From the Worldwide Faith News archives www.wfn.org


United Methodist initiatives make progress, bishops learn


From NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>
Date 30 Apr 1998 13:39:23

April 30, 1998	Contact: Linda Green*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
{267}

By Robert Lear*

LINCOLN, Neb. (UMNS) - Two United Methodist programs are making headway
toward their goals of  helping Hispanics and serving communities in
need, the church's bishops learned at the midpoint of a weeklong
meeting.

"Some of the seeds of faith that have been planted" in ministry among
Hispanics are yielding results, said Hank Ayala, a lay "missioner" from
Grand Island, Neb. The training of 2,000 such missioners is a major goal
of the churchwide National Plan for Hispanic Ministry.

Other goals include starting 100 new congregations, 1,000 faith
communities, 62 church school programs and 3,000 outreach ministries,
and revitalizing 100 congregations. A report to the bishops showed that
three of those five goals have already been more than halfway achieved,
and progress is nearing the 50 percent mark on a fourth.

The Hispanic ministry program was one of several efforts on which the
Council of Bishops focused April 29. They also discussed an urban
ministry program, efforts to relate more closely with African-American
Methodist churches, and an appeal from the bishop in Indonesia. More
than 100 active and retired bishops are in Lincoln for their weeklong
spring meeting, which ends May 1. 
  
About two-thirds of the 66 annual conferences in the United States have
responded positively to the Hispanic ministry program, said the Rev.
Jose L. Palos of New York City, director of the effort. "We are
progressing slowly but surely."  

"The plan has given us material to focus this outreach," said the Rev.
Patrick Bruns, a Rockford, Ill., pastor who is part of a multicultural
team of ministers and others. "The highest form of Christian love is
when we reach out to strangers." 

Turning to the urban ministry effort, the bishops heard that 170 sites
are active in the United States and Zimbabwe. New sites are being
started at a rate of 15 or more per quarter, and 34 annual conferences
and more than 200 congregations are participating.
	
Known formally as "Communities of Shalom," the initiative was begun in
l992 in the wake of riots in Los Angeles. Lives "are being transformed
because Shalom is becoming a reality in the midst of far too many unreal
circumstances," according to a report by the national Shalom committee,
chaired by Bishop C. Joseph Sprague, Columbus, Ohio.	
	
The program has a goal of starting 300 Communities of Shalom throughout
the world by the year 2000.  "Six years after the Los Angeles riots,
Shalom is on the move," said program director Lynda R. Byrd of New York
City.
	
In many instances, work is carried out in cooperation with existing
community organizations. In Philadelphia, 25 jobs were created, seven
abandoned homes were rehabilitated, 24 townhouses were built and a
senior citizens' apartment building was constructed through the efforts
of United Methodist churches and community organizations. In Houston,
communities in three wards are being served by a mobile medical team
assembled with the help of hospitals and groups.

In other business, the bishops:

*	Heard a report on conversations aimed at fostering a closer
relationship among the African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist
Episcopal Zion, Christian Methodist Episcopal and United Methodist
churches.

	"We've moved to a new level of bonding among people" in
conversations so far, said the council's ecumenical officer, Bishop
William Boyd Grove of Charleston, W.Va. All four churches have approved
creation of a Pan-Methodist Commission on Union, and the panel held its
second meeting April 15-16. Next March, the bishops of all four churches
will meet again in Atlanta, with the theme "Requirements for Union --
Repentance, Forgiveness, Reconciliation."
		
	When the 2000 General Conference meets in Cleveland, the United
Methodist bishops will be asked to endorse an "Act of Repentance for
Racism," proposed by the church's General Commission on Christian Unity
and Interreligious Concerns.
	
	Grove also said that bilateral dialogue with the Episcopal
Church in the United States is about to begin. The archbishop of
Canterbury, head of the world's Anglicans, has said he may  visit the
Council of Bishops and the General Conference in 2000.
	
*	Heard an appeal for help from Bishop Humala Doloksaribu of the
Methodist Church in Indonesia.

	"Indonesia is in an emergency situation" politically and
economically, Doloksaribu said. He cited the 53-cents-per-day standard
minimum wage, the collapse of 85 percent of the country's stores and
factories, the 35 percent annual inflation rate, and the burning of more
than 500 churches as evidence of the nation's straits. Indonesia needs
help along the lines of the Marshall Plan, with which the United States
assisted in Europe's recovery after World War II, the bishop said.  
		
	Such a plan, he said, would be used to rescue the 157 ordained
and 119 supply pastors who lead the 100,000 members of Indonesia's
Methodist Church. Money is needed for medicine, basic necessities and
assistance for farmers, he said. 

	Though regular financing is coming from the United Methodist
Committee on Relief, Doloksaribu said, Indonesia needs about $200,000 in
emergency help.

	The council expressed concern and referred the appeal to its
standing committee on relational concerns for action.

*	Gave special recognition to Bishop Emilio de Carvalho of Angola
and Bishop Onema Fama of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Each of
the African bishops has served 26 years as an active bishop, longer than
any of their colleagues on the council. 
	
*	Gave a standing ovation for Barbara Ricks Thompson, the outgoing
staff executive of the United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race,
for her service to the church.
				                             
# # #

*Lear is a retired staff member of  United Methodist News Service living
in Wernersville, Pa.

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
Releases and photos also available at
http://www.umc.org/umns/


Browse month . . . Browse month (sort by Source) . . . Advanced Search & Browse . . . WFN Home