wfn.org | Methodists join pope at Assisi

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Jan. 29, 2002    News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212) 870-38037New York
10-71BP{027}

NOTE: A head-and-shoulders photograph of the Rev. George Freeman is
available at http://umns.umc.org/photos/headshots.html online.

By United Methodist News Service

Representatives of the World Methodist Council were among 250 religious
leaders invited by Pope John Paul II to pray for world peace.

The Rev. George Freeman, the council's chief executive, and Nigerian
Methodist Bishop Sunday Mbang, its president, were guests at the Vatican
during a Jan. 22-27 visit that included a pilgrimage to Assisi, the city
where St. Francis was born eight centuries ago.

"It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for a non-Catholic," Freeman told
United Methodist News Service.

The World Methodist Council has been in dialogue with the Roman Catholic
Church since 1967, but this event marked the first Vatican invitation for
Freeman, who became the council's top executive last summer.

"This was an effort to try to bring together all the religions in the world
to pray for peace in the world," he said. He hopes the event will provide an
example "for all of our Methodist churches to regularly and consistently
pray for peace."

Pope John Paul II announced plans for the religious summit in November,
partly as a response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Similar interfaith
summits had been held in Assisi in 1986 and 1993.

The religious leaders joined the pope on the Jan. 24 journey from Vatican
City to Assisi, a route lined with Catholic faithful hoping for a glimpse of
the pope's train. "We were amazed and impressed at the reverence the whole
community has for him," Freeman noted.

After a short speech by the pope and others, religious groups convened in
separate rooms in the Basilica of St. Francis for prayer. Freeman said the
Protestants and Catholics met together with the pope in the lower part of
the basilica, where the religious leaders offered a prayer. Later,
participants shared a common meal.

The next morning, Freeman and other Americans attending the summit were
invited to a breakfast at the home of the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican. A
lunch at the Vatican with the pope followed, where Freeman was able to greet
the pontiff personally. "I asked him to pray for the Methodists in the
world, and he said he would," Freeman reported.

He had little opportunity to interact directly with members of other faiths
during the summit, but he said he had had that experience when attending a
special meeting called by the Community of St. Egidio in Rome last October.

Other participants at the pope's summit included about a dozen Jewish
leaders and more than 30 Muslim leaders, along with representatives of the
World Council of Churches, various Orthodox traditions, Lutherans,
Anglicans, Baptists, Mennonites, Quakers, Disciples of Christ, Reformed,
Moravians, Pentecostals and the Salvation Army. Representatives of
traditional African religions and Buddhism, Hinduism and other Eastern
religions also took part.

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