wfn.org | May 3, 2000 GC-010

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

Daily wrap-up: Delegates hear CPT report, Laity Address on first full day

CLEVELAND (UMNS) -- Paperwork was the order of the day on May 3 as the 2000
United Methodist General Conference moved through its first full day in the
Cleveland Convention Center.

Inside the gray stone structure, the 992 delegates to the church's top
legislative assembly prepared to begin work on approximately 2,000 petitions
for change in church law.  

Outside, pamphlets in a variety of colors were offered arriving and
departing delegates by members of one group or another.

During the business session, the delegates heard a call for closer
partnership in ministry between clergy and lay members, and listened to the
initial presentation of a study panel calling on the denomination to take
"baby steps" toward a transformed United Methodist Church.

The call for closer partnership in ministry between clergy and lay members
came during the Laity Address delivered by Jim Nibbelink of Milford, Ohio,
an executive with Procter & Gamble.

"Dictates from the pulpit or pew must pass away, and a renewed, cooperative
spirit must be encouraged to take root," he said.

Too often, he said, autocratic pastors have hampered congregations, and
unwilling, contentious congregations have stifled willing and committed
pastors. Partners work together, and with the help of God's spirit, the
whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Barriers seen as
insurmountable are reduced or eliminated, he said.
	
A 40-minute presentation gave the delegates their first formal introduction
to a proposed "transformational direction" for the 9.6 million-member
denomination.

The usual procedures of the General Conference were set aside to allow the
panel, known as the Connectional Process Team (CPT), to make its report and
recommendations. The CPT was created by the 1996 General Conference and is
led by Bishop Sharon Brown Christopher of Springfield, Ill.

The team's report, sent to delegates in advance of the conference, listed
five transformational directions and strategies for implementation.

Recommendations call for creating "covenant councils" at all levels of the
church. The current General Council on Ministries would be replaced with a
Covenant Council that would continue to direct the transformational
direction.

For the first time, a price tag of $500,000 in new money was put as the cost
of a proposed Global Conference, which would be held for the first time in
2008. The Global Conference would replace the General Conference under the
CPT proposal.

After hearing the report, delegates broke into small groups for an hour of
discussion. Later, the discussion will be reduced to writing and resumed
during a plenary session Thursday evening.

In a poignant moment during the morning session, Anne Marshall, an executive
with the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious
Concerns, told of the church's support for her and her family in the wake of
her husband's death in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah
Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

"It's been a difficult journey," she said. "But because of my church
community, I have not walked alone."

The first mention in a conference session of one of the most controversial
issues expected here, human sexuality, came in the morning devotional hour.
During his sermon, Bishop Arthur Kulah of Liberia said that if the United
Methodist Church is to be truly global, then it must pay heed that
homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. The denomination's
current teachings affirm this position.

Although holding homosexuality incompatible with the church's stand, Kulah
noted that homosexuals have been subject to ridicule, resentment and
hostility by Christians and non-Christians. "This ought not be the case
because the homosexuals too bear the image of God, and ... the grace of God
is available and sufficient for them."

In other business, officers for the General Conference's 10 legislative
committees were announced. The chairpeople of the committees, listed with
their annual conferences, are: 
·	Church and Society, the Rev. Terri Rae Chattin,
Baltimore-Washington; 
·	Conferences, the Rev. Charles W. Courtoy, Florida; 
·	Discipleship, the Rev. Jeffrey E. Greenway, Western Pennsylvania; 
·	Faith and Order, the Rev. Robert E. Hayes, Texas; 
·	Financial Administration, Stan Sager, New Mexico; 
·	General/Judicial Administration, Christine Harman, Kentucky; 
·	Global Ministries, Christine Dean Keels, Baltimore-Washington;
·	Higher Education and Ministry, J. LaVon Wilson, Illinois Great
Rivers;
·	Independent Commissions, Harold E. Batiste Jr., Southwest Texas; and
·	Local Church, the Rev. Tyrone D. Gordon, Kansas West.

						# # #
         -- Robert Lear 

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United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org/gc2000news

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org