wfn.org | Lay speakers trained in Germany

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Nov. 25, 1998  Contact: Thomas S. McAnally*(615)742-5470*Nashville,
Tenn. (695)

by James A. Dwyer*

BRAUNFELS-ON-THE-LAHN, Germany (UMNS)  -- An academy to prepare
English-speaking lay speakers for work in the growing number of
English-speaking Methodist congregations in Europe was held in Germany
Nov. 15-21.  

The first event of its kind in Germany included eleven participants who
claim Great Britain, Ghana, the Philippines, St. Martin's, the United
States and Germany as their countries of origin.  Their current
congregations provide ministries to English-speaking foreigners in
Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and  Duesseldorf, Hamburg and Munich,
Germany.  One participant is related to the U.S. military community in
Hanau, Germany, near Frankfurt/Main.  

The training took place at the United Methodist "Haus Hoehenblick" in
Braunfels-on-the-Lahn in the German province of Hessen.  German United
Methodist Bishop Walter Klaiber of Frankfurt spoke to the academy
participants about aspects of leadership shared by bishops and lay
speakers.  

Two women and eight men were qualified as Local Church Lay Speakers
under a program of the unofficial German United Methodist "Network of
International and English-Speaking Congregations."  A third woman
audited the program.  

Organizer was the Rev. Sonja Waldmann-Bohn, Methodist English Language
Ministries, Frankfurt.  Director was the Rev. James Dwyer, Pastor of
Peace Church - United Methodist, Munich.  

Also assisting in the leadership were the Rev. Robert Hunt, pastor of
the English-speaking United Methodist Church, Vienna, Austria; the Rev..
Larry Kalajainen, United Methodist pastor of the ecumenical American
Church of Paris; and the Rev.  Isaac Amoah and the Rev. Thomas Shaw, who
serve the Ghanaian Eben-Ezer United Methodist Church and the
international United Methodist Church of the Cross, both in Hamburg.  

Dwyer, Hunt, Shaw, and Waldmann-Bohn are missionaries of the United
Methodist General Board of Global Ministries.  The Amsterdam
congregation is a ministry of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and
the Americas. Amoah is sent by the Methodist Church Ghana for his
ministry under the auspices of the Germany Central Conference.

#  #  #

*Dwyer is a missionary with the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries, convenor of the Network of United Methodist International
Congregations in Germany, and pastor of Peace Church, a United Methodist
congregation in Munich. PastorJamesDwyer@csi.com or
james.dwyer@planet-interkom.de

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