wfn.org | Briefing on church in Africa set for General Conference site

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

April 26, 2000        News media contact: Joretta Purdue ·(202)
546-8722·Washington     10-21-31-71B{225}

NOTE: Conference editors may wish to use the General Conference logo with
this story.

By United Methodist News Service

United Methodist bishops and agency staff will hold a brown-bag briefing on
the church in Africa for General Conference delegates and guests May 4.

The briefing will be from 1 to 2:15 p.m. at the Cleveland Convention Center.
The room will be announced at the site. General Conference, the lawmaking
assembly of the United Methodist Church, is meeting May 2-12.

Conflict resolution and HIV/AIDS will be the topics discussed. Bishop Joao
Somane Machado of Mozambique will give an update on the floods that have
struck his country.

Machado also will speak on the Center for Conflict Analysis and
Transformation in Mozambique. Others speaking on conflict resolution, with
their topics, will be: Bishop Joseph Humper, Sierra Leone; Bishop Onema
Fama, Democratic Republic of the Congo; Bishop J. Alfred Ndoricimpa, Rwanda
and Burundi; and Bishop Christopher Jokomo, Zimbabwe. The Rev. Paul Dirdak,
with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), will discuss the
United Methodist Board of Global Ministries Landmines Initiative.

Bishop Felton E. May of the Baltimore-Washington Area, Mark Harrison of the
Board of Church and Society and UMCOR's Dirdak will talk about HIV/AIDS.

The denomination's Board of Church and Society and Board of Global
Ministries are sponsoring the briefing.

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United Methodist News Service
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