wfn.org | Student Movement adopted

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (2989 notes).

Note 2985 by UMNS on June 3, 1996 at 16:39 Eastern (5894 characters).

SEARCH: student, movement, United Methodist, forum

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CONTACT: Linda Green                              271(10-71){2985}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470              June 3, 1996

United Methodist college students 
adopt nationwide Student Movement                                 
                                 

by Kathy Gilbert*

     OKLAHOMA CITY (UMNS) -- "Congratulations! You have just
created and passed a United Methodist Student Movement!"
     With these words, more than 300 students jumped to their feet
cheering, and the room rocked with thunderous applause in
celebration of the beginning of a new movement by students in the
United Methodist Church.
     A declaration to begin the United Methodist Student Movement
(UMSM) passed by 260 out of 280 possible votes at the 1996
"Student Forum, Plus!" sponsored by the denomination's General
Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
     More than 300 student leaders from campuses across the United
States gathered at Oklahoma City University, May 23-26 for the
student forum. The event is an annual four-day conference in which
students from United Methodist-related colleges and universities
attend workshops, worship services, community outreach programs,
Bible studies and small group meetings to learn the skills needed
to be the next generation of United Methodist Church leaders. 
     Sixty annual conferences out of 68 were represented by at
least one person at this year's forum as well as international
students from Russia, Mexico, South Africa, Liberia, Sierra Leone,
Zaire and Rwanda.
     "We have done it." Over the past several days we have taken
the challenge of 'Living the Vision!' We have joined hands as
brothers and sisters and proclaimed that we will make a
difference," Corey King, chairperson of the Student Forum Steering
Committee, declared to the cheering students. "We have yielded
ourselves to the Holy Spirit to be vessels of God's amazing love.
This United Methodist Student Movement is a declaration of hope.
We must now take up the cross and tell our stories." 
     Before the vote to create the UMSM, the Rev. Don Shockley,
associate general secretary of the Board of Higher Education and
Ministry's campus ministry section, explained how this movement
has been forming over the past six years and reflected on the
first Methodist Student Movement (MSM) established in 1937 and the
last national conference held in 1965.
     Opportunities for service were a significant part of what the
church offered its students during the years of the MSM.
     "We do not know how many students were profoundly changed by
their experience in the Methodist Student Movement, but we do know
that we are talking about a great host of people who went on to
become recognized in the church and in society, while countless
others whose names are not generally known invested themselves in
lives of witness and service," Shockley said.
     There was no national United Methodist student conference for
more than 20 years. Under the leadership of Shockley's
predecessor, Allan Burry, a national student conference, "The
Jubilee" was held in 1987. Following the success of that
conference, a national training event for students was held in
1989 at Millsaps College, Jackson, Miss. The Student Forum was
successful from the beginning and has been held each year in May.
     According to Shockley, structures have been emerging at the
regional level for a student movement. Two years ago at the 1994
student forum, students were asked to name what the spirit was
doing among them and among the jurisdictions. At the 1995 forum, a
statement of intent was passed to declare a United Methodist
Student Movement.
     "It is time to take the next step," Shockley said. "Young
people have the support of the United Methodist Church. The church
cares."
     Reflecting on the 1996 General Conference's passage of a
Focus on Young People and its allocation of $3 million, Shockley
told the students that the Student Forum will be represented in
that program. The General Conference also approved a proposed
constitutional amendment that would make the chair of the annual
conference college student organization a voting member of that
annual conference.
     "The church is ready. We are not going to recreate the past,
we are stepping out on faith," Shockley said.
     Stating it was no accident that the new student movement was
born on the day of Pentecost, Bishop Calvin McConnell of the
Seattle Area, president of the churchwide Board of Higher
Education and Ministry, told the gathering that United Methodist
Student Movement  was "in response to the movement of the Holy
Spirit." 
     McConnell called launching the student movement a declaration
"of who you are and where you are willing to be moved."
     According to Christy Kniceley, new steering committee
chairwoman and student at Marshall University, Huntington, W.Va.,
"the United Methodist Student Movement is a real grassroots
movement ... that grew from the ground up." 
     She said the dynamics of the growth of the UMSM makes it 
different from the first student movement back in 1937. 
     For more information about the United Methodist Student
Movement or Student Forum, contact the Rev. Donald Shockley or the
Rev. Hal Hartley, Campus Ministry Section, General Board of Higher
Education and Ministry, P.O. Box 871, Nashville, Tenn. 37202;
(615) 340-7405.
                               # # #

     * Gilbert is a staff person in the Office of Interpretation,
General Board of Higher Education and Ministry in Nashville.

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