Bishop Huie invites church to impact global health

Bishop Janice Riggle Huie, president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, challenges her peers and the denomination to take risks to improve the lives of people around the world. A UMNS photo by Linda Green.

By Linda Green*

LAKE JUNALUSKA, N.C. (UMNS) - The president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops invited her episcopal colleagues and the church to step out of their comfort zones and make connections to impact global health.

Houston Bishop Janie R. Huie, in her Nov. 5 president's address, invited the worldwide 11.5 million-member denomination to be bold and take risks in making disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. She said the church has an unprecedented opportunity to bring together its resources and skills to bring about change in the lives of millions of people.

The keys to impacting global health, poverty, education and climate change are found in partnership and collaboration, described as "connexion" in Wesleyan terms, she said.

Acknowledging many partnerships already existing among annual conferences and churchwide agencies across regional and cultural lines, Huie described her vision of collaboration as "so expansive in scope and quality that it (is) like discovering a new world."

The global health community
Huie shared her experiences attending global health-related meetings and consultations in behalf of The United Methodist Church. Also attending were heads of states, corporate executives, philanthropists, Nobel Prize winners and grassroots activists in poverty reduction, health care and education. Participation from the faith community was minimal, she said.

The global gatherings reflected the depth, scope and challenges faced by people across the world, with malaria as a chief economic concern.

Huie said efforts to combat malaria provide fertile ground for collaboration and partnership.

However, most groups working on global health do not have faith groups on their radar when developing partnerships. "I came away with the clear impression that most of these folks simply did not expect mainline Protestant churches to play a significant role in changing the world over the next few decades. How sad!" Huie said.

For Huie, the global health meetings have served as "an extraordinary learning time." One lesson: In spite of people's differences, "each person shares responsibility for correcting what is wrong and making the world a better place for all its children. Together we can make a difference for good."

Areas of focus
Global health is one of four areas of focus developed by United Methodist leaders as a denominational agenda for the coming years. The church wants to promote global health by combating preventable diseases of poverty such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. Other areas of focus are developing new leaders for the 21st century; extending the church's outreach by energetically starting new congregations and revitalizing existing ones; and ministering to the poor.

As part of the church's global health initiative, United Methodists are working to raise awareness and understanding of global health issues, foster support and participation across the denomination for expanding health ministry, and significantly reduce illness and mortality from diseases of poverty.

Huie talked about how the secular world has responded to her descriptions of the global health work of The United Methodist Church, including its grassroots membership and delivery systems, hospitals, clinics, missions and schools, particularly in Africa. "I could see connections being made" and doors opening, she said, adding that global challenges are larger than any one group can handle.

"Today, The United Methodist Church is being invited to explore partnership far greater in scope and capacity than we have entered in decades - maybe ever," Huie said. "We are standing at the threshold of incredible opportunity."

Collaboration and partnership
Just as movement is part of the DNA of Methodism, so is collaboration and partnership, said Huie.

"Connection is a central feature of Methodist practice and is fundamental to our identity," she said. "Connexion describes both how Methodists were organized and theological relationships that defined our distinctiveness."

Huie invited the church to return to its roots and live out discipleship in connexion. For instance, early American Methodists partnered with groups like the American Bible Society and American Board of Commissioners for Foreign to spread the Methodist movement globally.

"Collaboration and partnerships build capacity … (and) invite us to stretch our imaginations to discover new possibilities for living into the kingdom of God. More connections mean more life."

Huie listed United Methodist connections resulting from the church's involvement with the Nothing But Nets campaign, the United Nations Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to eradicate malaria. "The United Methodist response to the Nets campaign has been nothing short of remarkable," she said.

Shifting focus
With the 2008 General Conference only six months away, Huie recounted overhearing a delegate discussing the Nothing But Nets campaign against malaria and how an African child dies of the mosquito-borne disease every 30 seconds. The delegate said the church's top legislative body should focus on saving lives rather than fighting over cultural issues.

"We are in a new time," Huie said. "Some may want to continue to argue over personal holiness and leave aside social holiness. But, it is equally clear to me that the vast majority of United Methodists want to live the United Methodist way - loving God and loving their neighbor."

Huie said United Methodists want to make a difference for the kingdom of heaven. "Most folk are worn out with war - internally and externally. They want to make a difference in the lives of people at home and around the world," she said.

United Methodists are being invited into a partnership focusing on improving global health, beginning with eliminating malaria in this lifetime. The partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the United Nations Foundation "is much larger in scope and capacity than Nothing But Nets." The Nets campaign is limited to distributing insecticide-treated sleeping nets to people in Africa.

With a grant from the U.N. Foundation, The United Methodist Church is conducting a feasibility study to determine if enough support exists among annual conference leaders, health care institutions and other groups to engage in a major global health initiative encompassing the diseases of poverty: malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.

The Gates Foundation is excited about the potential of The United Methodist Church in Africa, she said, because of its existing grassroots network to deliver health care, education, communication and technology to people in those countries.

"To be sure, The United Methodist Church will have to expand the capacity of our hospitals, community health providers, schools and communication technology and advocacy," she said.

"New partnerships between annual conference, the agencies and national and local governments will need to emerge over time. Everyone will have an important role to play."

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