wfn.org | Virginia clergyman nominated for World Methodist Council post

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Dec. 7, 2000 News media contact: Thomas S. McAnally·(615)742-5470·Nashville,
Tenn.     10-21-71BP{550}

NOTE: A photograph is available for use with this story.

By United Methodist News Service

The Rev. George H. Freeman, a clergy member of the Virginia Annual
Conference of the United Methodist Church, is being nominated to serve as
the top staff executive for the World Methodist Council, with offices at
Lake Junaluska, N.C.

Freeman, 54, is superintendent of the Charlottesville District of the
Virginia Conference. Previously, he served as pastor of several churches in
the conference, including 13 years as senior pastor of the River Road Church
in Richmond.

When elected by the 500-member World Methodist Council at its July meeting
in Brighton, England, Freeman will assume his place as general secretary at
the center of council operations with responsibility for day-to-day
coordination of expanding international programs. He will succeed the Rev.
Joe Hale, who has served as general secretary of the council since 1976.
Hale has not announced his future plans.  

Freeman is being nominated by an 11-member committee that met in September
at Cape Town, South Africa. A search committee, headed by His Eminence
Sunday Mbang of Nigeria, met to consider applications earlier this year in
Cleveland. Freeman was later interviewed and invited to appear before the
entire nominating committee in Cape Town.

Freeman's bishop, Joe Pennel, commended the nominee. "I have seen the
ability he has to marshal the resources of the church to reach those who
have not yet named the name of Christ.  He also works tirelessly to
reconcile people to God and to each other." 

Pennel also praised Freeman's administrative ability. "He knows that big
events swing on small details. The concern for making disciples of Jesus
Christ and his ability to be an instrument of reconciliation are hallmarks
of his ministry." Among the denomination's 65 annual conferences in the
United States, Virginia has the largest membership (342,737).

A visit to Luton Industrial College in England several years ago prompted
Freeman to introduce the gospel message in new ways where Christians work in
the secular marketplace. His efforts to touch the lives of people "where
they are" has been a focus of his ministry. He has also ministered to people
facing arrest or who have been incarcerated.

The World Methodist Council, founded in 1881 in London, has 74 member
denominations with congregations in 130 nations. These churches in the
Wesleyan tradition have a baptized membership of 36 million and a global
constituency of 70 million people. Every five years, the council sponsors a
large conference involving 3,500 to 4,000 people from around the world. The
next conference will be held in Brighton in July following the council
meeting. 

Previous general secretaries of the council were the Rev. Elmer T. Clark and
the Rev. Benson Perkins during a period of reorganization following World
War II; and the Rev. Lee F. Tuttle, 1960-1976. Between 1966 and 1971, the
Rev. Max W. Woodward, residing in London, worked as a volunteer
co-secretary. The council then voted to open an office in Switzerland where
the Rev. Ralph C. Young currently serves as Geneva secretary.

Freeman is a graduate of United Methodist-related Emory and Henry College in
Emory, Va., and holds a master of divinity degree from the church's Candler
School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta. He was ordained in 1972.
He and his wife, Virginia Potts Freeman, have a son and daughter and one
grandson.

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United Methodist News Service
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