Mission Leader Rejects All Immigration Proposals Before the U.S. Congress

New York, NY, May 25, 2005—The chief mission executive of The United Methodist Church says that none of the current legislative proposals before the Congress are “adequate to address the full range of issues related to a just, humane immigration policy.”

The Rev. R. Randy Day described as “inhumane and punitive” a bill adopted late last year by the House of Representatives. He said that that some provisions of a measure before the Senate also fan the flames of “xenophobia, or the fear and dislike of strangers.” Rev. Day is general secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries.

He said that White House and legislative action to dispatch the National Guard to the US-Mexican border are “scare tactics and measures of malice, intended to bend the will of voters toward harsh treatment of people seeking opportunity and hospitality.”

“It would be a travesty if the ‘land of the free and the home of the brave’ were to become the land of exclusion and the home of the frightened; a land of expulsion and incivility,” Day declared.

The strongly worded statement was issued on the eve of a Senate vote on an immigration measure that is less strict toward undocumented immigrants than is the House bill. Differences would then need to be negotiated.

Day urged Congress “to adopt comprehensive immigration policy that respects the full human rights of all immigrants. This should include full labor protections, family reunification, preservation of due process, and a path to genuine legalization.”

He noted that directors of the global ministries agency in April passed a resolution asking Congress to “refrain from passing laws relating to immigration that would divide families, make felons out of millions of workers now in the US who are without green cards or visas, encourage mistreatment of immigrants or criminalize the efforts of the Christian church, other faith traditions and social service organizations to help people in need, regardless of their citizenship status."

Day said the House bill and some of the Senate measures would do what the Global Ministries directors warned against. The board resolution was based upon official policy of The United Methodist Church.

The full text of Day’s statement follows:

Statement on Immigration Policy and Legislation

As the Senate prepares to vote this week on immigration legislation, none of the current proposals seem adequate to address the full range of issues related to a just, humane immigration policy.

In keeping with positions of The United Methodist Church and the General Board of Global Ministries, I call on Congress to adopt comprehensive immigration policy that respects the full human rights of all immigrants. This should include full labor protections, family reunification, preservation of due process, and a path to genuine legalization.

Public policy affecting immigrants and refugees is one of the important issues before the people of the United States today, and it is an issue with global implications. The Congress in both houses has been considering the reform of existing laws for several years. The House of Representatives in late 2005 adopted a bill that many thoughtful persons, including religious leaders of many faiths and denominations, consider inhumane and punitive toward millions of undocumented immigrants already in the country. The hallmark of the House bill is tighter restriction on immigration, which would result in mass deportations—the ousting of people who entered the country under lax enforcement, many of whom are productive, law abiding residents. The debate in the Spring of 2006 moved to the Senate, where considerable energy has focused on a comprehensive approach to immigration and refugee policy, including means by which many of the current immigrants could move toward legal residence and citizenship.

The Senate shelved the matter in early May following massive demonstration in favor of reasonable and humane laws. It returned to the immigration debate in mid-May, hearing some amendments that might improve the bill and others that can only be defined as xenophobic, that is, reflecting a fear and dislike of strangers. The White House has also fanned xenophobic flames by making plans to dispatch the National Guard to the US-Mexican border, a gesture more symbolic than practical.

Immigration and refugee policy is of great concern to The United Methodist Church, the third largest denomination in the US and an international Church. We have a long history of ministry and humanitarian service with refugees and other immigrants in the US and elsewhere. We historically have supported just immigration policies. In the US, we have a network of congregation- and institution-related legal clinics and other programs for immigrants. Much of this work is coordinated through the General Board of Global Ministries, the international United Methodist mission agency, and its United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), a major humanitarian organization providing emergency disaster relief and long-term rehabilitation and economic development internationally.

With regard to the continuing immigration debate, which is admittedly complex, the directors of Global Ministries in early April, 2006 adopted a resolution asking Congress to refrain from enacting harsh and intolerant laws against undocumented immigrants. The measure appealed to lawmakers to “refrain from passing laws relating to immigration that would divide families, make felons out of millions of workers now in the US who are without green cards or visas, encourage mistreatment of immigrants or criminalize the efforts of the Christian church, other faith traditions and social service organizations to help people in need, regardless of their citizenship status." The resolution was based on actions of the 2004 legislating General Conference of the Church and reflected the appeals of many bishops and several other agencies of the Church. Our Women’s Division, the corporate entity for United Methodist Women, has also selected just immigrant policy as a current priority.

I deeply fear that some Senators and the White House in mid-May returned to the immigration issue with actions and slogans that favor harsh, unjust and intolerant laws and treatment of immigrants. Some legislative amendments would divide families, make felons out of millions of workers, and encourage mistreatment of undocumented workers by denying visas and the opportunity to seek citizenship. We hear of another amendment that would exempt from criminalization religious groups who provide service to the undocumented; however, it is little comfort to the Church to receive an exemption when the people we care about stand in harm’s way from laws that seek only to punish.

Sending the National Guard to patrol the border with Mexico and declaring English to be the national language are little more than scare tactics and measures of malice, intended to bend the will of voters toward harsh treatment of people seeking opportunity and hospitality.

I appeal to the Congress of the United States to come to its senses, to approach the matter of immigrant and refugee policy in a calm and unhurried manner that will maintain respect to human dignity and justice under law. At the same time, citizens should inform themselves on the plight of immigrants, including the undocumented, their human motives and present and potential contributions to the United States.

It would be a travesty if the “land of the free and the home of the brave” were to become the land of exclusion and the home of the frightened; a land of expulsion and incivility.

R. Randy Day
May 25, 2006

Ethnic grants support nine ministries in Africa, U.S.

By Kathy L. Gilbert

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - Nine grants totaling $138,600 will help programs serving ethnic minorities across the globe reach their ministry goals.

The United Methodist Board of Church and Society approved funding for programs ranging from a leadership training seminar for 35 youth leaders in Mozambique to a program in Shreveport, La., that provides medical supplies and care to the poor and uninsured.
The Ethnic Local Church Fund was created to help the denomination's program boards support local church and annual conference ministries in each board's area of concern.

Grants for 2006:

"2006 Ethnic Young Adult Summer Internship ($55,000). Eleven interns will live together in Washington June 4-Aug. 1 and work in organizations addressing social justice concerns. The internship has been sponsored by the United Methodist Board of Church and Society for the last 20 years.

"The Pool of Siloam Medical Ministry in the Louisiana Annual (regional) Conference ($25,000). The grant will support expanding an existing program that provides medical supplies and medical care to the poor and uninsured in the Shreveport District, in response to a fourfold increase in the homeless evacuee population.

"The Quechan Elders Treasure, Fort Yuma United Methodist Church, Desert-Southwest Annual (regional) Conference ($11,000). This is a local indigenous Quechan-language church project to develop cultural curricula for children to strengthen traditions and identity. It is a method for intervening in drug and alcohol abuse and creating a safe environment.

"Every Member in Ministry for the 21st Century, Southern Jurisdiction Agency for Native American Ministries ($10,000). This is a continuing leadership development initiative of the Southeastern Jurisdiction to respond to crisis in the Native American community. Focus will be on laity training and advocacy on healthy decision making, addictions and outreach in a three-day summer conference.

"Black Church Summit, BMCR/Conference Advocacy Team/Connectional Ministries, South Georgia Conference, Southeastern Jurisdiction ($9,800). The summit for local churches in the South Georgia Annual (regional) Conference will build on worship, grant-writing skills, United Methodist Board of Church and Society and agency resources, health care advocacy and community education on issues such as HIV-AIDS, nutrition and preventive health care. The summit is part of a comprehensive health initiative and an effort to strengthen existing networks and outreach to local African-American churches in South Georgia.

"Sisters, Methodist Mission Church Extension Society, Methodist Action Program, Peninsula-Delaware Conference, Northeastern Jurisdiction ($9,000). This is a 16-week leadership development and risk-reduction program of the Methodist Action Program in the Wilmington, Del., area. The multiethnic project for economically marginal young women focuses on improvement of life skills, self-esteem, socialization and mentoring, followed up by local church relationships.

"United Methodist Church Women's Society, Mozambique South and North Conferences, Africa Central Conference ($7,000). A four-day leadership development and training project is held once during the quadrennium and focuses on the Social Principles. It will provide women from across Mozambique with foundational knowledge and advocacy skills to interpret the Social Principles in their own contexts.

"Youth Leadership Training and Development, Mozambique United Methodist Youth, Mozambique South and North Conferences, Africa Central Conference ($6,800). A leadership training seminar for 35 youth leaders from across Mozambique focuses on community response to the Social Principles, facilitated by United Methodist Board of Church and Society staff and youth leadership. Issues of leadership in community and youth responses will be covered.

"St. Paul's United Methodist Church Creative Arts Program for Youth, California-Nevada Annual (regional) Conference, Western Jurisdiction, $5,000. An arts-based development program for San Jose youth in an ethnically pluralistic and low-income area, this initiative builds on the conference vision for ethnic ministries and focuses on drama, music, dance and visual arts classes.

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

Black, white churches share space, receive glimpse of heaven

By Betty Backstrom



The Revs. Simon Chigumira (left) and Roger Templeton stand behind a banner welcoming both congregations to worship at Oak Park United Methodist Church. A UMNS photo by Betty Backstrom


LAKE CHARLES, La. (UMNS) - The pastors of Warren and Oak Park United Methodist churches say their churches are getting a glimpse of what God's kingdom looks like after a series of events triggered by Hurricane Rita last fall.

Warren Church is an historic, urban church composed of 30 African-American extended families and led by the Rev. Simon Chigumira. Oak Park has served a white congregation in a residential part of the city since 1951. The church is led by the Rev. Roger Templeton.

The members of Warren Church now worship at Oak Park each Sunday morning because their sanctuary, built in 1920, stands in ruins after Rita's Sept. 24 landfall.

"After Hurricane Rita hit, the city was basically empty for two and a half weeks due to a mandatory evacuation," said Chigumira, a Zimbabwe native. "When allowed to come back, we were faced with the reality that our beautiful church building was destroyed. Our congregation was in shock, but there was too much need in our community to stop and feel sorry for ourselves."

The church immediately began the operation of a supplies and food bank, which served storm victims in the area.

"Many of the families surrounding the church are impoverished," he said. "The children of the area have witnessed crimes and drug dealing. The residents are definitely at risk." He said he hopes the Warren parsonage, which is still usable, will be converted into an outreach center that can continue to serve the neighborhood.

Respecting differences
Templeton invited Chigumira and the Warren congregation to use the Oak Park sanctuary for worship services in mid-October. After a few adjustments, the current Sunday morning worship schedule is 9:30 for Oak Park and 11 for Warren.

"I also pastor Fairview United Methodist Church, a smaller congregation in the area," Templeton said. "While Simon leads worship for the Warren church in Oak Park's sanctuary, I head over to conduct services for Fairview's congregation at 11 a.m. each Sunday."

Both pastors realized it would be important to maintain separate worship opportunities for the respective churches. "Warren's congregation had been through so much change and trauma, we knew it was essential that they maintain some element of what was familiar," Templeton said.

"Also, Simon and I both recognized that the worship styles of both congregations were quite different - Warren with a spirited praise style and Oak Park with its traditional approach. We wanted to respect those differences," said Templeton, with Chigumira nodding in agreement.

On Easter, though, both congregations worshipped together during one service.

"The church was alive with the Holy Spirit," Templeton said. "There was standing room only in the sanctuary, and everyone was moved by the experience.

"I was looking at Helen Lewis, a longtime member of Warren United Methodist Church, and my teenage daughter Bethany serving side by side at the altar during the service. I remember thinking that this must be what heaven looks like," he said, tears in his eyes.

Mutual admiration
The two pastors have a strong admiration for each other.

"Roger has so much grace and diplomacy. Everything he has said throughout this process is not just words; he truly lives out the spiritual gift of hospitality ... and so does his congregation," said Chigumira.

Templeton is equally impressed with his colleague. "I've learned a lot from Simon. He is a strong pastoral leader who gently walked his congregation through the process of grief in losing their church. He knew instinctively when to provide space and grace," he said.

The invitation to host Warren at Oak Park has not been without its struggles or its detractors. "Inevitably, God will push us beyond our comfort zone. But it gives us a chance to examine what it truly means to be in ministry, not just to exist. We become sensitive to doing things a different way," Templeton said.

'God is at work here'
Plans for an ongoing, blended service at 8:15 on Sunday mornings are under way. The service will be designed to attract younger, "unchurched" members and will probably have a relaxed format and contemporary music.

"One thing Hurricane Rita did not destroy is a wealth of state-of-the-art sound equipment at Warren UMC. Oak Park didn't have these resources, so it is rewarding for us to contribute these items to make the blended service a reality," Chigumira said.

"God is at work here, and we have to be obedient," said Chigumira, who shared that he had dreamed of Warren developing into an African American mega-church. "Change is a process. And no matter how clumsy it may have been, or how many missteps may have happened, at the end of the day, these two congregations have started something special.

"Separately, we were two great churches. Together, we are so much more. This is what the kingdom of God is all about."

*Backstrom is editor of Louisiana Now!, the newspaper of the United Methodist Church's Louisiana Annual Conference.

WORSHIP-PREACHING-MUSIC RESOURCES FOR SPECIAL DAYS IN JUNE 2006

Pentecost Day (June 4, 2006)
http://www.gbod.org/worship/default.aspact=reader&item_id=15877&loc_id=9,32,51
http://www.gbod.org/worship/lectionaryhymns/060406hymns.asp

Peace with Justice Sunday (June 11, 2006)http://www.umcgiving.org/content/sundays/PWJS_nav/peace.asp
http://www.gbod.org/worship/worship/articles.asp?act=reader&item_id=15890&loc_id=9,32,52

John Wesley's Birthday (Saturday, June 17, 2006)
http://www.gbod.org/worship (click on Wesley Resources in left column)

Fathers Day (June 18, 2006)
http://www.gbod.org/worship/default.asp?act=reader&item_id=11928
http://www.gbod.org/worship/worship/articles.asp?act=reader&item_id=11928&loc_id=9,32,54
http://www.gbod.org/worship/default_body.asp?act=reader&item_id=14280
http://www.gbod.org/worship/default.asp?act=reader&item_id=14280&loc_id=1,1061,1081

An Act of Farewell to a Pastor
http://www.gbod.org/worship/default.asp?act=reader&item_id=11782

Grants fund dreams for peace around the globe

By Kathy L. Gilbert*


Philip Karhan stands in the doorway of his house in Virginia, Liberia, which he shares with three other former child soldiers. A UMNS photo by Kathy L. Gilbert


WASHINGTON (UMNS) - The most vulnerable people in Liberia are small, young and defenseless.

The West African country is trying to recover from 14 years of a bloody civil war that was often fought on the backs of children. The Peace Builder Children's Club is the dream of a United Methodist missioner to change ex-combatant children into "bearers of good tidings of peace."

"These children, who have been soldiers, they know the things they've done, and they worry that they will not be accepted back into society," says Frido N. Kinkolenge, a North Carolina-supported missioner in Liberia. A $5,000 grant from the United Methodist Board of Church and Society will help make the Peace Builder Children's Club a reality.

"Boys and girls as young as 10 have been recruited by force by different belligerent powers to fight," says Kinkolenge. "They were fed drugs, taught murder and (they) murdered by utilizing hacking machetes. Children were used as channels for carrying out hatred across Liberia."

The club will be for children ages 14-16. They will learn to work with their peers in United Methodist churches, United Methodist schools and communities in Grand Bassa, Rivercess and Sinoe counties and the Morweh circuit. The children will receive education about peace, reconciliation and forgiveness through seminars and workshops, Kinkolenge says in his request for the grant. The grant will also provide training for 200 people to work with the children in the different counties and circuit.

Akim Werkpewolo (center) enjoys playing games at an interim care center for former child
soldiers in Virginia, Liberia. A UMNS photo by Kathy L. Gilbert. Akim Werkpewolo (center) enjoys playing games at an interim care center for former child soldiers in Virginia, Liberia. Werkpewolo and more than 15,000 teenagers like him, lost their childhoods when they were forced to become soliders in Liberia’s 14-year-long civil war. The Peace Builder Children’s Club in Liberria, a recipient of a United Methodist Board of Church and Society Peace with Justice Grant, will teach the former child soliders about peace, reconciliation, and forgiveness through seminars and workshops. The Peace Builder Children’s Club is one of 15 grants totaling $49,500 awarded by the board. The funding comes from a churchwide offering taken on Peace with Justice Sunday. A UMNS file photo by Kathy Gilbert.

Peace Builder Children's Club is one of 15 Peace with Justice Grants totaling $49,500 approved at the spring meeting of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society.

The funding comes from a churchwide offering taken on Peace with Justice Sunday, which falls on June 11 this year.

Grants for 2006:
+Partners in Justice For Peace, Grand Rapids (Mich.) District Peace with Justice Community and Female Light Production for All Occasions Partnership ($5,000). FELIPRO will implement a business-cooperative model in which women are all owners learning to produce marketable embroidered art for local, tourist and international markets. The partnership will result in an art and training center.

+United Methodist Action for Justice and Peace in Central Congo, West Congo Annual Conference ($5,000). The grant will help train 100 election observers in each annual conference and inform people about democratic values for the upcoming national election process.

+Lost Boys: Found! A Time of Reunion, Vision, Advocacy and Hope, Crossroads United Methodist Church, Ashburn, Va. ($5,000). Five "Lost Boys of Sudan" have partnered with Crossroads United Methodist Church to plan a reunion of lost boys who have resettled in the United States. Lost Boys: Found! will be held at George Mason University July 7-8 and will draw attention to the current conditions in Southern Sudan.

+International Interfaith Accompaniment Program to Facilitate the Truth and Reconciliation Process in Liberia, Manhattan District, New York, and United Methodist Church, Liberia ($5,000). The program will serve as a visible expression of solidarity with those seeking reconciliation and peace. Religious leaders will be paired with members of the international faith community to cultivate community-wide affirmation for people who want to testify before the commission. The religious leaders will accompany those testifying and will prepare the community for receiving back their "neighbors." The program will also provide spiritual support to the commissioners as they endure the daily burden of hearing of the atrocities and the inhumane experiences of the witnesses.

+Skyline Urban Ministries, Oklahoma Area ($4,000). The grant will be used for a Peace Challenge Camp for fifth- and sixth-graders that will push the possibility of forgiveness in creating a culture of peace. Topics at the camp will include the causes of hatred, prejudice and tolerance, forgiveness and the qualities of heroism.

+The Micah Project, First United Methodist Church, Tacoma, Wash. ($4,000). The grant will support staff during a 12-month timeline for organizing an anti-poverty summit; help coordinate a living wage campaign; manage the expansion of the church's fair trade store; and work on long-term sustainability, including financial networks.

+Youthbridge Peace Education Expansion Project, Marvin United Methodist Church, Tyler, Texas ($4,000). Seven new teachers will be trained for the expansion of a peace education program that teaches peace building during a year-round program in Vukovar, Croatia. The program had its beginning at Marvin United Methodist Church in 2001. More than 500 teenagers have gone through it, and the goal is to reach one-fifth of the approximately 3,000 teens in the area by the end of 2007 and to maintain that ratio.

+Student and Youth Participation in Conference on Theology of Peace, Methodists United for Peace With Justice ($2,500). Methodists United for Peace with Justice, a national association of laity and clergy, and Temple United Methodist Church, San Francisco, will bring at least 30 diverse students and young people from all five United Methodist U.S. jurisdictions together to draw upon the Wesleyan tradition of "holy conferencing."

+Pilgrimage of Peace to the Holy Land, the Holy People, Southwest Texas Conference ($2,000). Peace with justice coordinators and participants of other faiths will travel to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan to gain an understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, its impact on neighboring countries and the possibilities for peacemaking.

+Urban Renewal/Ministries Project, Jefferson United Methodist Church, Goldsboro, N.C. ($2,000). This project is reaching out to the community by offering various programs geared toward restoring physical, mental and spiritual wholeness including quarterly fun day activities for children and their families; weekly reading and math club for at risk children and Fit For God, a weekly fitness class held at the church.

+The Lighthouse, a United Methodist Community Center, in Louisville, Ky. ($2,000). The grant will be used to help pay the fees for a child psychologist who will work with children scarred from abuse.

+Just Lead, Lennon-Senney United Methodist Church, Knoxville, Tenn. ($2,000). The grant will help the church expand after school and church ministry to three days a week with student and family relational activities. The church hopes to reach 60 elementary, middle and high school youth.

+Justice for Our Neighbors, North Texas Conference, ($2,000). This is an immigration legal counseling clinic serving low-income immigrants in the Dallas metro and surrounding area. The funds will be used to support an immigration attorney's salary and benefits and fund two "Know Your Rights" workshops.

A special grant was made to the American Indian Alliance for $500.

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

New Bible translation invites children on journey .

By Kathy L. Gilbert*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Did you know in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible the book of Psalms begins with the word "happy," and it is used 26 times in the rest of the book?
Did you also know "happy" is only used 20 times in the rest of the Old Testament?

Children will learn fun facts like this in a new edition of the NRSV Bible created especially for them. In the Children's Bible, published by Abingdon Press, they will also learn the definition of words like "chaff," and that sheep were important to life in Bible times and dependent on the care of a shepherd.

Curriculum writer Peggy Augustine has written concise, child-friendly summaries to each book of the Bible, and artist Dennis Jones has created pictures that are glimpses into what the reader will find on the following pages.



The new Children's Bible offers easy-to-understand summaries for each book. Image courtesy of the United Methodist Publishing House.



"Children have a deep desire to know and experience God's love in their lives," says Neil Alexander, president and publisher of the United Methodist Publishing House. Abingdon is an imprint of the Publishing House.

"This new study Bible presents the message of Jesus in vivid and compelling ways. The Bible has illustrations to draw children in and includes notes throughout the text that help them experience God and discover how God wants them to live."

This is the first time the NRSV has been used for a children's Bible, says Paul Franklyn, director of Bibles, ePublishing, and Reference Resources with the Publishing House.

The Bible rolled off the press in early May and is already proving to be a hit.

"We can tell there has been a pent-up urgency for this type of children's Bible," Franklyn says. Other publishers like Augsburg Fortress and Harper are selling the Bibles, and Augsburg has already sold out of its first order and placed a second, he says.

In the past, the Publishing House sold "gift edition" Bibles that churches typically ordered for their third-grade Sunday school classes. The Bibles included a few inserts that were text based and were really just "award editions," Franklyn says.

"We are trying to raise the bar for them, and we will see if they are ready to convert and do something that is more children-friendly."

Jones, a Christian artist, illustrated the interior of the Bible and created the icons that guide children through the text. According to his Web site, Jones "logged a lot of pew time at the local Baptist church where he honed his artistic abilities on church bulletins."


Whimsical illustrations by artist, Dennis Jones, help guide children through the Bible.


His whimsical drawings have an animation feel.

"One of the criticisms of curriculum art by some scholars has been that it hasn't kept pace with animation and computer graphics," Franklyn says.

The Children's Bible, developed for ages 8-12, is being promoted with the new Sunday school curriculum "Live B.I.G.!" which is also geared toward children growing up in a multimedia world, Franklyn says. "It is all part of the conversation here; we can't use the same formula that was used in the '50s."

Children are guided on a journey through this translation. "All children's Bibles use a metaphor such as odyssey or adventure," Franklyn explains. "We decided to go with the word 'journey.'"

Blue introduction pages at the beginning of each book give information about who wrote the book, when it was written and what it is about. The opening page includes an illustration of a chosen verse that readers can look up.

For Psalms, the illustration is of a deer stopping for a drink of water. The reader is guided to Psalm 42:1: "As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God."

Four icons provide "signs along the path" to illuminate the text and help children learn how God wants them to live.

"God's Path" is a picture of a curving path through the woods. It is a signal that this is something that will help them discover who God is and understand how God wants them to live.

"Finding the Path" is a compass, with text that helps children apply the Scripture to their lives.

"Points Along the Path" is an exclamation mark, accompanied by text that explores the people and places of the Bible.

"Light on the Path" is a flashlight that points out memory verses that children can use.

"The memory verse is something that has been lost in mainstream Protestantism," Franklyn says. "When I grew up in the evangelical world, it was a key part of Sunday school."



The Noah's Ark cover is one of three available for the new Children's Bible.

The Children's Bible is available in three different covers. The Noah's Ark hardcover edition is based on the painting "The Promise" by United Methodist artist Mary Singleton. A blue/green hardcover edition and a gift and award edition in simulated burgundy leather are also available. The gift edition is $14.40 and the other two are $16. Details are available at cokesbury.com.

"Children will want to read the Abingdon Children's Bible on their own," Alexander says.

"Lessons from Sunday mornings will go with them into the rest of the week in new ways as they make its stories, its people and its message a part of their lives."

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

Churches, members can take bird flu precautions

By Linda Bloom*

NEW YORK (UMNS) - At a time when the U.S. government is drafting plans on how it would deal with a massive outbreak of bird flu or another virulent strain of influenza, United Methodists can prepare themselves as well.



Kathy Griffith

Kathy Griffith, staff member with the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, believes the denomination can encourage preventive measures against a flu pandemic and use churches or church-related facilities as centers of care and treatment where outbreaks occur. "We're all over the world, in many different situations, with hearts to serve," she told United Methodist News Service in a May interview.

Fear over a large-scale outbreak of what has been called bird flu or avian flu prompted the Bush administration to make such public health preparations as stockpiling vaccines and anti-flu medications and creating a pandemic flu plan. A draft of the plan, released May 3, forecasts massive disruptions in everyday life if such an outbreak occurred.



Dr. Terrence Tumpey, with the National Center for Infectious Diseases, examines specimens of the 1918 Pandemic Influenza Virus. A UMNS Photo by James Gathany, CDC


Influenza A viruses are usually found in birds but more than 200 confirmed cases of human infection have been reported since 1997, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms in humans can range from fever or a cough to eye infections to pneumonia and other life-threatening complications.

The current outbreak in Asia and Europe of the H5N1 avian influenza virus has led to deaths in more than half of the people infected, mostly children and young adults, the CDC has reported. However, it is not known if all cases have been reported.

The big concern, according to the CDC, is that the H5N1 virus will change and allow for easy human-to-human transmission. In such a case, a pandemic could occur. "Because these viruses do not commonly infect humans, there is little or no immune protection against them in the human population," the CDC says.

Since December 2003, animal H5N1 cases have been reported in a large number of countries in Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Eurasia, South Asia and the Near East.

Human cases have been reported by the World Health Organization in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Egypt and Iraq.

Part of the prevention effort has to do with adjusting living situations that make animal-to-human or human-to-human virus transmission easier. Griffith, who has trained community health workers in Central Asia, attended a course on behavior change in Thailand in January. Such change, she learned, can be slow in coming.

In central Asia, for example, animals routinely sleep in the kitchen - a room where childbirth also takes place. And in both Asia and Africa, Griffith pointed out "people are far more community-oriented than in the West" and live together in close quarters.

Griffith noted that while church communities can help respond to a bird flu crisis, their members need to remember they are equally at risk.

Prevention strategies for virus transmission include following basic hygiene measures, such as vigorous hand washing and taking precautions when handling eggs and raw chicken. If handled and cooked properly, poultry and eggs pose no threat for transmission, according to the CDC. The United States has had a ban on importing poultry from countries affected by avian flu viruses since 2004.

Griffith suggested that eggs should be fresh, washed on the outside and cooked well. Before and after handling raw poultry and eggs, wash hands with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds, the CDC recommends. Cutting boards and utensils also need to be cleaned with soap and hot water.

"If you've been to a bazaar where you buy chickens, wash your shoes," Griffith said. "It's these market and preparation issues and cooking issues that are very real in a developing country and could be real here (in the United States)."

In church settings in countries where bird flu has surfaced, members can offer another type of greeting aside from shaking hands or hugging. Ways should be found to limit physical contact during the sharing of communion and the passing of offering plates, attendance registers and other items should be discouraged.

Churches and church-related facilities should provide ample soap, hand sanitizer, tissues and trash receptacles for visitors, members and staff. Trash cans with used tissues should be handled using glove and mask precautions and trash should be burned regularly.

Water fountains can be shut off and toys and nursery equipment sanitized on a regular basis. If needed, the nursery, day care and children's Sunday school should be closed.

Information is crucial to the prevention and spread of disease and church facilities can be used as distribution centers for such information. Churches also can provide space for vaccinations and treatments.

Pastoral care visits to infected patients also require precautions, such as the use of masks and gloves. Church communities can assist affected families by running errands, providing meals or offering other services.

If the bird flu became prevalent enough in an area to cause a ban on large-group gatherings, congregations could divide into smaller groups, Griffith said. Outdoor worship also may be an option.

Progress can be made against avian flu, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development. Vietnam, for example, which has had more confirmed human cases and deaths than any other country - 93 cases and 42 deaths between 2003 and 2005 - has had no confirmed human cases since November 2005.

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

United Methodist Mission Executive Dies While Visiting Missionaries in Nepal

By Elliott Wright*

New York, New York, May 15, 2006—Mark Allen Masters, a staff member of the mission agency of The United Methodist Church, died suddenly of a heart attack on May 14 while visiting missionaries in Nepal.

Mr. Masters, 48, was regional executive for mission personnel in Europe, North Africa, Middle East, and South & Central Asia of the General Board of Global Ministries. He had himself served as a missionary in Africa and the Solomon Islands. His wife, the Rev. Kathleen Masters, also works for the mission board.

"Mark died in the course of doing what he loved most, serving Jesus Christ through the mission of the Church," said the Rev. Edith Gleaves, head of Global Ministries’ mission personnel unit. "He was loving and kind and had a wonderful rapport with the 50 missionaries in his region. Mark Masters was a faithful and creative disciple of Christ."

Masters died at Tansen Mission Hospital where he was visiting Dr. Elma Jocson, a missionary surgeon who had just returned from a short leave. His trip was part of a regular visitation to mission sites in Asia. When he reported not feeling well, physicians sent Masters to rest at a guest house, and quickly followed with a visit. He died shortly thereafter. "He was surrounded by a caring Christian community," Gleaves said.

"Mark Masters quite literally gave his life for the mission of God’s love in the world," said the Rev. R. Randy Day, head of the international mission board. "All of his education and experience was organized around doing a better and better job in Christian witness. Peace and economic development were high on his list of priorities. He spoke of mission as a combination of spiritual, physical, and social services and hoped that this theology was visible in his own life. It was."

Masters, who would have turned 49 on July 12, had called his wife to wish her a happy birthday the night before he died.

Tansen Hospital is located more than 200 miles southwest of Kathmandu, the capital of the mountainous country of Nepal. It is part of the United Mission to Nepal, a medical ministry in which The United Methodist Church has participated for half a century.

The Church has six missionaries in Nepal, one pastor, two physicians, an educator, and an administrator. Another missionary pastor, the Rev. Karuna Bhujel, was killed about a year ago when a truck struck her motorbike.

A native of Tennessee, Mark Masters was graduated from Martin College, an institution of the Tennessee Conference of The United Methodist Church. He also studied at Church-related American University, from which he received a master’s degree in development management. At the time of his death, he was a candidate for a doctoral degree in community research and action at Vanderbilt University, Nashville.

Early in his career, Masters worked with Catholic Relief Services in Somalia and the Peace Corps in Ecuador.

He and his wife, along with their two sons, Christian and Matthew, spent six years (1988-93) as missionaries in the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, where he was associated with the Seghe Lay Training Center. This was followed by two years working with new mission personnel at the Mission Resource Center, Atlanta, after which he served as a missionary in Uganda and Zambia. He had been in his position at Global Ministries since late 2004.

Matthew, the youngest Masters child, was set to graduate from high school a few days following his father’s death. Christian, the oldest, was working on a summer cruise ship at the time.

Master’s body was to be cremated in Nepal and the ashes returned for burial in Memphis where his mother lives. The funeral will take place at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, the family church, where Mark Masters’ father was once pastor and where he and his wife were married. A memorial service will be held at a date to be determined in the chapel of The Interchurch Center, where the mission offices are located, in New York City.

Messages may be sent to the Rev. Kathleen Masters at 1420 Woodfield Drive, Nashville, TN, 37211.

The family asked that in lieu of flowers memorial contributions be made to United Methodist Advance for Support of Missionaries Outside the United States (general), #00779Z. Online gifts can be made at http://gbgm-umc.org/advance/donate/donate.cfm?code=00779Z&id=3012452. Make checks payable to ADVANCE GCFA and send to Advance, P. O. Box 9068, GPO, New York, NY 10087-9068. Be sure to include Advance # 00779Z. Contributions by phone are received at (888) 252-6174

A memorial service will be held Saturday, May 20th, 2:00 p.m., at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Memphis. The church is located at 480 South Highland. A committal service will be held at a later date in Nashville. Information on the committal will be released as it comes available.

*Elliott Wright is the Information Officer of the General Board of Global Ministries

Connectional table considers church's 'global character'

By the Rev. Kathy Noble*

VARNA, Bulgaria (UMNS) - United Methodists claim to be part of a "global church," but what does that phrase mean? How can international relationships be enhanced so that the church will be more effective in carrying out its mission?

The Connectional Table, the 60-member forum created by the 2004 General Conference to set and guide the direction of denomination's mission and ministries, discussed these and similar questions at its April 27-May 1 meeting. The meeting marked the first time the body met outside the United States.

Bishops and Connectional Table members from the United Methodist Church's central conferences - groups of annual (regional) conferences in Africa, Europe and the Philippines - joined the Rev. Robert J. Harman in plenary sessions that fueled group conversations. Harman is a former staff executive with the church's Board of Global Ministries.

Bishop John Hopkins of the Ohio East Area, forum chairman, said the discussion would be part of the table's contribution to conversation at the 2008 General Conference.

United Methodists find it easy to discuss what they enjoy in connectional relationships, but some issues are avoided, Harman said. Those include the impact of membership growth, especially in Africa; a deeper understanding of the need for inclusiveness; how partnerships are to be developed; and pleas to be in solidarity with the suffering.



Bishop Patrick Streiff



Bishop Patrick Streiff, leader of the church in Central and Southern Europe, addressed membership growth in some of the central conferences. He said he experienced a "culture of openness (and) hospitality towards central conferences" when he was a first-time General Conference delegate in 1996 and a member of the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

"But I will be very open and frank with you," he continued. "The central conference representation, which grows to 20 to 25 percent, may become a danger for you in the U.S. It's no more just a small minority. It's a powerful part of the church that has its needs, its interests, its challenges, what it wants to bring in."

Streiff said he feared the attitude of United Methodists in the United States would become one of asking, "Why do all these central conference people want to influence us in the U.S.?"

Global vs. regional concerns


Bishops (from left) Patrick Streiff, Oystein Olsen and Hans Växby speak about the global character of the central conferences.. A UMNS photo by Kathy Noble.

"You, as a U.S. church, need a place to talk and discuss and decide on your U.S. matters, and you need that place where you are among yourselves as we have it in central conferences," he explained.

He supported both "that global gathering where we bind each other together in what unites us as a connection" and regional gatherings "where each group, can address its own needs in order that the mission can best be done in its region." The global gathering was a reference to the General Conference, the highest legislative body of the denomination, which meets every four years.

Bishop Solito K. Toquero of the Philippines addressed the desire of United Methodists in that country to become an autonomous church.

"We say that we can be more mature if we become autonomous," Toquero said, "and, perhaps, work out some connection and interdependency not only with the United Methodist Church but with other Methodists all over the world. We want to become mature and work with the United Methodist Church in the U.S., not as a child but as someone who can stand on its own and then cooperate."

Connection is gift
United Methodists in Africa have no desire to become autonomous, said the Rev. Forbes Matonga, a Connectional Table member from Central Africa. The "connectional structure is one of the best things we offer to the Protestant world," he said.

"The real difficulty is (that) the structure of the central conferences is not working well, not really informing what we do," he said. Bishops are elected at central conference meetings, but "critical issues are not discussed," in part because of language barriers. "Maybe it would be ideal to devote some of the functions of the central conferences to annual conferences."

Bishop Hans Växby

Bishop Hans Växby of the Eurasia Area told the body that he is "not a big believer in big restructuring" but does "believe in small incremental steps." He encouraged the denomination's Council on Finance and Administration to continue plans to include current statistics from the central conferences in reports, including The General Minutes. He also wanted to dispel the "myth that (central conferences) can adapt The Book of Discipline just as we want. We cannot. It's very limited."

He said central conferences should "become contributors to general (apportioned) funds to be totally integrated into the one church we are."

Matonga agreed. "Even if we are poor, we want to enjoy the spirit of giving. It is not good to always be on the receiving end."

"I want us to remain as a United Methodist Church and not develop into another World Methodist Council," Växby commented. "I want us to remain in one church, so when I go to Korea, when I go to Germany, when I go to U.S.A., I can go to my church."

Table members also discussed strengthening relationships with autonomous Methodist churches as well as with denominations that have Methodist and Wesleyan roots.

Need for sensitivity
Harman warned against thinking changes in church polity or structure will let the church live as a worldwide denomination. Central conferences, he said later, grew out of the 19th -century church structure as a way "of centering relationships to the (missionary) sending church, which was the North American church."

"The North American church is no longer the sending church. Mission belongs to the whole church," he added. He urged table members to listen to requests from the central conferences to "be a bit more sensitive to what is happening regionally, to have structures of integrity that can respond to the gospel in each place."

Matonga, Dora Washington of Jackson, Miss., and Kristina Gonzales of Seattle will present a summary of the conversation and learnings to the table's fall meeting for further discussion and possible action.

The Connectional Table also:

+Heard reports from Streiff, Växby and the Rev. Reiner Stahl, member from the Germany Central Conference, on churches in their areas.
+Heard the Rev. Ruby-Nell Estrella, district superintendent in Manila, Philippines, report that members who traveled there in January in response to human rights violations provided "a very good and significant expression of the global nature of the (church). Filipino brothers and sisters felt solidarity."
+Expanded the scope of the State of the Church report.
+Elected the Rev. Carl Schenck, St. Louis, as its treasurer.
+Recognized Bishop William Morris, who has served as interim general secretary for the Commission on United Methodist Men.
+Approved a three-phase process for assessing the work of each general agency for the current quadrennium, or four-year period of work.

During the gathering, members and guests experienced an evening of Bulgarian culture presented by the United Methodist Church of Varna and worshiped at area congregations.

The Connectional Table will next meet in October in Fort Worth, Texas.

*Noble is the editor of Interpreter, the magazine that highlights mission and ministry in the United Methodist Church.

Pfeiffer University and Wesley Theological Seminary establish the first Center for Deacon Education

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – To provide deacon education and ordination for people of the United Methodist faith in the Carolinas, Pfeiffer University in conjunction with Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., have established a Center for Deacon Education – the first of its kind that completely focuses on deacon ordination. The center is housed on Pfeiffer’s Charlotte campus at 4701 Park Road.

“We believe the ministry of deacon is a growing vocational calling in the life of our churches,” said Dr. Bruce C. Birch, dean at Wesley Theological Seminary. “We are committed to high quality preparation for those ordained to minister as deacons.”

After a pilot program proved to be successful, the two institutions decided to move forward with the center. All of the Basic Graduate Theological Studies courses will be offered in a two-year cycle. Courses will normally be taught in either an intensive format in January, during the summer or once a week during fall and spring semesters. Additionally, Wesley and Pfeiffer will explore ways to “form” and “educate” the Order of Deacon outside the classroom experience.

Courses offered through the Center for Deacon Education are specifically designed to prepare persons for ministry as deacons. In the United Methodist Church, the Order of Deacon leads the congregation in its servant ministry and equips and supports all baptized Christians in their ministry alongside the Order of Elder, which focuses on word, sacrament and order.

Organizers say although the program is United Methodist specific, participants of any faith can earn up to 25 graduate credits that can be transferred to any graduate seminary or program. The major appeal of this program is that participants can fulfill educational requirements for ordination while working in ministry.

“Anyone committed to earning this program can complete it without completely altering their jobs or their schedules,” said Dr. Ed Trimmer, head of the School of Religion at Pfeiffer. “A student could commute one day a week and complete these courses fairly quickly.”

For additional information or to register for classes, contact Kathleen Kilbourne at kbourne@pfeiffer.edu or by phone at (704) 945-7315. Those with questions about the partnership, academics or theoretical issues should contact Ed Trimmer at etrimmer@pfeiffer.edu.

Pfeiffer University is a United Methodist related university providing undergraduate and graduate degrees in church vocational ministry including a Masters of Arts in Christian Education. Wesley Seminary, located in Washington D.C. (www.WesleySem.Edu) is one largest of the thirteen United Methodist seminaries and dedicated to preparing preachers, leaders, and teachers for church and for the work of Christ in the world.

Mission Leader is Cautiously Optimistic on Chances for Peace in Darfur Region of Sudan

New York, NY, May 6, 2006—The head of The United Methodist Church’s international mission agency says he is cautiously optimistic that a significant step has been taken toward peace in the Darfur region of Sudan.

The Rev. R. Randy Day, chief executive of the General Board of Global Ministries, responded to reports of the signing of a peace agreement between the government of Sudan and the Sudan Liberation Army. Civil conflict in Darfur, a region of western Sudan about the size of Texas, has left two million people homeless—many as refugees in neighboring Chad—and caused the deaths of some 180,000 people over the last three years.

However, as Rev. Day pointed out, several smaller groups opposed to the government have not yet signed the agreement, which was brokered by diplomats from the United States and the United Kingdom. He thanked the negotiators and urged the hold-out groups to enter the peace process.

Day also called upon the nations of the world to step up their contributions to the World Food Program’s efforts in Darfur. The food agency related to the United Nations in early May announced it was cutting back on food allotments to Darfur because of inadequate contributions from governments.

The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), Day noted, is working in a rural area of Sudan helping people in a refugee camp and others to restart their lives. UMCOR has been in Sudan for 18 months. “We commit ourselves to continue to serve the people of Darfur and to work for peace and justice there,” Day said.

The full text of Day’s statement follows:
“We are cautiously optimistic that initial steps are underway toward ending the tragic conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan. The General Board of Global Ministries welcomes the signing of a peace agreement on May 5, 2006 between the Sudanese government and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), an agreement aimed at ending a three-year old confrontation. More than two million people have been driven from their homes and perhaps 180,000 people killed in the civil strife. We hope that the other parties to the conflict will join in this fragile peace process.

“At the same time, we are deeply distressed by news that the United Nations’ World Food Program has been forced to reduce supplies to Darfurian refugees and the displaced to about half of what is considered the minimum daily nutritional requirement. The reduction results from a profoundly regrettable shortage of contributions to the food program by nations around the world.

“We know first hand through our relief and rehabilitation work in southern Darfur about the suffering of the people there. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) has been on the ground in Darfur for some 18 months, helping families in the Al Daein area survive and to restore their farms and other means of making a living. We have also assisted refugees fleeing the Darfur region of Sudan into neighboring Chad.

“The situation in Darfur cries out for massive efforts to achieve peace, maintain stability, and restore the sense of a future to the region’s eight million people.

“We hope that all combatants will allow United Nations and Africa Union peacekeepers to operate effectively for the welfare of all communities in Darfur, an area about the size of Texas. We commend the negotiators from the United States and the United Kingdom that have worked hard to broker the peace accord.

“We commit ourselves to continue to serve the people of Darfur and to work for peace and justice there. We urge governments around the world to contribute more generously to the UN’s food program for Darfur.”

The political and economic situation in Darfur and all of Sudan is highly complex and does not lend itself to quick description.

Two thorough and thoughtful recent analyses are:

Washington Post, “5 Truths about Darfur,” by Emily Wax, April 23, 2006, online at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/21/AR2006042101752.html
New York Times, “An Incomplete Peace: Sudan's Never-Ending War with Itself” by Lydia Polgreen, May 4, 2006, online at: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/04/world/africa/04darfur.html

Houston Bishop Janice Huie Begins Term as United Methodist Bishops’ President

WASHINGTON – Bishop Janice Riggle Huie of Houston today took the gavel as president of The United Methodist Council of Bishops.

Outgoing president, Bishop Peter D. Weaver of Boston, passed the gavel to Huie during a worship service in the chapel of the United Methodist Building, just across the street from the U.S. Capitol. The Council of Bishops office is in the United Methodist Building.

“This is a humbling experience, and an awesome responsibility,” said Huie, the second woman to lead the council. “I have placed my trust in God to give me strength and wisdom. I pray for God to lead us to make disciples, and to focus our ministry on what is truly important, reaching out to the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned around the world.”

The Council of Bishops is comprised of 163 active and retired bishops in the U.S. Europe, Africa, and the Asia. Active bishops have voice and vote on council affairs. Retired bishops have voice, but no vote.

Huie’s two-year term will end in May 2008 at the 2008 General Conference in Fort Worth, Texas. The General Conference is The United Methodist Church’s top legislative body.

A native of Beeville, Texas, Huie was elected bishop in 1996, and presided over the Arkansas Area until being assigned to Houston in 2004. The Houston Area has 713 congregations and more than 290,000 members. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin; her master’s in theology from Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, Dallas; and her doctor of ministry degree from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta.

The passing of the gavel is a tradition among the members of the Council of Bishops. It usually takes place during the Council’s spring meeting. Because the 160-member council is meeting in Mozambique, Africa, in November, it cancelled its spring meeting.

With Huie’s installation, Bishop Gregory Vaughn Palmer of Des Moines, Iowa, becomes the president-designate.

Summit focuses on need to recruit young clergy

May. 9, 2006
A UMNS Report
By Linda Green*

United Methodist leaders are forming an advisory team to help develop a plan for recruiting young clergy - a group that one expert calls an endangered species in the church.

Forming the team was proposed at a May 1-3 summit that brought experts in the recruitment and development of young clergy leadership to Atlanta. Once it's formed, the team will devise a national plan that will go into effect during the next year.

All 75 summit participants were invited to become part of the advisory team, which will help the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry in determining the next steps for young adult clergy development, according to the Rev. Meg Lassiat, director of student ministries, vocation, and enlistment at the board in Nashville, Tenn.

The summit was sponsored by the board and the Pastoral Leadership Search Effort through a grant from the Fund for Theological Education and the Lilly Endowment. The board is accepting applications for membership on the team.

Lassiat said attention is being given to the lack of young clergy in the United Methodist Church because studies indicate only 4.69 percent of elders are under age 35, while 50 percent of elders are over age 50, a statistic similar in most mainline denomination.

"While a number of factors have been identified as causes that may contribute to the low numbers of young adult clergy, at this time no one issue has been identified as central to that problem," she said.

'Endangered species'
Young clergy are "United Methodism's endangered species," said the Rev. Lovett Weems, director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership at United Methodist-related Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington. He identified several issues the church must address to remove them from the endangered list.

"The church itself must change," Weems said during his summit presentation. The issue of enlisting younger quality clergy must be seen side by side with the quality and vitality of the church itself, he said. The church's overall health is the most important factor determining who comes into ordained ministry, he added.

"Organizations tend to get the leadership they deserve, not the leadership they need," he said. "Until the United Methodist Church demonstrates that it can reach more people, younger people, and more diverse people in life-transforming ways, current clergy age trends will probably not change."

He told the summit that the church's ordained ministry process needs to be both "renamed and reframed," and the language of placing new clergy on probation needs to be rethought.

"New terminology less associated with the criminal justice system would help," he said. "The entry process also needs to be reframed from a hurdle to overcome to a blessed entry into the high calling of ordained ministry."

Competing vocations
Susan Hay, director of youth ministries at the United Methodist Board of Discipleship, calls the lack of young clergy in the denomination "a mixed bag."

"With today's young people, there are more vocations they see where their Christian commitment can be lived out, so they feel called to live out this sense of Christian vocation in the profession they feel they have something to contribute," she said.

The church is "not doing a good job mentoring our young people who may sense a call to the clergy in helping them discern and respond to this call," she said. "We discourage when we don't help them find adequate financial support in both their undergraduate and graduate pursuits."
The members of the proposed advisory team will be diverse in terms of experience and perspectives in the area of young adult leadership development. The team will:

• develop a plan for the denomination's future efforts;
• help carry out a denominational plan for vocational discernment and young leadership development;
• research issues surrounding leadership development and young adult clergy; and
• act as a liaison with vocationally related ministries, such as regional and denominational events, Web site development and so on.

Meet the millennials
Hay also provided insight about the characteristics of the millennial generation - the 76 million Americans born between 1982 and 1999 - a population larger than baby boomers and generation X-ers.

Millennials, she said, are a diverse population, with about 8 percent identifying themselves as multiethnic and more than 55 percent saying they have a friend of another ethnicity. Another characteristic of this age group is that more than 75 percent of their time is spent in "structured activities due to working parents."

Hay also said millennials are "passionately tolerant and spiritual, but without focus, which makes them vulnerable to the countless counterfeits in their world." They also are not quick to trust adults, a trait that shapes how they relate to authority, and perceive truth and directions with which they live their lives, she said.

According to Hay, a paramount need is relationships. Millennials rely strongly on close personal networks of friends and family and have a deep desire to be connected with others, she said.

Millennials are already impacting the United Methodist Church through their "enthusiasm, hopefulness, willingness to take leadership roles, strong mission/outreach sense and their desire for deep spiritual experiences."

Also providing leadership was Bishop Woodie White, bishop-in-residence at Candler School of Theology, Emory University, who preached about call during the opening worship service of the meeting. Soccorro de Anda, president of the Lydia Patterson Institute in El Paso, Texas, highlighted how the Lydia Patterson school has been effective in developing young leaders for colleges and churches.

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

Poor also have dignity, speakers tell Women's Assembly

ANAHEIM, Calif. (UMNS) - The feminization of poverty is not an abstract concept for Wahu Kaara.

Wahu Kaara

"You are talking about my mother, friends, sisters, aunties and neighbors," said the Nobel Peace Prize nominee and founder and coordinator of the Kenya Debt Relief Network.

"Real women with names, homes and addresses and who have no real hope to ascertain their dignity due to the extremes visited on them by conscious decisions, made by conscious people, but shrouded in the myth of bureaucracy and technocrats."

Kaara was the May 5 keynote speaker at the 2006 United Methodist Women's Assembly. She is a candidate in the 2007 Kenyan presidential elections and the ecumenical program coordinator for the U.N. Millennium Development Goals at the All Africa Conference of Churches.

On May 5, assembly participants took action to urge the U.S. Congress to make a "money transfer" in the national budget to assist women and children. They also heard from Silvia Regina Lima e Silva, who deplored the proposed fence between the United States and Mexico and called increased border patrols "a manifestation of a growing racism and xenophobia which are becoming part of everyday life."

Calling the state of today's world "poignantly unjust," Kaara noted that "the values that dictate our pursuits in life are in total negation of our relation with God" and are driven by profit. "We have sacrificed ourselves at the altar of money and earthly possessions," she said.

Women must speak "with unflinching courage" on such injustices as quantifying life in dollars, keeping track of human misery through statistics, subjugating others to economic and military might in the name of peace, and dividing the world into "haves and have-nots," according to Kaara.

"The women of the world must take the lead once again and loudly proclaim that we are no longer going to die but live for our world," she declared. "And this clarion call must resonate from Anaheim to Athens, Nairobi to Nebraska and London to Lagos."

An immediate response to that challenge came as assembly participants filled out a "money transfer request form," asking Congress to create a "budget for justice" by transferring money from military spending, tax cuts for the wealthy, nuclear weapons and federal crop subsidies for the wealthy to education, training and social services, health care and affordable housing, foreign aid/development funding and environmental
restoration.

"We call for a national budget with sufficient funds to affirm the dignity of women, children and their families while ensuring defense and security," participants said in their assembly action. The money transfer forms were collected to be delivered to Congress.

Breaking down walls

Lime e Silva

The loss of dignity for the "have-nots" also was addressed by Lima e Silva, a Brazilian and professor at the Universidad Biblical Latino Americana in Costa Rica, during the Bible study.
"The gap between the rich and the poor is now visible in walls - walls that are going up to separate the north of the rich from the south of the poor, like the wall between the United States and Mexico," she said. Her presentation was translated into English by Lourdes Belen Garcia.

Violence faced by women "is becoming a permanent threat to life," enough so that the word "femicide" should be "placed in the dictionaries and brought to the attention of the news media," Lima e Silva added.

Words from Isaiah allow for reflection on suffering and the insensitivity that leads to an indifference to the suffering of others. "We put up walls and barriers that distance us from those situations and those people which constitute a threat to us and to the society in which we live," she said.

Other walls "speak of intolerance and of the inability to live together," Lima e Silva pointed out, citing the barrier wall built by Israel to separate the country from the Palestinian territories as an example.

She urged the assembly participants to use their strength and energy from God and "send it to different parts of the world. This is the force, the strength that is capable of breaking with indifference. This is the force that is capable of bringing down the walls."

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

Prayer Shawls Become Gifts of Love

by YVETTE MOORE

It began as a thought to leave a small gift of love to women, children and youth served by mission institutions in the Western Jurisdiction, United Methodist Women's Assembly host.
But the call to approximately one-million United Methodist Women members for prayer shawls tapped into a well so deep and overflowing within compassionate crafters that institutions, ministries and individuals nationwide will be touched by their prayerful works.

United Methodist Women conferences, districts, local units and circles sent more than 2,000 handmade prayer shawls.

"And that's not counting the ones women brought with them to Assembly," said Linda Douglas, Women's Division staff coordinating the shawl project. "United Methodist Women members did not take this lightly. The shawls have come folded in tissue paper, in protective bubble wrappings with handwritten notes, poems and prayers. The shawls have been prayed over and dedicated in services at local churches. It's just amazing. The deadline was March 1 but the shawls just kept coming."

Ms. Douglas said the shawls came from every jurisdiction, with especially large numbers from Western North Carolina and Virginia Conferences. The call for shawls revealed an abundance of craft ministries and circles of United Methodist Women members.

"We started about a year ago," said Betty Phillips of the prayer shawl ministry at Mountain Valley United Methodist Church in Harrisonburg, Va. The church and unit members give out prayer shawls to people in nursing homes, shut-ins at home, and those in rehab or recovering from illness.

When Ms. Phillips asked unit members for 10 prayer shawls for Assembly, her pastor thought that was a bit much.

"The preacher said, `You're asking for a lot,'" Ms. Phillips said. "But even when I'm boiling apple butter, I pray over the pots and I have apple butter running over! The Lord doubled it! I asked for 10 prayer shawls; I got 23! I think that's great for a little small country church nestled at the foot of Massanutten Mountain."

Like the Mount Valley United Methodist unit, the prayer shawl ministry at Church of the Saviour in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, started over a year ago.

"It was started by a member of United Methodist Women, but it's a churchwide ministry," said Carol Broadbent, unit member and treasurer of United Methodist Women in East Ohio Conference's North Coast District. The unit sent six prayer shawls to Assembly. "I would say there are probably 25 active knitters. And as soon as they come in, they go out to comfort those in need."

The shawls are usually hand delivered by the church pastor to people who are sick, mourning, even going off to college.

"My daughter received one as a college freshmen," Ms. Broadbent said. "Also we have a Stephens Ministry in our church, and one of the pastors matches a person in the congregation to someone who needs visitation. A lot of those in the Stephens Ministry are given a shawl as a comfort."

Women's Division directors prayed and dedicated a sampling of the shawls during a service at their spring board meeting in Stamford, Conn., in March. The directors voted for the shawls to be distributed throughout the five jurisdictions to ministries that impact the well-being of women, children and youth. The shawls will go to health-related organizations, mission institutions, children of deployed military, prison ministries and mission personnel, including retired missionaries at Brooks-Howell Home in Asheville, N.C.

"The last shawl that came is a beautiful quilt that looks like its made of silk dopioni material made in memory of Myrtle Sells of Calvary United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas," Ms. Douglas said.

Youth 2007 expected to draw 10,000 young people

More than 10,000 United Methodist youth from across the world are expected to converge on the Greensboro (N.C.) Coliseum and Koury Convention Center for Youth 2007, the largest quadrennial youth event of the United Methodist Church.

The July 11-15, 2007, event will give youth an opportunity to experience God in a multitude of ministry, cultural and spiritual opportunities. Sponsored by the Division on Ministries with Young People at the United Methodist Board of Discipleship, Youth 2007 is about transforming lives and sending youth back to their communities as stronger disciples of Jesus Christ, says the Rev. Lillian Smith, top executive of the division.

"Youth 2007 provides United Methodist youth with opportunities to grow in faith and Christian leadership. Participants will be charged with living our mission as world-changing disciples of Jesus Christ," Smith said. "This event brings together those who will guide our church into the future and help lead our world."

"Youth 2007 is the most significant experience we offer youth in the Wesleyan tradition," said the Rev. Karen Greenwaldt, top executive at the Board of Discipleship. "We are excited to be the agency of the church that brings this event to life."

"Splat! Seek, Pray, Learn, Act, Teach," is the theme of Youth 2007. Led by a design team of nearly 30 youth, young adults and youth workers from across the country, each day of the weeklong gathering will offer many types of activities and experiences that reinforce the theme.
Mornings will be for seeking God and praying together in worship, engaging in large group Bible study and experiencing music. Participants will be learning about their faith while hearing preaching and teaching.

In the afternoons, groups will seek God through workshops covering topics relevant to youth interests. In the evenings, the entire group will gather again for a time of worship and praise. One full evening will feature a concert for all participants. At the conclusion of the event, youth will be challenged to return to their communities and put their faith into action by teaching others what they've learned.

In addition to worship and workshops, mission service project opportunities will be available around the Greensboro area. Individuals and groups can also participate in interactive destinations. These destinations offer a hands-on way to dive deeper into the theme of Youth 2007 while also building community.

Beyond worship and workshop opportunities, a full Expo Center will be open for youth and youth workers to network, gather and buy resources, and return equipped to strengthen their churches and communities.

For people who register before Dec. 1, the cost will be $165 per person. Registrations received after that date will be charged $200 per person. Reduced registration costs apply for participants coming from the Western Jurisdiction and central conferences: $140 before Dec. 1, 2006, and $175 afterward. The event's official Web site, www.Youth2007.org, provides full event information and registration. Online registration will begin May 5, 2006.

For more information, go to www.Youth2007.org or call the Youth 2007 event office, toll free, at (877) 899-2780, Ext. 7190.

*Information for this report was provided by the Rev. Steve Horswill-Johnston, director of communications & brand strategy Board of Discipleship