College reopening brings light, joy, to Angola

By Kathy L. Gilbert*

MALANJE, Angola (UMNS) - The opening of Quéssua Theological College is bringing the light back to a place that has lived in darkness for the last 20 years.

At the beginning of Angola's long civil war, Quéssua, a United Methodist institution, was bombed out of existence in an act of revenge against the first president of Angola, who was a United Methodist.

Set a few miles from Malanje in a gently rolling countryside, Quéssua educated many of the leaders of Angola today.

"We need this school for our children. We are hoping after today the students will come back," Bishop Jose Quipungo told those gathered to celebrate the inauguration of the pre-university school Sept. 28.

The Rev. R. Randy Day, top executive of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, was on hand to cut the ribbon at the inauguration. "We are here to bring the light back to Quéssua," he said.

After the school's launch will come the reopening of the hospital and school of theology, Quipungo promised the large crowd filling the meeting room.

In its glory days, Quéssua included a chapel, college, theological school and hospital. Hundreds of students lived in boys' and girls' dormitories, and teachers, missionaries and medical professionals made their homes on the campus.

Even in ruins, the beauty of Quéssua still shines through in the pink stucco walls and arched doors and windows. Tall grass grows where schoolchildren once lived and learned. The graves of the missionaries who started the complex lie behind a rusted iron fence, choked with weeds.

The chapel has been restored, and the restored college will be able to accommodate 240 students in morning and afternoon shifts. Quipungo says seven professors will teach subjects ranging from anthropology to African theology.

The institution has never been just for United Methodists, and it will be open to everyone when classes begin in the next academic year, Quipungo said.

It took 18 months to rebuild the school, and the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries contributed more than $247,000 to help in the construction.

Angola has only been calm for four years, Quipungo said. "I think the peace is irreversible; we can see the fruits here today."

"We hope the government takes us as one of their daughters," he said. "There is still a lot of work to be done."

Joyful day
Groups of women worked all morning under the trees behind the schoolrooms, preparing hot food for the hundreds gathered for the occasion. Reporters and crews from television, radio and newspapers were on hand to record the historic event.

Men and women busied themselves polishing the door frames and sweeping the red-painted stage lined with blue-covered tablecloths for the dignitaries invited to the opening. The smell of fresh paint lingered in the spotless classrooms as many former students roamed around pointing out where they once sat for daily lessons. Many children and adults who sat on the red steps carried part of the school opening back home on the seats of their pants.

The Rev. Simao Antonio, pastor of Eva de Andrade United Methodist Church, was an elementary school student at the "Escola Amore Alegria" (School of Love and Happiness).

He walked through his former third-grade classroom while waiting for the festivities to start. "I hope the rebuilding will bring a ration of joy and happiness for the community," he said.

The governor of Malanje, Cristovao da Cunha, an alumnus of the school and a member of the United Methodist Church, thanked the church for its support over the years. Monsignor Louis Maria Hornrite, Catholic leader in Malanje, participated in the ceremony and praised the school's ecumenical spirit.

"Hundreds of youth saw their horizons expanded here," Cunha said.

Quipungo said everything was in ruins when he first returned to Malanje after being away for 20 years.

"All I could do was weep," he said. "I asked God, 'Why did you bring me back here to live among ruins?' But God showed me the role he wanted me to play in rebuilding."

Bishop Timothy Whittaker and members of the Florida Annual (regional) Conference visited the complex a few years ago and have pledged to help rebuild the theological school, Quipungo said.
United Methodist missionaries built Quéssua in the early 1900s with the help of the Methodist Board of Missions. The site is named after a nearby river.

Beautiful ghosts of the old buildings stand in the now-quiet countryside. In the distance stands a cross, planted on a high hill by the founding missionaries as a symbol of peace.

At the end of the day, Quipungo said, "I feel very happy today. One more stone has been laid in rebuilding. It is a good witness."

Donations
Donations to help rebuild the Quéssua Medical Center may be sent to the Advance for Christ and His Church, the denomination's second-mile giving program. Contributions can be sent in four ways:

+Online. Go to http://archives.umc.org/frames.asp?url=http%3A//www.gbgm-umc.org.
+Local church. Checks should be made payable to the local church. Write the name of the ministry and Advance #15062N on the check.
+Mail. Checks can be made payable to "Advance GCFA" and sent to: Advance GCFA, P.O. Box 9068, GPO, New York, NY 10087-9068. Write the project name and its Advance code number.
+Telephone. Call (888) 252-6174 to make a credit-card donation.

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.

Mission agency names new director for Advance

By Elliott Wright*

NEW YORK (UMNS) - Shawn S. Bakker, who has broad professional experience in religion, nonprofit management and fundraising, is the new director of the Advance for Christ and His Church, the designated mission-giving program of the United Methodist Church.

Her selection was announced by the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. The Advance is a major funding channel for the support of missionaries, mission projects, and humanitarian relief and rehabilitation around the world.

Bakker, who starts Dec. 1, succeeds the Rev. William T. Carter, who retired in June after 28 years with the mission agency and the Advance.

She is "dynamic and bold," according to Cashar W. Evans, a North Carolina layman who chairs the Advance Committee. Bakker also is well-grounded in theology and United Methodist practice, said the Rev. R. Randy Day, chief executive of the mission board.

The Rev. Jan Davis, secretary of the Advance Committee and executive pastor of Christ United Methodist Church, Plano, Texas, called Bakker a "young, bright woman with a strong track record of innovative program experience. She will bring new vision to our work."

The Advance represents what is known in United Methodism as "second-mile mission giving," that is, donations beyond congregational apportionments for the World Service fund. Annual giving through the Advance in recent years has averaged between $30 million and $35 million, not including the amount given for disaster relief.

Bakker is a native of Sioux Falls, S.D., and grew up in a Christian congregation there. She joined the United Methodist Church while at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minn., where she graduated in 1996. She then worked for a decade with United Methodist-related ministries in Dallas and studied at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, earning a master of theology degree.

In 1998, she became the first director of Project Transformation, a program developed in the North Texas Annual Conference that employs college and university students in urban ministries with children and youth. This involved the annual coordination of more than 300 students, 1,200 volunteers, 90 local churches and 15 institutions within the conference.

Bakker also had served as a missionary through the former 10-10-10 program of the mission agency and worked for the Wesley-Rankin Community Center, a national mission institution in Dallas.

She left Texas in 2005 to accompany her husband, Jeremy Bakker, to New Haven, Conn., where he was entering a doctoral program in theology at Yale University.

*Wright is the information officer of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

"Nothing But Nets" campaign raises money to fight malaria

A UMNS Report By Deborah White*

More than 100,000 insecticide-treated bed nets will be delivered to Nigeria in November as part of a new malaria prevention campaign called Nothing But Nets.

Partners in Nothing But Nets include the United Methodist Church, the United Nations Foundation, Sports Illustrated, the National Basketball Association, Millennium Promise and the Measles Initiative. The United Methodist Board of Global Ministries and United Methodist Communications are coordinating the church's participation in the campaign, which will include a major initiative for youth groups.

The goal is to raise funds to eradicate malaria in Africa, where the mosquito-borne disease causes the death of one-fifth of all children under 5 years old. Hanging nets over children while they sleep is a simple, inexpensive way to kill the mosquitoes or keep them from biting.

The idea for Nothing But Nets came from Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly, who encouraged readers to donate money to the U.N. Foundation after he learned that 1 million children die from malaria each year and that bed nets could save lives. In a May 5 column, he wrote, "If you've ever cut down a net, jumped over a net, watched the New Jersey Nets, worn a hair net, surfed the net, or loved fishnets, send 10 bucks and maybe you could save a life."

In just a few months, more than 17,000 people sent $1.2 million. Reilly plans to join a delegation from Nothing But Nets to distribute nets in Nigeria and to meet children who will benefit from them.

The U.N. Foundation asked the United Methodist Church to join Nothing But Nets because of decades of work through the Community-Based Malaria Prevention Program of the Board of Global Ministries. The most recent project, started in Sierra Leone last December, focuses on community-based primary health care, education and creating a "net culture."

"All of this work makes the denomination a natural partner for the Nothing But Nets campaign," said Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton, president of the Commission on Communication, which governs United Methodist Communications. "Not only do we want to eradicate malaria, but we also want to get our young people involved in mission work."

United Methodist youth groups that raise money for Nothing But Nets will be eligible for prizes at Youth 2007, an international event for United Methodist youth in Greensboro, N.C., July 11-15. Fund-raising awards will include a trip to Africa to distribute bed nets, a trip to New York to tour the United Nations and a variety of NBA gear.

A cell phone text-messaging network will provide campaign updates to youth. They can send a text message to 47647, type "Nets" in the text field and hit "send" to be added to the network.

"One of the benefits of being a partner in Nothing But Nets is that we're giving a tool to congregations that may be struggling to reach youth. This is an avenue that will speak to youth," Bickerton said.

"In sports, we're always dealing with nets. It struck me as the simplest way to save lives," Reilly said in an interview. "I think it's so cool the church is involved."

More information is available by going to the United Methodist Church section of www.nothingbutnets.net or the denomination's official Web site at www.umc.org.

*White is associate editor of Interpreter magazine. This report first appeared in slightly different form in the magazine. Both Interpreter and United Methodist News Service are ministries of United Methodist Communications.

Hero of 'Catch a Fire' tells church about apartheid era

By Denise Johnson Stovall*

DALLAS (UMNS) - "I have learned to remember the words of my friend, Nelson Mandela, when he said, 'We can never be free unless we learn to forgive.'"

Those are the words of Patrick Chamusso, a former prisoner on South Africa's Robben Island with Mandela. He spoke and worshipped at Munger Place United Methodist Church while visiting Dallas as part of a promotional tour for the movie "Catch a Fire," which debuts in U.S. theaters Oct. 27. The movie tells the story of his life and his struggle as a freedom fighter in apartheid-era South Africa.

"Nelson Mandela told us to offer forgiveness," said Chamusso, a member of White River Methodist Church north of Johannesburg, South Africa. "He even forgave the person who held him prisoner all those years at Robben Island."

The Rev. Charles L. Stovall, pastor of Munger Place Church, invited Chamusso and the movie's cast and crew to the church after learning they would be promoting the film in Dallas. Stovall represented the United Methodist Church on the Ecumenical Monitoring Team for South African's first multiracial election, an election that made Mandela South Africa's first black president.

Stunned into action
In the film, Chamusso is portrayed by Derek Luke, who starred in "Antwone Fisher," "Friday Night Lights" and "Glory Road."

The movie depicts Chamusso's transformation from an oil refinery worker to a freedom fighter.

He was a foreman at the centrally located Secunda oil refinery, which was a symbol of South Africa's self-sufficiency at a time when the world was instituting economic sanctions and protesting the country's apartheid system. It was also a symbol of the wealth and riches of South Africa, earned in part from the exploitation of cheap black labor.

In his spare time, Chamusso coached a local boys' soccer team. He was by no means a political man and would not have dreamed of becoming a member of Nelson Mandela's freedom party, the African National Congress.

That changed when Chamusso was arrested upon suspicion of sabotage of Secunda in 1980. He was beaten, tortured and mentally abused. When his wife, Precious - played by South African television actress Bonnie Henna - was beaten and arrested, Chamusso was stunned into action.

He left his family and joined the African National Congress in Mozambique, where he met Joe Slovo, the head of the congress' military wing and later a cabinet member in Mandela's first post-apartheid government.

In 1981, Chamusso attacked the Secunda refinery in a mission designed by Slovo. After the bombing, he was captured and arrested, held for nine months without trial and brutally tortured.

"I became angry to my God," Chamusso said, as he recalled his detention. "I said, 'Where are you?' I am going to face the judge, and I know I'm going to die.' But I didn't. I was supposed to have the death sentence for what I did, but the judge gave me 24 years. … It was God."

Chamusso was imprisoned on Robben Island, where fellow Methodist layman Mandela was incarcerated. Chamusso said the only way he was able to survive prison was by praying. He served 10 years, received amnesty and was released in 1991.

'We must forgive'
During an Oct. 15 fellowship luncheon at Munger Place, Chamusso told the congregation he was glad the film was done while he was still alive.

"At first, I thought it wasn't a good story because I didn't value myself as a human being," Chamusso said. "The reason was the structure of apartheid in South Africa. It was directed at a black man. I couldn't open a bank account in South Africa because I must take a white man with me. I couldn't buy a car without a white man. If there was a road block, they would pull me out of the car, search me and beat me in front of my children. But we said, 'We forgive you people.' Through forgiveness, you let go of the anger and put it down. You forget it!"

Chamusso said he gets upset when people compare what he did in South Africa to current acts of terrorism.

"I think anyone who compares this to terrorism doesn't understand," he said. "There is not a comparison. We were trying to remove apartheid. Our policy was, 'No one must die.' We wanted to destroy apartheid, not kill.

"The people in South Africa are going to be surprised when they see this movie," he said. "… I was at the men's breakfast at the Methodist Church; there were whites there who wanted to know what was happening during apartheid. When people tell them about the people who have disappeared and were tortured, some say, 'Oh, this is exaggerated.' But that's why we want to tell them because they don't know the truth.

"We must tell the truth, but we must also forgive," he said.

Today Chamusso, his wife, Conney and their three children live in White River, a valley region north of Johannesburg. They have at least 80 orphans whom they have adopted and care for through their ministry called "Two Sisters."

"I wake up every morning and say, 'Lord, thank you. For my life," he said. "Thank you Lord for me still being alive.' "

Also attending the Munger Place United Methodist Church service was "Catch a Fire" screenwriter Shawn Slovo, daughter of the late Joe Slovo. "I thought it was a good time to tell the story because of the miracle of South Africa," she said, explaining why she wrote the film.

The movie "about reconciliation is timely because it has been a period of time that it seems like all hell has broken loose," Stovall said. "If you just browse the paper, you can see that violence has escalated. It all comes down to broken relationships. So as we make peace with God, it is possible for us to have peace."

*Stovall is a freelance writer in Dallas. The Rev. Charles L. Stovall is her husband.

United Methodist Delegation explores challenges in Cuba

By Linda Green*

HAVANA (UMNS) — U.S. policy has made it difficult for the United Methodist Church and other faith groups to work with their Cuban counterparts in mission and ministry.

A delegation representing the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns received a special license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Treasury Department to visit Cuba Oct. 7-12. The group went to develop relationships with the Cuban Methodist Church and to provide a witness to the importance of relationships — both Methodist and ecumenical — to the life of the church in Cuba and its people.

The nine-member delegation "went to Cuba to dramatize the importance of ecumenical relationships and the way in which our churches can play a significant role for change in the country," said the Rev. Larry Pickens, the agency's top executive. "It is a critical time, particularly in relation to the reality of our need to be connected to the Methodist Church of Cuba."

That church and the country's entire religious climate have undergone significant changes, he said, and the United Methodist Church is making "inroads into its relationships with churches in Latin America and the Caribbean."

The delegation went to learn about the history of Methodism in Cuba, discover the challenges facing the church there, and explore possibilities for shared mission and ministry.

Delegation members met with representatives of the Cuban Council of Churches, the World Council of Churches, the Cuban government and the U.S. Interest Section in Havana, and they explored ecumenical and peace relationships. The group also visited the country's medical school and a school for the mentally challenged.

Political impact
Although Cuba is primarily Roman Catholic, the Methodist Church there is growing. Of the country's 11 million inhabitants, 17,000 are members of the Methodist Church of Cuba, and more than 70 percent of those members are 30 years old or younger.

Part of the commission's mandate is to advocate for the establishment and strengthening of relationships with other living faith communities and to further dialogue with people of other faiths, cultures and ideologies.

"We have a concern about the Christian Cuban community, and part of our mandate is to have conversations all over the world," said Dalila Cruz, a delegation member from Dallas. "We wanted to see how we could be helpful in developing better relations between our two countries and in engaging in communications between the churches in the United States and the church in Cuba."

The lack of communication between the U.S government and the Cuban people is disheartening, she said. Democracy "is used as a club" by the U.S. government instead of "being able to reach out and work with and help the people," she said. The group also was disconcerted by the absence of freedoms in Cuba that are taken for granted in the United States, she said.

The United Methodist Church has consistently voted for an end to the U.S. government sanctions against Cuba. In a 2004 resolution, the denomination's General Conference petitioned President Bush and Congress to lift the economic embargo against Cuba and to seek negotiations for resuming normal diplomatic relations.

Last April, the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries and leaders of the Methodist Church in Cuba signed a statement of solidarity and cooperation that healed a short-term breach in relationships. The agreement, reflecting a "spirit of reconciliation and unity," recognized the long history of collaboration between the Cuban Methodists and the mission board and expressed regret for a "rupture" last year. At issue were misunderstandings over a decision by Global Ministries' directors to close out several designated funds that related to ministries in Cuba.

An 'exciting' church
Delegation members said they appreciated witnessing the spirit of the Methodist Church in Cuba through the local congregations. "For those who say the church is dead, people need to come here to see that the church is very much alive," Cruz said. "It brings a new spirit, it brings hope, and it certainly brings joy to our hearts. As we worshipped together, it was refreshing."

Cruz described Cuba as "ripe" to be a model for the world in terms of evangelism. The church has committed pastors and energetic leaders.

Alissa Bertsch, the United Methodist campus minister at the University of California-Los Angeles, said she is often told by young people that church is irrelevant and boring. She was pleased that young people in Cuba don't have that idea.

"The church here is exciting," she said. "People want to be there. Even if the church building does not have walls, they were going to gather no matter what. This is something that our (U.S.) churches can have."

The clergy members in the delegation preached in Methodist churches in and around Havana on Oct. 9 and they shared their own faith stories with the congregations. "I found this to be an overwhelming experience as I come to understand the Methodist Church in Cuba," Pickens said.

After the revolution
Born in 1883, the Cuban Methodist Church was a mission of the Florida Annual (regional) Conference. In 1959, it was the largest Protestant denomination, but membership plunged following the country's 1959 revolution, which brought a communist government into power.

Led by Fidel Castro, the government nationalized all church educational institutions, except seminaries, and ordered that atheism be taught in schools.

The United States has continuously tightened the economic reins in an effort to bring down the Castro government. In 1992, ships that traded with Cuba were barred from using U.S. ports, and the United States limited humanitarian aid to that country.

As a result of the Cuban government's stance toward the churches and its worsening relations with the U.S. government, many missionaries left the island. By 1962, all Methodist missionaries had departed, along with many church members.

In 1963, the United States imposed regulations for churches financially supporting the work of their counterparts in Cuba. Since the early 1990s, United Methodist Volunteer in Mission groups have become an avenue for local churches and annual conferences to provide support for the Methodist Church in Cuba — support that has included the restoration and repair of church buildings and parsonages.

The Methodist Church of Cuba became independent in 1967 and launched outreach programs to Latin America with an evangelistic thrust that included literacy programs, development and health care.

According to literature and leaders of the Methodist Church in Cuba, the denomination "rekindled" its fire in the 1980s and developed a characteristic of "total dependence on God, even regarding the most insignificant issue." More than 90 percent of the current membership entered the sanctuaries during the last 19 years.

Today, the Cuban Methodist Church has 121 sanctuaries and more than 700 mission churches, a pastoral staff of 210 and a membership of 17,000. Some 30,000 people have a relationship with the church and its different ministries.

Hope for the future
The delegation observed the need for church buildings for the congregations because worshippers assemble in homes, backyards and makeshift structures. They crowd these structures because the Cuban government does not permit the Methodist Church to build new churches but instead forces them to focus on maintaining existing structures.

Bishop Gaspar J. Domingos of West Angola said he was delighted to be a member of a delegation investigating the ecumenical work in Cuba. He found "great progress" and openness in the work of the Methodist Church in Cuba.

"I hope that our visit here would strengthen the ties of friendship with the church and institutions we visited," he said, "and that the ecumenical work can progress even more."

Pickens said the delegation's visit brought hope for the future, particularly in talking about life in the country after Castro. "It is going to be the church that will play a significant role shaping that future."

*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.

Board examines need for global education resources

By Vicki Brown*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Both the need for global educational resources and projects under way to support development of global theological education were highlighted in two sessions at the fall board meeting of the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

A global conference call and online dialogue allowed members of the board's Division of Higher Education to talk with educators from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Brazil about sharing resources between Latin America and Africa. And a meeting of the Global Theological Education Committee included a report on the need for far more training for pastors in Africa and the joint work being done by the Board of Higher Education and Ministry and the Board of Global Ministries to accomplish that.

Eduardo Namburete, a United Methodist and lecturer at the School of Communication and the Arts at Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique, spoke to the group from Geneva, Switzerland. Paulo Bessa, a professor and assistant for external projects and community issues at Methodist University in São Paulo, Brazil, and Andra Stevens, director of communications at Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe, also took part.

Namburete said many people in Mozambique wanted to attend college, but only a few places are available.

"In Mozambique we have been struggling for four or five years, with no tangible results," Namburete said. So educators in Mozambique are excited about a proposed partnership with the Methodist University in São Paulo, he said.

Distance learning
Bessa said the university has been working on online distance learning for some time, initially with its regular students.

"This semester we started a program of distance learning in which we have 600 students enrolled in different parts of the state," Bessa said. At five different centers at Methodist schools, the students can see the professor on a screen, type in questions and have the professor provide answers in real time, he said.

Kim Cape, superintendent of the McAllen District in the Southwest Texas Annual (regional) Conference, asked if Mozambique has sufficient electricity and infrastructure to support online learning. She said she was in the country after Sept. 11, 2001, and it was three days before anyone knew about the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Namburete said some of those problems have been overcome, especially regarding telephones and electrical lines.

Stevens said that was true of Africa University, too, where big improvements have been made in technology in the past three months. Africa University views distance education as "really helping realize the goal of being a pan-African university," she said.

A project to help deliver agricultural training at Angola University is a step in that direction, and discussion is under way about work in Rwanda, she said.

"We don't see ourselves being effective in Africa until we can deliver education where students are, and distance education technology is a critical piece of that," she said.

Bishop J. Lawrence McCleskey, president of the Division of Higher Education, said the opportunity to be engaged in conversation with people from around the globe was exciting.

"It was another effort among many to understand what it means to be a global church and to make the most of our educational resources globally. We're facilitating the conversation, but all the people in the conversation are sharing resources that are not in the United States," he said.
Stephanie Deckerd, the board's newest and youngest member, agreed.

"I thought that was amazing. I think it will help the world if you can converse and not stay isolated. Such conversations will lead us forward in the right direction," the 16-year-old said.

Board member Carolyn Briscoe added that the work being done shows that United Methodists in the United States have much to learn from those in Africa and Latin America.

Global education fund
At a meeting of the Global Theological Education Committee, Ken Yamada, special assistant to the general secretary for Global Education and New Initiatives, reported on initial steps that were taken at meetings in Panama, Korea, and Japan toward making the Methodist Global Education Fund for Leadership Development a reality. The 2007 budget approved by the board's directors includes $300,000 in seed money for the fund.

At the same meeting, consultant Ellis Larsen said a great need exists for training pastors all over Africa. He noted that it had been many years since Angola had a functional seminary because of military conflict there. Many other countries lack adequate training facilities as well, Larsen said.

However, he said, pastors who had attended the course of study school at Kafakumba in Zambia were well-prepared.

"We need more schools like the one in Kafakumba, and we need more resources, especially in French," he said. Pastors study eight weeks a year for eight years at that school, started by John Enright, a United Methodist who grew up in a missionary family in Congo. He bought an abandoned factory lot and began planting banana trees. The sale of the bananas pays for the food, housing and education of some 60 local pastors per class who come to the school each year from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Congo and Senegal.

Larsen, who reported on the need in the areas of Africa where English, French, and Portuguese are spoken, said there are probably not more than a dozen schools for pastors in all of Africa.

Robert Kohler, assistant general secretary in the board's Division of Ordained Ministry, said that compares to 13 United Methodist seminaries and 15 pastors' schools in the United States.

This summer, representatives from the Board of Higher Education and Ministry, the churchwide Board of Discipleship and the West African nation of Côte d'Ivoire served as a board of ordained ministry to examine graduates of the school at Kafakumba and found them well-prepared, Larsen said.

*Brown is an associate editor and writer in the Office of Interpretation at the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

United Methodist Church makes difference in rural Zimbabwe

A UMNS Feature By Tim Tanton*

Yellow brick walls stand in the middle of a field off a rural highway near Mutare, Zimbabwe.
The walls are the shell of what will be, not of what has been.

The United Methodist Church is growing in this area, and when completed, the new sanctuary overlooking the Vhumbunu Valley will have the capacity for 800 to 1,000 people. The building will be the home of a congregation that now worships at nearby Mandisekwe United Methodist Church.

"The (existing) church is too small now for them," says the Rev. Givemore Chimbwanda, superintendent of the denomination's Mutasa-Nyanga District. He says people "are coming in abundance."

But construction, which began three years ago, has hit a snag. Money has run out. "It may take us four, five or six years" to finish, Chimbwanda says.

He estimates the church building will cost roughly US$50,000, though pinning down a cost figure for the project is difficult in a country where inflation exceeds 1,000 percent. "Nearly on an everyday basis, things are going up," he says.

That is not stopping Chimbwanda and the people of his district from moving ahead. They have something that keeps them going even when money is scarce.

"Normally we talk of not having enough funds to build such a sanctuary, but with Africans, we have what you call spiritual capital," he says.

In an area where money is tight and some pastors haven't been paid for many months, spiritual capital is all important. And that power is growing. People flock to churches, driven in part by poverty and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, but also by the need to know peace and hear God's word, he says.

The United Methodist Church is making a difference in Chimbwanda's district. A daylong tour around his area includes stops at primary and secondary schools, a feeding program, a mission farm and a site for a future skills-training center.

The Mutasa-Nyanga District is a microcosm of other rural districts in Zimbabwe, says Bishop Eben Nhiwatiwa, who leads United Methodists in this southern Africa nation. Pastors often have to walk because of the lack of transportation.

With Zimbabwe's economic and social problems, "the church is playing a very vital role," he says. It is ministering to people with HIV/AIDS, caring for orphans, providing feeding programs, paying for school fees and meeting other needs.

"The church is doing tremendous work with its ministries, but it is always a drop in the ocean because of too many problems," the bishop says. "But you always do what you can do."

Skills center
Five minutes away from the new church is another United Methodist construction site, this one for a skills-training center.

"Getting jobs in Zimbabwe today is a thing of the past," Chimbwanda says. The skills-training center will equip people to earn money on their own, through such trades as carpentry, woodwork, knitting, sewing, candle making and even engineering.

"The issue we are suffering a lot is brain drain," he says. The political climates in African countries have resulted in many educated young people leaving the continent.

The skills-training center will provide a next step for young people orphaned by AIDS as they leave the Fairfield Children's Home at Old Mutare Mission, another United Methodist ministry. The home cares for children ages 2 to 18.

When the orphans leave the Children's Home they will be able to live on the campus of the new training center. Sixty percent of the students at the center will be from the home; 40 percent will be other local people who do not go on to a university or college.

"This is our dream," Chimbwanda says. "We are doing this as an exit point for them to get into the world. . . . Education is power."

"You want the individual young people to be able to stand on their own feet," says Bishop Nhiwatiwa.

When completed, the center will have an administration unit, a chapel for the students, and hostels or dorms. Local people are molding the bricks and donating door frames and window frames, says Chimbwanda. The administrator's house will be completed by 2007, followed the next year by dorms. He expects the training center to start in 2010.

'Holy land'
The United Methodist Church's impact on Chimbwanda's district comes across strongly at the Nyakatsapa mission farm. Women gathered there one winter morning in June to receive aid supplies and children of all ages attend classes. The farm not only produces food, but it also serves as a church, a kindergarten, primary and high schools, and it is a distribution point for aid from a variety of outside organizations.

As Chimbwanda drives visitors down Nyakatsapa's bumpy main road, he stops his small truck to talk with Winfilder Chiinze, an elderly woman accompanying a family member carrying sugar cane up the roadside. Speaking in Shona, Chiinze expresses gratitude for the work of the church.

"We are so grateful for this mission farm, starting from the time of our forefathers," she says. Her forefathers attended the church service and experienced the presence "of the Holy Spirit, which saved us from the webs of sin."

Nyakatsapa is known as a place where people don't smoke or drink alcohol or do promiscuous things, she says. "It is a holy land to us."

The motto on the sign of the Nyakatsapa Primary School is "No Sweat, No Sweet."

On the same grounds, a new building is being constructed at the 25-year-old high school.

"Currently, we have 600 students in the secondary sector," says Principal Jack Chipfiko. A large quantity of the materials has been donated for the building, and many students' parents work alongside the construction crews in doing the hard labor.

Ninety percent of the fresh vegetables consumed in Mutare are grown at the mission farm, Chipfiko says. The farm has 103 tenants with about 500 acres apiece.

The support of United Methodists from outside Zimbabwe is evident everywhere. One U.S.-based United Methodist ministry in particular, Zimbabwe Orphans Endeavor - or ZOE - is present in most of the country's 12 church districts. The program was founded by the Rev. Greg Jenks of Clayton, N.C.

"ZOE is one of our biggest funders right now," says William Sauramba, headmaster of Nyakatsapa Primary School. Among its projects, ZOE started building tables for a library at the school, which has 488 students.

ZOE also has helped with feeding school children, some of whom come to school hungry. "You can't work when you're hungry," Sauramba says.

Tremendous growth
In the two years since Chimbwanda was appointed superintendent, membership in churches of his district increased 4,000 to nearly 6,000. "They see hope in the church," he says. He supervises more than 60 churches, and that number rises to 80 when preaching points are included.

"Most of our people right now are worshipping under trees," he says. "Others are worshipping in classrooms." The United Methodist Church has negotiated with local schools to provide meeting space for congregations.

One pastor walks to four churches within a 30-kilometer radius. Two of the congregations meet under trees; two gather in small sanctuaries.

Paying salaries is a problem in Zimbabwe. "With the hyperinflation right now, the rural and small churches are finding it difficult to pay salaries," says Bishop Nhiwatiwa.

Inflation rose from an annual rate of 32 percent in 1998 to a high of 1,204 percent last August, according to official figures.

The church pairs urban congregations with rural ones to help alleviate the problem.

"I feel for them because I also am in the same shoes with them," Chimbwanda says. In July - before the currency was devalued - he was drawing a salary of Z$5 million a month. School tuition for his 17-year-old, who is in high school, is Z$37 million for three months. In addition, he and his wife, Ruth, pay Z$2 million in tuition for their 13-year-old. Ruth also brings income into the home through her sewing and other projects.

Partners needed
Chimbwanda, described by his bishop as energetic and visionary, would like to have a partnership with a congregation, district or annual conference outside Zimbabwe. He says that would help him become a better administrator, handle challenges and respond to such needs as caring for orphans and mounting an evangelism campaign.

The church is growing in new areas, and it needs evangelists, Chimbwanda explains. "For me to send those evangelists, I need money."

Individual churches and annual conferences, particularly in the United States, are "lifting us up," Nhiwatiwa says. He names several U.S. conferences that are helping the church in Zimbabwe different ways, such as building clinics and funding communications efforts. The church's HIV/AIDS office in Zimbabwe is staffed by a coordinator funded through the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, and a Pennsylvania congregation is working on supplying doctors for Zimbabwean hospitals.

"This is where we experience the global nature of the church," the bishop says.

"It's great to know that you are part of a great church like the United Methodist Church," he says, "and these extensions of help give us hope and sustain us when we face these numerous challenges."

*Tanton is managing editor of United Methodist News Service.

Diplomats urge respect for African self-determination

By Andra Stevens*

MUTARE, Zimbabwe (UMNS) - Africa's right to pursue peace, democracy and development on its own terms emerged as a strong underlying theme in comments from African diplomats speaking recently at Africa University.

The diplomats had gathered for the annual Dag Hammarskjöld Commemorative event that began Oct. 9. The weeklong observance provided opportunities for public reflection and debate on topical issues such as peace, gender and development.

Dag Hammarskjöld (pronounced HAM-mar-shold) assisted the emerging nations of Asia and Africa as the former secretary-general of the United Nations before dying in a 1961 plane crash in Zambia, which was formally Northern Rhodesia.

Talk of political independence and self-determination was a common thread in the comments of Joaquim de Lemos, the Angolan ambassador and dean of the African Group of Ambassadors Resident in Zimbabwe, and Rear Admiral John K. Gbenah, Ghana's ambassador to Zimbabwe.

Issues of peace and governance, De Lemos said, were best tackled by respective countries or regions, taking into account their peculiar histories.

"Right now in Angola, we have enjoyed relative peace for about three years, after having spent over 30 years in the bush," he said. "Therefore processes such as elections and multi-partyism will also take time to realize. (This is) something that has to be understood by the regional as well as international community."

Gbenah concurred and said that "as African people, we need to examine ourselves and try to solve problems which are particular and specific to us in our own context."

Namibia's ambassador, Kakena Nangula, took the opportunity to reaffirm her country's solidarity with Zimbabwe.

"Namibia shall forever stand by Zimbabwe, for better or for worse," Nangula said. "We fought together, bled together in the trenches. … Like Zimbabwe, we declared national reconciliation at independence after waging a 23-year war against South Africa. This was rather out of the realization and recognition of peace and its importance to the people and development."

However, Nangula said, "as Africans, the vestiges of colonialism remain with us, and we need to go through the process of rediscovering ourselves."

Empowering women
The various diplomats spoke of poverty, gender and HIV/AIDS as critical challenges in the African context. Soumana Sako, the executive director of the African Capacity Building Foundation and a former prime minister of Mali, described poverty as the biggest threat to peace and development in Africa. Sako, whose country of Mali is one of the 14 least developed countries in the world, said "…poverty takes away from human beings any hope."

The first step to fighting poverty in Africa and the world, he said, was the empowerment of women. Sako added that governments should put in place mechanisms to ensure equitable access to national resources, which in turn would build transparency and accountability.

Ambassador Sheila Siwela of Zambia took the discussion even further with an appeal for women's and men's voices, ideas and agendas to be given equal weight in peace-building and development efforts. She noted that "the peace agenda is a women's agenda." Issues such as poverty and HIV/AIDS have been given a female face, she said, so African women must be made effective partners in efforts to eradicate war, poverty and disease.

The Dag Hammarskjöld Commemorative Week at Africa University ended Oct. 13 with a one-day focus on United Nations peacekeepers and capacity building for peace and reconciliation in various African countries.

The Dag Hammarskjöld commemorations are an annual event at Africa University, held in partnership with the Embassy of Sweden in Zimbabwe. This year's event featured key speeches, seminars and cultural performances that engaged the public and fostered discussion on issues of peace, gender, leadership, governance and development in Africa.

*Stevens is director of information and public affairs at Africa University.

United Methodist Bishops Meeting in Mozambique Nov. 1-6, the first meeting of this Global Body Outside the United States

WASHINGTON – Bishops of The United Methodist Church will celebrate the rapid growth of the church in Africa when they meet in Mozambique Nov.1-6.

Nearly 80 bishops from the United States, Europe, Africa, and the Philippines are expected to attend the meeting. It will be the first time United Methodist bishops will meet as a group outside the territorial United States.

“By our very presence here, we are embodying the global nature of The United Methodist Church,” said Bishop Janice Riggle Huie of Houston, president of the Council of Bishops.

Most recent estimates show there are more than 2.2 million United Methodists meeting in 6,000 places of worship across Africa. Worldwide, there are an estimated 11 million United Methodists, with nearly 8 million in the United States.

“Africa is at the forefront of ministry. We can learn much from our brothers and sisters in Africa,” Huie said. “In the midst of chaos, violence, disease and heart-wrenching conditions, the cry of the people is ‘Lord, I want to be a Christian.’

“In many areas, the church provides the only access to health care. In many communities, our United Methodist schools are training Africa’s future teachers, business entrepreneurs and governmental leaders,” Huie said.

Bishop João Somane Machado of Mozambique is hosting the meeting. He is the leader of more than 46,000 United Methodists in Mozambique. The council’s headquarters for the meeting will be Avenida Hotel in Maputo, Mozambique’s capital.

In addition to their planned business sessions, the bishops are scheduled to visit and worship in churches in the country, participate in an off-site event celebrating the cultures of the country, and learn first-hand of the denomination’s missions in Mozambique.

Preaching, worship, and bible study during the meeting will be led by African bishops.

The United Methodist Church has a long history of service in Africa. Missionaries first began work in Africa during the 1830s. Now, there are United Methodist ministries, including schools, universities, clinics, and hospitals, in at least 14 African countries. Worldwide, there are United Methodist ministries in 120 countries, according to the church’s global mission agency.

One of the church’s universities, Africa University in Zimbabwe, has become a leader in preparing teachers, agricultural experts, economists and governmental leaders.

The newly elected president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, is an active United Methodist.

Background
African countries with United Methodist congregations: Angola, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Cote D’Ivoire.

Africana Worship Book affirms diversity of African descendents

By Jeanette Pinkston*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - A 21st century Africana liturgy that addresses the ethos, traditions and innovations of United Methodist worshippers of African descent has been released by the United Methodist Board of Discipleship.

The new worship resource, called The Africana Worship Book, contains calls to worship, liturgies, prayers, litanies, offertory prayers, doxologies, choral readings, creeds, chants and benedictions. The compilations are based on Year A of the Revised Common Lectionary, yet are organized by worship elements for ease of use.

At a 2004 consultation on the liturgy needs of African-American United Methodist congregations, participants concluded that these congregations could no longer think of themselves as being solely African-American. Worshippers of African descent come from such places as the continent of Africa, the Caribbean Islands and the Americas. The term "Africana" reflects this diversity and heritage.

Through a needs assessment and discernment process, a clear need emerged for a 21st century Africana liturgy. The Africana Worship Book and CD-ROM were published by the agency's Discipleship Resources. The cost of the book is $32.

Congregations may use the accompanying CD-ROM, which is included with the book, in the preparation of printed orders of worship. All the worship resources in the book are available in a cut-and-paste format for ease of use.

"We use a lot of the liturgies, calls to worship and prayers of confession. It's important for us to have this wonderful resource," said the Rev. Gloria Roach-Thomas, pastor of Camphor United Methodist Church in St. Paul, Minn.

"We're the only African-American United Methodist church in the state of Minnesota. It's a wonderful way for my congregation to connect with the greater United Methodist Africana liturgies and people. We're not working in isolation," she said.

The liturgies are presented in language designed to resonate with worshipers. Roach-Thomas has found "Sin Don' Lost Its Grip" and "Feed Me 'Til I Want No More" particularly popular with her congregation during worship, communion services and Bible studies.

"They almost get down in our bones! It's wonderful! We love it and we use it," she exclaimed.

"They (the liturgies) connect us to our daily lives. All of us can relate. I don't care who you are - African, African-American and other groups - they are so real and practical and authentic. It's truly a wonderful resource."

Worship resources for special days like Black History Month, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and Watchnight are also included.

"The Africana Worship Book offers high-quality resources that help revitalize and renew Africana congregations and, indeed, all faith communities," said the Rev. Karen Greenwaldt, top executive of the United Methodist Board of Discipleship.

The Rev. Valerie Bridgeman Davis, who teaches preaching and worship and Hebrew Bible at Memphis Theological Seminary, was the book's general editor, and the Rev. Safiyah Fosua, director of invitational preaching ministries at the Board of Discipleship, was associate editor.
The Rev. William B. McClain of Wesley Theological Seminary wrote the foreword. In addition to the editors, contributors to this collection are the Rev. Eugene Blair, Carolyn Dandridge, the Rev. Joseph Daniels, the Rev. Junius Dotson, Catrina Harrison, the Rev. Sherrie Dobbs Johnson, the Rev. Kwasi Kena, Toni Payne, Tony Peterson, Ciona Rouse, the Rev. Lillian Smith, the Rev. Marilyn Thornton, the Rev. Tim Warner and Stacey Cole Wilson.

For more information about The Africana Worship Book, visit www.africanaworship.org or contact Safiyah Fosua at (877) 899-2780, Ext. 7084.

*Pinkston is director of media relations for the United Methodist Board of Discipleship.

Death penalty continues despite church's 50-year opposition

A UMNS Report By Tom McAnally*

Fifty years ago, delegates to the Methodist General Conference granted full clergy rights to women. Action by that top legislative body of the denomination prompted anniversary celebrations across the United Methodist Church this year.

Delegates to the 1956 conference in Minneapolis took another historic action that has received little attention. For the first time, delegates put the church officially on record as opposed to the death penalty.

Each Methodist and United Methodist General Conference since that time has reaffirmed its opposition to capital punishment. Meeting every four years, these assemblies are the only bodies that can speak officially for the denomination.

In plenary debate at the 1956 conference, lay and clergy delegates debated several issues related to a proposed update of the church's Social Creed. They discussed the role of the United Nations and argued at length about war and conscientious objection to military service. They talked about capitalism and communism and whether the church should bless any particular economic system. And, as might be expected, they talked about abstinence from drugs and alcoholic beverages.

One thing they didn't debate--at least in the body as a whole--was the addition of a new statement condemning the death penalty. Perhaps all the wrinkles were ironed out in a legislative committee before being sent to the entire body for consideration. Or perhaps a majority of delegates were opposed to the practice and no debate was needed.

Between the 1952 and 1956 Methodist general conferences, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg died in the electric chair, the first civilians to be executed for espionage in the United States. They had been found guilty of conspiring to share atomic secrets with the Soviet Union and were executed June 19, 1953. What influence, if any, their widely publicized trial and executions had on the 1956 delegates is not known. Debate over the Rosenberg trial and their guilt or innocence continues to this day.

Delegates 'deplore' capital punishment
The 1956 Methodist statement opposing the death penalty included two short paragraphs in a section of the Social Creed titled "Treatment of Crime."

"We stand for the application of the redemptive principle to the treatment of offenders against the law, to reform of penal and correctional methods, and to criminal court procedures. For this reason we deplore the use of capital punishment.

"We recognize that crime, and in particular juvenile delinquency leading to crime, is often a result of bad social conditions. Christian citizens and churches have a special opportunity and responsibility for creating those conditions of family life, wholesome recreation, vocational training, personal counseling, and social adjustment by which crime may be reduced."

While women clergy have generally prospered within the denomination since 1956, the new statement deploring the death penalty has apparently had modest influence on governmental policies in the United States.

In an interview with United Methodist News Service, Bill Mefford, director of civil and human rights for the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, said change on the issue has come slowly. "Seeking to abolish the death penalty is a slow and unpredictable process. One can't just look at this issue and say that A plus B equals C."

The long-term challenge is not so much the changing the minds of individual politicians as it is changing the "winds" of public opinion, he said. "We want to further the idea that all of life is worth defending. Church people can do that."

Number of death sentences dropping
While progress may seem slow to some, opponents celebrate the fact that the annual number of death sentences has dropped dramatically from a total of 300 in 1998 to 125 in 2004.

Mefford, a United Methodist layman, is a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary where he is currently working on a doctor of theology degree. He joined the Washington-based Board of Church and Society staff in February. A native of Tennessee, much of his adult life was spent in Texas, a state which ranks first in the number of executions since 1976 (375) and second, behind California, in the number of inmates now on death row (404).

Mefford is working to reinvigorate "United Methodists against the Death Penalty," a network of death penalty opponents started by one of his staff predecessors. "Capital punishment is an issue being dealt with state by state, but we want United Methodists to know that as they work for change, we at the national level are interested in them and want to offer encouragement and resources."

Today, 38 of the 50 states allow the death penalty. According to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, 1,045 individuals have been executed since 1976. The largest number in a single year was in 1999 with 98 executions. As of September, 41 individuals have been executed this year.

The church's Social Principles, found in both the 2004 United Methodist Book of Discipline and 2004 Book of Resolutions, include a succinct paragraph calling for elimination of the death penalty from all criminal codes.

All human life sacred
"We believe the death penalty denies the power of Christ to redeem, restore, and transform all human beings," the Social Principles statement says. While expressing concern about crime and the value of life taken by murder or homicide, delegates to the most recent General Conference in 2004 reaffirmed the church's position that "all human life is sacred and created by God." United Methodists are urged to see all human life as "significant and valuable."

When governments implement the death penalty the life of the convicted person is "devalued and all possibility of change in that person's life ends," the statement declares. "We believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and that the possibility of reconciliation with Christ comes through repentance. This gift of reconciliation is offered to all individuals without exception and gives all life new dignity and sacredness."

That Social Principles statement is not alone among official United Methodist pronouncements on the subject. No less than five resolutions addressing capital punishment were adopted or reaffirmed by the 2004 General Conference delegates and are included in the 970-page 2004 Book of Resolutions.

Two resolutions adopted first in 2000 were reaffirmed: one urging bishops to be aggressive in opposing capital punishment and another calling for a moratorium on the death penalty.

Bishop Janice Riggle Huie, president of the Council of Bishops, told United Methodist News Service that she is proud of the church's long and consistent stance against the death penalty. "Even though we are aware that all United Methodists don't agree, there has been no significant opposition to the church's position in 50 years. Deep in their hearts they know it speaks to the moral rightness of our policy," said the bishop of the Houston Area.

More lengthy statements giving reasons for opposing capital punishment--one adopted in 1980 and another adopted in 2000--were reaffirmed in 2004, with some revisions. Each includes specific recommendations for individual members, congregations, and church-wide agencies.

Delegates to the 2004 General Conference in Pittsburgh adopted a new resolution specifically opposed to the practice of executing juveniles. Since the first recognized execution of a juvenile offender in 1642, the United States has executed at least 366 people for crimes committed as juveniles and has, since 1990, executed more juvenile offenders than all other countries combined, according to the resolution.

In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court in Roper v. Simmons struck down the death penalty for juveniles

With reasoned arguments for why Christians should oppose the death penalty, why hasn't the church's opposition during these 50 years made a greater difference in U.S. governmental policy?

Does death penalty deter crime?
Well-meaning people of faith weigh in on both sides of the debates. Some argue that the death penalty deters crime, but death penalty opponents point to the 2004 FBI Uniform Crime Report which shows that the South, where 80 percent of the executions occurred, has the highest murder rate. The Death Penalty Information Center reports that a survey of former and present presidents of the country's top academic criminological societies indicates that 84 percent of them rejected the notion that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder.

When asked in a May 2006 Gallup Poll whether the death penalty deters murder, 64 percent of those polled said it does not; only 34 percent believe it does. This is a dramatic shift from the 1980s and early 1990s, when the majority of Americans believed that the death penalty prevented murder.

Various polls indicate that a majority of Americans support the death penalty. However that percentage is declining, according to a recent Gallup Poll. When given a choice between the sentencing options of life without parole and the death penalty, Gallup found that only 47 percent of respondents chose capital punishment, the lowest percentage in two decades. Forty-eight percent favored life without parole for those convicted of murder. The poll also revealed that overall support for the death penalty is 65 percent, down significantly from 80 percent in 1994.

Some argue the death penalty is biased against the poor and African Americans, and isn't something that Jesus would do. Thirty-four percent of those executed in the United States since 1976 have been African Americans. Another issue given prominence in recent years is the number of mentally ill individuals executed despite a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Death row inmates found innocent
It could be that the growing percentage of people opposing the death penalty has been influenced by the significant number of death row inmates found innocent in recent years, thanks to new evidence or revelations. Since 1973, more than 120 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence, according to 1993 staff reports from the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights and updated by the Death Penalty Information Center.

In the year 2000, eight inmates were freed from death row and exonerated. Another nine were exonerated from 2001 to2002; 12 in 2003 and six in 2004. One of the most recent cases involved Jeffrey Deskovic who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1990 for the rape and murder of a high school classmate in New York. He was freed from prison on Sept. 20, 2006, after DNA evidence from the crime was matched with another man who also confessed to the murder. The other man was already in prison for a murder in the same county.

The Innocence Project reports that 184 people have been exonerated through DNA evidence since 1989. Of the 123 who have been exonerated from death row since 1973, 14 were freed as a result of DNA testing. The Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York was created by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld in 1992.

The recent Gallup survey of American public opinion on the death penalty found that 63 percent of those polled believed that an innocent person has been executed in the past five years, an increase over previous results.

Some individuals support the death penalty as justified punishment for crimes committed.

A 1980 General Conference resolution, reaffirmed every quadrennium since, says, "The United Methodist Church cannot accept retribution or social vengeance as a reason for taking human life. It violates our deepest belief in God as the Creator and the Redeemer of humankind. In this respect, there can be no assertion that human life can be taken humanely by the state." The statement contends that in the long run the use of the death penalty by the state "will increase the acceptance of revenge in our society and will give official sanction to a climate of violence."

Prison ministry transformational
Writing in the Oct. 3, 2006, issue of The Christian Century, United Methodist Bishop Kenneth L. Carder says the criminal justice system is dominated by notions of retribution, vengeance, punishment and isolation. "The core values of the Christian gospel--forgiveness, compassion, redemption, reconciliation, restorative justice--run counter to prevailing sentiments in the justice system," says Carder, who teaches pastoral formation at United Methodist-related Duke University Divinity School.

Involvement with prison and jail ministries keeps pastors focused on critically important matters, writes Carder. "No place confronts us with life-and-death challenges like death row. Relationships with the condemned and those whose job it is to guard them and execute them are among the most intense and transformative pastoral relationships. Capital punishment ceases to be an abstract political, ethical and theological issue.

"Being present with persons who are awaiting execution, along with their families and the families of the victims of violence, pushes the pastor to the edges of faith and stability," says Carder. "Unless it is involved with the people in jails and prisons, the church will surely lack integrity, consistency and dependability."

The Christian Century section titled "I was in prison . . ." includes a reading list on Christians and prisons. Recommended books are also included in an article by Elizabeth Morgan titled, "Wrestling with the death penalty: Crime and Punishment."

A comprehensive web site with up-to-date information about the death penalty, including state-by-state statistics, is at the Death Penalty Information Center. Other sites are: National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

*McAnally, retired director of United Methodist News Service, lives in Nashville.

Death penalty continues despite church's 50-year opposition

A UMNS Report By Tom McAnally*

Fifty years ago, delegates to the Methodist General Conference granted full clergy rights to women. Action by that top legislative body of the denomination prompted anniversary celebrations across the United Methodist Church this year.

Delegates to the 1956 conference in Minneapolis took another historic action that has received little attention. For the first time, delegates put the church officially on record as opposed to the death penalty.

Each Methodist and United Methodist General Conference since that time has reaffirmed its opposition to capital punishment. Meeting every four years, these assemblies are the only bodies that can speak officially for the denomination.

In plenary debate at the 1956 conference, lay and clergy delegates debated several issues related to a proposed update of the church's Social Creed. They discussed the role of the United Nations and argued at length about war and conscientious objection to military service. They talked about capitalism and communism and whether the church should bless any particular economic system. And, as might be expected, they talked about abstinence from drugs and alcoholic beverages.

One thing they didn't debate--at least in the body as a whole--was the addition of a new statement condemning the death penalty. Perhaps all the wrinkles were ironed out in a legislative committee before being sent to the entire body for consideration. Or perhaps a majority of delegates were opposed to the practice and no debate was needed.

Between the 1952 and 1956 Methodist general conferences, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg died in the electric chair, the first civilians to be executed for espionage in the United States. They had been found guilty of conspiring to share atomic secrets with the Soviet Union and were executed June 19, 1953. What influence, if any, their widely publicized trial and executions had on the 1956 delegates is not known. Debate over the Rosenberg trial and their guilt or innocence continues to this day.

Delegates 'deplore' capital punishment
The 1956 Methodist statement opposing the death penalty included two short paragraphs in a section of the Social Creed titled "Treatment of Crime."

"We stand for the application of the redemptive principle to the treatment of offenders against the law, to reform of penal and correctional methods, and to criminal court procedures. For this reason we deplore the use of capital punishment.

"We recognize that crime, and in particular juvenile delinquency leading to crime, is often a result of bad social conditions. Christian citizens and churches have a special opportunity and responsibility for creating those conditions of family life, wholesome recreation, vocational training, personal counseling, and social adjustment by which crime may be reduced."

While women clergy have generally prospered within the denomination since 1956, the new statement deploring the death penalty has apparently had modest influence on governmental policies in the United States.

In an interview with United Methodist News Service, Bill Mefford, director of civil and human rights for the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, said change on the issue has come slowly. "Seeking to abolish the death penalty is a slow and unpredictable process. One can't just look at this issue and say that A plus B equals C."

The long-term challenge is not so much the changing the minds of individual politicians as it is changing the "winds" of public opinion, he said. "We want to further the idea that all of life is worth defending. Church people can do that."

Number of death sentences dropping
While progress may seem slow to some, opponents celebrate the fact that the annual number of death sentences has dropped dramatically from a total of 300 in 1998 to 125 in 2004.

Mefford, a United Methodist layman, is a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary where he is currently working on a doctor of theology degree. He joined the Washington-based Board of Church and Society staff in February. A native of Tennessee, much of his adult life was spent in Texas, a state which ranks first in the number of executions since 1976 (375) and second, behind California, in the number of inmates now on death row (404).

Mefford is working to reinvigorate "United Methodists against the Death Penalty," a network of death penalty opponents started by one of his staff predecessors. "Capital punishment is an issue being dealt with state by state, but we want United Methodists to know that as they work for change, we at the national level are interested in them and want to offer encouragement and resources."

Today, 38 of the 50 states allow the death penalty. According to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, 1,045 individuals have been executed since 1976. The largest number in a single year was in 1999 with 98 executions. As of September, 41 individuals have been executed this year.

The church's Social Principles, found in both the 2004 United Methodist Book of Discipline and 2004 Book of Resolutions, include a succinct paragraph calling for elimination of the death penalty from all criminal codes.

All human life sacred
"We believe the death penalty denies the power of Christ to redeem, restore, and transform all human beings," the Social Principles statement says. While expressing concern about crime and the value of life taken by murder or homicide, delegates to the most recent General Conference in 2004 reaffirmed the church's position that "all human life is sacred and created by God." United Methodists are urged to see all human life as "significant and valuable."

When governments implement the death penalty the life of the convicted person is "devalued and all possibility of change in that person's life ends," the statement declares. "We believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and that the possibility of reconciliation with Christ comes through repentance. This gift of reconciliation is offered to all individuals without exception and gives all life new dignity and sacredness."

That Social Principles statement is not alone among official United Methodist pronouncements on the subject. No less than five resolutions addressing capital punishment were adopted or reaffirmed by the 2004 General Conference delegates and are included in the 970-page 2004 Book of Resolutions.

Two resolutions adopted first in 2000 were reaffirmed: one urging bishops to be aggressive in opposing capital punishment and another calling for a moratorium on the death penalty.

Bishop Janice Riggle Huie, president of the Council of Bishops, told United Methodist News Service that she is proud of the church's long and consistent stance against the death penalty. "Even though we are aware that all United Methodists don't agree, there has been no significant opposition to the church's position in 50 years. Deep in their hearts they know it speaks to the moral rightness of our policy," said the bishop of the Houston Area.

More lengthy statements giving reasons for opposing capital punishment--one adopted in 1980 and another adopted in 2000--were reaffirmed in 2004, with some revisions. Each includes specific recommendations for individual members, congregations, and church-wide agencies.

Delegates to the 2004 General Conference in Pittsburgh adopted a new resolution specifically opposed to the practice of executing juveniles. Since the first recognized execution of a juvenile offender in 1642, the United States has executed at least 366 people for crimes committed as juveniles and has, since 1990, executed more juvenile offenders than all other countries combined, according to the resolution.

In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court in Roper v. Simmons struck down the death penalty for juveniles

With reasoned arguments for why Christians should oppose the death penalty, why hasn't the church's opposition during these 50 years made a greater difference in U.S. governmental policy?

Does death penalty deter crime?
Well-meaning people of faith weigh in on both sides of the debates. Some argue that the death penalty deters crime, but death penalty opponents point to the 2004 FBI Uniform Crime Report which shows that the South, where 80 percent of the executions occurred, has the highest murder rate. The Death Penalty Information Center reports that a survey of former and present presidents of the country's top academic criminological societies indicates that 84 percent of them rejected the notion that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder.

When asked in a May 2006 Gallup Poll whether the death penalty deters murder, 64 percent of those polled said it does not; only 34 percent believe it does. This is a dramatic shift from the 1980s and early 1990s, when the majority of Americans believed that the death penalty prevented murder.

Various polls indicate that a majority of Americans support the death penalty. However that percentage is declining, according to a recent Gallup Poll. When given a choice between the sentencing options of life without parole and the death penalty, Gallup found that only 47 percent of respondents chose capital punishment, the lowest percentage in two decades. Forty-eight percent favored life without parole for those convicted of murder. The poll also revealed that overall support for the death penalty is 65 percent, down significantly from 80 percent in 1994.

Some argue the death penalty is biased against the poor and African Americans, and isn't something that Jesus would do. Thirty-four percent of those executed in the United States since 1976 have been African Americans. Another issue given prominence in recent years is the number of mentally ill individuals executed despite a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Death row inmates found innocent
It could be that the growing percentage of people opposing the death penalty has been influenced by the significant number of death row inmates found innocent in recent years, thanks to new evidence or revelations. Since 1973, more than 120 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence, according to 1993 staff reports from the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights and updated by the Death Penalty Information Center.

In the year 2000, eight inmates were freed from death row and exonerated. Another nine were exonerated from 2001 to2002; 12 in 2003 and six in 2004. One of the most recent cases involved Jeffrey Deskovic who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1990 for the rape and murder of a high school classmate in New York. He was freed from prison on Sept. 20, 2006, after DNA evidence from the crime was matched with another man who also confessed to the murder. The other man was already in prison for a murder in the same county.

The Innocence Project reports that 184 people have been exonerated through DNA evidence since 1989. Of the 123 who have been exonerated from death row since 1973, 14 were freed as a result of DNA testing. The Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York was created by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld in 1992.

The recent Gallup survey of American public opinion on the death penalty found that 63 percent of those polled believed that an innocent person has been executed in the past five years, an increase over previous results.

Some individuals support the death penalty as justified punishment for crimes committed.

A 1980 General Conference resolution, reaffirmed every quadrennium since, says, "The United Methodist Church cannot accept retribution or social vengeance as a reason for taking human life. It violates our deepest belief in God as the Creator and the Redeemer of humankind. In this respect, there can be no assertion that human life can be taken humanely by the state." The statement contends that in the long run the use of the death penalty by the state "will increase the acceptance of revenge in our society and will give official sanction to a climate of violence."

Prison ministry transformational
Writing in the Oct. 3, 2006, issue of The Christian Century, United Methodist Bishop Kenneth L. Carder says the criminal justice system is dominated by notions of retribution, vengeance, punishment and isolation. "The core values of the Christian gospel--forgiveness, compassion, redemption, reconciliation, restorative justice--run counter to prevailing sentiments in the justice system," says Carder, who teaches pastoral formation at United Methodist-related Duke University Divinity School.

Involvement with prison and jail ministries keeps pastors focused on critically important matters, writes Carder. "No place confronts us with life-and-death challenges like death row. Relationships with the condemned and those whose job it is to guard them and execute them are among the most intense and transformative pastoral relationships. Capital punishment ceases to be an abstract political, ethical and theological issue.

"Being present with persons who are awaiting execution, along with their families and the families of the victims of violence, pushes the pastor to the edges of faith and stability," says Carder. "Unless it is involved with the people in jails and prisons, the church will surely lack integrity, consistency and dependability."

The Christian Century section titled "I was in prison . . ." includes a reading list on Christians and prisons. Recommended books are also included in an article by Elizabeth Morgan titled, "Wrestling with the death penalty: Crime and Punishment."

A comprehensive web site with up-to-date information about the death penalty, including state-by-state statistics, is at the Death Penalty Information Center. Other sites are: National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

*McAnally, retired director of United Methodist News Service, lives in Nashville.

New United Methodist Missionaries Receive A Blessing of Bread from Those Retiring

By Elliott Wright*

STAMFORD, CT, October 11, 2006--Fourteen new United Methodist missionaries each received a loaf of bread for the journey from 14 retiring missionaries as the new missionaries were sent to serve in ten different countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The dramatic liturgical act took place during a service of worship in which the new missionaries were commissioned and retiring missionaries were honored by the denomination’s General Board of Global Ministries. Directors of the mission agency met in Stamford, CT, on October 9 through 12.

Bishop Violet Fisher of North Central and Western New York said in a sermon that the work of the new missionaries would not be easy but that they would be sustained by Jesus Christ, the ”Bread of Life—bread with a capital B.” Her biblical text was the account of Jesus feeding the 5,000 in the Gospel of John (6:1-13).

The “commissioning” of missionaries involves a ritual of solemnity and joy in which the Church, represented by laity and clergy, symbolically sets the missionaries apart for special work.

“Missionary” is one of the oldest and most honorable designations for a professional Christian worker. Missionaries spread the “good news” of Jesus and serve people in varieties of ways.

The new missionaries include pastors, educators, health professionals, and an agronomist. They are assigned to Bolivia, Cambodia, Chile, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Mozambique, Senegal, Thailand, and Zambia.

Two of the group, the Rev. Sherri Tabaka-Morrisey and her husband the Rev. Michael W. Morrissey, Jr., of the Kentucky Annual Conference are the first United Methodist missionaries assigned to Thailand.

Fourteen of 24 missionaries retiring this year were present in Stamford. Bishop Joel N. Martinez of San Antonio, president of the mission board, paid tribute to the retirees who collectively represent almost 500 years of mission service.

Deaconess Marian Martin, formerly director of the Gulfside Assembly in Waveland, MS, a center destroyed by Hurricane Katrina but being rebuilt, spoke on behalf of the retirees. Her counsel to the new missionaries: “Love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.” (See list of retirees below).

Bishop Fisher, a vice president of the General Board of Global Ministries who was herself a missionary in Africa in her youth, spoke forcefully about the call to mission service and the “servant role” of missionaries. And, she said, “God never calls anyone who God does not prepare.”

The new missionaries come from ten annual conferences in the United States and Africa. In addition to the Morrisseys, they include:

The Rev. Kimberly Brown-Whale and the Rev. Richard Brown-Whale are from the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference, and are returning to missionary service. They are assigned to the Senegal Mission and will be based in Dakar.
John and Suzanne Nunn Funk from the North Alabama Annual Conference will be working at the Colorado Technical Agricultural High School in Rio Colorado, Bolivia.
Becky Harrell, Southwest Texas Annual Conference, will continue as coordinator of Methodist Extension to Andean Youth, Iquique, Chile, a post she held for several years as a volunteer in mission.
Sun Lae Kim, Greater New Jersey Annual Conference, is assigned to congregational development work at the United Methodist Mission, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
The Rev. Dennis Lipke and Mrs. Dale Lipke, Virginia Annual Conference, are going to the Cambine Mission, Mozambique.
Irene Mparutsa, Zimbabwe West Annual Conference, will serve as coordinator for community health, agriculture and microenterprise in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Tshala Mwengo, South Congo Annual Conference is assigned as director of the Mujila Falls Agricultural Project in Mwinilunga, Zambia.
Hee Jin Park, California Pacific Annual Conference is coordinator of evangelism and church growth at the United Methodist Center in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Farayi Tiriwepi, Zimbabwe West Annual Conference is area financial executive in the Central Congo Area, Democratic Republic of Congo, based in Kinshasa.

The retiring missionaries and deaconesses, their years of service, and their places of service are:
Lucille Barton, seven years, US
Wilson Boots, 26 years, Argentina, Bolivia, the US
Barbara Brooks, 32 years, US and Colombia
Sharon Crowe, 17 years, Democratic Republic of Congo
William Crowe, 17 years, Democratic Republic of Congo
Dennis Holoway, 28 years, US
Jean Jacobs, 39 years, Peru and Mexico
Carolina Labrada, 14 years, Mexico and the US
Claire Lovelace, 18 years, US
Shirley Lukens, 11 years, US
Marian Martin, 30 years, USA
Perry “Rick” Newbury, 30 1/2 years, US
Nancy Peterson, 13 years, US
Diane Ray, 28 years, Nigeria and Kenya
Ronald Ray, 28, Nigeria and Kenya
Jeannine Reynolds, 10 years, US
Alan Streyffeler, 18 years, Zimbabwe, Senegal, and US
Mavis Streyffeler, 18 years, Zimbabwe, Senegal, and US
Donald Turman, almost 17 years, Indonesia
Ramona Turman, almost 17 years, Indonesia
Christine Williams, almost 8 years, US
Patricia Wise, 34 years, US
Diana Upchurch, almost 16 years, Democratic Republic of Congo and Guyana
William Upchurch, almost 16 years, Democratic Republic of Congo and Guyana

The 14 retired missionaries present for the celebration were Lucille Barton, Wilson Boots, Dennis Holoway, Jean Jacobs, Marian Martin, Diane Ray, Ronald Ray, Jeannine Reynolds, Alan Streyffeler, Mavis Streyffeler, Donald Turman, Ramona Turman, Diana Upchurch, and William Upchurch.

*Elliott Wright is the information officer of the General Board of Global Ministries.

Funds needed to repair campus ministry buildings

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (UMNS) - The United Methodist Campus Ministers Association is working to raise $170,000 to repair Wesley Foundation buildings damaged by Hurricane Katrina and to support campus ministries in Louisiana and Mississippi.

The Rev. Bill Campbell, campus minister at Middle Tennessee State University and co-chairman of the association, said money is needed for construction and renovation, furnishings, appliances and ministry programs at Gulf Coast colleges and universities.

A total of $115,000 is needed for construction and renovation of the Wesley Foundation buildings at Tulane University in New Orleans and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Perkinston. An additional $55,000 is needed for programs at these schools and at Dillard University in New Orleans.

Severe damages
"The Wesley Foundation at Tulane University was flooded with several inches of water," said the Rev. Max Zehner, United Methodist campus minister at the New Orleans college. "The good news was that our newly added building space fared quite well structurally against the winds of Katrina. The bad news was that the flood waters advanced as high as a foot in parts of our building. The building needed to be gutted on the lower level, and we lost all our flooring and furniture."

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The Wesley Foundation building on the campus of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Perkinston was damaged so severely that it was declared unsafe for occupation. Land was donated for a new multipurpose building, which will include space for a new home for the Wesley Foundation.

Susan Vuyovich, a campus minister at Perkinston, said the need for a social and spiritual support system was magnified when six students at the college were killed in a traffic accident a few months after Katrina. The tragedy dramatized the need for a new Wesley Foundation home and a place for students to gather with friends.

Decline in funds
Declining support from the denomination frequently means more than half of a campus ministry's operating budget must be raised by each local Wesley Foundation, Campbell said.
"To raise funds for campus ministry, Wesley Foundation boards and campus ministers turn to individuals and the surrounding community for the strongest support," he said. "When an entire region is devastated, a Wesley Foundation program within that region that is hit especially hard loses not only apportionment money but also the sustaining backbone support of individuals and area churches."

Bishop Hope Morgan Ward, leader of the Mississippi Area, joined the campus ministers in urging churches to support the Katrina Campus Ministry Recovery Appeal. Information on the Katrina Church Recovery Appeal is available at http://umc.org/churchrecovery. Donations can be made online or designated for Bishops' Appeal #818-001 and sent to an annual conference treasurer.

Donations to assist the United Methodist Campus Ministers Association's Wesley Foundations recovery efforts can be made to the United Methodist Higher Education Foundation. Checks can be designated in the memo line for Katrina Campus Ministry Recovery. Donations should be sent to United Methodist Higher Education Foundation, 1001 Nineteenth Ave., South, Nashville, TN 37212-2130. For more information, contact Thomas Yow, foundation president and chief executive, at tyow@gbhem.org.

Online course will help churches develop Web ministries

By Linda Green

The communications arm of the United Methodist Church is launching an online tool to help local churches develop Web sites and Web ministries that are helpful and inviting, and that provide opportunities for spiritual growth.

In an effort to further bring the denomination into the digital age, United Methodist Communications has created Web Ministry 101, a free online training experience that provides a local church with the basic steps to establish an Internet presence.

The introductory training provides 25 how-to steps to guide a person from the purchase of a computer to launching a church Web site.

United Methodist Communications launched this online learning center Oct. 16 at www.web.umcom.org.

"More people are using the Internet for information to aid in spiritual growth, learning more about Christian teachings and making connections with others who are exploring Christian faith," said the Rev. Larry Hollon, top staff executive at United Methodist Communications.

A need for new tools
The Nashville-based communications agency decided to launch a course after surveying local church Web site administrators who said such online training is needed.

"This is encouraging because it indicates a desire by United Methodists to use new tools to reach people for the Christian community and Jesus Christ," Hollon said.

He likened Web ministry to the early Wesleyan movement that took the gospel to people beyond the walls of the church building and into homes, the streets and other settings.

"We at United Methodist Communications understand that Christian community is most authentic in the company of people in local congregations. But the commission we have from Jesus is to reach out to all," Hollon said. "The Internet provides us with the ability to reach people we might not reach in any other way and invite them into the community of faith. We need to have the tools and skills to communicate well. Web Ministry 101 provides these tools and offers a way to learn the skills."

Self-directed course
According to the designers, the on-demand and self-directed course will enable people to complete the program on their own time schedules. The course, which requires registration, contains four 30-minute sessions with supporting guides and resources. Each "non-techie" session is available to anyone who has Internet access and a computer with sound.

UMCom designers say Web Ministry 101 could provide entrée for connecting local churches, annual conferences, districts and agencies, and it could offer a way to effectively share resources online. Use of the Web also helps churches reach young people who spend most of their time connected to some form of electronic media.

The agency is tentatively planning an end-of-year roll out of Web Ministry 102, an online community for Web ministry and an online newsletter.

*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.

Speakers challenge church health ministry leaders

By Deborah White

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (UMNS) - United Methodists need to become agents of "holy boldness" in advocating for better health care, Bishop Felton May told a national gathering of health ministry leaders.

"Our health system is broken - 46 million Americans have no health care and 40 million have minimal coverage; 18,000 Americans die every year because they have no health insurance. How can we say we're the strongest nation in the world when we treat our citizens so shabbily?" asked May, dean of Philander Smith College's Harry R. Kendall Science and Health Mission Center in Little Rock, Ark.

"Our vision is a culture of caring with health care for all," said May, addressing United Methodist leaders who gathered Oct. 8-11 at St. Columbo Retreat Center in the Memphis area for the National Congregational Health Ministries Conference. "Empowering Ministries of Health: Transform, Mobilize, Advocate" was the theme of the conference, sponsored by the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

About 75 health ministry leaders representing 37 annual (regional) conferences attended the meeting. Topics included how to start health ministries, teach congregations about healthy lifestyles, collaborate with other agencies, encourage balance in body, mind and spirit, and address HIV/AIDS. The conference also included an in-depth tour of the Church Health Center in Memphis, an interfaith health ministry led by Dr. Scott Morris, a physician and United Methodist pastor.

The conference is part of a growing emphasis on health ministry in the United Methodist Church. It was the second annual National Congregational Health Ministries Conference. A third conference is planned for Sept. 23-26, 2007, in Wichita, Kan.

A prescription for health
A health ministry can embrace much more than physical health, and it doesn't have to be confined to the church building, several speakers said.

To start a health ministry, first assess the needs of church members, recommended Sheridan Smotherman, congregational heath ministries coordinator at the Church Health Center.

She gave participants a "Congregational Prescription for Health," an assessment tool developed by the Church Health Center. It includes questionnaires for individuals, for small groups, and for the pastor and health ministry committee. "It will provide a road map to health ministry," she said.

A thriving health ministry needs a diverse committee that includes children and teens, Smotherman said, adding, "Who wants to hear about arthritis 24/7?"

But don't get trapped in committee work, advised the Rev. Gary Gunderson, senior vice president of Health and Welfare Ministries at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Memphis.

"Point outside of your structure," he said. "Health is formed outside our walls. We need partnership."

For Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, this means forming partnerships with congregations, other health care organizations and universities. In a new project called Partnering Congregations, a group of pastors is developing a model covenant for congregations and the hospital system, said Teresa Cutts, Methodist Interfaith Health Program senior scholar.

Participating churches will assign volunteer caregivers to help members of the congregation when they leave the hospital. They will check on members, deliver food, mow lawns, pick up prescriptions and assist in other non-medical ways. "The focus will be on caregiving, not health care providing," Cutts said.

Cutts also provided tips to health ministry leaders on collaborating with other organizations in the community. "Build a network of people you trust," she said. "Find informal leaders that do the work for love, not money, and their passion will help sustain the work."

Spiritual pyramid
Good health for individuals and congregations includes a strong spiritual component, conference leaders pointed out. "Often the spiritual dimension is left out," said Kae Tritle, a registered nurse and wellness coordinator for the denomination's Iowa Annual (regional) Conference.

A Harvard Medical School study concluded that people who spent time with their "higher power" were more able to resist the physical aspects of stress, Tritle said. "When you enter into prayer, you are already changing your focus from the problem or stress to God," she said. "Breathing slows, emotions calm down. Our stress decreases."

Bishop Sally Dyck of Minnesota presented a spiritual pyramid, her model of a balanced spiritual life. It includes 30 minutes of Bible study and prayer per day; two hours per week of small group discipleship; one to two hours of service in the church and one to two hours of worship; 30 to 90 minutes of service and outreach per month; and 8 to 16 hours of retreat time per year. (See www.minnesotaumc.org to download a copy of the spiritual pyramid.)

"I offer this as a way of thinking about your spiritual life and looking at your local church," she said. "Are you missing one of the components?"

God brings healing
Another challenge came from Bishop Fritz Mutti, who urged stronger advocacy in the fight against HIV/AIDS. "One of the problems with this global pandemic is to make people aware. It's on the back burner," said Mutti, bishop in residence at Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Mo., and author of Dancing in the Wheelchair, a book about HIV/AIDS.

At the closing worship service, Bishop Hope Morgan Ward of Mississippi said, "With the community of God's people, we can help one another.

"How do we receive God's gifts? We don't have a clue how to make this work, but God does. God will bring healing to God's people," she said. "I pray that some day people will say, 'Those Methodists - there's something bright about them.'"

*White is associate editor of Interpreter magazine, published by United Methodist Communications.