wfn.org | Diversify Connectional Process Team

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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 (3005 notes).

Note 3003 by UMNS on June 11, 1996 at 16:07 Eastern (2368 characters).

SEARCH:   diversity, Race, racial, ethnic, minority

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Contact:  Joretta Purdue                       289(10-30-71){3003}
          Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722           June 11, 1996

Diversify United Methodist structure team,
urges head of racial monitoring agency

     WASHINGTON (UMNS) -- The chief executive of the United
Methodist Commission on Religion and Race is asking that the group
charged with charting the denomination's structure for the next
century diversify.
     In a statement issued here June 10, Barbara Thompson, general
secretary of the commission, objected to the composition of the
38-member task force created in April by the General Conference,
the denomination's highest legislative body.
     "If we are really serious about becoming the Global Church of
Jesus Christ, it is clear that the task requires greater diversity
than currently exists in the Connectional Process Team," Thompson
declared.
     She contended that for a church that wants to become global
in its attitudes, mission, ministry and behavior, recruiting more
voices for the process team is imperative.
     Saying that ethnic minority people comprise more than half
the world's population, Thompson urged that "the diversity of
opinions that exists within each of the racial and ethnic minority
groups" be reflected in the composition of the team.
     Thompson suggested that the denomination's Council of Bishops
ask racial-ethnic minority communities to suggest people who might
fill the remaining seven at-large positions on the team.
     She further advised that the Connectional Process Team
observe what voices are not represented in its first meeting and
make provision for that representation as needed by naming
additional consultants or ex officio members.
     "Age, gender, urban/rural, profession, economic status,
ethnicity, nationality, jurisdictional and regional differences
must be seriously attended to if the Connectional Process Team is
to be faithful to its task," Thompson said.
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