters? Why do we suffer?
While we may not receive all the answers we want, we know Jesus weeps with us.
*Joe Iovino works for UMC.org at United Methodist Communications. He may be reached at jiovino@umcom.org or 615.312.3733.
Questions for discussion and contemplation:
- Have you known anyone whose life changed due to illness, tragedy, struggles? What was your response?
- When have you felt as though Jesus was distant?
- When have you wondered why God allowed something to happen, or didn’t stop something from occurring?
- If you struggle with venting your frustration toward God, why is that? If not, why not?
- How does it help to know there is someone weeping with you when you are suffering?
- Have you ever cried for someone you did not know? Is that a helpful response?
- Can you picture God as having emotions? Does God cry? Laugh? Become angry?
- Why does God allow us to suffer, grieve, and struggle?
- When you are in a place of desperation, what do you do?
- Has God brought you peace and newness when you thought it was too late?
- How does the hope you have in Christ Jesus keep you going?
Resources for further reading:
When Grief Breaks Your Heart by James W. Moore. This book explores what faith says about the grief experience and how faith helps mend a broken heart.
The Gift of Encouragement: Restoring Heart to Those Who Have Lost It by Marjorie J. Thompson. The Gift of Encouragement offers practical help to persons serving those who need comfort.
When the One You Love Is Gone By Rebekah L. Miles. When the One You Love Is Gone encourages us to use our scars, messes, and the heartache to give new life to ourselves, and others.
Hope Beyond Your Tears: Experiencing Christ’s Healing Love by Trevor Hudson. Hudson offers and excellent resource for exploring the importance of Christ’s resurrection for your life.
*Joe Iovino works for UMC.org at United Methodist Communications. He may be reached at jiovino@umcom.org or 615.312.3733.
____________________________
Confess sin of U.S. institutional racism, agency says
WASHINGTON (UMNS) - Social-justice agency calls for end to institutional racism in U.S.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - November 17, 2014
The General Board of Church & Society, as an advocate for justice and peace in the United Methodist connection, prayerfully stands with the people of Ferguson, Mo., the Missouri Annual Conference, the state of Missouri, and the nation as we await the grand jury decision concerning the shooting death of Michael Brown.
We pray for Michael Brown's family as it undergoes this trying situation. And, we also pray for police officer Darren Wilson and his family.
We believe “there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (John 4:18). In the spirit of love, we denounce any actions or words that pander to fear and division in advance of a grand jury decision on the circumstances surrounding Michael Brown’s death.
As our denomination’s Social Principles advise, we also offer our prayers "for those in rightful authority who serve the public, and we support their efforts to afford justice and equal opportunity for all people” (¶164F “Civil Obedience & Civil Disobedience”).
Nonetheless, Michael Brown and innumerable others who have been victimized by violence call us to confess the ways our systems of government, law and education perpetuate the sin of institutional racism in the United States. As our Social Principles declare, under the established racist value system privileges and benefits are “unfairly denied persons of color” (¶162A “Rights of Racial & Ethnic Groups”).
Governments and laws should serve all citizens. If in good conscience individuals deem the law is discriminately enforced, our Social Principles recognize their right of nonviolent resistance without fear of violent reprisal (¶164A “Basic Freedoms & Human Rights”).
We commend the many who have extended acts of mercy in Ferguson. Many United Methodists in Missouri and around the world have offered their time and gifts, such as toiletries, clothing and funds, as acts of solidarity, hope and support for this beleaguered community.
We are also called to witness to the reconciling love of God in Jesus Christ. We must be an example of social change by creating spaces of honest, faithful dialogue across differences and divides. We call on United Methodists to continue to seek racial reconciliation within the Church and in the world.
Recognizing the broken, wounded nature of our social systems, we urge United Methodists to advocate for the following:
Demilitarization of local law-enforcement agencies. There must be an end to the overuse of military tactics and equipment to secure local communities.
Independent citizen-review boards. Such boards can help ensure transparency and trust between the government and the governed.
Economic and social systems that ensure the welfare of all citizens by providing racial justice and equity. Accordingly, we support raising the minimum wage, tax reform and educational policies that reduce racial inequalities.
Ultimately, we must change the U.S. justice system from retributive to restorative. A restorative system seeks the well-being of the whole community rather than retribution through punishment. Restorative justice, as our Social Principles emphasize, "seeks to repair the damage, right the wrong, and bring healing to all involved, including the victim, the offender, the families, and the community" (¶164H “Criminal & Restorative Justice”).
We confess to the transforming love and witness of Jesus Christ, that we are no longer subject necessarily to that cruel tyrant, violence. Rather, the Church as an agent of healing and systemic change is called to pursue communities of peace, reconciliation and well-being for all.
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.—General Board of Church & Society
The United Methodist Church
November 17, 2014
Contact Info
Wayne Rhodes
Director of Communications
General Board of Church & Society
The United Methodist Church
(202) 488-5630 / wrhodes@umc-gbcs.org
____________________________
There's an atheist in the house
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Photo illustration by Dale Klaus
Parents sometimes struggle when a child is a non-believer.What’s a parent to do? There’s an atheist in the house by Susan Passi-Klaus*, A UMC.org feature
My 24-year-old daughter loves staring at the stars, growing roses (which I water) and dreaming about attending art school in England. She is crazy about dogs. Crazy about drawing. And will always remain crazy about Harry Potter.
But the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible? Well, she is not too crazy about this “God thing.”
When she was 15, she told me she was an atheist. I was not shocked. I was not emotional. I just rolled my eyes and smugly said, “Well, God isn’t finished with you yet.” I was certain that her “lapse” in faith would not last long. She would “get over it” just as she had gotten over Beanie Babies, alternative rock bands and her nasty obsession with wearing all black.
Turned out that the whole ordeal was indeed a growing pain, but mine, not hers.
Ten years later, my persistent daughter continues to stand her earthly ground. God does not exist. Science rules. Carl Sagan is cool.
“I can remember being wary of organized religion, even when I was quite young,” she said. “Something felt ‘off.’ When I was a bit older, I’d notice that everyone around me was clearly feeling something that I could not. They had a tangible relationship with God. They could hear his voice; they could feel his presence. I felt nothing. I thought I was broken. But I kept praying because I thought it was what I was supposed to do.
“Accepting my beliefs — or nonbelief — took me a long time because I was scared of disappointing my parents, and I was scared there was something wrong with me. I felt ashamed.”
So what are parents to do? Her dad and I debated with her. Preached to her. Reasoned with her. We used everything from theological documentation and Scriptural assurance to Sunday school lessons and counseling with the youth director — all to “prove” our point. There is never a “winner.” In the end, if there is an end, we simply decided to love her and support her life journey into herself.
Fight temptation to debate and preach
Some would say we failed not only God, but also our child. The Rev. Kenda Creasy Dean, United Methodist pastor, author and professor of youth, church and culture at Princeton Theological Seminary, understands the frustrations both parents and children face when their religious worldviews do not match.
“I’ve fallen into all the traps,” Dean said. “The feeling of failure is real. So is embarrassment. So is fear and the temptation to debate and preach.”
“Bringing kids to church helps sometimes, but not always,” she said. “If I were an honest teenager, there are times I wouldn’t have wanted to be there either. And as an honest adult, there are times I'm embarrassed by the witness of our church. And there are times I’m embarrassed by my lame witness as a parent.”
Dean’s experience with research reveals that during high school, kids are most likely to mirror their parents’ faith. However, what many young people see in that mirror is that their parents “don’t give a hoot about faith.” They do not make it a priority.
“A majority of young people hold to a benign ‘whatever-ism’ when it comes to religion,’” she said. “They believe that religion helps them to be nice and helps them feel good about themselves, but that God pretty much stays out of the way.” Much has been made of the increasing numbers of young adults — about one in three — who are religiously unaffiliated.
MARQUEE SPURS RESPONSE
Rose City Park United Methodist Church in Portland, Ore., posted a church sign that quickly went viral: “God prefers atheists over hateful Christians.”
The goal was to start a conversation, explained church administrator Kay Pettygrove. “We wanted to share our message, ‘Kindness is better than hatred.’” The church has received both compliments and criticism.
The atheist community is grateful. “I've been told many times,” Pettygrove said, ‘even though I'm an atheist, I would still come to your church.’”
“Most of them aren’t atheists,” noted Dean. “They are ‘nothing in particular’ — they’re not against religion, but they can’t find a reason to claim one for themselves.”
Study after study shows Americans are not very open-minded when it comes to atheists. In fact, they “strongly distrust and fear” — even using the word “threatened” to describe nonreligious people.
Dan Arel, author of Parenting without God, is “one of them.” Raised in an evangelical church, heavily involved in his church growth and nurtured by a deeply religious mother and churchgoing father, Arel began to explore beyond church pews.
‘This is your journey’
He asked many of the questions young adults are asking today: Is anybody listening? Where is the person who should be helping us? What happens when we die?
He expects his own son, now 3, to have many of the same questions. Arel will give him the unconditional freedom his parents offered: to explore and find his own way to whatever he chooses to believe.
“I know far too many atheists who have been shunned by their families,” he said. “[The parents] feel shame for what their kids believe.”
Christian parents, Arel has found, seem most afraid of what their children will not have if God is absent from their life — comfort, endurance and a place in heaven.
“It's very scary for a parent to think their child will go to hell,” the journalist has learned. “They worry people will think their child is ‘lost,’ their social status will be tarnished or others will be judgmental about what is going on in their house.”
They especially worry their children will not have a purpose in life. However, “life has the meaning you bring to it,” he said.
Dean, a Christian, and Arel an atheist, share a philosophy: It is not a parent's job to make their children over into their own image religiously. Parents cannot teach their children what to think, just how to think.
The parent/child bond should not be broken because they have different worldviews,” said Arel.
Consider this advice if you and your child are struggling with faith and non-faith.
Always be supportive of your teenage children, even if you do not support everything they believe or do. Unless their beliefs harm others or themselves — which calls for immediate action — do not overreact or become confrontational. Share mutual questions, experiences and points of view.
Don’t tell adolescents their beliefs are wrong. Support their exploration without fearing or discounting their discoveries and share the ways you explore your own faith.
Ask yourself questions. Evaluate your beliefs. What kind of role model are you?
Forgive yourself if you find that you and your young adult children are on different pages about faith.
Do your best as a parent and let God do the converting. Just because some young people reject God doesn’t mean God has rejected them.
*Susan Passi-Klaus is a freelance writer based in Nashville, Tenn.
Media contact: Fran Walsh, 615-742-5458.
____________________________
Exemplary United Methodist laywoman Alice Lee dies
MONROEVILLE, Ala. (UMNS) - Photo by Marianne Lee, a family member.
Dawn Wiggins Hare visits with Alice Finch Lee during a celebration for Lee’s 100th birthday at First United Methodist Church in Monroeville, Ala.Alice Lee, United Methodist leader, dies at 103 by Sam Hodges, (UMNS)
Alice Finch Lee may be a footnote in literary history as the older sister of Harper Lee, author of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
But in United Methodist circles, she’s being remembered as an exemplary laywoman whose service and wise counsel stretched across decades, and could be felt at the local church, conference and general church levels.
“She really was a pillar of leadership,” said Dawn Wiggins Hare, a close friend of Lee’s, fellow resident of Monroeville, Ala., and top executive of the United Methodist Commission on the Status and Role of Women.
Lee, 103, died Monday in Monroeville. Funeral arrangements are pending, said the Rev. Francis Turner III, pastor of First United Methodist Church in Monroeville.
Survivors include her sister Harper, 88, who lives in a Monroeville assisted living home.
Harper Lee dedicated “To Kill a Mockingbird,” a 1961 Pulitzer Prize-winner and one of the best-selling novels of all-time, to Alice Lee and to their father.
Alice Finch Lee celebrated her 100th birthday three years ago at First United Methodist Church in Monroeville, Ala. 2011 file photo by Marianne Lee, a family member.The novel’s hero, a lawyer who risks his life to defend a black man falsely accused of rape in Depression-era Alabama, is named Atticus Finch.
Alice Finch Lee was a female legal pioneer in south Alabama, practicing law in Monroeville from 1944 until she was nearly 100, and earning a reputation for unassailable integrity.
“She is Atticus in a skirt,” said the Rev. Thomas Butts, pastor emeritus of First United Methodist Church in Monroeville, in introducing her for an award given her by the Alabama Bar Association in 2003.
Reached by phone Tuesday, Butts said Lee’s death would leave a void in Monroeville, First United Methodist Church of Monroeville and in The United Methodist Church.
Butts said Lee was asked once what positions she’d held in her local church.
“She thought for a minute and said, ‘I’ve never been pastor,’ which meant she’d done everything else,” he said.
For many years, she taught an adult men’s Sunday school class at First United Methodist in Monroeville.
“They respected her teaching,” Hare said.
During the 1960s struggle over integration, Lee left a standing order with ushers in her church that any African-American seeking admission should be seated by her.
She also, as an Alabama-West Florida Annual Conference voter, used a parliamentary maneuver to thwart efforts to block a committee report calling for acknowledgment of racial divisions.
Lee served as a Jurisdictional and General Conference delegate, and in 1976 became the first (and still only) woman to lead the Alabama-West Florida Conference delegation to General Conference.
She served eight years on the Southeastern Jurisdiction’s episcopacy committee, helping to make bishop assignments. She was a member of the General Council on Ministries for eight years, serving as treasurer and on the executive committee.
When Hare was a General Conference delegate in 2008 and in 2012, she would send emails to Lee, providing updates and asking advice about tough votes.
“I felt like I had a little angel on my shoulder,” Hare said. “Her insight was absolutely invaluable because her motives were always true.”
Lee championed the role of women in church work, and the Alabama-West Florida Conference gives an Alice Lee Award to outstanding women church leaders.
Hare recalled Lee’s keen interest in missions, particularly United Methodist orphanages, and noted that she quietly provided financial support beyond giving to her church.
“She gave to ministers whose churches could not come up with their salaries,” Hare said. “When the bishop had projects, she would raise money for them.”
Lee was a voracious reader of newspapers and books, and a local historian so renowned that “Go ask Alice” became a de facto command for anyone with a question about the area’s past.
She wore smart-looking business suits with tennis shoes.
“The footprints of those tennis shoes are all over this community and the church,” Hare said.
Hodges, a United Methodist News Service writer, lives in Dallas. Contact him at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org
Category: Top News, Archives, North America
Tags: Alabama West Florida Conference, Laywoman, Racial Equality, Women In Leadership
____________________________
Imagine No Malaria offers 2014 Advent resources
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/eaQDTdAR-qc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
____________________________
Advent Imagine No Malaria Resources
IMAGINE NO MALARIA TEAM
NOVEMBER 13, 2014
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/eaQDTdAR-qc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Can you imagine a world where malaria does not exist, where children live their lives in joy and mothers sleep peacefully knowing their children will wake up healthy?
We can.
Join us on the journey to Imagine No Malaria! New, free Advent downloadable resources are now available, as well as multiple free resources like fly swatters, donation boxes, temporary tattoos, and honor/thank you cards.
Subscribe to our FREE daily devotional email and newsletter,
To access the downloadable resources, click on 'Resources' at the top of the page. The full resource set is available in the "Advent Toolkit" under Recommended Engagement Kits, or you can scroll down and filter by "Advent" to download individual resources including high-resolution graphics from the video and the video itself.
We invite and encourage you to take advantage of these sermon starters, worship elements, children's sermons, graphics, videos and more as you plan your Advent worship. Also included are PowerPoint templates for each week in Advent corresponding to the weekly themes.
Blessings to you and yours,
The Imagine No Malaria team
____________________________
The parable of the unwanted classic car
TACOMA, Wash. (UMNS) — The Parable of the Unwanted Muscle Car
In People by Patrick Scriven
The church is like a classic, muscle car that a father labors over for years in his garage. The father loves this car and has cherished memories of the countless miles driven on its tires and valued relationships nurtured under its roof.The father also has a daughter who remembers the many weekends she would find him working to restore and care for this car. It was clear to his daughter that he loved it. Whenever something went wrong with the car, her father would have to search far and wide to find the right parts to fix it. As he did so, they would spend hours talking about cars. So much so that she developed her own love of them.
They would spend hours talking about cars. So much so that she developed her own love of them.As the daughter approached her 16th birthday, her parents began to drop hints about an upcoming present that would be too big to fit in her room. With her license a mere test away, she began to dream about the car she might get in the very near future.
On the day of the daughter’s birthday, her mother baked a cake with sixteen candles on top. She blew out the candles and made her wish. Shortly thereafter, the daughter received a small box from her father.
Momentarily confused by the small size of the package, she eagerly unwrapped and opened the box. Inside she found a shiny set of keys but she was immediately confused. The keys were for her father’s car; the surprise on her face was quickly mixed with visible disappointment.
You see, in addition to being a lover of cars, this man’s daughter was also a burgeoning environmentalist. And while she had always found a way to accept her father’s love for his classic muscle car; how could she be found driving such a vehicle, even one as beautiful as this?
An Interpretation
I’ve worked, in one way or another, with young people for most of my professional life. While I have encountered a few who love the church exactly the way it is, I’ve met many more who longed for something different. Of this latter group, a number remain within the church tradition they grew up in, while a growing plurality have moved on to another church that spoke to them, or have simply given up on church altogether.
I offer this parable as a way to highlight a stumbling block for some. The daughter was excited, as most any 16-year-old would be, at the prospect of receiving a car for her birthday. What was in conflict wasn’t a love of cars, or even a questioning of the value of them. Instead, the dissonance is a result of an assumption that the daughter’s love would be the same as the father’s, and that her other passions could be ignored, or overwhelmed by, the generosity of the gift.
Photo credit: Tesla MotorsA CAR OF THE FUTURE. PHOTO CREDIT: TESLA MOTORS
As a member of Generation X, noted by some as a bridging generation, I can relate to both the father and the daughter in this parable of the church. Like the daughter, I’ve often felt that the car (church) didn’t fully honor my values and I have serious concerns about its fuel efficiency in the task of transforming the world for the better. On more than one occasion, I’ve driven past the metaphorical dealership of other churches and benevolent organizations, looking lustfully at the Tesla Model S that promises to fulfill the aspirations of my heart.
But I can also resonate with the pain of the father. For those of us who love the church, this rejection of our gift can be very personal. It can feel like the daughter lacks the appropriate gratitude for the gift we offer. After all, we didn’t get the chance to reject the imperfect church we received from our parents; taking it on was as much an obligation as it was a birthright. And while we inherited so much of what we now want to pass down, we’ve also put a lot of ourselves into it. Unfortunately, it is too easy to perceive their yearning for something else as an outright rejection of who we are.
Matters are further complicated by the reality that we are rarely handing over the keys of a classic, well-maintained muscle car. More often it is the case that we are looking for someone to help us with the maintenance on a car of the different order. Sometimes it is a desirable car but as often as not it’s a dilapidated minivan—which we still owe on.
And did we actually say we were giving the car to them? What would we drive if we did that?
The daughter shared her father’s love for cars. She was even willing to honor her father’s continued affection for his gas-guzzling muscle car despite her own environmentalist values. But the road she envisioned for herself was a different one spent in a better car, at least when understood through the lens of her values.
If we are careless about our assumptions around why young people leave the church, we risk asserting things about the church we probably don’t intend. Our despair can lead us to cling to our traditions and pray for the day when the young will understand these things we (not God) have defined as church. Or our disappointment, motivated by a greater love, can move us toward a new future which finds common root on a deeper level.
A couple questions to leave with
- What are the assumptions that we bring with us as we consider the church of tomorrow?
- What are the important values we share intergenerationally that undergird the different visions of church that we may have?
- How open are we to the necessary innovations that will take us forward? What are the ones you’ve discerned?
- Are there graceful ways to gift those who follow us with the keys that lead to abundant life? Are we ready to let go and let come?
- Are we willing to allow the next generation to take our prized possession(s) down to the dealership so they might purchase something that makes sense for them?
____________________________
| 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. November Native American Heritage Month — United Methodist Discipleship Ministries and Native American Comprehensive Plan offer prayer and worship resources. Sunday, Nov. 30 United Methodist Student Day — This special offering supports scholarships for United Methodist young people. To order free envelopes and posters. Details. You can see more educational opportunities and other upcoming events in the life of the church here. |
|  |
No comments:
Post a Comment