Church can do more to help poor in Africa, commissioners find

By Linda Green*

MARANGE, Zimbabwe (UMNS) - The daily life of a rural African woman is heavy-laden, and the governing members of United Methodist Communications experienced that firsthand.

Members of the Commission on Communication spent hours doing what is known in rural Africa as "woman's work." They hauled water, broke wood and built fires, cooked meals for schoolchildren over an open flame and made drinks. They also unloaded tons of staples and delivered foodstuffs to homes in the countryside.

The commission was in Zimbabwe Jan. 4-11 for its first board meeting outside the continental United States. The members observed the living conditions of people in the Mutare area, and saw the impact that the Zimbabwe Orphans Endeavor - a United Methodist-supported ministry - is having in helping children orphaned by AIDS. Some of the commissioners held a two-day communications training for pastors and lay people at United Methodist-related Africa University.

Commission member Gary Henderson, pastor of East Shore United Methodist Church in Euclid, Ohio, got a firsthand taste of the hardship many people experience.

Zimbabwe is a country in economic turmoil, and Henderson wanted to know how the people coped with hyperinflation "at rates that we as Americans would not even begin to understand."

As he moved through the countryside, he saw "a lot of need but also people who were willing to share in the midst of their own need," he said. "… There is a sense that people are in the struggle together. They are doing what they can to be a community, to be a family and work together."

Henderson said he was carrying a message back to his Ohio congregation and network of friends and acquaintances that there is something for them to do. "We have to do more ... and challenge people to make a difference."

Poverty and its effects have been identified by the church's African bishops as the most significant issue in daily life, but "poverty" is not a term the people use to describe their circumstances. "It does not define who they are nor define their communities," said the Rev. Larry Hollon, top executive at United Methodist Communications.

Americans think of poverty in financial terms, but it is bigger than that, Henderson noted. "Poverty is the absence of basic, essential kinds of things. In so many ways in our own country, we are missing some basic kinds of things." People have become anesthetized to violence and "how we really love each other," he said. "(We) have become a nation of the living dead. We have become numb."

ZOE makes a difference
Commission members visited two mission centers outside Mutare that are operated through the Zimbabwe Orphans Endeavor. ZOE is an advance special program of the North Carolina Annual Conference that seeks to embrace and assist children orphaned by the AIDS pandemic through providing school fees, purchasing uniforms and feeding them. The program is supported by partners from across the United Methodist connection.

Every 14 seconds a child is orphaned in Africa because of AIDS, and 6,000 children become orphans every day, according to ZOE literature. Africa has 12 million orphans, and that number could reach 40 million by 2010.

As the commission visited with orphans and people suffering from AIDS, "I felt that I walked to the very brink of suffering and despair," Henderson said. "But I also found it a holy time to be present with people who were living with that kind of suffering that would be hard to imagine in America."

The nearly two-and-a-half-year-old ministry is led by North Carolina clergyman Greg Jenks. He was introduced to the plight of AIDS in 2001 by a 15-year-old girl who said her calling was to help AIDS orphans in Zambia.

In 2003, "I sensed that Christ was calling me to offer leadership in The United Methodist Church in caring for these suffering children," Jenks said in a testimonial. "I am convinced that this is the hour that the church needs to respond to the devastating suffering of the little ones in southern Africa.

"As God has begun opening doors, ZOE Ministry has responded by offering care to thousands of suffering orphans," he said. "Hungry children are being fed, eager children are being educated, and little ones are finding hope in our Lord Jesus Christ."

The ministry's infrastructure in Zimbabwe is under the leadership of the Zimbabwe United Methodist Church. ZOE is also branching out to assist AIDS orphans in Kenya through the Maua Methodist Mission, and it is involved in an inner-city ministry in Zambia.

The vision of the ministry, according to its Web site, includes:
+Establishing care for orphans and vulnerable children in cooperation with United Methodist and ecumenical ministries in Africa.
+Equipping orphans with essential life skills.
+Linking churches with ministries caring for orphans in Africa.
+Reaching children for Christ.
+Coordinating work teams from the United States.

'The work of God'
At United Methodist-related Marange Mission Center, the commission members arrived for the first day of school and assisted mothers of the schoolchildren attending Mt. Makomwe Primary School in preparing the noon meal for 500 children. Nearly 40 percent of the students have been orphaned by AIDS.

Across Zimbabwe, nearly 15,000 children are fed daily through ZOE. For some of the children, this will be the only meal they receive on some days, Jenks said.

"This is the work of God," he said. "When I look at what is going on, I do not ever sit back and say, 'Look at what I have done.' It is more of feeling like an observer of something that God is doing. It is a calling, and it is a lot easier than being a pastor." Before he was appointed to lead ZOE, Jenks was pastor at Christ Community United Methodist Church in Clayton, N.C.

Commission members arrived early in the morning, like the mothers do, to begin the process of making porridge. While some broke wood for a fire, others hauled water to fill a large cast-iron pot.

In sweltering heat, they stood over the fire, stirring the porridge until it was done. They also carried water to fill a large barrel to make mahewu, a vitamin-fortified, cereal beverage that is served to students ranging from 2 to 14 years old.

A different way
Elnora Hamb, the pan-Methodist representative to the commission from Chicago, is no stranger to circumstances in Africa. A member of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, she is involved in ministries across the continent and supervises 380,000 women in Africa, Haiti and Jamaica.

She came with the commission, she said, "to do outreach ministry that would strengthen the people in this area." She was impressed by the warmth and hospitality of the people, she said. "Although they may be deprived by our standards, I saw joy in them because they do not know the other side."

"The trip for me was about finding something different, a different culture, and a different way of doing things." Upon returning home, she will convey her findings so that her women's organization can become even more mission minded.

Hamb, who participated in the "life of a rural African woman" experience, said "it is a hard day for them. It is a hard way of living."

Richard Mawondo, headmaster of the primary school, said ZOE provides funding for student uniforms, medicine, stationery and other necessities. More than 1,500 children across Zimbabwe have received school fees and uniforms from ZOE, and the ministry has donated more than $500,000 in medical supplies and served at least 3,000 children in the past year.

ZOE is establishing sewing projects to empower local communities as they are paid to produce the uniforms. It provides sewing machines for the women at these projects, and they are expected to train orphan girls to participate in the endeavor. The commission visited a cooperative while in Mutare, and members distributed uniforms to children at the Marange center.

"ZOE assists orphans within the school who would otherwise not come to school because they don't have fees and things needed for learning to take place," Mawondo said. Last year, ZOE helped 197 orphans from around the area to attend school.

United Methodists can assist AIDS orphans by contributing to the "ZOE Advance Special S00148." Checks to can be mailed to North Carolina Conference/Raleigh Area, The United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 60053, Charlotte N.C. 28260-0053.

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

United Methodist pastor to appeal IRS levy on pension check

A UMNS Report By Linda Bloom*

A United Methodist clergyman in Oregon and longtime "war tax" resister is fighting an Internal Revenue Service levy placed on his pension provided by the denomination.

The Rev. John Schwiebert, currently a volunteer pastor of Metanoia Peace Community United Methodist Church in Portland, Ore., wants the United Methodist Board of Pension and Health Benefits to remove the levy.

He and his wife, Pat, will appear at the board's Jan. 26 meeting in Hollywood, Fla., to ask its directors to consider an alternative to complying with the IRS.

The agency welcomes a presentation from the Schwieberts during its public forum, according to Colette Nies, communications director for the pension board. However, the board's position is that non-compliance with the federal levy could jeopardize the church's other retirement plans.

"The general board certainly sympathizes with the Schwieberts and admires their personal convictions, but we also have an obligation to balance our sympathies with our fiduciary responsibility to over 44,000 pension plan participants," Nies said.

Schwiebert told United Methodist News Service that he and his wife have withheld the percentage of tax money they believe is intended for military purposes for about 30 years.

"It was during Vietnam when we realized that we were conscientious objectors," he said. Since he was past the draft age at that point, "our conclusion was that our conscientious objection had to take this form."

Contending with IRS
At times, the Schwieberts' savings accounts have been seized and salaries garnished by the IRS.

But more often, the couple deliberately has kept their income low enough to avoid taxes altogether. When he retired in 2001 and started drawing a pension, their income increased.

For more than 20 years, the Schwieberts have lived "in community" with others in the house that serves as the base for the Metanoia Peace Community congregation and its ministries. His pension benefit is deposited in a communal household account, along with Pat Schwiebert's $400 monthly stipend as a full-time employee of Grief Watch, a mission of the congregation.

The current IRS levy is for the $7,500 that the government says the couple owes for 2002 and 2003. The Schwieberts actually gave an equivalent amount to the Board of Commissioners of Multnomah County in Oregon, although they understood the gift was "an expression of conscience," not a legal substitution for federal taxes.

"We're willing to pay taxes; we're just distressed with the military purposes for which the federal taxes are being used," he said.

The couple did not file any tax returns for 2004 and 2005. "We've sort of taken the attitude that we feel like we're doing the right thing in not paying."

Last December, Schwiebert received a letter from the pension board informing him of the levy, to begin at the first of the year. The involuntary deduction takes more than half of the pension payment of about $3,000 a month, he said.

Schwiebert believes there are different legal interpretations over whether the IRS can levy a pension. He also would like to see the Board of Pension and Health Benefits recognize statements in the denomination's Social Principles that "reject war as an instrument of national foreign policy" and "assert the duty of churches to support those who suffer because of their stands of conscience represented by nonviolent beliefs or acts."

"I feel like there is room for conscientious objectors to challenge the system," he said. "That's what we would like to see the board do."

A bishop's support
The Schwieberts have the support of their former bishop, Bishop Calvin McConnell, who presided over the United Methodist Oregon-Idaho Conference from 1980 to 1988 and worked with the couple "in trying to live their life of poverty in order to not pay taxes to the United States government for military purposes."

McConnell noted that the IRS "makes exceptions" for Quakers and members of other churches traditionally considered to be "peace" churches. "There's no reason they cannot extend the same courtesy to John and Pat, who have been lifelong pacifists," he declared.

He said the Board of Pension and Health Benefits "needs to make allowances" and ask the IRS to make an exception for the Schwieberts.

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

Ministry commission puts recommendations, survey online

By Vicki Brown*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - A draft report by the Study of Ministry Commission for the 2008 General Conference proposes eight recommendations about the ordering of ministry, including the creation of three classifications of ordained elders and separation of ordination from full conference membership.

The report, which is framed in the historic form of Methodist conferences as "minutes of several conversations," is available at www.gbhem.org, along with an online survey for reactions to the report.

"The commission is determined to draw on the collective insight and wisdom of all United Methodists in preparing this important report. And so we offer this initial draft of the report for examination and comment," said Bishop William H. Willimon, who leads the denomination's Birmingham (Ala.) Area and chairs the Study of Ministry Commission. "The commission will consider all contributions in preparing the final document."

The commission is inviting people to read the report and take the online survey by logging onto the Web site and clicking on the Study of Ministry button.

A catalyst for discussion
The Rev. Mary Ann Moman, a commission member and staff executive with the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry's Division of Ordained Ministry, said the draft reflects the commission's work in addressing the General Conference request to bring clarity to the ordering of ministry.

"We are pleased with the Wesleyan model of questions and response. It is our expectation that this teaching document will become the catalyst for The United Methodist Church to discuss these important issues," Moman said.

The commission recommended classifications of itinerant elder, associate elder and local elder. Itinerant elder is essentially the same as the current classification of elder. All three could administer the sacraments, but associate elders and local elders could do so only in the charge to which they are appointed.

Additional key points

The other recommendations:
+Pastors-in-charge who are not ordained as elders will be licensed lay pastors. This will incorporate certified lay ministers, student local pastors, part-time local pastors and full-time local pastors who have not completed either the denomination's Course of Study or a master of divinity degree.

+Every licensed lay pastor shall be authorized, blessed, and sent out annually for his or her appointment through a liturgy to be conducted at annual or district conference each year.

+The United Methodist Church must sustain the traditional Wesleyan understanding that the authority to celebrate the sacraments derives from ordination as an elder by the presiding bishop upon election by an annual conference. Therefore, licensed lay pastors shall not administer baptism or Holy Communion in the charges to which they are appointed. Itinerant elders designated as presiding elders shall be assigned by the cabinet to circuits of local churches served by licensed lay pastors to administer the sacraments on a regular, rotating basis. The bishop may grant provisional authority to administer the sacraments to certain licensed lay pastors under exceptional circumstances, in order to advance the mission of the church in a particular place. Deacons are not ordained to administer the sacraments but to assist in their administration and to lead the congregation in extending the table of Holy Communion into the world.

+Deacons and itinerant elders will be ordained at the conclusion of educational and examination requirements rather than at the end of a probationary process. This realigns ordination and conference membership, granting sacramental authority to at least an additional 2,000 pastors under appointment in any given year. Under the commission's proposal, these ordained elders and deacons will have full authority for ministry. Elders will continue on trial to become full members of the Order of Elders, while deacons will also be on probation for a period.

+Elders shall be ordained to Word, Sacrament and Order, while deacons are ordained to Word and Service.

+All deacons and itinerant elders will be reviewed every five years by a group of peers from within their respective annual conference orders.

+The commission will propose that 2008 General Conference authorize a study of the diaconate during the 2009-2012 quadrennium, including a review of how the office is being practiced across the connection and what challenges remain in fulfilling the potential of the office of deacon.

Concerns at General Conference
The draft incorporates issues identified by the commission, as well as comments from the focus groups and results from an earlier survey.

The 2004 General Conference established the commission because of questions, concerns and uncertainty regarding the two ordained clergy orders - deacons and elders - and local pastors.

Both the 2000 and 2004 General Conferences received a large number of petitions related to certified lay ministers, local pastors, deacons and elders. The Study of Ministry Commission was established to "theologically discuss and clearly define the ordering of our shared life together in The United Methodist Church."

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

Proposals call for new collaboration among church agencies

By Linda Green*

HARARE, Zimbabwe (UMNS)-The top executives of The United Methodist Church's agencies are collaborating in new ways to lead the church toward more shared mission and ministry.

The leaders of the church's boards, agencies and commissions are drafting and perfecting four "provocative propositions" to enable the denomination to face the challenges of global ministry.

The collaboration between the agencies is not new, but "new challenges call for new ways of doing ministry collaboratively," according to the executive summary outlining the proposals.

The Rev. Larry Hollon, top executive of United Methodist Communications, presented these proposals to members of the Commission on Communications and agency staff during the opening plenary of a Jan. 4-11 board meeting in Zimbabwe. The meeting was the commission's first outside the continental United States.

"The consensus among the general secretaries (of the agencies) is that change must occur in the connectional system if we are to thrive," Hollon said.

The propositions The proposals, which will go before the Connectional Table as programmatic directions, emerged from a variety of conversations among church leaders and identify four goals for the church's work in the 2009-2012 period:

+Enable clergy and laity to develop the skills necessary for ministry in the 21st century through leadership, education and development, with a focus on the United States.
+Extend the outreach of the church's ministry and grow the church by energetically starting new congregations.
+Partner with the poor to seek justice and address the causes of human suffering that result from poverty.
+Bring healing, health and wholeness through a concerted effort to end preventable diseases of poverty such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.

Hollon told the commissioners that the first emphasis would lay a foundation for developing quality leaders and addressing the concern of recruiting young people for clergy vocations and leadership in the denomination. United Methodists under the age of 18 represent 4.6 percent of church membership, and the number of clergy under age 35 is 850 out of some 30,000 active clergy.

All of the churchwide program agencies and commissions will be asked to build a system of leadership development that includes the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry working with United Methodist schools to form clergy and lay leadership for the 21st century.

The second proposition, Hollon said, calls for a strategy across the denomination to create churches "in a more aggressive and systematic way" than ever before. The proposal calls for the planting of 350 new churches in the United States, up from an estimated 75 per year currently.

A goal is for 80 percent of the planted churches to average 250 in worship within five years of their launch, generating an estimated 87,500 new members into a United Methodist community of faith.

Addressing the third proposal, Hollon said: "Poverty knows no boundaries."

"This is a global issue that will share the mission of the whole church," he said. "It particularly discusses the effects of poverty on children and calls on The United Methodist Church to care for children."

Six "contextual, holistic projects" for ministry with the poor will be developed during the 2009-2012 quadrennium - in East Africa, the Philippines, Eastern Europe, Honduras, a U.S. annual conference with a large vulnerable urban population, and an annual conference in Appalachia.

Resources will be multilingual as well as multimedia, with an emphasis on advocating for public policies that empower the impoverished and address conditions that compromise human dignity and the quality of life.

The fourth proposal envisions a global health initiative that will engage the whole church in a sustained effort to prevent and treat the diseases of poverty, with particular emphasis on saving 3 million lives by eradicating malaria and addressing HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis through community-based primary health care.

The church has begun to address malaria eradication through the Nothing the But Nets campaign, a partnership with the United Nations Foundation, the Millennium Promise, the Measles Initiative, Sports Illustrated, the National Basketball Association's NBA Cares foundation and others.

The agency's role
Hollon told the governing members that United Methodist Communication would help with the four propositions by assisting in increasing attendance, giving and participation. The agency also will address health issues confronting the denomination.

Borrowing the title of a best-selling book by Gary Gunderson and Larry Pray, Hollon said the church needs to examine the "leading causes of life" and not search for the causes of death.

"The storyline of mainline denomination decline is not the only storyline of the church," Hollon said. "That storyline is a prescription for death. Rather, I'm interested in the causes of life and building a system that is both life-giving and life-sustaining," he said.

"I invite our own members and those who are searching for a faith community to join us in the search for the leading causes of life."

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

Sometimes pastors need to call 'time out,' speaker says

By Jeanette Pinkston*

DALLAS (UMNS) - The Rev. Freddie Haynes has a message for busy pastors: "If you want to walk on water, you need to call a time-out."

Haynes, pastor of Friendship West Baptist Church in Dallas, was speaking to more than 500 participants attending the Convocation for Pastors of African American Churches, sponsored by the United Methodist Church's Board of Discipleship. He took his text from Matthew 14:22-23.

"In verse 22, Jesus dismisses the crowd and calls a time-out," he said. "Ego will cause you to kick it with the crowd, rather than dismiss the crowd. Jesus had sense enough to call time out."

When Jesus went to the mountain, he came down with more power. In this text, he came down and walked on water, Haynes said.

Using a NASCAR racing analogy, Haynes reminded pastors that they, too, must call a time-out to get refueled. "If you call time out when it's calm, God will keep you calm in the storm," he said.

The convocation, held Jan. 3-6, was designed to help United Methodist pastors and leaders of African-American congregations be intentional about focusing on healthy options that connect spirit, body and mind. (See "Convocation for pastors focuses on healthy connections," 1/11/07)

Know when to get up
The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, pastor of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas, inspired the gathering with a sermon on the "Mindset of a Winner. "

To illustrate how a winner thinks, Caldwell showed video clips from the 1976 World Series baseball game in which Reggie Jackson hit four home runs in a row, and the boxing match between Mike Tyson and Buster Douglass to demonstrate what to do when you get knocked down.

"When you have a winner's mentality, you have to know how to get up. When you get knocked down, stay there for a while, " he said.

Quoting favorite Scriptures, he reminded the group of the importance of walking with the Lord and reading the Bible.

"From this day forward (you can declare), I will get what I fight for. I will fight for my health. I will fight for my equilibrium. I will fight for my family. I will fight for a balanced life. I will fight for an equitable compensation package, " Caldwell said.

Convocation participants went to St. Luke "Community" United Methodist Church for dinner and an evening worship and communion service, where the Rev. Gregory Palmer, resident bishop of the Iowa Area, preached from Matthew 26:26.

"The hopes and fears of all the years are met in the cross of Calvary. Hope and fear came together on Calvary's cross," he said. "We were dead in our trespasses, but in Christ, we have been made alive. "

Participants could choose from a variety of workshops, including clergy self-care, managing anger and stress, preparing for the future, faces of depression, the prayer experience, healthy congregations, recognizing and responding to burnout, exercise, nutrition and good health, healthy sexuality, and balancing ministry and family.

This was the fifth annual convocation for pastors of African-American congregations sponsored by the Board of Discipleship.

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

Church congregations to observe Jubilee Sunday

United Methodist congregations will be among those praying for international debt relief as part of an observance of Jubilee Sunday on Jan. 21.

The Jubilee USA Network marks 2007 as a Sabbath year, "a time when people in the U.S. and all over the globe will be focusing attention on canceling unjust debts owed by impoverished nations in Africa, Latin America and Asia to wealthy countries and institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund."

The United Methodist Board of Church and Society, United Methodist Women, United Methodist New England Annual (regional) Conference, Church World Service, and the National Council of Churches are council members of the Jubilee USA Network.

A Sabbath year is a biblical mandate found in both the Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament requiring debts to be forgiven and right relations restored every seven years. A super jubilee occurs every 50 years.

Local congregations will be reading from Luke 4:14-21, in which Jesus declares a jubilee or "year of the Lord's favor" by proclaiming God's liberation for all oppressed and impoverished people.
Parishioners will also write to their congressional representatives and senators asking them to support new debt legislation in the Sabbath year.

A particular focus is being placed on debt cancellation for Liberia, now under the leadership of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a United Methodist lay member. The Jubilee USA Network is asking church members to send Valentines to the U.S. Treasury, urging officials to "Have a Heart, and Cancel Liberia's Debt."

United Methodist congregations participating in Jubilee Sunday include St. Paul's United Methodist Church, San Jose, Calif.; Nevada City (Calif.) United Methodist Church; Bozeman (Mont.) United Methodist Church; First United Methodist Church, Missoula, Mont.; and First United Methodist Church, Houston.

The debt crisis arose during the 1970s as developing nations borrowed money, often at high interest rates and sometimes to the benefit of dictators rather than their people, according to the Jubilee USA Network. Money then went to repay debt rather than providing for the needs of the people.

For example, sub-Saharan Africa, the world's most impoverished region, carries $201 billion in debt, despite repaying more than 90 percent of the $294 billion received between 1970 and 2002. Today, those countries still must pay $14 billion annually in debt service, the network reports.

Debt relief allows burdened countries to re-focus on critical needs. Domestic spending in countries that have received debt relief has increased by 75 percent, according to the Jubilee USA Network.

Young people celebrate global connection, hear challenges

By Kathy L. Gilbert*

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (UMNS) - At the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, more than 250 United Methodist youth and young adults from around the world rocked a ballroom in South Africa in a testimony to global unity.

"It was an amazing thing to see - the cultures and different backgrounds coming together," said Monalisa Siofele, a member of Aiea (Hawaii) United Methodist Church. "We were all communicating through music and dance. It allowed me to see we are a globally connected church."

The first ever United Methodist global meeting for young people was held Dec. 28-Jan. 1 in Johannesburg. It was sponsored by the Division on Ministries with Young People, which was created by action of the church's 2004 General Conference and placed under the United Methodist Board of Discipleship.

Participants worshipped together, drafted legislation to send to the 2008 General Conference, visited programs that care for people infected with HIV/AIDS, learned about South Africa's struggle with apartheid and celebrated the beginning of 2007.

Seeing a miracle
One afternoon was spent touring Nelson Mandela's home, the Apartheid Museum and the Hector Peterson House, which enshrines the memory of a schoolboy whose death galvanized the anti-apartheid movement.

Sarah Crawford-Browne, a clinical social worker with the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town, South Africa, was the keynote speaker for the opening worship.

"I learned two lessons from growing up in South Africa," she said. "The first is that God loves us all equally and I am called to love everyone equally also. And second, of all the ingredients needed to reflect God's world, the greatest is love."

She added, "Love isn't a soft, Hallmark emotion; it is a decision to respect one another."

Today's South Africa is a miracle, she said. A dark cloud loomed over the country for many years, and three groups were responsible for moving the cloud: young people, religious leaders and individuals in the international community.

She asked the participants to find space to love and listen to each other and "create the world we all want."

Followers of Jesus
Other keynote speakers urged participants to share and learn from one another.

Beauty Rosebery Maenzanise, dean for the Faculty of Theology at United Methodist-related Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe, led two Bible studies. Speaking on Acts 2, she told the young people the Holy Spirit would fill them with "a new talkativeness, liveliness and fearlessness."

"God will make it possible for you to understand each other if you allow the Holy Spirit to lead," she said.

Bishop Rosemarie Wenner, leader of the denomination's Germany Area, told participants "this is a time to make friends."

"Take part in shaping God's world," she said. "Share God's love with everybody."

The Rev. Liberato Bautista, staff executive for United Nations and International Affairs at the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, spoke to the young people about advocacy for social justice. "Social justice advocacy is advocacy in the public square," he said.

"This is a specially blessed day!" he continued. "It is blessed by your presence - coming as it were from many places around the world. Even more blessed is our presence in a place whose people have shown that allegiance to God makes possible the dawning of justice and peace even in a time of political oppression, economic exploitation and cultural marginalization."

Bishop Eben Nhiwatiwa, leader of the church's Zimbabwe Area, echoed the words that Jesus used when referring to John the Baptist.

"What have you come here to see?" he asked the young people. He challenged them to not share Jesus with "second-hand information."

"Young people, you are important leaders of today and tomorrow, but you must be followers of Jesus," he said.

Getting fired up
The co-chair people of the Division for Ministries with Young People, Violet Mango and Theon Johnson III, closed the event with the final worship service.

"You make us proud of our continent," said Mango, a member of Murewa Howard Memorial United Methodist Church in Zimbabwe. "My vision is for young people all over the world to stand up and take leadership. The world needs us."

"This assembly was ordained," Johnson said. "It is my prayer that we go out fired up for Jesus. I am confident in every leader I see here today."

The Africa University Choir provided inspiration through song each day, and members of the United Methodist Youth Fellowship in South Africa were gracious hosts for the gathering.

"I can't even believe this myself - I have been surrounded by people whom I didn't know and have learned to love," said Piwe Dangazele, a young adult from Pretoria United Methodist Church in Cape Town. "I am glad they came to my country. We are making history. God is great!"

Luthando Kwananzi, part of the South African youth fellowship, said he learned a lot about The United Methodist Church from the youth at the event.

"We are new in The United Methodist Church, and now we have been exposed to the global nature of the church. I have learned new ideas and will take them back to my church."

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

Convocation for pastors focuses on healthy connections

By Jeanette Pinkston*

DALLAS (UMNS) - More than 500 United Methodist pastors and church leaders gathered to focus on healthy connections during the 2007 Convocation for Pastors of African-American churches.

The annual meeting, held Jan. 3-6 at the Hilton Anatole Hotel, was sponsored by the United Methodist Board of Discipleship and hosted by St. Luke "Community" United Methodist Church in Dallas.

The three plenary sessions and an evening worship and healing service focused on the theme of the gathering, "Focusing on Healthy Connections: Spirit, Body, and Mind."

No more casualties
The Rev. Vance Ross, a board executive, emphasized the importance of good health. "If the pastor is not healthy, there is no need to expect the congregations to be so," he told the church leaders. "You are set apart, and you must be healthy. We need to make some healthy connections."

The Rev. Safiyah Fosua, director of invitational preaching ministries, transported participants to Ezekiel's valley of dry bones in a plenary session, "Soul People, Spiritual People."

"Spirit is not something you keep to yourself," she said. "Something happens to Africana people when they move in the spirit together. We (can make) bigger waves if we just move together and come together in the spirit."

She challenged the pastors to come together, get strong and discover their identity, and to let the Holy Spirit breathe on their lives, ministries and communities.

Healthy connections
The Rev. Joseph Daniels Jr., pastor of Emory United Methodist Church in Washington, led a plenary session on community connection and social justice.

"Too many of us are not whole," he told the gathering. "We are unhealthy and we need to make healthy connections."

Daniels cited a laundry list of ills such as HIV/AIDS, prostate cancer, sugar diabetes, black-on-black crime and the negative effects of re-gentrification. Using texts from Ezekiel, Nehemiah and John, he identified the circumstance, described the situation and provided a solution.

"Economically, many have prospered while the masses are suffering," he said. "People are living in wealthy suburbs and are spiritually poor and spiritually bankrupt, broken and burnt. We are in trouble. We are present physically but mentally and emotionally in exile.

"God brings good news. God starts the revival with a prophet. The Spirit of the Lord got in somebody. Broken and burnt walls and dry bones will get up and build. (Pastors) must be the catalyst for change," he said.

He challenged the pastors to be disciplined in practicing the spiritual disciplines. They must have prayer partnerships, Sabbath rest, study time, exercise, therapy and family time.

Time for healing
The Rev. Pat McKinstry, senior pastor of Upton United Methodist Church in Toledo, Ohio, compared today's church with the woman in Mark 5:25-34 who suffered from an issue of blood.

"Just as the woman with an issue of blood had an issue, the church has an issue of blood. There is a hemorrhage in the church," said McKinstry, the speaker for the evening worship and healing service.

She explained that "medically (the woman) should have died. The life of the flesh is in the blood. Blood is the physical carrier of life. The spiritual carriers of life, we (pastors) must go back to the blood."

Citing the story of Cain and Abel, McKinstry said, "The voice of your brother's blood cries from the ground. Jesus' blood comes from redemption. We call in all kinds of physicians, except calling on the blood of the Lamb."

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

United Methodists to join observance of Christian Unity week

A UMNS Report By Linda Bloom*

United Methodists will join those of other faiths to mark the Jan. 18-25 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

"As United Methodist leaders and congregations prepare for this time of Christian unity, we encourage engagement with other Christian communities in observing the week of prayer through common worship and study," the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns announced.

This year's theme is, "He even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak," taken from Mark 7:31-37. "The theme sets the tone for churches around the world seeking to express their longing for and commitment to Christian unity," according to the commission.

The commission urges congregations to use materials developed for the observance in their own worship services. Those materials - which can be found at www.geii.org, the Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious Institute Web site - include an introduction to the week's theme, eight sets of daily Bible readings and meditations and the outline of an ecumenical worship service.

Source material for the observance is prepared each year by a local ecumenical group. The 2007 materials were developed by lay persons, pastors and priests in Umlazi-Bhekithemba, a region near Durban, South Africa.

According to Sister Lorelei F. Fuchs, S.A., of Graymoor, the materials "reflect the concerns and experience of a people who have undergone great suffering. A legacy of racism, unemployment and poverty continues to raise formidable challenges for its people, where there is still a shortage of schools, medical clinics and adequate housing."

Meeting with an international group, the preparatory group in Umlazi reflected on the search for Christian unity in light of the experiences of Christians in Umlazi and selected the scriptural theme.

"They crafted a biblical framework, centered around hearing, speaking and silence, within which both the search for unity and the search for a Christian response to human suffering find a home," Fuchs wrote. "This twofold focus is reflected in the Ecumenical Celebration of the Word and in the Daily Scripture & Prayer Guide, intentionally addressing both the reality of human suffering and the search for the visible unity of all Christians."

Interpreting that focus, Graymoor's planning committee re-crafted the theme title as "Open our ears and loosen our tongues." The art work, titled Heart Song, reflects on the spiritual implications of the passage in Mark and "captures my feeling that the healing of Jesus is about the opening of one's heart," said the artist, Mark Hakomaki. "Song is the highest expression of hearing and speaking."

United Methodists also are participating in the Jan. 29-Feb. 1 National Workshop on Christian Unity in the Washington area, headquartered at the Key Bridge Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Va.
Two worship services scheduled during the workshop are of particular interest. An Episcopal-Lutheran-United Methodist Eucharist will be celebrated at 6 p.m. Jan. 30 at Arlington Temple United Methodist Church, highlighting the interim Eucharist-sharing agreements that the United Methodists have with the other two communions.

A worship service related to Churches Uniting in Christ, of which the United Methodist Church is a member communion, is planned for 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 31 at Metropolitan AME Church.
For more information, call the commission at (212) 749-3553, or go to World Council of Churches' Web site at www.wcc-coe.org and the Web page of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity at the Vatican at http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/documents/rc_pc_chrstuni_pro_20051996_chrstuni_pro_en.html.

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

Communications commission meets in Zimbabwe

By Linda Green*

HARARE, Zimbabwe (UMNS)-The governing members of the communications agency of the United Methodist Church made history when the airplane touched down at the airport in this sub-Saharan country on Jan. 3.

Twenty-nine members of the Commission on Communications, including staff from United Methodist Communications, are meeting in Africa Jan. 4-11, the first ever meeting of the commission outside the continental United States.

"We are making history and we are embodying a reality that is often spoken, namely, that the United Methodist Church is a global connection," said the Rev. Larry Hollon in a Jan. 4 address to the commission.

Calling Africa a "wonderful country of paradoxes," he challenged the commission to comprehend some of the realities that exist across the continent -- namely poverty, which has had an adverse effect on the people and the governments of the nations across Africa. "This is a continent of wondrous diversity and quite remarkable people," said Hollon, who is the top executive at United Methodist Communications.

The commissioners are in Zimbabwe not only to set policy and develop communication strategies for the denomination, but also to participate in a volunteer mission experience and communications training event at Africa University. The university is the first fully accredited private institution in Zimbabwe, established by the United Methodist Church to help train leaders in church and society who can address the concerns and needs of Africa's developing nations.

Commission members are exploring how to assist African communicators with training to communicate more effectively across the continent and within their respective conferences.

The proposed outcome of this meeting is two-fold. First, the commissioners hope to understand more fully why the denomination's Central Conference Communications Initiative should be continued and expanded to support communications in Africa, Europe and the Philippines.

"We in the United States take for granted an interconnection of communications that does not exist in other parts of the world," Hollon explained.

He hopes the meeting will provide commission members with the information needed to re-establish the communications initiative for the next four years. The initiative is about providing the necessary tools and training to enable communities to enter dialogue with themselves and others for the enhancement of life, he noted.

The second objective is to familiarize the commission with some of the living circumstances of the people of Africa, using Mutare as a microcosm to gain that understanding.

Hollon said part of the commission's responsibility is to lay a foundation so that people can communicate with one another about life concerns.

Andreas Elfving of Finland compared being global to having a swimming pool, noting that a global structure exists in the United Methodist Church that has offices and people all over the world which makes the church "fairly unique in the world in that sense," he said.

"But, until the church begins to fill its pool with water and use its structures in a fully and truly global way, we have not reached where we need to go," he said. "Our structures are nothing in itself. They need to be tools for God to do his work in the world. We have a unique opportunity and obligation to be very faithful to that calling."

The Rev. Cynthia Harvey of Houston, convener of the meeting, used the translation of Romans 11:8 found in Eugene Peterson's "The Message," to describe why the commission was meeting in Harare and at Africa University and at the ZOE ministries and orphanage.

Quoting Peterson, Harvey reminded her fellow commissioners that everything comes from God, everything happens through God and everything ends up in God and the only response is Always glory, always praise.

"This trip is about saying yes to changing the lives of the people we are going to encounter, including ourselves," she said. "We are here to represent what it means to be a global church, the people of the United Methodist Church."

After expressing delight that his "tribesmen" in communications have come to his country, Ezekiel Makunike of Harare, Zimbabwe, spoke of the importance of communications, including Christian communications in the Central Conferences.

Communication speaks differently to many people, said Makunike, a journalist and United Methodist layman. "It is simply sharing commonness," he said.

He described communications as the "nervous system of being" and there is not a part of the being that is not affected by communication. "If you pinch anything, communication is affected. So, the whole being of ourselves relates to communication," he added.

He stated his hope that the commission's entrée into Africa is a beginning in telling the people of the continent that communication is both central and important to their ministries.

Hollon told the commission that to generalize Africa is misleading because uniqueness is found in every nation but what is common to most of the continent is poverty. Makunike added that knowledge from communication is needed in an effort to eradicate the darkness that surrounds many people.

"Communication will help make our world smaller," Makunike said, pointing out that the essence of communication can be found in the notion that "people hate each other because they don't know each other. They don't know each other because they are separated. They are separated because they cannot communicate. They cannot communicate because they have barriers. They have barriers because they cannot communicate."

He acknowledged the importance of communication technology which can enable the 90 percent of people in Africa who are not on the "grid" to receive information.

Communication is both vertical and horizontal, according to Makunike. The vertical responds to the purpose of the church, why Christ began the church, the will of God in daily life and in the church. The horizontal, he said is being part of your neighbors.

"You have shown that we are your neighbors by being the Central Conference Communications Initiative," which enabled us "to know each other."

Hollon also said that United Methodist Communications and other churchwide bodies are living in a time that requires compelling change across the entire connectional system of the denomination "if we are to thrive and to continue relevant ministry in this broken and hurting world we inherit."

He presented four proposals being drafted by the top executives of the denominations boards, agencies and commission to present to the governing entities of the denomination. The proposals address the crises of leadership in the church of both clergy and lay; the need for congregational development and starting new congregations in a more aggressive and systemic way; the impact of poverty, a global issue destined to shape the mission of the entire denomination; and the need to focus on global health.

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

Crisis leads Sri Lankan Methodists to shun Christmas celebrations

By Anto Akkara*

BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka (ENI) -- Almost all the churches in Batticaloa in eastern Sri Lanka shunned Christmas celebrations due to a refugee crisis in their war-stricken region.

"This Christmas was no occasion of celebration for us," said the Rev. A. Jesudasan, pastor in charge of the Methodist church at Chenkalady in Batticaloa.

Thousands of ethnic Tamil refugees had poured into Batticaloa from the rebel held Vahari region, Jesudasan told Ecumenical News International on Jan. 5. "Christians could not be insensitive to the refugees," he said. "So, we did not have even any decorations."

The United Methodist Committee on Relief has been doing tsunami-related relief work in the Batticaloa area, in cooperation with the Methodist Church in Sri Lanka.

Batticaloa's unprecedented refugee crisis began before Christmas with nearly 25,000 Tamils fleeing intense shelling by government forces trying to take control of the Vaharai region held by Tamil rebels known as LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam).

Jesudasan said that those who dared to attend the midnight Christmas service had to face "special fireworks," as he referred to actions from the army. Many churchgoers, said the Methodist pastor, had to run for their lives during the simultaneous firing of shells and rockets from the army camps dotting Batticaloa town, even as the Christmas service ended.

Christians account for nearly 20 percent of the population in Batticaloa. As a mark of concern for the refugees camping in churches, schools and open grounds around Batticaloa, on Dec. 22, the entire Methodist parish of 70 families pooled their savings for Christmas celebrations and prepared food-packets for 1,200 displaced people.

When the ENI correspondent traveled to the Roman Catholic St. Teresa's church Valachenai, 24 miles from Batticaloa, he found hundreds of new refugee families in the grounds of the Ceylon Pentecostal church.

The Rev. J. Alagudari of St Teresa's said over-stretched church institutions were the first port of call for soldiers to dump civilians fleeing fighting in the rebel areas.

One woman, in a camp at the Sri Murugan high school run by the Jaffna diocese of the Church of South India, said she had been on the run for five months since government forces launched attacks to evict the Tamil Tigers from bases in the east.

"We decided to get out [from the rebel area] after our shelter was hit," said the mother, who gave her name as S. Shanta. She still has shrapnel embedded in her body although doctors had removed another piece when she was hit by shelling while on the run in September.

Shanta said many of the refugees had trekked up to 60 miles for days through jungles, sometimes wading through neck-high water to cross over to the government-held territory. Her son was injured in the attack while they were fleeing, and is with her, but there is no trace of her husband, who got separated from them during their escape.

*This story was distributed by Ecumenical News International.

Bishop's letter to Rev. King finds U.S. at 'curious juncture' on race

Editor's note: Each year, United Methodist Bishop Woodie W. White writes a "birthday" letter to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. about the progress of racial equality in the United States. Now retired and serving as bishop-in-residence at United Methodist-related Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, White was the first top staff executive of the denomination's racial equality monitoring agency, the Commission on Religion and Race. King's birthday is Jan. 15, and Americans honor his memory on the third Monday of the month.

Dear Martin: My greatest temptation in writing this year is to not mention the burden of my heart: the war in which our nation is engaged. I am certain if you were here, your voice would be heard, as the prophets of old.

This leads me to consider how profoundly your voice is missed. There have been so many occasions when I have longed for your voice. Yours was unique. You spoke with such passion, clarity and moral authority. You had the ability to change hearts as well as actions.

We seem to be at a curious juncture in America in the area of race. On the one hand, systemic and institutional racism are giving way to a more racially inclusive society. On the other, individual daily acts of prejudice and racism can still be encountered routinely.

White America, I believe, does not fully appreciate that black Americans live with the uncertainty of where and when these acts will occur. They could show up in the actions or comments of a waitress, taxi driver, supervisor, co-worker, clerk or even a "friend." And they most often do!

Martin, I was elated at the election of an African American as governor of Massachusetts. I remember quite vividly the riots and violence that occurred during school busing in Boston. Yet this significant milestone received little attention in the national media or even the larger black community.

Have such groundbreaking racial "firsts" become so common as to warrant less attention? I suppose in some ways that's a positive step, yet to not be celebrated is to minimize its greater significance.

Almost at the same time, a popular white comedian, enraged by some heckling from two black people in the audience, unleashed an avalanche of racial epithets from the stage. This drew national media attention and response from national leaders. The black community has begun a renewed conversation over the use of the "N" word, as people now refer to that racial slur.

Interestingly, the latter event is cited as evidence of how far America has to go, while the former is not cited as how far America has come!

Martin, I have arrived at the sobering conclusion that individual acts of prejudice and racism will have to be confronted for a long time. They seem endemic to the human psyche. Racism and prejudice can run deep. They do not automatically disappear with succeeding generations. Indeed, I have sadly noted that some grandchildren are more prejudiced than their grandparents! The issues of racism and prejudice must be addressed in every generation.

But changing policies and procedures to create a new order is not the same as changing the persons who must implement them. I have long held that saying nothing about race does not assure a positive climate. On the contrary, the church, schools and other character-forming institutions must be pro-actively positive in fostering favorable racial attitudes, images and experiences.

America has long been a racially and ethnically diverse society, and is becoming so in ever-increasing numbers. Racism, prejudice and ethnocentrism are never too far from the surface. It takes very little to reveal unexpressed racist attitudes, hostilities and fears.

Martin, even as we witnessed the election of an African American as governor, other African-American candidates faced racist attitudes from voters and racist campaign tactics from political opponents. At the same time, ironically, an African American is being seriously discussed as a potential nominee for his party as president of the United States!

I am glad, Martin, that I have lived to see such significant progress in race in American life. Yet, I am utterly disappointed in how race continues to divide the American people.

So, as we celebrate your birth date in 2007, if I were to be asked if race relations in America are better or still a problem, I would have to respond, "Yes!"

Happy birthday, Martin, and I am confident,

We Shall Overcome!

Woodie
Atlanta, Ga.
January 2007