wfn.org | Record attendance expected at 2001 World Methodist Conference

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

Sept. 28, 1999 News media contact: Tim Tanton*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
10-21-71B{498}

NOTE: This story is related to UMNS #478, 488, 496 and 497. A photograph
will be available.

By Tim Tanton*

HONG KONG (UMNS) - The Methodists will take over Brighton, England, when
their world conference meets there in 2001.

A record 4,000 people are expected to attend the World Methodist Conference
and will likely fill all of Brighton's relatively small hotels during the
week of July 26-31, 2001. The conference will be held at the Brighton
Centre.

That attendance would surpass the record of 3,400 people set in Hawaii in
1981, according to the Rev. Joe Hale, top staff executive of the World
Methodist Council. The conference is held every five years.

"Jesus: God's Way of Salvation" will be the conference theme, said the Rev.
Hal Brady of Columbus, Ga., chairman of the council's 70-member program
committee. That will also be the theme of the first keynote address, and the
following two addresses will be responses to it. Several of the seminars
being developed by other council committees will relate to the theme. 

The Brighton location has historical significance for Methodists, Hale said.
Methodism founder John Wesley preached his last sermon in the open air
outside a church in Winchelsea, about 20 miles from Brighton.

Brady gave an update on the conference preparations during the council's
executive committee meeting, Sept. 20-24, in Hong Kong. He began and closed
his report by voicing the hope that the conference would be a starting point
for taking the light of Christ into the world.

"What the world needs today is not a million John Wesleys, but what the
world needs today is a million Methodist men, women, youth and children who
know God as John Wesley knew him," Brady said, "and who are willing to be
God's channels of grace in this world today."

It is important not to let Brighton be the end of the conference, he said a
few minutes later. "Brighton needs to be a launching pad, and by the grace
of God, it will."

The program committee has been working on the meeting for two and a half
years already. Brady, who was program secretary for the 1996 World Methodist
Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has been to Brighton three times so
far to work on arrangements. "From all indications, they're moving ahead of
schedule," he said.

Tasks ahead include selecting speakers, leaders, preachers and liturgists,
and finalizing the workshops and titles of seminars, he said. The
registration costs also must be set, mission and outreach opportunities
planned, and a worship book produced.

People attending the conference will find that the seminars address a wide
range of topics, including preaching, Christian faith and education, and
computer use. The council's ecumenics and dialogue committee will have
Methodist, Orthodox and Roman Catholic speakers outline the connections
between the proclamation of the Gospel, church order and the visible unity
of the church, said the Rev. Geoffrey Wainwright, of Durham, N.C., committee
chairperson. 

New to the conference will be two 90-minute workshops, still being
developed, focusing on concerns of the world body. "We're hoping
(participants) can take back handles for practical ministry," Brady said.

A British cultural celebration, which will involve a multimedia
presentation, is expected to be a highlight, he said.

The conference schedule will include two free nights, during which
participants can attend concerts, dramas and musicals.

"One of the things the World Methodist Conference does is it promotes the
work of the World Methodist Council and it also is educational,
inspirational and fraternal," Brady said.

"It is the only body worldwide that keeps all of these Wesleyan heritage
communions together."

The conference is a significant experience, he said. "You begin to move away
from provincial viewpoints and you begin to realize that God's love is truly
worldwide, and God's people are serving ... in ways you never imagined. It
broadens your perspective significantly."

On the Sunday of the conference, 100 preachers from around the world will
have opportunities to preach in one of the London districts, Brady said.

Though the conference officially opens July 26, the World Methodist Council
itself will meet July 24-26, before the bigger gathering is convened.

An international Methodist young leaders conference also is planned for July
19-23, 2001, at Wesley's Chapel in London. The theme will be "Leading the
Way," said Amy Valdez Barker of Phoenix, chairperson of the youth committee.
The conference is open to people ages 18 to 30, and Barker said the
committee is hoping that at least two people from every World Methodist
Council church attend.

The youth also are planning mission opportunities, coffee shops and a
worship service during the Brighton conference, she said.

The Brighton meeting site is less than 20 minutes by train from London's
Gatwick Airport. About 80 percent of the hotel rooms in the area are being
held for the conference, said Bill Haire, president of Travelink in
Asheville, N.C.

# # #

*Tanton is news editor for United Methodist News Service.

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