wfn.org | Daily wrap-up: Delegates honor predecessor churches

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

CLEVELAND (UMNS) -- Heritage and contemporary problems shared space on the
May 4 docket of the United Methodist General Conference in Cleveland.

Two centuries of ministry by two predecessor bodies of today's United
Methodist Church were highlighted for the 992 delegates in pictures and
words. Both the United Brethren in Christ and the Evangelical Association
began in l800.

The two churches joined in l946 to create the Evangelical United Brethren
Church. That body, in turn, merged with the Methodist Church in l968.

Text and pictures were used to highlight mileposts of the two churches,
which found their field of ministry in the thousands of German-speaking
peoples who fled to America from Europe. Their work paralleled Methodist
ministry with English-speaking residents of the new nation.

Included in the memories were the "great meeting" in Isaac Long's barn on
the outskirts of Lancaster, Pa., in 1767, where Phillip William Otterbein
and Martin Boehm met; the formation of the United Brethren in Christ in
September 1800 on a farm near Frederick, Md.; the organization at about the
same time of the Evangelical Association a few miles west of Lancaster; and
the uniting of the two bodies in l946 in Johnstown, Pa., to form the
Evangelical United Brethren Church (EUB).

Boehm, a Mennonite, and Otterbein, a German Reformed pastor, were elected
bishops at the United Brethren in Christ organizational meeting in Maryland.
Jacob Albright, organizer of the Evangelical Association had been converted
under Methodist teaching.

The 200th observance, held at the Cleveland Convention Center, was directed
by Jim Nelson, a professor at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio,
and director of the Center for the Evangelical United Brethren Heritage.

As part of the commemoration, the United Methodist Publishing House produced
a historical sampler of the EUB church and predecessor bodies. The volume
was presented to all delegates, along with a commemorative issue of the
Telescope-Messenger, publication of the center.

It is hard for United Methodists today to grasp the desperation of the
German refugees, according to the multimedia presentation.  "We can make use
of the heritage left us by ministry two centuries ago," the presenters
declared.

The ceremony was concluded with the singing, partly in German, of the
familiar hymn "Jesus Loves Me" under the leadership of Bishop George W.
Bashore, a member of the Evangelical United Brethren Church at the 1968
union with the Methodist Church.

In another presentation, United Methodists won praise from the founder of
Habitat for Humanity, Millard Fuller. A few years ago, in a survey to
determine who was involved in Habitat, United Methodists stood No. 1, Fuller
said in an address. Habitat's work, he said, is "so enormous that it can't
be done just by one denomination."

In l998, the United Methodist Church had 7,340 congregations involved in
Habitat work, out of a total of 39,600 congregations of all types that
support the ministry, according to a Habitat spokeswoman.

Once the celebration and the Habitat address were concluded, the delegates
turned their attention to their business agenda and quickly ran into a
knotty problem reflecting the church's life in a global context.

It was called to the conference's attention that several delegates from
Africa had been assigned to legislative committees where language
interpretation was not available. Plenary sessions are translated into five
languages. The affected delegates are primarily from the Congo and Katanga.

After a long discussion, the delegates called for all steps possible to be
taken to correct any inequities in interpretation in the 10 legislative
committees. Failing that, the delegates will be given the privilege of being
reassigned to committees where interpretation was not available.

Plenary sessions are translated into five languages - French, German,
Spanish, Portuguese and Swahili. The United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries arranges for translators according to specifications and funding
provided by the Commission on the General Conference.

One language needing no interpretation was that of the Methodist Choir of
Copenhagen, which sang at the morning worship service and had the hallways
ringing during the noon hour as they serenaded delegates eating in the
convention center food service.

In other business May 4, the conference sent condolences on the death of
Cardinal John O'Connor to his family, associates and church.

Delegates also were told that a special offering they had raised for the
children of Africa received $16,568.33.

Later in the day, a press conference was held in response to the arrests of
protestors on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. The nonviolent protestors
were arrested by federal agents earlier in the day. Bishop Juan Vera Mendez
of the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico was among those arrested for their
opposition to the U.S. Navy's use of Vieques as a bombing range.

Members of the United Methodist Council of Bishops and representatives of
the denomination's Board of Church and Society and Board of Global
Ministries voiced support for the protestors and disappointment at the U.S.
government's action. 

The day was scheduled to conclude with one of the highlights of the General
Conference: the Act of Repentance for Reconciliation. The denomination's
Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns planned the
two-hour service in consultation with representatives from the three
historically black Methodist denominations. In the worship service, the
predominantly white United Methodist Church was to confess the sin of racism
and express regret for the way people of color have been treated in the
denomination and its predecessor churches. 

On the night of May 3, one of the denomination's best-known civil rights
leaders told a United Methodist Board of Church and Society banquet that the
church's challenge in the new century is to provide spiritual, ethical and
moral leadership as the nation redefines itself.

"There is an opportunity for General Conference to sound prophetic voices,
to be courageous souls," said the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, formerly head of
the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
								# # # 
          -- Robert Lear

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