United Methodists name new ecumenical leader

By Wendy Whiteside*

NEW YORK (UMNS)-The Rev. Stephen J. Sidorak Jr., executive director of the state council of churches in Connecticut, has been elected to lead the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns.

Sidorak, 58, was elected May 14 by the commission's directors and will assume the position of general secretary July 1 at the New York-based commission. He succeeds Bishop Albert F. "Fritz" Mutti, who was named interim general secretary last December following the departure of the Rev. Larry Pickens.

"I consider this the honor of a lifetime," said Sidorak, an ordained elder in the United Methodist Rocky Mountain Annual (regional) Conference. "It feels like coming home to my own church. It is a high privilege for me to accept this position."

The Commission on Christian Unity is the church's ecumenical agency. Working in cooperation with the United Methodist Council of Bishops, the commission seeks unity within the Christian community and fosters dialogue and understanding with other faith traditions.

The Rev. Marianne Niesen, chairperson of the commission's personnel committee, said the board believes Sidorak "will be a visionary leader and, with his wealth of experience, will move GCCUIC into the future. We are excited to have him join us."

Sidorak has served with the Christian Conference of Connecticut since 1987 and has 30 years of ecumenical leadership experience in Connecticut, Colorado and Utah.

He holds a B.A. from Baldwin Wallace College, M.Div. and S.T.M. degrees from Yale Divinity School and a D.Min. from San Francisco Theological Seminary.

Sidorak said he "revels in diversity and delights in inclusiveness." "I believe in a truly ecumenical church in a wonderfully interreligious world," he said. "John Wesley called us to live out of a 'catholic spirit.' We must recapture that very spirit in all of its poignant simplicity, theological sophistication and practical application."

His priorities for the commission's work include relations through the World Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches. He also ranks the "building up of relations with the Pan-Methodist Commission" as another priority, as well as working with the World Methodist Council.

*Whiteside is a staff executive with the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns.