wfn.org | United Methodists make global connections at gatherings

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

July 3, 2001  News media contact: Tim Tanton·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-21-30-71B{307}

NOTE: This report is a sidebar to UMNS story #305. 

By United Methodist News Service

Methodism founder John Wesley once said that the world is his parish, and
his spiritual descendants today exemplify those words in ways that he could
only have imagined.

The United Methodist connection links people from the Americas to Africa to
Asia to Europe. And each year, church members in the United States
strengthen and celebrate those ties at their annual conference gatherings.

Bishop Ruediger Minor of the church's Eurasia Area may have had the heaviest
schedule of any conference speaker, making appearances at gatherings from
Alaska in the west to North Carolina in the east. 

"He is one of the great heroes of the faith, as far as I'm concerned, in the
United Methodist Church," said Bishop Lindsey Davis, who preached at the
Alaska Missionary Conference gathering. Davis leads the denomination's North
Georgia Annual (regional) Conference.

Alaska United Methodists joined with Moravian Church partners in celebrating
the work of the Russia Far East Task Force, which is providing relief and
economic development aid to the people of Chukotka, a region of Siberia. A
group of Russians journeyed from Chukotka to visit the conference and share
their stories. Native youth performed traditional dances during a
celebration at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. The participants at the
conference also shared in a Moravian Love Feast.

Later, at the Alaska Native Heritage Center, Minor said it was important "to
tell all the world that this is what we stand for: to share and support
those in need."

North Carolina members contributed $468,825 in cash and pledges for a chapel
at the new Russia United Methodist Theological Seminary. Little Rock and
North Arkansas members collected more than 700 Mission Arts Kits that will
be used in Russian ministries ranging from orphanages to prisons. 

When the Russia Annual Conference met in May, Bishop Marion Edwards of the
North Carolina Conference, honorary chairman of the seminary's capital
campaign committee, announced a $4 million campaign for a building and
endowment fund.

The generosity of United Methodists was extended to other corners of the
globe as well.

Northern Illinois members had a presentation on the Millennial Challenge, a
campaign to raise $1 million in the next four years for children's
ministries in Angola, India and the conference.

Alabama-West Florida designated the emerging Methodist Church in Ecuador as
a mission focus for the next four years, and New England ratified a
conference covenant with more than 200 churches in Nicaragua.

Central Texas reaffirmed its covenant relationship with the Eastern Mexico
Conference, and members celebrated contributions of $172,000 during the past
three years for churches and parsonages in the North Katanga Conference of
the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Central Texas also forwarded an $8,532
gift to the United Methodist Board of Pension and Health Benefits for the
pensions of Central Conference pastors, and conference congregations
contributed more than 1,000 used eyeglasses for recycling to Third World
countries. The money was a gift from the United Methodist Publishing House.

At the Czech and Slovak Republic Annual Conference, held in April in the
Czech Republic, Dick Arnold, consultant for the United Methodist Board of
Global Ministries, spoke about efforts to establish relations between U.S.
and Czech and Slovak churches.

Wisconsin celebrated its partnership with Sierra Leone. With Bishop Joseph
Humper's wife, Nancy, in attendance, the conference collected 11,668 teddy
bears for traumatized children, plus nearly 4,000 school kits and 6,000
pairs of tennis shoes. More than $15,000 was given to help with shipping
costs and the "Hope for the Children of Africa" appeal's goal of a
transitional home for Sierra Leone children and youth.

Representatives of the Methodist Church of Haiti and the Liberia Annual
Conference attended the Detroit Conference gathering. Detroit is a mission
covenant partner to each, and the members collected $43,876 to be divided
between the two. The conference also adopted a resolution to intensify
United Methodist mission support in Liberia, and local churches donated
$100,000 worth of school and health supplies for Haiti. The Haitian church's
hot lunch program provides 2 million meals a year for 60,000 children.

The Florida Annual Conference collected $133,844 toward the $250,000 cost of
the Bishop Cornelius L. and Dorothye Henderson Secondary School in Muxungue,
Mozambique. The school was a dream of the late bishop, who died in December
after a battle with cancer.

Missouri East and West affirmed their relationships with Mozambique's
churches. Troy members voted to support a Mozambique Volunteers in Mission
team to their conference in 2003, and Germany North raised $91,000 for flood
recovery efforts in Mozambique.

Kentucky United Methodists contributed more than $50,000 in response to a
challenge last year from Bishop Nkulu Ntanda Ntambo to provide a scholarship
for a potential leader from Congo.

Holston members raised $117,286 to build a school and collected toys, food,
clothing, kitchen, medical, sewing and school supplies valued at $194,206
for a mission project in Zimbabwe. 
Baltimore-Washington celebrated its covenant relationship with the church in
Zimbabwe.

South Indiana members celebrated raising more than $1 million to build two
dormitories at United Methodist-related Africa University in Zimbabwe. While
the conference was in session, 11 young people and five adults were in
Africa, providing leadership training in scouting.

Nebraska members passed a resolution for a Nigeria/Nebraska Partnership with
the goal of raising $250,000 by 2003. 

Red Bird Missionary Conference raised more than $12,000 to build a residence
at Maua Hospital in Kenya, and sent forth 32 people to work as Volunteers in
Mission in Kenya.

South Georgia gave $135,000 for East Africa during a service led by
children. The money will be used in children's ministries. South Georgia and
East Africa are partner conferences through the Initiative on Children and
Poverty.

Illinois Great Rivers collected more than $81,000 in shoes, medical supplies
and other items for Liberian children, and $28,000 was donated to cover
shipping costs.

The diversity that comes with being a global church was evident around the
connection. In Minnesota, for example, prayers were offered in Spanish and
Hmong, and an Ojibwa pipe ceremony opened a worship service. North Georgia
noted the start of new churches or mission congregations serving Anglo,
African-American, Asian-Indian, Haitian and Hispanic believers.

The gatherings had an ecumenical flavor too. In addition to the Moravians
participating in the Alaska Missionary Conference, a Lutheran minister named
Gunnar Weckström was the conference speaker at the Finland-Swedish Annual
Conference meeting.

# # #
 

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