wfn.org | Good News board to sponsor Alpha Conference

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

Aug. 18, 2000 News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.     10-71B{375}

By United Methodist News Service

The board of directors of Good News, an evangelical renewal movement in the
United Methodist Church, will sponsor a national Alpha Conference in October
2001 as part of its commitment to leadership development.

Alpha is a 10-week practical introduction to the Christian faith being
recommended by evangelical leaders such as Chuck Colson, according to an
Aug. 17 release shortly after the board's semi-annual meeting. More than 400
United Methodists attending a recent Alpha Conference in Pittsburgh were
enthused by its potential to help the denomination renew its evangelistic
outreach, said Steve Beard, executive editor of Good News magazine.

The Good News board met Aug. 9-11 in Wilmore, Ky., where the organization is
based. In other business, the 40-member board:
·	commended the United Methodist Publishing House for its new "Faith
Files" curriculum;
·	expressed concern about "schismatic" statements concerning sexuality
made at the New England Annual Conference and the Western Jurisdictional
Conference; and
·	established an annual mission award.

The board commended the United Methodist Publishing House and Bristol House
Ltd. for cooperatively producing "Faith Files," new curriculum resources to
serve children and adults in local evangelical United Methodist churches.
The Rev. Phil Granger, senior minister at College Avenue United Methodist
Church in Muncie, Ind., and chairman of the Good News board, expressed
appreciation to the leadership of the two organizations for their
willingness to work together on the new resources. Bristol House, an
offshoot of Good News, is headed by John Stumbo, an attorney from Fort
Valley, Ga.

The Rev. James V. Heidinger II, president and publisher of Good News, said
board members have "deep concern" about the New England Declaration, signed
by several hundred lay and clergy participants at the New England Annual
Conference in June. The declaration objects to official positions of the
church that hold the practice of homosexuality "incompatible with Christian
teaching," forbid same-sex unions, and prohibit the appointment or
ordination of homosexual clergy. Heidinger said the New England Declaration
reflects a "total disregard of our United Methodist standards and deny what
it means to be in a covenant community." Such statements are schismatic
because individuals "affirm a position completely contrary to that of their
church," he said. 

Board members also expressed concern about a declaration by members of the
Western Jurisdictional Conference titled "We Will Not Be Silent." In their
statement, delegates said they "cannot accept discrimination against gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons and, therefore, we will work
toward their full participation at all levels in the life of the church and
society."  

In the release issued following their meeting, Good News board members
stated concern about the issue of accountability of bishops, particularly
the leadership of Bishop Melvin G. Talbert in the California-Nevada
Conference. Pointing to the departure of about nine United Methodist
evangelical pastors in the conference and "rumors that others may be
leaving," Heidinger said: "The sense of oppression and despair has driven
out not only highly gifted pastors but entire congregations as well. The
issue of accountability surfaces once again. This is unconscionable."

The board also objected to inaction related to charges that were filed
against Talbert in the spring and, in an unrelated case, the reinstatement
of the Rev. Dan Sailer, a United Methodist pastor in Seattle. Sailer was
suspended after being charged with perjury in a civil court but was later
reinstated. He has entered an Alford plea, not admitting guilt but
acknowledging that if the case went to trial, he'd likely be found guilty.
The case is to be settled early in September.

United Methodist clergy or lay people who make extraordinary contributions
to the work of missions outside the United States will be honored with a new
award established by the Good News board in honor of the late Paul Morell,
who died July 23. Morell was a former chairman of the Good News board and a
charter board member of the Mission Society for United Methodists, an
unofficial mission-sponsoring agency headquartered in Norcross, Ga.  

At the time of his death, Morell was serving as president of MEDICS
International, a new medical arm spun off from the Mission Society. Morell
will be recognized with the inaugural award posthumously at the board's next
meeting in January.

In other business, Granger was re-elected chairman for another year.

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United Methodist News Service
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