European clergywomen draw inspiration from colleagues

A UMNS Report By Linda Green*

United Methodist clergywomen gather at the Methodist retreat center in Braunfels, Germany, for the Feb. 25-28 European Clergywomen's Consultation. A UMNS photo by the Rev. HiRho Park.

United Methodist clergywomen in Europe face similar struggles to those of their U.S. counterparts as they try to respond faithfully to their call.

Nearly 50 European clergywomen, along with a few of their American sisters, met recently in Germany to discuss those barriers - including gender discrimination - and to support one another.

"Usually, the (European) church does not have the confidence in women's leadership, and due to the lack of experience of women in the church or the pulpit, the clergywomen have to really prove themselves to be ordained. It is very similar," said the Rev. HiRho Park, a staff member of the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry, which provided some scholarships for the women to come together.

"I think we really have a distinguished style of women's leadership in the church in America. But in European countries, they are still seeking the models from their own voices."

Pioneering ministries
The United Methodist Church in Europe is small and has few clergywomen - just 15 percent of the 350 ordained clergy in Germany are women, for example. The women pastors often feel the same isolation as their counterparts in the United States, according to Bishop Rosemarie Wenner, the denomination's first woman bishop elected outside the United States. She leads three annual (regional) conferences in Germany.

European clergywomen are still pioneering ministries in their own countries, according to Park. "They are in a different place compared to American clergywomen . . . who are in a more mature stage of solidarity and of providing models and examples of women in leadership."

But, she added, freshness is a characteristic of being a pioneer. She noted that characteristic as she reflected on the Feb. 25-28 European Clergywomen's Consultation at the Methodist retreat center in Braunfels, Germany.

The women centered themselves on the theme "True Nourishment-Spirituality in Our Daily Living" and shared stories about being among the first women ordained in their countries or preparing to be the first ordained in their areas. In some countries, The United Methodist Church is the only denomination to ordain women.

"They were so fresh in terms of their calling and ministries and spirituality. Their call was very clear and they had clear vision about the future, about what they want to do for others and the younger generation to spread the gospel," Park said. That is evidenced by the ministries to orphans, women, children and homeless people, she said.

"The reports opened our eyes and hearts for challenges in Europe, and we learned that Methodists indeed are bringing evangelism and social work together," Wenner added. She co-organized the three-day consultation with the Rev. Ingeborg Dorn, a pastor from Germany.

"The aim of providing a platform for encounter, fellowship and mutual sharing and learning was more than fulfilled," Wenner said. "The times for worship and prayer were a source of encouragement, and the willingness of all participants to contribute by reporting, by sharing, by listening to others, was overwhelming."

The European clergywomen were joined by clergywomen from the British Methodist Church and the Waldensian Church (the Methodist Church in Italy).

1 in 5 clergy are women
In comparison to an international clergywomen's consultation held last August in Chicago, the size of this consultation allowed it to be "more relaxed, reflective and intimate," Park said.
"Three days of worship, fellowship and learning were a short time, but all participants were thankful for the possibility to gather and share their experiences," Wenner said.

Last August, the United Methodist Church celebrated 50 years of women having the same rights for ordination as men. In 1956, 27 women were accepted on a trial basis for full clergy rights in their annual conferences. Today, the denomination's 44,091 clergy members include 9,749 United Methodist clergywomen - about one in five, or 22.1 percent.

For the participants at the European consultation, "meeting other clergywomen and speaking to those who have served for a long time or who have leadership experiences as a district superintendent or bishop was encouraging and inspiring," Wenner said.

The consultation provided the participants from Switzerland, Germany, Slovakia, Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Russia, Italy, Bulgaria, Norway, Great Britain and the United States with "solidarity and a place of support to one another," Park said.

"One of the unique characteristics from that perspective was that the women from the countries represented shared their ministry. I think that time was most meaningful to everybody."

At the gathering, "clergywomen saw colleagues, those who do the same kinds of ministry in different places. This consultation provided so much meaning and support for these women. I appreciate Bishop Wenner and her conscious decision to pursue this kind of gathering," Park said.

The clergywomen were encouraged to network with one another.

Park noted that the consultation has been described as a "Pentecost" experience. "Everybody spoke in different languages, and we learned to listen to each other in different languages; we sang in different languages," she explained.

Dorn reminded participants about the importance of imbedding spirituality in their personal lives and in their daily tasks as clergywomen. The Rev. Sally Harrington, a missionary with the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, spoke on Methodist spirituality, examining John and Charles Wesley's concept of grace and holiness. Helping the oppressed also was a key focus at the consultation.

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

Filipino church leaders ask U.N. panel to stop killings

A UMNS Report By Kathy L. Gilbert*

Filipino church leaders are asking the United Nations Human Rights Council to conduct an urgent, fact-finding investigation into "the extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and other forms of violations of human rights in the Philippines."

Seven cases of killings of church people, including a United Methodist pastor and couple, are among the "gross violations of human rights" documented in the recent ecumenical report "Let the Stones Cry Out."

Prepared by the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, the report documents 836 politically motivated killings since 2001 when Gloria Macapagal Arroyo became president. Among the dead are teachers, journalists, students, clergy and religious leaders.

The delegation appealed to the U.N. council during its March 19-21 visit to Geneva. Its members included representatives of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, the Philippines Ecumenical Bishops' Forum, the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, the Moro Christian People's Alliance and The United Methodist Church.

The Rev. Liberato Bautista, executive with the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, said the United Nations and other international bodies are critical to "admonishing members of the international community when they slacken or slide into systematic violations of human rights."

Bautista said "accountability and transparency (are) important in the promotion and protection of human rights. The international community has a role to play in this promotion because human rights are common global obligations and aspirations."

Sharing their report
The delegation, known as the Ecumenical Voice for Peace and Human Rights in the Philippines, has been touring and speaking with various religious, civic and government leaders to increase awareness of what its members call "an obscene climate of political repression" in the Philippines.

At possible risk to their own lives, several members testified March 14 before U.S. lawmakers in Washington, describing the killings and a climate of fear in the Philippines as part of a campaign to eliminate activist leaders and silence their protests. They called on the U.S. government to ensure its military and development aid would not be used by the Philippine government to perpetrate human rights abuses.

In Geneva, the delegation presented the ecumenical report to the German Mission, the Philippine Mission, Franciscans International, U.N. Office of the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings, World Council of Churches and Lutheran World Federation.

The Rev. Samuel Kobia, a Methodist from Kenya and top executive of the World Council of Churches, thanked the delegation "because of the importance of what you bring before us - human rights violations in the Philippines - and the high level of importance I attach to the issue.

"The last time I was in the Philippines was when the churches were confronting the dictatorial government of President (Ferdinand) Marcos," said Kobia. "And now it is almost as if today we have the same issues of human rights violations. We have followed with great concern the developments in the Philippines and are grateful to the National Council of Churches in the Philippines for keeping us informed."

'Fear and intimidation'
The delegation met with Philip Alston, U.N. Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, and expressed concern about the killing of Siche Gandinao, a witness who appeared before Alston in an earlier hearing.

"Witnesses are not enthusiastic in appearing before the government Task Force Usig and the Melo Commission precisely because of fear and intimidation," said Amirah Ali Lidasan, co-founder of the Moro-Christian Peoples Alliance in southern Philippines.

The Rev. Deogracias Iniguez, Roman Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Kalookan and co-chairperson of the Ecumenical Bishops Forum, strongly admonished the Philippine government to stop its militarization and called for electoral reform that safeguards the sanctity of the ballot and avoids any question of legitimacy for any elected official. He urged the government to address the high degree of graft and corruption in the Philippines, cited as the most corrupt nation in Asia by a recent Hong Kong-based risk assessment agency.

The Rev. Marma Urbano, a minister of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, talked about her "church being under siege, with 16 of the 26 church people killed being members of the UCCP."

She said "the killings are an affront to the God of life whom we serve; the taking of life, especially outside of the judicial process, is plain wrong."

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn. Information for this report was provided by the Rev. Liberato Bautista, executive with the United Methodist Board of Church and Society.

Methodist bishops pledge cooperative work - but not merger

By Alice M. Smith*

ATLANTA (UMNS) - Bishops from six Methodist denominations value fellowship among the churches and cooperating in projects and issues of concern to all, but a union or merger of the churches is definitely not on the horizon.

Bishops attending a once-every-four-years consultation March 11-13 made that clear when, after considerable discussion, they agreed that the name of the Commission on Pan-Methodist Cooperation and Union should simply be "Pan-Methodist Commission."

Other names considered by the group of 62 bishops were "Commission on Pan-Methodist Cooperation" and "Commission on Pan-Methodist Cooperation and Unity."

The commission is a representative body of the United Methodist Church and three historically black Methodist churches: African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion and Christian Methodist Episcopal. It is the sponsor of the bishops' consultation, to which all active Methodist bishops are invited.

At the Atlanta meeting, two other Methodist bodies became a part of the consultation for the first time: the Union American Methodist Episcopal Church and the African Union Methodist Protestant Church.

Since the joint commission was established by action of the individual General Conferences of the Methodist denominations, the General Conferences will have to approve the name change, said Bishop Nathaniel Jarrett of Chicago, who serves as president of the commission and is a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.

Speaking to the group, Jarrett said the commission had decided "some time ago" that "organic union" was neither feasible nor desired. Yet, the words "cooperation and union" were included in the commission's name to reflect the belief that "God is calling us to more than cooperation," he explained. "The problem came when that understanding (fuller cooperation but not merger) was not clearly articulated."

At the consultation, several bishops in the African-American churches broached the subject of a name change, stating that "union" is misleading and not the commission's intention. "It's not what we are working toward," said Bishop Earl McCloud Jr., Atlanta, of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The motion to shorten the name to Pan-Methodist Commission was made by United Methodist Bishop James Swanson of the Holston Conference. "No matter what you say in this particular matter … people will still say you're talking about union," should "unity" or "union" remain in the name, he said. His motion passed by a vote of 23-12.

Ways to work together
While specific reasons opposing "union" were not enumerated on the floor, Bishop William Oden of Dallas, ecumenical officer for the United Methodist Council of Bishops, said some obstacles to a merger would be different pension structures, processes for electing bishops, and the fear that the historically black denominations would be "swallowed up" by the larger United Methodist Church.

Yet, there are many ways in which the Methodist bodies can work together, he said. "We have more in common than we do differences. Our Disciplines are very similar. We have the same services of ordination, Communion and baptism."

The bishops discussed some of cooperative ventures with regard to children and poverty, substance abuse prevention, higher education and men's ministries.

The United Methodist Church at its 2000 General Conference held a service of repentance and reconciliation, during which it formally apologized for racist acts in the past that caused African-American Methodists to leave and establish their own churches.

In a more recent sign of cooperation and reconciliation, representatives of African- American churches have been serving on the general agencies, commissions and boards of the United Methodist Church.

Lula Howard of Louisville, Ky., a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, described her experience serving on the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns. "I'm sorry to see my term ending because I've learned so much," she said. "I have had a wonderful experience."

Currently, United Methodists do not serve on the boards and agencies of the other churches, but one reason is that the African-American churches generally do not have comparable structures, said Oden. "I've spoke at the CME and AME Zion General Conferences," he said. "They are really good about reciprocating invitations and inviting us to their General Conferences."

Pressing issues
The bishops also discussed cooperative work in the future. On the Gulf Coast, bishops of the Methodist churches will meet to discuss how to help people affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and to address insurance, reconstruction and justice issues.

A committee was appointed to draft a statement calling for an end to the war in Iraq, and another group was named to write a letter on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, emphasizing injustices shown to Palestinians. Both letters will be circulated among the bishops for their signatures before being forwarded to U.S. government bodies.

With regard to issues of a living wage, health care and HIV/AIDS, the bishops agreed to write letters of support to national groups already working on these concerns and to link with religious and community leaders addressing them in their home areas.

The bishops also asked the commission staff to provide them with research on AIDS in the United States, particularly with regard to those most affected, such as African-American women. Statistics show AIDS is among the top three causes of death for African-American women ages 35-44.

Ecumenical relations
One matter that spurred considerable discussion was the formation of a new U.S. ecumenical group, Christian Churches Together, of which the United Methodist Church is a provisional member but which the African-American Methodist churches have not joined. The group has met informally since 2001 and officially launched last month.

The black churches are not members of Christian Churches Together, their bishops said, because they sense a lack of commitment on the organization's part to inclusiveness, both ethnic- and gender-wise, and to social justice. The bishops also said the group detracts from the National Council of Churches as the primary U.S. ecumenical body.

"Those other groups (in Christian Churches Together) are welcome to come into the National Council of Churches, but we're too … justice oriented," said Bishop Thomas Hoyt of Hyattville, Md., of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and former president of the NCC. "Why join a group that just wants to talk?"

In response, United Methodist Bishop Ann Sherer of Nebraska, president of the Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, said the United Methodist Church shares the concerns of the black churches and for those reasons has agreed to be a provisional member - not a full member.

Still, she said, the United Methodist Church believes it is important "to have some form of conversation with persons of Pentecostal, Roman Catholic and nondenominational (background)" that do not belong to the National Council of Churches but are part of Christian Churches Together.

*Smith is editor of the Wesleyan Christian Advocate, the newspaper of The United Methodist Church in Georgia.

Higher education board increases scholarship support

By Linda Green*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - The amount of money a United Methodist college student may borrow annually from a denominational loan fund will double to $5,000, while the interest rate for repayment will decrease to 5 percent.

Governing members of the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry approved a four-pronged approach to help students finance their higher education and seminary education. Their March 8-10 board meeting focused on reaching and supporting young people in their vocational endeavors.

Changes to the United Methodist Student Loan Fund - including decreasing the interest rate from 6 percent to 5 percent - will take effect in August.

"We believe that increasing the amount that can be borrowed will bring an increase in the number of loans requested. We have had a decrease, we think, in part because the amount is so small," said Carolyn Briscoe, chairwoman of the board's Loans and Scholarship Committee.

The board's action, she said, recognizes the increased cost of college and university tuition and incidentals and will help students buy more than books. It also will help the Office of Loans and Scholarships fulfill its mission. "We need to be as generous as we can in preparing the next generation of Christian leaders," said Briscoe.

Board members also approved withdrawing $2 million from the scholarship and loan fund to provide scholarships for seminary students, women of color and its popular Gift of Hope: 21st Century Scholars Program.

Gift of Hope
The Gift of Hope project was created in 1998 as a four-year program to give scholarships to deserving United Methodists not attending one of the 124 United Methodist-related colleges and universities. Briscoe said the program has continued by managing the student loan fund and because of the high number of eligible undergraduate students demonstrating their leadership capabilities in the local church and campus ministries.

To further its reach, the board established a $500,000 endowment to help the loan office award a minimum of 700 annual scholarships and continue the Gift of Hope in perpetuity.

The board voted to rename the program "The Rev. Dr. Karen Layman Gift of Hope: 21st Century Scholars Program" in honor of the late education advocate who was instrumental in creating it. Layman, of Carlisle, Pa., saw the need for future church leaders to be well educated and to have opportunity to receive training. She died in 2005.

"Karen believed for years the church was an opportunity for people to not only express faith but to also broaden horizons," said Jay Layman, upon learning of the board's tribute to his late wife. "My wife never wanted to call attention to herself, but it is nice to have her remembered." Their daughter, Anna, a second-year student at Duke Divinity School, is fulfilling her mother's desire to develop well-educated church leaders.

The Rev. Edwin Zeiders, president of United Methodist-related United Theological Seminary, applauded the board's decision. "I cannot begin to tell you that this warms my soul," he said. "I celebrate this action on behalf of the Central Pennsylvania Annual Conference," where Layman was in ministry.

Women of color and seminary students
Board members also created a $500,000 endowment for the Women of Color Scholars Program to support four students in 2007 and ensure the annual support of a minimum of 10 women of color pursuing doctorate degrees in religious studies.

The genesis of the endowment was the 2006 Women of Color Consultation in Chicago, where participants collected a faith offering to establish a scholarship fund. The program provides up to $10,000 a year to women of color pursuing their Ph.D. or Th.D.

Created in 1988, the Women of Color Scholars Program grew out of concerns from professional women at United Methodist seminaries and theological schools about the lack of women of color on their faculties.

To grant more scholarships to seminary students, the board also increased its special seminary scholarship fund by $1 million for students up to age 30. The fund was created in 2005 and the increase from the United Methodist Scholarship and Student Loan Fund will help an additional 25 students in 2007-08, bringing to 75 the total number of seminary students receiving annual scholarship support. Briscoe hopes that, as the fund grows, a minimum of 100 young seminarians someday will receive scholarships.

Youth culture
Board members heard presentations on the culture of youth and young adults and also received an update on the Study of Ministry Commission.

Julie O'Neal and Jay Clark, staff members of the Division on Ministries with Young People at the United Methodist Board of Discipleship, defined youth and young adults today by reviewing characteristics of the Generation X and Millennial generations that followed Baby Boomers.

There are 69 million young adults ages 18-30 and one important characteristic is that they are spiritually fed by a variety of worship styles. The challenge for the church, said O'Neal, "is to not do one-size-fits-all worship."

Many youth, they said, are "me-centric," focused on making themselves happy with no boundaries - hence the sharing of all aspects of their lives on social networking Web sites.

"Young people are hungry to tell their story to whoever will listen," said Paul Perez, a seminary student. "… And as a church, especially in the Wesleyan Methodist heritage, this should not surprise us since our heritage is one of small groups and sharing our stories with each other. Unfortunately, in the church and society, there is not a place where we ask each other, 'How is your soul?'"

O'Neal said that in addition to social networks, youth adults are "very spiritual and want that connection to a higher power, that personal faith, but that does not mean that it always happens in a church." She added that many do feel the call of God upon their lives and will enter seminary to enhance their gifts to make a difference, "but it does not always mean pastoral ministry."

Ministry study update
The 2004 General Conference, the denomination's top legislative body, established the Study of Ministry Commission to review the United Methodist system of lay, licensed and ordained leadership. The responsibility falls under the Board of Higher Education and Ministry, which includes the Division of Ordained Ministry.

Updating the board on the issue, the Rev. Robert Kohler of the Division of Ordained Ministry said the study seeks to bring conversation and clarity to ministerial leadership in the church. He said the commission's primary focus has been around conversation about the call to ministry, forms of ministry and the nature of ministry in United Methodism.

The commission, he said, is moving carefully and slowly "to some kind of consensus around the future of ministry in Methodism," but may not result in legislation for the 2008 General Conference. "The need to rush to legislation has been one of the great deterring factors to successful studies of ministry in our church," he said.

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

Congress to hear report on Philippine killings

By United Methodist News Service*

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - Philippine religious leaders will testify before a U.S Senate panel March 14 on extrajudicial killings in their country in the hopes of turning the spotlight on "unabated and unpunished politically motivated murders."

The delegation wants to send a message back home that U.S. leaders are concerned about what is happening in the Southeast Asian nation.

They also hope the meetings will serve as a wakeup call to Congress and the White House to stop sending money to a government implicated in human right abuses.

"We are trying to rattle the chains of the House and Senate and put some pressure on the State Department to insist that the government of the Philippines not be engaged in human right abuses," said the Rev. Bob Edgar, a United Methodist who is top executive of the U.S. National Council of Churches.

Presenting to Congress
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, called the congressional hearing to find ways to end violence that has claimed the lives of more than 800 people since President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo assumed the presidency in 2001.

Two Filipino witnesses to the hearing, Bishop Eliezer Pascua, general secretary of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, and Marie Hilao-Enriquez, general secretary of the human rights alliance Karapatan, are part of a nine-member ecumenical delegation that includes United Methodist Bishop Solito Toquero.

The delegation also will be part of a briefing with staff of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, headed by Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif.

Both the Senate hearing and the House briefing resulted from concerted efforts of church and ecumenical bodies led by Edgar, a former member of the U.S. Congress.

"The delegation was anxious if not desperate to have a voice and an audience with Sen. Boxer's committee and also Rep. Tom Lantos," Edgar said. The delegation knows speaking out will "put them on lists to be threatened or harmed," Edgar said. "They indicated the risks were worth the dangers."

Others scheduled to testify before the Senate panel are Eric John, State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs; Jonathan Farrar, Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Department; T. Kumar, Asia and Pacific of Amnesty International USA; and G. Eugene Martin, Philippine Facilitation Project of the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Other delegation members are Sharon Rose Joy Ruiz-Duremdes, general secretary of National Council of Churches in the Philippines; Fr. Jose P. Dizon, executive director of the Workers Assistance Center, Inc.; the Rev. Deogracias Iniguez, Roman Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Kalookan; Edre Olalia, of the Counsels for the Defense of Liberties; Athea Peñalosa, representing the Children's Rehabilitation Center; and Amirah Ali Lidasan, secretary general and co-founder of the Moro-Christian People's Alliance.

The latest killing took place March 9, Edgar said, and brings the total deaths since January 2001 to 836. In 2006 alone, there were 207 extrajudicial killings, or an average of four people a week.

Spreading the word
The Filipino delegation is speaking out to various organizations and conferences about the atrocities in their nation and advocates for the United States to put more pressure on the Philippine government regarding human rights.

Members spoke March 10-12 in Washington during the fifth annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days Conference, attended by 1,300 faith-based and civil society leaders and activists concerned with U.S. foreign and domestic policies.

They also will present findings March 12-14 during the International Ecumenical Conference on Human Rights in the Philippines, called by U.S., Canadian and ecumenical church leaders. The Philippine Working Group of the Asia Pacific Forum and the National Council of Churches in the Philippines are sponsoring the conference.

A recent report of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) details cases of political killings and studies the chilling pattern and alarming number of deaths. The report links the unbridled political killings to the Arroyo government's counter-insurgency program.

"The manner with which the victims were executed or abducted was done professionally and systematically, establishing a connection between the national security strategy and the incidents of violations," the report states.

The document notes the poor record of the Philippine government in both complying with procedures required of a member of the United Nations and keeping its declared commitments to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Evidence grows
The NCCP report is the latest study to link responsibility for the killings to Philippine military and security forces.

On February 21, Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, asked the Armed Forces of the Philippines to acknowledge its involvement and investigate the matter. Alston had spent 10 days in the Philippines exploring the killings and related human rights violations and met with Arroyo and other government officials, human rights groups and victims' families.

On March 6, a U.S. State Department report said unexplained killings in the Philippines during 2006 were committed "apparently by elements of the security forces."

A commission formed by Arroyo herself to investigate the political killings has produced its own report naming retired Philippine Army Gen. Jovito Palparan, along with other generals, as the "prime suspect behind the extrajudicial killings." The commission, headed by a former Supreme Court justice in the Philippines, called on Arroyo to punish those responsible.

Victims reportedly are killed for political beliefs, exercising freedom of expression and opting to serve others as Christians. Among those killed have been lawyers, human rights defenders, journalists, church leaders, local officials, community leaders and organizers, students, peasants, indigenous leaders, workers, professionals, women and children.

*Noel Pangilinan, media representative for the International Ecumenical Conference on Human Rights in the Philippines, contributed to this report.

Prayer event focuses on human rights in Philippines

Clergy hold photos of Filipino victims of extrajudicial killings and focus onhuman rights violations in the Philippines during a World Day of Prayerservice in Sacramento, Calif. A UMNS photo courtesy of theCalifornia-Nevada Annual Conference.

By Jeneane Jones*

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (UMNS) - On the day he would address a World Day of Prayer worship service at a local church, Bishop Eliezer Pascua was awakened by an early morning phone call from the Philippines.

The general secretary of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines listened as the caller told of the latest killing just hours earlier - another UCCP member gunned down in the streets.

The murder of Renato Torrecampo Pacaide, 53, who was secretary general of a peasant movement in Mindanao, brought to 835 the number of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines in five years. Of that number, more than two dozen church people and clergy have been killed, including a United Methodist pastor. The UCCP has been the hardest hit denomination.

Standing behind photos of some of the victims, Pascua spoke during an ecumenical worship service at Westminster Presbyterian Church. In a voice brimming with both frustration and sorrow, he quoted the Psalms: "How long O Lord will you forget us…but we have trusted in you. We believe God is present."

On March 12-14, Pascua joins United Methodist Bishop Solito Toquero, episcopal leader of the Manila area, and a delegation of religious leaders from the Philippines area in Washington, D.C., for an international conference addressing human rights abuses in the Philippines.

Brutal stories
United Methodists from the California-Nevada Conference (region) returned in February from a 10-day, fact-finding mission in the Philippines.

Laddie Perez-Galang, from South Hayward United Methodist Church, traveled with 16 others to three regions of the Southeast Asian island nation. Each group heard unique stories with brutal similarities - stories of peasant laborers killed in rice fields, of torture and mass killings.

The team heard reports of church workers being identified with the New People's Army, the armed extension of the Communist Party of the Philippines, because they were helping secure the civil rights of farm workers. Reportedly, that connection was providing the military with its license to kill.

"The military government is taking advantage of uneducated people who do not know their rights," said Perez-Galang. "If they speak up, they are arrested and killed. And if educated people inform them of their rights, they are marked or labeled as either NPAs or communists."

The government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has investigated the killings but, according to Human Rights Watch, a climate of fear and a lack of cooperation by military authorities have made the probe ineffective. Victims and their families are afraid to come forward for fear of police reprisals.

The Rev. Michael Yoshii, a coordinator of the Cal-Nevada United Methodist Church team, said neither fear nor distance could silence some, however. "Some people walked six hours to come and be interviewed by our group. They were under watch and their safety was not insured in many cases," Yoshii said.

United Methodist Bishop Beverly Shamana, of the California-Nevada Conference (region), was part of the fact-finding mission and said her group now faces the task of education and advocacy. "There is a lack of information, and international classicism is at work," she said.

Because the killings happened in an underdeveloped country, Shamana said, the stories of human rights atrocities have not received much attention from the world community.

"Our representatives and many communities who care simply don't know yet," Shamana said. "And so it is up to us to get the word out and get people educated, get them moving."

World Day of Prayer
This year's commemoration of World Day of Prayer on March 2 was a chance for Sacramento's ecumenical community to spotlight an underreported story being played out on streets and in villages across the Philippines. The stories include that of Noli Capulong, a youth leader in the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, shot and killed last May as he headed to Bible study.

During the worship service, the Rev. Dennis Duhaylungsod of Filipino American United Church of Christ in Fremont, who worked with Capulong, shared that the 20-year-old was killed on the day his mother sponsored a resolution to stop the killings in the Philippines.

Holding up a black and white photo of Capulong, Duhaylungsod described the young man's apparent crime: "He attended a community meeting to help organize the village [to start] their own drug store."

For Deborah Lee of the PANA Institute, which studies leadership development in Pacific Asian and North American Religion, the day of prayer centered on faith, justice and human rights in the Philippines. "It is time to focus on human rights abuses [and] the killings of unarmed civilians who because of their political positions to stand for the poor, are being assassinated by their own military," she said.

The decision to host the World Day of Prayer at Westminster Presbyterian was strategic. The Spanish-Mediterranean-styled church in downtown Sacramento sits in the shadow of the California State Capitol.

The Rev. Larry Emery, one of the event's coordinators, challenged U.S. citizens to "hold our representatives in Washington accountable for the aid sent to our overseas allies in the name of American people, and to insure that aid is not used to oppose legitimate opposition to government, no matter their political public view, no matter their religious affiliation."

Emery called for letter-writing campaigns to U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who chairs the Senate Foreign Affairs Sub Committee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

"Write and call your senators," he said. "Urge them to conduct a thorough and complete hearing into the human rights violations to determine whether the military is being used to threaten the civil rights and the very lives of the citizens of that nation."

As the service closed, Emery invited worshippers to carry and leave flowers on the state Capitol steps, along with photos of those killed in the Philippines.

"We are working out our mutual collective salvation," said Yoshii, "understanding that our salvation is bound up in our support and solidarity of each other. None of us is free until we are all free."

*Jones is conference communications director, California-Nevada Annual Conference.

Latin Americans tell stories of faith

A UMNS Report By Linda Bloom*

Methodist Bishop Juan Alberto Cardona of Colombia describes the church in his country during the March 1-4 Panama consultation. A UMNS photo by Larry Nelson.

PANAMA City, Panama (UMNS)-When the Rev. Juan Alberto Cardona, the Methodist bishop of Colombia, was kidnapped and briefly detained by a guerrilla group in his country, he shared a copy of The Upper Room with the group's leader.

The guerrilla leader later released Cardona-and asked for more copies of the United Methodist devotional guide.

Cardona shared the story with participants in a March 1-4 consultation of the Methodist Churches of Latin America and the Caribbean and The United Methodist Church. The consultation, in Panama City, was sponsored by a committee studying the relationship among those churches.

Cardona is the first bishop of a small but growing church that was formally organized only 10 years ago but has received national recognition both for its inclusive membership of women, youth and various ethnic groups and the respect it has gained from both the guerrillas and paramilitary at war in Colombia.

"All of our churches are in the conflict zones," Cardona explained. "We can travel in the heart of the conflict, and we ourselves are not in danger."

Danger and threats to human rights have been a constant concern in Latin America over the past few decades, according to Bishop Neftali Aravena Bravo of Chile, who tried to put the continent's social context into perspective for consultation participants.

Many Latin American countries suffered military coups in the "very recent past which is still affecting us in Latin America," Bravo said. Militaries remain a threat to weak democracies, while economic "improvements" often mean large North American industries moving polluting plants south where there are fewer regulations.

"We are countries where the social fabric has been shredded," Bravo said. "Now there is no one who can represent the great majority of the population."

Large Roman Catholic population
Bravo said Methodism is not valued in a culture dominated by the Roman Catholic Church. "Nevertheless, we've been growing in surprising levels in Latin America. This growth is leaving the Catholics very concerned," he said.

In Chile, for example, 73 percent of the population identifies itself as Catholic but only 9 percent regularly attend Sunday mass, according to the bishop. Bravo himself has been chosen as the Protestant chaplain to the new Chilean government and is on equal footing with the Catholic chaplain.

However, Latin American Protestants have less of an impact on society, according to Bravo, partly because they don't speak in a unified voice. Also, historic mainline denominations are "extremely small" compared to the growing Pentecostal movements.

Brenda Armstrong, vice president of the Methodist Church of the Caribbean and Americas, said the Caribbean has a "kaleidoscope of people" with a history of exploitation and enslavement.

"The Caribbean was seen by European nations and explorers as a place where you could come and take things," she said. A legacy of that colonialism exists today, she added, particularly as people search for identity and unity.

U.S. culture
United Methodist Bishop Peter Weaver, describing the current social culture in the United States, noted an increasing sense of self-centeredness and isolation at the same time that U.S. culture is being exported around the world.

"The mission movement helped people in the United States learn that their world is not the only world," he said. But, today, many are not experiencing those global connections.

Still, Weaver is observing a new spiritual hunger among Americans and pointed to new coalitions that combine wealth and creativity to end poverty and address other social needs worldwide.
*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

Kefas Mavula becomes United Methodist bishop of Nigeria

By Phileas Jusu*

The Rev. John Wesley Yohanna (right) congratulates newly elected United Methodist Bishop Kefas Kane Mavula and his wife, Jessica. A UMNS photo by Phileas Jusu.

MONROVIA, Liberia (UMNS) - The United Methodist Church in Nigeria has a new bishop, the Rev. Kefas Kane Mavula, who was elected and appointed on his 40th birthday.

The March 3 election was held during a special session of the West Africa Central Conference at S.T. Nagbe United Methodist Church in Monrovia. Mavula garnered all 74 votes cast by delegates attending the conference.

The church in Nigeria has been led on an interim basis by Bishop Ntambo Nkulu Ntanda since the death last August of Bishop Done Peter Dabale. Dabale, who died of cancer, was elected the first United Methodist bishop of Nigeria in 1992.

The Rev. John Wesley Yohanna and the Rev. Samuel Sule withdrew from the race shortly before the election. When letters of withdrawal were read, the people attending stamped their feet, clapped their hands and ululated with approval. Each candidate was called to affirm his withdrawal letter as a gesture of genuineness.

"I decided to withdraw in the interest of peace for the church in Nigeria," Yohanna said.
Bishop Gregory V. Palmer, the president-designate of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, was the presiding officer for the election. He explained the electoral procedure, and delegates lined up to cast their votes.

After the results were announced, Mavula tearfully addressed the conference. "I will continue to work together with my friends John Wesley and Sam Sule for the development of the church in Nigeria," he said.

Focusing on unity
A major challenge for the new bishop will be to unify a church that has been fragmented for several years. Mavula, an experienced teacher, is expected to use his leadership skills to bring reconciliation.

"Acknowledging our shortcomings is a very good step towards achieving peace," he said. "We must humble ourselves and accept our shortcomings. These will take us a very long way in achieving peace and solving some of the problems if not all. … I am ever ready to support whoever will emerge from the two so that we work together and bring reconciliation in the church."

Bishop Joseph Humper of the Sierra Leone Area, chairman of the special session of the West Africa Central Conference, expressed relief that the election concluded peacefully.
"I went to bed late last night and woke up at 2 a.m. to pray for this election. Thank God the result is a miracle to us," he said.

The United Methodist Church in Nigeria is large. Council of Bishops President Janice Riggle Huie noted last August that, under Bishop Dabale, the church in Nigeria had grown from about 10,000 to more than 400,000 members.

A career in service
Mavula, an only child, was born March 3, 1967, in a village called Nyaja in Taraba State, Nigeria. He became a Christian in 1976 and was baptized June 27, 1977, by the Rev. Jonah B. Matindi.
He holds a bachelor of divinity in theology degree and a master of theology degree from the Theological College of Northern Nigeria. He was ordained a deacon in the United Methodist Church's Nigeria Annual Conference in January 1993 and became an elder in January 1995.
Mavula and his wife, Jessica, have six children. He speaks Mumuye, his tribe's language, Hausa and English.

He has served as teacher, vice principal and principal at Kakulu Bible Institute in Taraba State. He was principal of Didanga Bible School from 1992 to 1995, then administrative assistant to Bishop Dabale from 1995 to 2003. Up to the time of his election, Mavula was principal at the UMCN (United Methodist Church in Nigeria) Junior Seminary.

Among other responsibilities, he served as a member of the Board of Governing Council, Theological College of Northern Nigeria, from 1993 to 1995. He is currently on the board of directors of United Methodist-related Africa University in Zimbabwe and is chairman of the Peace Committee of Lau, Taraba State.

"We are very excited about the election. … We're going home with a peaceful heart," said Leah Solomon, an observer at the special central conference session.

*Jusu is director of communications for The United Methodist Church's Sierra Leone Annual Conference.

Latin American, Caribbean Methodists share insights

A UMNS Report By Linda Bloom*

PANAMA CITY, Panama (UMNS)-In the part of El Salvador where Gloria Maritza Landaverde lives, her small community sees more cases of malnutrition than anywhere else in the country.
To address that need, the Evangelical Methodist Church of El Salvador-seven churches strong-has started a child nutrition program. The church also operates two medical clinics, a food bank and a recovery home for drug addicts; holds literacy training and workshops for women; and provides volunteers for Habitat for Humanity.

"This has been work that's very difficult but not impossible," said Landaverde, a lay leader of the El Salvador church.

Landaverde was among participants in a March 1-4 consultation on the relationship between The United Methodist Church and independent Methodist churches in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The consultation was arranged by a study committee established by the 2004 United Methodist General Conference to consider the denomination's historic, current and future relations with Methodist churches in the region.

Representatives came from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela and parts of the Caribbean. Representatives from Cuba were unable to attend due to travel obstacles.

Interacting with them were members of the study committee and representatives of various United Methodist agencies and commissions.

Local hosts were the Methodist Churches of the Caribbean and the Americas and the Evangelical Methodist Church of Panama. Relationships were forged during morning and evening worship, mealtime chats and a fiesta featuring Panamanian food and traditional folk dances.

United Methodists "need to listen to the voices of Latin America," said the Rev. Aida Fernandez, a committee member from Lawrence, Mass., who spoke of the importance of looking at the history of relationships in the region-and then moving on, with a focus on healing.

The study committee will present its report to the 2008 General Conference, the denomination's top legislative body. "I hope there will be no promises that cannot be fulfilled," Fernandez told United Methodist News Service.

Providing context
Focusing on a region with a rich mission history, the consultation included presentations on historic denominational ties and social and cultural context, leading to discussions about what it means to be autonomous and also to connect and collaborate.

One of the giants of Latin American Methodism, Bishop Aldo Etchegoyen of Argentina, set the scene as he talked about why the image of the forest was chosen as the consultation's theme.

Just as trees have roots in the soil of the forest, churches have roots in the soils of the nations where they exist. "Each one of our churches has deepened their roots into the reality of their countries," while the tree branches of the forest intertwine "and form the canopy" of connectionalism, explained Etchegoyen, chief executive of the Council of Evangelical Methodist Churches in Latin America and the Caribbean (CIEMAL).

While Latin America/Caribbean churches have enjoyed freedom to assume responsibilities and develop themselves "according to the realities that they face," they want to strengthen connections with their brothers and sisters to the north, participants said.

However, confusion exists over exactly how to relate to The United Methodist Church. Churches in some countries have developed good relations with individual U.S. annual conferences, but better communication with United Methodists is needed "at all levels," they said.

An important step
Both short-term and long-range actions are required to strengthen the bonds with Methodists from Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the Rev. Larry Pickens, a committee member and chief executive of the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns.

"The consultation has been an important step toward helping us clarify the relationships," he said.

Participants expressed enthusiasm over ideas such as mutual visits, cultural and ecclesiastical exchanges and exchanging missionaries from both regions.

Argentina Bishop Nellie Ritchie invited other United Methodists to come to her country "to tell stories about their spiritual life, their religious life, their commitment to society."

Such contact is essential, she says, to develop real connections among Methodists in the Americas. "Mission is mission only if we put a face on this mission," said Ritchie.

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

'E-learning' to enhance theology studies in Europe

By United Methodist News Service

REUTLINGEN, Germany (UMNS)-United Methodist pastors and seminary students will be able to receive basic theological education though "e-learning" under a new long-term strategy for pastoral education in Europe.

The online courses are to be available in German and English beginning in 2008.
Bishops and representatives of seminaries and annual conferences mapped out a three-year plan during a landmark summit Feb. 10-11 in Reutlingen. The group is working to strengthen clergy and lay leadership development in the European Central Conferences.

"The summit was a big step forward, as we agreed to share resources and to build up a platform for e-learning," said Bishop Rosemarie Wenner, who leads three annual conferences in Germany.

E-learning, or electronic learning, uses computers, the World Wide Web and other technologies to provide wider access, flexibility and enhanced learning through a combination of methods.

The e-learning classes are not meant to provide a total theological education, said the Rev. Mary Ann Moman, a staff member of the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

"We hope they will get their basic theological education in university or seminary settings, but this program does bring the Methodist classes to Europe-theology, ecclesiology and history," she said.

Landmark summit
The summit was the first event in Europe bringing together the denomination's European bishops and representatives of conference boards of ordained ministry and United Methodist seminaries with staff of the denomination's Board of Higher Education and Ministry "to develop a broad vision for lay and clergy leadership development throughout the continent of Europe," said the Rev. Jerome King Del Pino, the board's top executive.

The summit also was attended by Üllas Tankler, executive secretary for Europe and North Africa with the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, as well as leaders in pastoral and lay training from across Europe.

Wenner joined Bishops Øystein Olsen of the Nordic and Baltic Area, Hans Växby of the Eurasia Area and Patrick Streiff of Central and Southern Europe to call together delegates for the summit.

"We discussed which kind of leadership we need as Methodists in Europe (and) how can we develop theological training for pastors in the small churches and language groups all over Europe," said Wenner.

Moman said it is particularly important to bring Methodist classes to Europe, where churches in the Methodist tradition are in the minority. A paper issued by the summit explained there is a plurality of Methodist identities in Europe. "Nevertheless we must ask the questions of what we have in common, what are the essentials, what unites us and what ought to be binding us," the paper stated.

Online courses
The United Methodist theological schools in Europe created a committee to develop the online courses. Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington is assisting the group and plans to videotape the lectures at the Oxford Institute this summer. Students will be able to view those lectures in German and English online, according to Moman.
The group agreed on two priorities:

• Providing education and training for students interested in ordination as elder or deacon in The United Methodist Church or the equivalent in other Methodist church traditions
• The education and training of local pastors or the equivalent in other Methodist church traditions

Summit participants looked at the importance of cooperating to develop plans in preparing leaders who can guide the church in responding to the needs and circumstances of the communities in which they live. The group also considered relational legislation in preparation for the 2008 General Conference, the top legislative assembly of The United Methodist Church, meeting April 23-May 2 in Fort Worth, Texas.

The 2000 General Conference established a fund for theological education in post-communist Europe, but the 2004 General Conference cut the support and established a fund for global education. The conference did not provide apportionment money for the fund but designated it as a World Service special, meaning the fund would depend on contributions from individuals, annual conferences, local churches and other organizations. The United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry initiated a campaign to raise up to $4 million to provide technical support and scholarship aid to United Methodist-related institutions of higher learning in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the United States.

This story was adapted from a news release by Mark P. Nelson, Baltic Methodist Theological Seminary, in Tallinn, Estonia.