wfn.org | Board of Global Ministries Meets

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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 (3244 notes).

Note 3243 by UMNS on Oct. 21, 1996 at 16:25 Eastern (4172 characters).

SEARCH: Board of Global Ministries, United Methodist
Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT:  Linda Bloom                            529(10-71B){3243}
          New York (212)870-3803                     Oct. 21, 1996

Board of Global Ministries 
distributes funds, elects officers

     NEW YORK (UMNS) -- United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries directors voted during their annual meeting here Oct.
13-18 to distribute $1.25 million from contingency funds to
various programs.
     The 90 directors for the 1997-2000 quadrennium -- reduced
from 180 in 1993-96 -- also elected Bishop Dan Solomon of Baton
Rouge, La., as president of the board. Vice presidents are Bishop
Felton May of Washington D.C., Bishop Elias Galvan of Seattle and
Sara Shingler of Spartanburg, S.C., who also is president of the
Women's Division.
     Of the fund distribution, the largest amount -- $500,000 --
will be used for renovation of board offices at 475 Riverside
Drive here to accommodate changes in the agency's structure, which
now emphasizes a team approach. General rehabilitation work on
current offices also had been postponed at least six years because
of the proposed relocation of the board's headquarters. That
proposal was defeated at the denomination's 1996 General
Conference last April.
     Other allocations recommended by the board's Mission
Development Committee were:
     * $200,000 to continue the work of Shalom Ministries, a
church-wide program involving local churches and annual (regional)
conferences with their communities;
     * $105,000 to support work of the board's mission evangelism
office;
     * $105,000 for equipment and programs to expand Internet
capacities, allow inhouse editing of videos and create a data base
of photos through the World Wide Web;
     * $100,000 to support scholarships at Sue Bennett College in
southeastern Kentucky;
     * $75,000 to acquire a centralized Human Resources
Information System;
     * $75,000 for staff training in conjunction with the board's
reorganization;
     * $45,000 for coordination of the refugee assistance program
in Zaire, Africa;
     * $30,000 for rural ministries work in the former Soviet
republic of Tadjikistan;
     * $10,000 to promote Permanent Fund No. 025100 -- Encounter
with Christ in Latin America and the Caribbean;
     * $10,000 to help establish the Philip Potter Lectureship at
United Theological College of the West Indies.
     Much of the meeting was used for orientation of both old and
new directors to the board's reorganization.
     Instead of being divided into the World and National
Divisions and various departments, the new structure focuses on
mission program areas: community and institutional ministries,
evangelism and church growth, mission contexts and relationships,
mission education, mission personnel and mission volunteers. A
team concept is central to how each mission area operates.
     The new program area of health and relief combines the United
Methodist Committee on Relief and former Health and Welfare
Ministries Department. The Women's Division basically has retained
its structure.
     
                              #  #  #

     NOTE TO CONFERENCE/AREA EDITORS: A list of individuals from
annual conferences serving on the governing bodies of churchwide
agencies for the new 1997-2000 quadrennium was sent to you July 30
(UMNS release #376). Not included in that list were members added
by each agency to assure representation by gender, race, age,
expertise and other qualities. Additional members elected here for
the Board of Global Ministries were:

     The Rev. Arturo Fernandez, Oregon/Idaho Conference
     Andrea Hood, New York Conference
     Ana Kelsey-Powell, Northern Illinois Conference
     The Rev. Francisco B. Bilog, The Philippines Central
     Conference
     Edith Jokomo, Africa Central Conference
     Odimba Kalema, Zaire Conference
     The Rev. James D. Karblee, West Africa Conference
     Alejandrino Valera, The Philippines Conference

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