New budget process yields $642 million spending proposal

By Marta W. Aldrich*

Members of the United Methodist Council on Finance and Administration and the Connectional Table open a budget session with worship and prayer.UMNS photos by Marta W. Aldrich.


NORCROSS, Ga. (UMNS) - The 2008 General Conference will receive a proposed four-year budget for The United Methodist Church requesting $642 million to support denominational ministries centered around four newly defined mission initiatives.

Approved by church leadership on May 24 - Aldersgate Day - the proposed spending plan is designed to fund the church's 21st century mission initiatives of leadership development; building new congregations and revitalizing existing ones; ministry with the poor, especially children; and combating the preventable diseases of poverty, such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.

The budget recommendation will be presented to General Conference when the church's top legislative body meets next April in Fort Worth, Texas. It was developed during a three-day joint meeting of the governing board of the General Council on Finance and Administration with the Connectional Table, a churchwide leadership entity responsible for coordinating the denomination's mission, ministries and resources.

The proposed budget for the 2009-2012 quadrennium is 4.8 percent higher than the $612.5 million budget for the denomination's current four-year cycle. However, it is about 6 percent less than the overall amounts requested by church entities to meet ministry goals. The budget also represents a 6.6 percent spending increase for nine program agencies that collectively had asked for 16.6 percent more. Program agencies range from large ones, such as the Board of Global Ministries and the Board of Discipleship, to smaller ones, such as United Methodist Men and the Commission on Religion and Race.

Bishop Lindsey Davis, of the North Georgia Area, said the proposed budget "represents a lot of shared pain - a lot of give and take."

The plan was approved unanimously by the GCFA board and by a vote of 27-7 from the Connectional Table. The Book of Discipline requires that both bodies agree on a budget proposal to be brought to General Conference.

Apportionment-based budgeting
The four-year budget would be funded with $642 million in requested apportionments from 34,000 United Methodist congregations, which represents about 2.25 percent of projected local church income. However, the plan was developed based on projections of receiving 87 percent of that amount, or $558 million, as some churches do not pay 100 percent of their requested apportionments.

Budget planners readily acknowledge that the process includes a payout buffer. Apportionment payouts have varied over the years - from a low of 84 percent in 1993 to a high of 91 percent in 2000. In the most recent budget year, 88.5 percent of all apportioned amounts were received during 2006. Only 17 of the church's 63 U.S. conferences paid 100 percent of their requested apportionments.

Local church spending has increased more rapidly than spending by the denominational structure. Thus, the denomination has gotten a decreasing share of the total funds received in the local church - a downward trend that has accelerated since 1995.

GCFA staff and board member Don House, an economist, acknowledged that coming up with a reasonable "bottom line" apportionment request is an inexact science and is based on many economic factors. "We have to keep the local churches and annual conferences in good health," he told the joint session. "But we also strive to fund the mission and ministries the best we can. The question is, 'How do we strike that balance?'"

Lisa King, a GCFA board member and treasurer of the Wisconsin Annual Conference, told the groups that - while the agency requests would fund "exciting and wonderful" ministries - financial realities must be considered. "What we've been hearing in our conferences and other conferences is that churches are struggling financially. They are cutting budgets, cutting staff, cutting ministries," she said.

The Rev. Carl Schenck, a Connectional Table member from the Missouri Conference, responded that apportionments are not the "plumb line" that measures faithfulness. "In setting the bottom line for apportionments, we are not limiting what God will do through us," he said.

New processes
The joint budget-building session was the first time the two entities had worked together on a proposed spending plan. Previously, the GCFA board was solely responsible for developing a recommendation to General Conference. However, the 2004 General Conference created the Connectional Table (comprising bishops, staff executives, agency officers, and representatives of ethnic caucuses and annual conferences) and mandated collaboration with GCFA so that "ministry and money are brought to the same table to coordinate the mission, ministries and resources of The United Methodist Church."

This also was the first time that spending requests were submitted on an outcome-based model rather than by line item. "This is a more business-based model and is seen as more meaningful and easier to interpret to the General Conference, annual conferences and local churches," said the Rev. Terry Bradfield, a top executive with GCFA. "It gives the greater church a better sense of what the money is going for and how it is expected to make a difference."

The compromise spending plan puts the church budget process about five months ahead of schedule and strikes a balance between denominational and local church resources and ministries, according to Sandra Lackore, chief executive and treasurer of GCFA.

"It's a level budget that is a true reflection of a common table," she told United Methodist News Service. "… This is a budget that enables the agencies to do the mission and ministry that the denomination wants, while also allowing our local churches to do their mission and ministries by not burdening them disproportionately."

The budget process included times of worship, prayer and dialogue asking for God's guidance throughout the number crunching and negotiations.

"It is always difficult to come together and talk about money as a Methodist. But it is always a joy to come together and talk about mission," said Garlinda Burton, chief executive for the Commission on the Status and Role of Women.

Serving as worship leader, retired Bishop Woodie W. White asked God to bless the bodies' work. "We give what we've done - and everybody did our best and everybody had to give up something - and we give it now to God."

*Aldrich is news editor of United Methodist News Service.

Unprecedented unity builds for new mission initiatives

by Marta W. Aldrich*

Worshipers fill the sanctuary of Mision Metodista Unida Adonai in Asheboro, N.C. Revitalizing congregations is one of four mission initiatives being affirmed by church leaders. A UMNS file photo by Neill Caldwell.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - How do you start a movement?

In The United Methodist Church, the hope is to stir the 11.5 million-member global denomination one step at a time, beginning with its agencies, annual conferences and local churches.

In a spirit of collaboration and consensus-building described as historic by denominational leaders, a "unity" resolution is making its way through these structures of the church, identifying four themes as the primary areas of emphasis for United Methodists at the dawn of the 21st century.

Following decades of emotional discussion over polarizing issues such as homosexuality and abortion, this newly articulated United Methodist agenda has received only welcoming affirmation - with little debate - as groups have signed on one by one this spring in a show of unity.

The hope, according to top church leaders, is to give unified focus and resources to the United Methodist mission and to identify concrete actions needed to recapture the Wesleyan heritage toward "making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world."

"This is the first time in many years we've had this degree of collaboration going on," said Bishop Bruce Ough, chairman of the Council of Bishops planning team that started the process.

"It's a huge step forward when the council, general agencies and Connectional Table (of church leadership) can all say that we're working together on the same areas of emphasis."

A new agenda
Developed out of a two-year journey of conversation and prayer among church leaders, the four areas of emphasis initially were known as the four "provocative propositions" but now are being called the church's "mission initiatives." They are:

.Leadership development;
.Building new congregations and revitalizing existing ones;
.Ministry with the poor, particularly children; and
.Combating the preventable diseases of poverty, such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.

It is a long-term agenda addressing long-term problems in both the church and the world. For instance, in the area of congregational growth in the United States, it has taken a generation for membership to dwindle to the point where 45 percent of United Methodist churches did not report a single profession of faith in 2005. According to church leaders, it likely will take at least another generation to rebound.

"I think everyone recognizes we will not stem the decline in membership in a short turnaround - that it will take concerted effort over many years," said the Rev. Larry Hollon, chief executive of United Methodist Communications. "Similarly, we will not tackle the diseases of poverty and end malaria in a four-year period of time. It will take a generation or more of sustained effort, renewed periodically and consistently."

Hollon says the mission initiatives free the church to concentrate on priorities amid the sometimes frenzied nature of church work. "I think what this reflects - more than anything else - is a great desire in the church for focus," he said. "We try to do many things in a very limited time frame, and sometimes we need to give ourselves more time and the discipline of focus that is necessary to carry an idea from the beginning to a successful conclusion."

An evolving message
Ough emphasizes that these mission initiatives sprang up from the life of the church at the local level - not as mandates from a disconnected church polity. "What we tried to do is to start by asking where our conferences already are trying to lead and follow God's call," he said. "This is not top down; this is bubbling up."

Out of that conversation, the Council of Bishops developed a list called the "Seven Vision Pathways," identifying mission areas where bishops could provide leadership for the church. This provided the breeding ground for the four mission initiatives and four related "calls to action" that are still being developed.

Hollon anticipates the language will continue to evolve as leaders hone the "message of a movement" for presentation to the 2008 General Conference, the church's top lawmaking body, meeting next April in Fort Worth, Texas. "The truth is that these are still being refined. We need to get folks reacting to them who are not part of the bureaucracy and do not know the language of bureaucracy," he said.

A "messaging task force" is to meet in July for that purpose.

"We're at a critical juncture because we are searching for a crisp message that will bring everybody along as we go into General Conference," said Ough, "and even more importantly as we come out of General Conference. … When we leave General Conference, we want to have a way to talk about this so that the person in the pew can get up and say, 'Oh, I get it. Now I understand what the people of The United Methodist Church are all about.'"

Building unity
The unity resolution was drafted by Hollon and began circulating among boards and agencies this spring. The governing body for United Methodist Publishing House was among the first to sign on.

"Everyone I talk with affirms the power and promise of these four directions because they are embedded in our Wesleyan DNA, turn our collective attention to a hurting and hungry world, and make clear what is vitally important in our witness and mission together," said Neil Alexander, president of the church's publishing agency.

In approving the resolution, each agency essentially commits to work intentionally and collaboratively on the mission initiatives - and to plan and budget accordingly. The Publishing House, for instance, will work with leaders, congregations, writers and originators of creative programs to develop products and resources focusing on the new agenda, according to Alexander.

Other agencies passing the resolution thus far include Discipleship, Global Ministries, Church and Society, Higher Education and Ministry, Religion and Race, and the Status and Role of Women. The governing board for the Commission on the Status and Role of Women offered the widest discussion, affirming "in spirit" the areas of emphasis but reminding the church that any efforts must include work to end worldwide racism and sexism, beginning in the hearts of each church member and the "bones" of each congregation.

The Council of Bishops and Connectional Table affirmed the resolution as well, and church leaders appear to be backing up the rhetoric with money and resources. During its joint spring meeting May 22-24, the Connectional Table and the governing board for the Council on Finance and Administration hammered out a denominational budget proposal of almost $642 million centered around the mission initiatives for the 2009-2012 quadrennium.

Other agency boards are to take up the resolution as they meet over the summer, and a similar resolution is being circulated to annual conferences and local churches. Leaders of the Council of Bishops and the Connectional Table hope the same general spirit of cooperation will trickle down and become embedded in the pews of the church at some point - with the mission initiatives even reflected in local church planning and budgets.

"I think what we're saying is that it's time to be very serious about collaboration," said Hollon. "… I think there's a deep yearning in the church for focus and unity."

General Conference will be asked to affirm the mission initiatives to set the future course of the denomination's work and life. "We don't want to debate these as if they were up or down votes. We want them to be unifying and energizing as a vision," he said.

Building a movement
The four areas of emphasis - beginning with leadership development and starting new congregations - are common-sense quotients for a denomination with an acknowledged "leadership crisis" of ordained clergy in the United States. A 2006 report revealed that less than 5 percent of United Methodist elders are under age 35. Meanwhile, U.S. membership is shrinking at a time when 50 percent of the U.S. population has no ongoing relationship with a faith community. There also is much work to do to respond to the biblical callings of ministering to the poor and the sick - ministries consistent with the social gospel identity of early Methodism.

"These are no-brainer issues for our church and for all of us as world citizens," said Alexander of the Publishing House.

"These four propositions are not just programs," added the Rev. Larry Pickens of the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns. "These are initiatives that will guide our work into the next quadrennium and as far as we can see into the future."

Bishop Janice Riggle Huie, who is president of the Council of Bishops, believes it is a good foundation to transform The United Methodist Church into a movement. Following her visit last fall to the West African nation of Cote d'Ivoire - an experience she calls "transforming" because of the Christian energy she witnessed there - Huie called for a new movement of God's spirit in a unified church focused on putting hope into action.

She noted that the Methodist movement was started in Great Britain in the 18th century by a group of highly disciplined and focused disciples that included John Wesley. They responded to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and made Christian faith simple and practical.

"In glimpse after glimpse of the reign of God in the 21st century, I see a United Methodist Church that is guided more by movement than by institution," she said in her spring episcopal address at the Council of Bishops' April 29-May 4 meeting. "I see a United Methodist Church led more by a clear vision and mission than by rules and regulations. That vision and mission unites diverse groups of people."

*Aldrich is news editor of United Methodist News Service

Weatherhead book recognized for sales achievement

By Kathy L. Gilbert*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - During World War II, the Rev. Leslie D. Weatherhead preached five sermons to his congregation in London to help his parishioners grapple with the concept of "God's will" during a tumultuous time in history.

The Will of God was published by Abingdon Press in 1944 and, 63 years later, more than a million people have been helped by his frank, sensitive and thoughtful approach to loss, sorrow and God.

The book recently was honored with a Platinum Book Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association for selling more than 1 million copies.

"Abingdon Press is honored to receive this award on behalf of a title that continues to resonate with readers over 60 years after its initial copyright," said Tammy Gaines, vice president of Abingdon Press.

A renowned Christian theologian, author, preacher and Methodist minister, Weatherhead had been published by Abingdon Press for 12 years before The Will of God went to print. He previously had written Why Do Men Suffer? and Thinking Aloud in War-Time, noted Mary Catherine Dean, executive director of publishing for United Methodist Publishing House.

"Still, a title such as The Will of God could be thought of as quite presumptuous," she said.

Though the book came directly from the pulpit in the context of World War II England, The Will of God almost from the beginning seemed to be unrelated to war, she added.

In the first chapter, Weatherhead recounts a conversation with a friend whose wife had recently died. The man was a doctor and had been fighting for weeks for her recovery. The man remarked, "Well, I must just accept it. It is the will of God."

From that remark, Weatherhead explores this notion by dividing the subject into three parts: the intentional will of God, the circumstantial will of God and the ultimate will of God.

"The theology is not simple, and yet it is broken down in a way that readers have found to be extremely helpful because it deals with what they intuitively know: Surely some things cannot be God's will (as I understand it). Please help me understand!" said Dean.

The Will of God was among publishing standouts in the 1940s and was published in a pocket-size edition by 1954. The book later appeared in an early large-print edition. It was released on two cassettes in the 1980s following Weatherhead's death in 1976.

"It has been in print continuously since its initial publication and has been a stalwart of the backlist for all those years," Dean said.

The current version is in large type and only 64 pages long. The entire text also is incorporated into the workbook Leslie Weatherhead's The Will of God: A Workbook, also published by Abingdon Press.

The Will of God is available from Abingdon Press in two formats-as a small paperback book (ISBN-13/UPC: 9780687008407) and as a workbook (ISBN-13/UPC: 9780687074822). It is available at Cokesbury Christian Bookstores, online at www.Cokesbury.com, at 1-800-672-1789 and through local bookstores.

The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association recognized 10 books, including The Will of God, for outstanding sales achievement during the 2007 ECPA Management Conference on April 29 in Austin, Texas. Established in 1990 by the association, the Gold and Platinum Book Awards recognize outstanding sales achievement of quality Christian literature.

The association is an international nonprofit trade organization comprising nearly 250 member companies worldwide.

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

Bush nominates United Methodist as surgeon general

By United Methodist News Service

Dr. James W. Holsinger, Jr.

A United Methodist physician from Kentucky has been nominated to serve as the 18th surgeon general of the United States.

President Bush announced the appointment of James W. Holsinger Jr. as his nominee on May 24.

Holsinger, who is a professor of preventive medicine at the University of Kentucky, has led that state's health care system and taught at several American medical schools. He was appointed by President George H.W. Bush as chief medical director of the Veterans Health Administration in 1990 and became undersecretary for health in the Department of Veterans Affairs in 1992. He also served more than three decades in the U.S. Army Reserve, retiring as a major general in 1993.

A member of Hope Springs United Methodist Church in Lexington, Ky., where he serves as administrative pastor, Holsinger has been an active at all levels of the denomination. He currently is president of Judicial Council, the church's supreme court.

He also is treasurer of the World Methodist Council. "This is an honor for Dr. Holsinger and a fitting acknowledgement of his competency as a physician, administrator, teacher and leader," said the Rev. George Freeman, the council's executive director.

Holsinger has a bachelor's degree from the University of Kentucky, master's degrees from both the University of South Carolina and Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, and his medical degree and doctorate from Duke University.

"As America's chief health educator, he will be charged with providing the best scientific information available on how Americans can make smart choices that improve their health and reduce their risk of illness and injury," Bush said in his announcement.

"Dr. Holsinger will particularly focus his efforts on educating parents and children about childhood obesity, a serious epidemic that decreases quality of life and burdens our healthcare system. I am confident that Dr. Holsinger will help our Nation confront this challenge and many others to ensure that Americans live longer, better, and healthier lives."

Attempts to reach Holsinger for comment on deadline were unsuccessful. The Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader newspaper reported that Holsinger, in a statement, described the nomination as a "great honor." "I look forward to meeting with members of the Senate as they review and consider my nomination," he said.

Another United Methodist, M. Joycelyn Elders, served as U.S. Surgeon General from 1993-94 under the Clinton Administration. David Satcher, a former president of United Methodist-related Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn., was U.S. Surgeon General from February 1998 through January 2001.

Lina McCord interns will promote support for black colleges

By Linda Green*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Twenty-five students and former students of the black colleges and universities related to The United Methodist Church will spend the rest of May and all of June thanking the denomination for supporting African-American schools.

Each year, students enrolled in the 11 historically black academic institutions are selected upon the recommendation of their college presidents to serve as goodwill ambassadors to promote and interpret the Black College Fund apportionment and its member colleges throughout the five U.S. jurisdictions of the church. These students serve as Lina H. McCord summer interns.

The 35-year-old program is supported by local church apportionments and promoted by the internship program, which was named for former fund executive Lina H. McCord. The Black College Fund and Ethnic Concerns section of the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry sponsors the program.

The 25 interns and ambassadors - former interns who serve as mentors for interns and promote the fund on short-term assignments - will travel to 32 annual conference sessions and attend Student Forum in Tacoma, Wash. They will thank people for paying apportionments, describe how the fund has changed their lives and encourage continued support of the fund.

More than 15,000 students attend the church-related historically black schools and universities. Those schools are Bennett College for Women, Greensboro, N.C.; Bethune-Cookman University, Daytona Beach, Fla.; Claflin University, Orangeburg, S.C.; Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta; Dillard University, New Orleans; Huston-Tillotson University, Austin, Texas; Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tenn.; Paine College, Augusta, Ga.; Philander Smith College, Little Rock, Ark.; Rust College, Holly Springs, Miss.; and Wiley College, Marshall, Texas.

Josefa Bethea, a 1987 graduate of Bennett College, will address the New Mexico Annual Conference on June 9 in Glorieta. The Black College Fund, she said, "was critical in my gaining an education."

"It served me as a student and as a graduate, and so (it) is important that I give back," she said. She served as a staff member at the college for six years and has served the church in various capacities at the general church level.

"I support the church that has supported me," she said.

The intern program provides "a real connection between the Black College Fund and person in the pew" because it "puts a face to the program and allows contributors to see their money at work," she added.

"If there were no black colleges, we would have to invent them," said Cynthia Hopson, director of the Black College Fund and Ethnic Concerns at the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry. "The kinds of ministries that go on at those institutions with students who have dreams but no means is nothing short of a miracle." Historically black colleges and universities are "doing cutting-edge research and turning out today's and tomorrow's leaders for business, industry, the church and the world," she said.

Interns and ambassadors - listed with their schools - will travel to the following annual conferences and church events:
.Josefa Bethea, graduate of Bennett College for Women: New Mexico;
.Brandon Boyd, Bethune-Cookman University: Tennessee;
.Megan Cotton, Bennett College for Women: Troy, Student Forum, Western Pennsylvania, East Ohio;
.Juliana daSilva, graduate of Rust College: New England;
.Lillian Ferguson, graduate of Huston-Tillotson University: North Georgia;
.Kia Fisher, graduate of Clark Atlanta University: Desert-Southwest;
.Nilse Furtado, graduate of Rust College: Memphis;
.Simone Furtado, graduate of Rust College: Student Forum, Central Pennsylvania, Kentucky;
.Sheridan Gaines, graduate of Dillard University: Student Forum;
.Latoya Glover, Huston-Tillotson University: West Michigan;
.George Johnson, graduate of Dillard University: Iowa;
.Jasmine Johnson, Dillard University: Southwest Texas;
.Kibamba Kiboko, Wiley College: Illinois Great Rivers;
.Jarrett Lemieux, Dillard University: Student Forum, Alabama-West Florida, Pennsylvania-Delaware;
.Eboni Lemon, Clark Atlanta University: Detroit, Student Forum, South Carolina;
.Ernest Mensah, graduate of Claflin University: New York;
.Kenneth Neat, graduate of Claflin University: California-Pacific;
.Kamari Odai, Rust College: North Central New York;
.Andrea Sparrock, Bennett College for Women: Student Forum, Yellowstone;
.Chastic Steele, graduate of Rust College: Mississippi;
.Tia Woods, graduate of Paine College: West Ohio;
.Kevin Walls, Claflin University: Student Forum, Missouri, West Virginia, Pacific Northwest;
.Jessica Weatherspoon, Bethune-Cookman University: Baltimore-Washington;
.Roberta White, graduate of Claflin University: Student Forum;
.Toni Witherspoon, Philander Smith College: Arkansas, Eastern Pennsylvania.

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

Resources explore United Methodist-Episcopal ties

NEW YORK (UMNS) - United Methodists and Episcopalians have a new way to get to know each other.

Building upon the interim agreement of shared eucharist approved by the United Methodist Council of Bishops in 2005 and the Episcopal General Convention in 2006, the two denominations have released resources to promote study of the agreement at all levels.

"Make Us One With Christ" is a report based on the sessions between the Episcopal and United Methodist dialogue teams from 2002-2006. A second resource is a study guide version of the report that includes discussion points, questions for reflection and worship tips.

United Methodist Bishop William Oden, who was co-chairperson of the dialogue with Episcopal Bishop Frank Brookhart, said the interim sharing agreement is "at the point of asking the churches to be partners in this dialogue."

From local congregations to annual conferences and dioceses, all levels
of the two bodies are encouraged to use the resources as they interact together.

The Council of Bishops is leading the process of dialogue for The United Methodist Church in coordination with the denomination's Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns.

Oden said the process between United Methodists and Episcopalians "is open-ended" but that both denominations hope the final result will be a formal relationship in full communion - a sharing of faith, sacraments, ministry and mission.

In such a relationship, "each church retains its own identity and its own polity but ... sees each other as full members of the one holy, catholic and apostolic church," he said.

The report of the dialogue covers points of shared theology, information about the shared heritage of the two churches, explanations of the character and ethos of each body and a discussion of what it means to be in full communion.

"Our drawing closer together in full communion will allow for a more faithful witness as we engage more fully and effectively in God's mission to the world," says the introduction to the report's section on full communion.

In some regions, interactions between United Methodists and Episcopalians already are occurring, Oden reported. For example, Seattle area United Methodists, led by Bishop Edward Paup, are conducting special services with the Episcopal Church. In Des Moines, Iowa, Bishop Gregory Palmer and the Episcopal diocese "are in joint conversations at every level."

Ongoing conversations

Dialogue between the two denominations began after the 1948 Methodist General Conference and the Episcopal General Convention voted to form joint commissions on union. Those talks were set aside in the mid-1960s when the Consultation on Church Union was formed. "The nine denominations of COCU agreed they would not enter bi-lateral conversations as long as COCU was in process," Oden said.

In the 1980s, "when it became evident that COCU would not go forward, bilateral dialogues began to resume," he said. The most recent round of dialogues began in 2002.

A resolution to ratify the action of the Council of Bishops approving the interim agreement will be presented next spring to the 2008 United Methodist General Conference.

The report and study guide for "Make Us One With Christ" are available for $2.95 each. For ordering information, contact the Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns via e-mail at questions@gccuic-umc.org or by telephone at (212) 749-3553.

Both the report and the dialogue sessions were funded through The United Methodist Church's Interdenominational Cooperation Fund and The General Convention of the Episcopal Church as part of the Office of the Presiding Bishop. More information about the Interdenominational Cooperation Fund can be found at www.umcgiving.org.

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

Leadership group fostering churchwide 'culture of call'

By Vicki Brown*

The Rev. Carol Bruse (left) discusses new resources to encourage young people to enter the ministry. The church's new leadership development advisory team includes (from left) Laura Sisson, the Rev. Karen Koons, the Rev. Sara Baron and the Rev. Herb Coleman. A UMNS photo by Vicki Brown.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - One year after a startling report showed significantly fewer young people seeking to become clergy in The United Methodist Church, a new advisory team has mapped out a strategy to create a churchwide "culture of call."

The National Leadership Development Advisory Team is expediting information about the ordination process to district superintendents, boards of ordained ministry, candidacy mentors, pastor/staff parish relations committees and district committees.

"The approach we've been taking is: What can we do right now, within the process we have, to encourage young people to seek ordination and to improve the climate for young adults who are in the process," said the Rev. Meg Lassiat, director of student ministries, vocation and enlistment at the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry, which organized the team.

The group plans to create an information package that can foster sensitivity and support for young adults and those involved in the candidacy process - a sort of "tool kit" for annual conference staff and committees that work with candidates, and for those who work with young people in local churches or on college campuses.

"The tool kits in general are geared toward helping create a culture of call," said the Rev. Carol Bruse, Texas Annual Conference.

The advisory team began its work last October and held its second meeting April 25-27 in Nashville. Its 21 members includes seminarians, clergy and college students who are under 35, as well as campus ministers, annual conference staff, agency staff and others who work with young adults.

The team is developing tip sheets - short, condensed information to help those involved in the mentoring process for ministry candidates. A worksheet with tips on helping youth and young adults explore their call already had been developed.

"The tip sheets will get a lot of information out to a lot of people in a basic fashion," said Chad Johns, Ohio Wesleyan University.

While some of the information is basic, Lassiat pointed out that some churches might have only one candidate for ministry every 15 years. The pastor and members of that church need to know where to easily access information to help a candidate.

Other priorities are:

.Developing interview questions and suggestions;
.Writing a Bible study for boards of ordained ministry members, district committee members or anyone who makes decisions about the candidacy process;
.Gathering tips on best practices for annual conferences in encouraging young people and supporting young adults in the candidacy process;
.Posting suggestions or liturgy for a worship service to recognize calling;
.Developing short videos and testimonies of young people called to ministry or adults who are excited about young people in ministry;
.Updating www.explorecalling.org, a vocational Web site, with these and other materials useful to both young people who are exploring a call to ordained ministry and those who work with them.

Saying that the church as a whole has begun to recognize its leadership crisis, several team members cited a 2006 report revealing that only 4.69 percent of elders in The United Methodist Church are under age 35.

The report was developed by the Lewis Center for Church Leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington and its director, the Rev. Lovett Weems. The center is working on a follow-up study, asking United Methodist clergy 35 or younger to share information about themselves and their ministries. Topics include factors influencing decisions to enter ministry, perceptions of how age influences standing in the church, the nature of current appointments, financial well-being and levels of satisfaction in ministry.

The Rev. Amy Aiken, an elder in the California-Pacific Annual Conference, said the candidacy process is so complicated that full-time pastors struggle to find the time to keep up. "The whole process is so elaborate and exclusive. Some of it is like hazing. I had to go through this, and so you have to go through this," she said.

The Rev. Ed Hoke, Illionis Great Rivers Annual Conference, hopes the work of the leadership team can create sensitivity to young adults that he does not see now.

Bruse noted that fear is also a factor. "Some worry that if a bunch of young people come in, other clergy will be threatened," she said.

Team members said plenty of useful information already is available, such as Bible studies, information about the candidacy process and how churches can encourage youth to explore ordained ministry.

But Hoke said condensing the information and collecting it on www.explorecalling.org will make it more accessible and user-friendly for those involved in the candidacy process or who work with young people.

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

United Methodist bishop named to truth commission

By Linda Green*

Bishop Arthur Kulah of Liberia addresses colleagues on the United Methodist Council of Bishops. Kulah has been named to his country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. A UMNS photo by Linda Green.

A retired United Methodist bishop is part of a nine-member commission seeking to uncover the truth about human rights abuses in Liberia, including the 14-year civil war that ended in 2003.
With more than 300 nominations from across the West African nation, former Liberian Bishop Arthur Kulah was named to the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Kulah spoke about his involvement to colleagues April 30 as the United Methodist Council of Bishops met near Myrtle Beach, S.C.

"Our responsibility is to bring peace, unity, reconciliation and security to Liberia," said Kulah, who was inducted into service on the commission in 2006.

The commission is seeking to understand crimes and abuses that occurred between 1979 and 2003. A peace agreement signed in 2003 ushered in Liberia's first period of relative calm in more than 14 years. "We want to find out the cause of war and what made us kill each other," Kulah said.

Authorized in 2005 by Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and the National Transitional Legislative Assembly, the commission seeks to lay the foundation for a new nation.

The group "envisages a new Liberia where survivors, victims and perpetrators will overcome their troubled past and live together as one people," according to its purpose statement.

The work of reconciliation
The 14-year civil war was the result of Charles Taylor's efforts to overthrow then-President Samuel Doe for power and money. An estimated 20 percent of Taylor's soldiers consisted of young boys and girls recruited either by force or money. The former government also recruited young children to fight on the front lines.

"We do not want the young people to take up arms again. We want the church to lead in the role in bringing continued peace and reconciliation to Liberia," Kulah said.

Liberia's leaders met in 2003 in neighboring Accra, Ghana, to work out a peace agreement that was signed by the government and two rebel groups. From that conversation, several commissions were proposed to foster peace, unity and reconciliation, leading to the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The commission is charged with the responsibility of establishing an independent and accurate record of rights violations and abuses. It will set the basis for justice and reconciliation aimed at fostering national repentance and striking the delicate balance between accountability and forgiveness in order to move the nation from an era of trauma and despair to one of hope and healing.

Kulah said the commission has the responsibility of investigating the root causes of the Liberian conflict, amplifying historical truths and undermining falsehoods.

The commission, he said, seeks to "provide (a) conducive atmosphere where the victims of the war will be able to tell their stories, what happened to them, who did it, and those who are responsible for what happened to them will be invited to come forward to claim responsibility for want they have done."

Needing assistance
The commission is based in Monrovia and divided into several sections and offices in eight zones. Kulah leads three subcommittees looking at the role of traditional and religious leaders, unity and fundraising. The commission will give its first report in 2008 and then could make subsequent reports over the next nine months.

Money will be raised to pay for the commission's work, and a fund for reparations will be established to provide prostheses to those whose limbs were cut off or damaged in the war. A fund also will assist in restoring markets, schools and homes, and another fund will be established to mark the graves of those killed. A national mourning period will be announced to enable the nation to mourn the dead. The government will apologize to the families of those killed, and people also will be reburied.

"The United Methodist Church is very powerful and influential in Liberia," Kulah said. "We have a great responsibility (to the commission) because of what the church has done in the past."

During the April 29-May 4 Council of Bishops meeting, Kulah invited colleagues to "help our church and be a part of the programs being established in Liberia … because we do not want the young people to go back into the bush."

Kulah is soliciting the denomination for a two-year commitment from individuals and organizations with expertise in financial management, communications and investigations. The commission seeks donations of computers, video cameras and recorders, public address systems, generators, office furnishings, mosquito nets, flashlights and cots or sleeping bags.

June 3 is designated as TRC Sunday across Liberia. Kulah said all church sermons that day will focus on peace, reconciliation and unity, and offerings will benefit the work of the commission.

For more information about the commission and how United Methodists can provide assistance, e-mail Kulah at aviku2002@yahoo.com.

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

Shungu, first indigenous bishop in Congo, is dead

NEW YORK (UMNS) - Retired former Bishop John Wesley Shungu, the first indigenous United Methodist episcopal leader in what is today the Democratic Republic of Congo, died May 9 in Kinshasa.

He became a bishop in 1964 and had been retired for many years.

Shungu's eight years as leader of the Central and Southern Annual Conferences coincided with the tumultuous early days of Republic of Congo after it gained independence from Belgium in 1960. The country later became known as Zaire. Shortly after his election, he made a heroic trip to rescue his wife, Louise, and 11 of their 13 children who were behind rebel lines near Lodja.

"Bishop Shungu was a pioneer as a church leader facing incredible political and social challenges," said the Rev. R. Randy Day, chief executive of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. "Our prayers are with his family, whose members reside in several countries."

John Wesley Shungu was educated in Methodist-related schools in Congo and grew up at a Methodist mission station, where he met his future wife through the matchmaking of missionaries, according to Dr. Daniel Shungu, the couple's third child.

"Our house was an open door house," Shungo told an interviewer in 2005. "People would come and go around breakfast, lunch and supper because they knew they would not be refused." Daniel Shungo went on to become a physician specializing in infectious diseases.

In 1964, Bishop Shungo was one of two Africans - along with Bishop Eserivao Anglaze Zunguze of Mozambique - elected by the African Central Conference to what was then the Methodist episcopacy. Previously, most bishops in Africa were Americans named by the Council of Bishops.

In 1965, Shungu came to the United States to recruit missionaries for his episcopal area. He told a congregation in Harlem that "the fact that I am standing before you as the product of a missionary school is a credit to you and your work," according to a report in The New York Times.

Shungu told The Times he was a member of the Otetala tribe but, indicating his desire to work across tribal lines, he said: "The church is one institution where the tribal divisions, which create so much political difficulty, are not important."

During the Shungu years, the Protestant churches of Congo/Zaire were engaged in efforts to form a united Church of Christ in Congo. The Methodists initially were involved, but the bishop was never a strong supporter of the concept. In 1972, he withdrew The United Methodist Church from the ecumenical denomination.

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

Bishops examine roles, appointments process

By Linda Green

SPRINGMAID BEACH, S.C. (UMNS)-The United Methodist Church "must face an inconvenient truth" to reverse its 40-year decline in U.S. membership, worship attendance and church school attendance, its bishops agree.

"There are many roles to be played in facing the truth of our church in the United States," said Iowa Bishop Gregory Palmer, chairman of the internal Council of Bishops Episcopacy Study Task Force.

In a May 3 task force report to the denomination's Council of Bishops, Palmer told colleagues that retooling its leadership processes for lay members, clergy and bishops "is essential to reversing this decline."

Since 1964, United Methodist membership in the United States has decreased 27 percent, despite the nation's population growth by 54 percent. The percentage of youth members declined from one in seven in 1964 to one in 21 in 2005. Also in 2005, approximately 41 percent of its U.S. churches received no members on profession of faith.

The bishops are responding - beginning with themselves - by looking internally and asking "what is the role of episcopal leadership in making disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world?"

In examining their call, resources and accountability, the bishops must focus on their relationship to "God's vision for the church they have been called to serve," according to the report. "In this light, episcopal leadership gains its power not from the office but from its alignment with the larger call of God's purpose."

The episcopacy also is being studied by a separate task force created by the 2004 General Conference. That study group - with members from the Council of Bishops, jurisdictional episcopacy committees and the United Methodist Council on Finance and Administration - will report its findings to the 2008 General Conference in Fort Worth, Texas.

Clergy appointments
The task force identified the system of "guaranteed appointment" of clergy as one of the biggest hurdles to reviving the church. The bishops also addressed the issue of ineffective pastoral leadership.

"The greatest drain on our time and energy that keeps us from leading proactively in our mission of making disciples ... is dealing with ineffective clergy," said Missouri Area Bishop Robert Schnase, noting that the corporate world is shifting from a system of "guaranteed employment" to employees having to demonstrate that they are "guaranteed employable."

The bishops will ask the 2008 General Conference, the denomination's top lawmaking body, to redefine "guaranteed appointment" - in which ordained elders are assigned to local churches regardless of their effectiveness. The term was adopted in 1956 to protect pastors from arbitrary, sexist or racist abuses of authority, requiring bishops to appoint every elder in good standing in their respective annual conferences.

While not suggesting that the appointments system be completely replaced, the council is requesting General Conference to amend the "guaranteed appointment" section to enable bishops to deal with ineffective pastors.

The United Methodist Book of Discipline (Paragraphs 334.2 and 334.3) now place the burden on the bishop and the bishop's cabinet to determine a pastor's ineffectiveness. Palmer said the proposal would make pastors responsible for proving their effectiveness.

"It moves guaranteed appointment from a right of clergy to a privilege that requires evidence of growth in vocational competence and effectiveness and a willingness to accept the missional strategy of the bishop reflected in the appointment process," said the report.

Clarifying the role of the bishop
The bishops are submitting legislative petitions to improve the effectiveness of their own servant leadership and accountability as the council seeks to clarify the role of a bishop in the 21st century.

The council voted to continue discussing several recommendations from its Episcopacy Study Task Force including:
.Increasing the normal length of a bishop's assignment to an area beyond 12 years to assist conferences in accomplishing goals and foster relationships among bishops and political leaders;
.Raising the retirement age for bishops by two years, to 68;
.Requiring jurisdictional committees on episcopacy to set up an evaluation process to review bishop commitment to the transformation of the church and world, passion for unity of the church and ministry of administration, among other things.

Bishops are to vote on these items and respond by mail ballot before September so that petitions can be submitted to General Conference.

The council tabled the idea of dedicating one bishop to the four-year job as president of the Council of Bishops, rather than the current system in which the council president also maintains responsibilities for an Episcopal area. The change would require a constitutional amendment.

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

Proposal would pave way for U.S. regional conference

By Linda Green*

SPRINGMAID BEACH, S.C. (UMNS)-A task force examining the global nature of The United Methodist Church has proposed four changes to the denomination's constitution in an effort to make regional and jurisdictional structures similar worldwide.

The constitutional changes, to be presented to the 2008 General Conference, would pave the way to make the church in the United States a regional body, similar to the church's units in Africa, Europe and Asia. Currently, the structure gives the U.S. church greater influence than its overseas counterparts.

The proposals were part of a May 3 report approved by the Council of Bishops after a presentation by Bishops Ann Sherer and Scott Jones. They are part of a seven-member task force exploring the nature of the church, including relationships among United Methodist annual conferences and bishops, ecumenical relationships, and ties to autonomous and affiliated churches.

The interim report from the Global Nature of the Church Committee to General Conference includes legislation calling for continued study of the church's worldwide mission and ministry and the role the denomination could play in modeling a new way of being the church in the world. The United Methodist Church has congregations in 38 countries.

"We believe God needs a church that is more fully ready for worldwide mission and ministry," Sherer said. The proposed changes would equip the church "to do the mission in ministry to which God calls us," she said.

Why now?
"Recent developments in world Christianity call for a new emphasis on a concept of mission that addresses a world community and would not be impeded by national, cultural and economic barriers," according to the task force report.

Sherer said the exploration of the church's worldwide nature is the result of new church initiatives, mission cooperation and church growth, especially in Africa; new initiatives of the Council of Bishops and the Connectional Table; the possibility of churches in the Philippines considering autonomy and seeking greater relationship with other Methodist bodies in Asia; and the 2004 General Conference's authorized story of the relationship between the Methodist churches in Latin American and the Caribbean and The United Methodist Church.

"With those four winds blowing," Sherer said, the task force is proposing legislation for broader conversation in the next quadrennium. "If we are a worldwide church by theology, how completely are we living this theology?" she asked. "The United Methodist Church is on a journey, and we are continuing, changing and becoming."

The legislation
The global dimensions of The United Methodist Church stem from the strong missionary outreach of its predecessor denominations. Its ministries of personal and social development have manifested themselves "in a church implanted on five continents," said the Rev. Robert Harman, a retired pastor in Northern Illinois who is quoted in the foreword of the worldwide ministry document.

In his 2006 paper for the Connectional Table, Harman said, "the challenge has always been, and remains today, learning how to accommodate or enable the witness of this global community of faith within the connectional spirit and structure of Methodism."

Legislation being forwarded to the 2008 General Conference requests the task force and the Connectional Table to jointly continue their study of the church's worldwide nature and report to the 2012 legislative assembly on the church's characteristics and how the United States could become a regional conference while retaining its current jurisdictional composition.

"While we celebrate the worldwide nature of our ministry as United Methodists, we have to confess that too often we failed to operate as the body of Christ as described in 1 Corinthians 12 …," Sherer said.

The proposed legislation would clear a path for broader conversation to "help shape the church in a way that will enable it to faithfully and justly embody our life together," she said.

"Changes in the constitution make us nimble," said Bishop Judith Craig, retired, of Powell, Ohio. "It positions us to be more flexible and frees us to move if we decide to move. It is a signal that we are thinking in new and open ways."

Craig was one of 127 bishops, active and retired, hearing the proposal during the April 29-May 4 council meeting outside Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Bishop Patrick Streiff of the Central and Southern Europe Area said the proposal to make the United States a regional conference "gives possibility to separate U.S. business from the church worldwide" at General Conference. "Part of the church outside the U.S. is 30 percent, and it is just not possible to continue General Conference as we have."

The report, which urges Christians to be "a counter culture," says that the U.S. influence in churchwide governance, as evident in the Book of Resolutions, is damaging to the church both inside and outside the United States. "It disempowers central conferences from being fully actualized within the body and allows the church in the United States to escape responsibility from dealing with its internal issues."

The document says that wholeness reflects the value of all people. "To be whole is to value all. Our structure must reflect this value and prompt us to ever-greater degrees of responsibility for reflecting God's reign in the church and the world."

The proposal
The proposal to General Conference is to study what the church will look like in the future and to enable it to live more fully into its worldwide nature and reality, according to Jones. "It is the first step in a long journey."

The proposal does not change the number, purpose and function of jurisdictional conferences; the way bishops are elected or assigned; the purpose or mission of any churchwide agency; the size or power of General Conference; the way the Social Principles are decided upon or amended; or the apportionment formulas and allocations, Jones said.

The four changes "strike out of places in the constitution language that says that central conferences are only for areas of the church outside the United States," he said.

The structure envisioned is that every annual conference will belong to a central conference and that "any central conference, if it so chooses, can divide itself into jurisdictions," opening the possibility of the United States becoming a central conference in 2012. If the church in the United States takes that action, Jones said, its jurisdictional structure presumably would remain untouched.

Jones said the constitutional amendments will provide for a future General Conference to make that kind of change so that every United Methodist annual conference would belong to a central conference and participate in General Conference.

In the proposed legislation, reference to central conferences in the constitution would be changed to regional conferences. Several bishops said the word "central" is not grammatically correct, carries a negative connation historically and is meaningless.

The Council of Bishops also approved a resolution called "A Commitment to Unity in Mission and Ministry," emphasizing commitment to four areas in the future course of the denomination's work and life: leadership development, congregational development, ministry with the poor and global health. The resolution was approved by several boards and commissions of the general church agencies this spring, signaling their intention to collaborate closely on the denomination's priorities.
*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.

Former Methodist chapel becomes mosque

By Kathleen LaCamera*

Muslims in Clitheroe, England, have received planning approval to convert Mt. Zion Methodist Chapel into a mosque. A UMNS Web-only photo courtesy of the Clitheroe Methodist Circuit.

CLITHEROE, England (UMNS) - After years of searching for a place to worship, Muslims in the northern English town of Clitheroe have won planning permission to transform a former Methodist chapel into a mosque.

Local Methodists and other faith groups have been among the mosque's supporters, standing alongside their Muslim neighbors as they faced vocal opposition and even racial abuse from those who campaigned against the proposed mosque.

"This is a basic issue of human rights," said the Rev. Christopher Cheeseman, superintendent minister of the Clitheroe Methodist Circuit. "These are people of faith who wish to find a place to worship."

The closest mosque is a 20-mile round trip from Clitheroe. For years the Muslim community -- which numbers 300 of the town's 15,000 inhabitants -- has met at the Medina Islamic Education Center located in one of Clitheroe's small "terraced" or row houses.

The recently approved plans for the Community Partnership Center on the former Mt. Zion Methodist Church site will include a mosque, space for community activities and an interfaith center. The church officially closed its doors in 1940 when it merged with other local Methodist congregations. Since then, the building had been used as a munitions depot during World War II and a factory for a number of different businesses until recently when the Medina Islamic Education Center bought the property.

Less than 300 yards away from the Mt. Zion site is another former Methodist chapel that now houses The Emporium wine bar, a transformation that seems to have bothered few in this middle-class market town. It's an irony not lost on Cheeseman, who wrote letters in support of the mosque application to every member of the council planning committee.

Fanning flames of hatred
Cheeseman and fellow Methodists, along with other local Christians, Jews and Buddhists, have made it their business to counter the efforts of the far-right British National Party in Clitheroe.

Many feel the party has exploited divisions in this community over the new mosque, deliberately fanning the flames of racial hatred for their own political gain.

During local elections in 2003, British National Party campaign fliers depicted the town dominated by a domed mosque with minarets, even though the new mosque and community center plans contain no alterations to the exterior of the church building.

The Rev. Dale Barton, interfaith officer for the Lancashire Churches Together organization, said the basic right to religious freedom is at stake in Clitheroe. He recalled attending an independent inquiry about the mosque application where openly racist insults were directed against local Muslims. Deeply disturbed by what he saw and heard, Barton said it was "the most racist meeting I've been to in my entire life."

A spokesperson for the local council told United Methodist News Service the council had received a number of letters opposed to the mosque proposal that were so racist and offensive they couldn't be made public.

Yet in a decision that surprised everyone, including the Muslim community, the mosque got its planning permission.

"To be honest, we were resigned to the fact that we would fail as we had all those times before," said Sheraz Arshad, secretary of the Medina Islamic Education Center.

Efforts toward partnership
Born in Clitheroe, Arshad is a 31-year-old project manager for British Aerospace and a key player in the effort to build the Community Partnership Center. He grew up watching his father and other community leaders work hard but ultimately fail to establish a mosque here. His father died in 2000.

Arshad said he is "humbled by the support, understanding and empathy from the Methodist community" and other faith groups that have supported local Muslims during this difficult process.

"It was really amazing to experience people who understand what it is for another community to want a place of worship, understand where that need comes from and then go all out to help us achieve that," Arshad said.

These experiences have made the Clitheroe Muslim community even more resolved to continue to reach out across the cultural and religious divide, he said.

"As a result of this process we realize there's a lot of ignorance and bigotry out there. We want to act as champions for interfaith cooperation," he said. "Our faith teaches that we should work for the betterment of the whole community. We want to give the wider community a place to come and share."

Supporters of the new mosque and community center know they face continuing challenges. The former Mt. Zion Methodist Church building even now bears marks of recent vandalism and fire bomb attacks.

Encouraged by support
The Rev. Inderjit Bhogal, a past president of the Methodist Church and former government adviser on issues of racial equality, said he is encouraged by Clitheroe Methodists' support for the new mosque.

"This situation facilitated relationships that brought people of different faiths together," he said. "Whenever that happens, I feel that is within God's purposes."

Bhogal, who directs an interfaith forum in the Yorkshire and Humber region of England, also applauded Clitheroe's faith community for standing up to extremist elements, such as the British National Party. As local elections approach in May, he hopes Christians will challenge candidates to be advocates for all members of their communities.

"People need to ask local politicians about their vision for their community," he said. "Is it one that embraces all of the community? Is it a Britain where we all belong? These are the kinds of questions we Christians need to raise."

*LaCamera is a UMNS correspondent based in England.

Judicial Council hears about violence in Philippines

Philippines’ Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, a member of Puno United Methodist Church in Quezon City, opens the Judicial Council meeting in Manila with devotions. UMNS photos by Neill Caldwell.

By Neill Caldwell*

MANILA, Philippines (UMNS) -- Human rights violations and violence against both Filipinos and Westerners remain key problems facing the Philippines, a United Methodist bishop told members of the denomination's "supreme court."

"We need justice in the Philippines," said Bishop Solito K. Toquero, who leads The United Methodist Church's Manila Area. "Those who speak out against the government and who work for the poor are being killed."

Toquero spoke to eight members of the Judicial Council who were attending the court's April 25-28 meeting, its first outside American soil.

Using Micah 6:8 as his devotional text, Toquero said leaders of The United Methodist Church and other churches in the Philippines are seeking to do God's will by advocating for justice, calling attention to injustice, poverty and violence, and visiting with prisoners - "even political detainees, rebels and Muslim detainees to minister to them."

Toquero also mentioned the recent death of Peace Corps volunteer and freelance journalist Julia Campbell of Fairfax, Va., who was killed while visiting the country's famous rice terraces, a popular tourist destination.

"This is what is happening in the Philippines right now," Bishop Toquero said. "There are places where we must tell Westerners not to go.

"We have met with a group of generals to share our concerns and we hope that our president (Gloria Macapagal Arroyo) will do something about the growing militarization. We also hope that the United States will add its pressure on the (Arroyo) government."

On a recent trip to Washington, D.C., Bishop Toquero and other Filipino clergy met with the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, chaired by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., to share concerns.

Filipino church leaders also met with the United Nations Human Rights Council in March seeking an investigation into "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, are among the violations of human rights documented in "Let the Stones Cry Out," an 85-page report prepared by the National Council of Churches in the Philippines. The report documents 836 politically motivated killings since 2001 when Arroyo became president. Among the victims are teachers, students, journalists, clergy and other religious leaders.

In February, United Methodist Bishop Beverly Shamana and members of the church's San Francisco Area made a fact-finding trip to the Philippines, a nation of 85 million people spread over 7,100 islands, speaking more than 80 languages or dialects.

Filipino clergy fear that the government's new "Human Security Act" will be used to escalate human rights violations in the name of counterterrorism.

National Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, a lay member of Puno United Methodist Church in Quezon City who has spoken out against human rights violations in the Philippines, opened the Judicial Council's historic meeting with a devotion on the topic of Christ's love.

"We are becoming a world more prone to violence," Puno told the council members, "both physical and spiritual violence. There is only one antidote to hatred and violence, and that is love. Jesus was a victim of violence, but not once did he nurture hatred in his heart or use violence to change the status quo. His commandment was love.

"Love is still the greatest and most meaningful force in the world today," Puno added. "If love has left our hearts, can this be the reason for mankind's drift?"

*Caldwell is editor of the Virginia Advocate, the newspaper of the United Methodist Church's Virginia Annual (regional) Conference

Judicial Council reaffirms decision on Cote d'Ivoire

By Neill Caldwell*

MANILA, Philippines (UMNS)--The United Methodist's Church's Judicial Council has upheld its earlier ruling that the Methodist Church of Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) has not been fully admitted to the denomination and may be limited to two delegates at the next General Conference.

Meeting for the first time outside the United States, in the capital city of the Philippines, the denomination's top court reaffirmed the decision it made last October that the 2004 General Conference was within its authority to award Cote d'Ivoire two delegates - one clergy and one lay - at the 2008 General Conference in Fort Worth, Texas.

In Decision 1051, the council made it clear that the action by the 2004 General Conference "was not a final act of admission" of Cote d'Ivoire into the larger church, and that additional legislation is expected to give that West African area full rights and representation. General Conference, which meets every four years, is The United Methodist Church's top lawmaking assembly.

On the last day of the 2004 General Conference, the Commission on Central Conference Affairs proposed the addition of Cote d'Ivoire to the West Africa Central Conference. The committee's recommendation was that the West Africa Central Conference, the Commission on Central Conference Affairs and the church's Board of Global Ministries work together on the entry of Cote d'Ivoire into the denomination in the upcoming quadrennium.

Instead, a substitute motion was offered, with four separate provisions: that Cote d'Ivoire be added to the West Africa Central Conference and the conference be authorized to elect a bishop to serve a new Cote d'Ivoire Episcopal Area; that Cote d'Ivoire set up and fully fund its own episcopal fund during the 2005-2008 quadrennium with no funding from either the General Council for Finance and Administration or the Episcopal Fund of The United Methodist Church; that Cote d'Ivoire be represented at 2008 General Conference with two delegates (one lay and one clergy); and that the Commission on Central Conference Affairs bring enabling legislation to the 2008 General Conference to include Cote d'Ivoire in the Episcopal Fund of The United Methodist Church. Delegates approved the substitute motion.

In Decision 1051, the Judicial Council chided the General Conference for not following proper procedure for admitting a new annual conference into The United Methodist Church.

"The substitute (motion) adopted anticipates that the 2008 General Conference will consider further legislative action to include Cote d'Ivoire into the Episcopal Fund," the council's ruling stated. "The remaining formalities of affiliation or admission should be completed by the agencies to whom the responsibility is assigned in time for presentation to and perfection by the 2008 General Conference. Once the process of joining The United Methodist Church is fully achieved, Cote d'Ivoire would have the right to full representation in its delegations to the 2012 and succeeding General Conference sessions."

The reaffirmation of Decision 1051 is Memorandum 1071. Council members James W. Holsinger, Mary A. Daffin and Keith D. Boyette signed the decision as dissenters, simply referencing the original dissent filed with Decision 1051.

At the fall 2006 session, a majority of the seven Judicial Council members present voted to hold the action of the 2004 General Conference regarding Cote d'Ivoire unconstitutional. However, Paragraph 2608 of the 2004 Book of Discipline requires that "(a)n affirmative vote of at least six members of the council shall be necessary to declare any act of the General Conference unconstitutional," and the decision failed to garner the six votes needed. The council has a total of nine members.

The Methodist Church in Cote d'Ivoire has been in existence since 1924. In 1985, it left the British Methodist Church to become autonomous. The Rev. Benjamin Boni was elected the first bishop of the new conference March 12, 2005, by the West Africa Central Conference. The Cote d'Ivoire Conference filed a report with the General Council of Finance and Administration that, as of June 26, 2006, it had 123 full-time clergy and 591,142 professing members.

Philippines items
Two of the docket items before the Judicial Council related to the Philippines Central Conference. The council ruled that it did not have jurisdiction to review a decision of law issued in response to a question asked during a meeting of the Coordinating Council of the Philippines Central Conference because the council was not one of the bodies stipulated in Paragraph 2609.6 of the Book of Discipline.

In the second case, votes taken by annual conferences in the Manila Area on ratification of a petition for the annual conference to be in an affiliated autonomous relationship to General Conference was ruled void and of no effect. In that annual conference action, only clergy members in full connection and lay members were allowed to vote. The Judicial Council said that because the petition was not a constitutional amendment, elders and deacons in full connection, local pastors, probationary clergy members and associate clergy members all should have had the right to vote. In the annual conferences in the Baguio Area, all nine petitions were approved in one single vote instead of nine individual votes as needed. The Judicial Council ruled that the votes in both annual conferences must be recast.

Additional rulings

In other action, the council:
.Ruled it did not have jurisdiction to act on a request from the Commission on Religion and Race on the merger of the National United Methodist Native American Center with the Native American Comprehensive Plan for the purpose of funding because the matter was a budgetary matter and not an act of legislation.

.Said Paragraph 2548.7 of the Discipline invests each annual conference with the authority to define what constitutes the term "urban center" in the context of ministry within that annual conference.

.Affirmed a bishop's decision of law in the Detroit Annual Conference that a question did not relate to the business before the annual conference session.

.Affirmed a bishop's decision of law in the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference that a question did not relate to the business before the annual conference session and because questions involving the supervisory function of a district superintendent are improper.

.Ruled in an item from the Rocky Mountains Annual Conference that a presiding bishop has no authority to make rulings on judicial or administrative matters by way of a question of law because they are the purview of judicial or administrative bodies.

.Affirmed as modified a bishop's decision of law in the New York Conference that a question related to the clergy session of the annual conference was improper because the person involved was not a clergy member of the annual conference.

.Denied a petition for reconsideration of Decision 1055, which dealt with a bishop's decision of law in the North Carolina Conference and ruled that clergy "withdrawal whether under complaint or voluntary is effective at the time it is received."

.Deferred a question on the Baltimore-Washington Conference plan of organization to its fall meeting pending the receipt of a copy of the plan.

Judicial Council member Rodolfo Beltran, a Filipino attorney and a lay member of the church, acted as host for the council's week in Manila. The meeting was held at the historic Manila Hotel, built in 1912 and headquarters to U.S. Army Gen. Douglas McArthur in the years leading up to World War II.

Judicial Council members were welcomed during a session of the Manila Annual Conference, which was being held at Central Methodist Church in downtown Manila, and visited Wesleyan University-Philippines, a United Methodist-related school in Cabanatuan City in north Luzon with an enrollment of 7,000. The group had a tour by university President Guillermo Maglaya and members of the school's board of trustees.

The council's daily devotions were led by the Philippines' Supreme Court chief justice, Reynato S. Puno, a member of Puno United Methodist Church in Quezon City, Bishop Solito K. Toquero of the Manila Area, and retired Bishop Emerito P. Nacpil. (See related story, "Judicial Council hears about violence in Philippines.")

Of the nine Judicial Council members, only one was absent. The Rev. Shamwange P. Kyungu missed the meeting due to his governmental duties in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Judicial Council will hold its fall meeting Oct. 24-27 in San Francisco.

*Caldwell covers the Judicial Council for United Methodist News Service and is editor of the Virginia United Methodist Advocate of the Virginia Annual Conference in Richmond.

Bishops' president calls for new church movement

By Linda Green*

SPRINGMAID BEACH, S.C. (UMNS) - The president of the bishops of The United Methodist Church is calling on the denomination to reclaim its heritage as a Christian movement.

Bishop Janice Riggle Huie told her colleagues on the Council of Bishops that the church "must be led more by a clear vision and mission than by rules and regulations" in order to make disciples for the transformation of the world.

In her April 30 address, Huie said John and Charles Wesley's Methodist movement began by ministering to people with no economic, religious or political power and helping them become what God intended. "They made Christian faith simple and practical," she said.

The denomination's membership is growing throughout the world but shrinking in the United States at a time when 50 percent of the U.S. population has no ongoing relationship with a faith community. There are almost 14 million members in 50 countries, including almost 8 million in the United States. Much of the growth has been in Africa.

Huie reflected on the energy and excitement she has witnessed in the people of Africa and other parts of the world working to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

"There is a movement of God's spirit that is transforming the world and we are witnesses to it, and you and I are blessed by it in this community of faith called The United Methodist Church," she said.

The church in the 21st century
Huie's vision of the church in the 21st century is one "that is guided by more movement than by institution" and offers a holistic vision of salvation: body, mind and spirit.

Noting that movements are not easy but are "downright chaotic and messy," she said they often begin with a few people on the margins of culture rather than from the centers of power and authority. The message of a movement is to change the way that things are in the dominant culture, Huie said.

"The United Methodist movement invites belief in Jesus Christ over the cultural gods, the practice of forgiveness over hate, peace over violence, a better life over poverty, health over sickness."

The invitation or vision for a United Methodist movement begins with a few people who -- through prayer, study, worship, holy conversation, justice and mercy -- reach out to others and make connections so that, "finally, the body of Christ starts to move, together."

Historically, Methodists were known for their ability to move and empower ordinary people to express their faith and were called "the church which moved with the spirit."

Referring to a description by Methodism historian Nathan Hatch, Huie said early Methodists were "nimble." While the church had four ministers and 300 lay people early in American Methodism, nearly one in five Americans were associated with Methodism by 1850, making Methodists the most extensive national institution other than the federal government.

By the 1960s, the church was identified by its institutions and agencies rather than the prompting of the Holy Spirit, as its founders were. The institutions "brought permanence and stability" to a world that had engaged in two wars in a half century, she said.

"Functioning like mighty, well-oiled machines, they were created to endure, to order the church and to offer Christ's ministry forever," she said, noting that agencies remain today that benefit the church and world because of their emphasis on health, education, mission and ministry to the poor.

'Get going!'
Ordained as a United Methodist deacon 37 years ago, Huie said she rarely has "experienced" a United Methodist church or seen the denomination in the United States with a sense of mission and vision that galvanized people into a movement. "I have never been a part of a church in the U.S. which was making more new United Methodist disciples of Jesus Christ than it lost in the previous year," she said.

Huie said the platforms that helped launch the church's movement in the 19th and 20th centuries should be used as the foundations for today's new initiatives.

"I don't know about you, but I'm ready to loosen up a little. I'm ready to move. I'm ready to follow Jesus. I am ready for The United Methodist Church to rise up and dance before the Lord. I'm ready for The United Methodist Church to step forward into God's reign on earth as it is in heaven. I believe this Council of Bishops is ready to lead that movement."

Saying movement already is happening across Africa and the Philippines, she said the Methodist "DNA" is one of radical hospitality, passionate worship and extravagant generosity in responding to God.

"Sometimes it is as though I am -- to paraphrase (poet) T.S. Elliot -- arriving at the place where we first started and to know the place for the first time," Huie said.

She praised the church's work to partner with other organizations to combat malaria in Africa and its response to the bishops seven "pathways" to reshape the way the church carries out its mission and ministry. Such efforts, she said, are getting the church moving again.

"It is the sound of collaboration and communication. We feel it in our own conferences - a new spirit welling up from the grassroots of the church, 'Move on out, church. Get going!'"

Huie said the bishops should be leaders in the journey. "The task of this council is to lead that movement of God. It is our task to lead the church to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world," she said.

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