wfn.org | Latin America should be church priority, supporters say

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Oct. 2, 2002  News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212) 870-38037New York
10-32-71B{445}

By United Methodist News Service

Concerned United Methodists are calling upon the denomination to give
priority to the churches and people of Latin America and the Caribbean.

They hope the Nov. 3-4 joint meeting of the United Methodist Council of
Bishops and Council of Evangelical Methodist Churches in Latin America
(CIEMAL) in Puerto Rico will help foster increased attention from the United
Methodist Church to its partnership with the 19 Methodist bodies in the
region.

Advocates for the Latin America/Caribbean emphasis include representatives
of MARCHA (Methodists Associated to Represent the Cause of Hispanic
Americans) and related staff at the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries. The board has a permanent fund called "Encounter With Christ"
that is raising money to support mission partnerships for Methodist churches
throughout the Southern Hemisphere.

In November 2001, MARCHA approved a resolution, in cooperation with CIEMAL,
requesting the denomination make Latin America and the Caribbean a
"missional priority" for the 2005-2008 quadrennium.

The resolution calls for the denomination to work with CIEMAL to provide
ministries in the areas of evangelism and church growth; leadership
development, health and community ministries; ministries with women,
children and youth; and ministries with Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latin American
and indigenous peoples.

In some areas, assistance is desperately needed, MARCHA says. The Caribbean,
for example, is second only to sub-Saharan Africa in the number of adults
infected with HIV, and HIV/AIDS has become a leading cause of death in
several countries. In addition, more than half of the 468 million people in
Latin America and the Caribbean live in extreme poverty, including millions
of children who live on the streets, struggling to survive.

The region's Methodist churches are growing and need strong partnerships
with the United Methodist Church to continue their witness and mission
opportunities, according to MARCHA.

Supporters of the proposal for a mission emphasis on Latin America met in
August in Chicago. Mary Silva, MARCHA's executive director, pointed to the
connection between ministry with those in the region and Hispanics in the
United States. "If the church is to respond to the growing number of
Hispanics in this country," she said, "the church needs to understand and be
in ministry with Latin American countries because our people are emigrating
from there."

Bishop Elias Galvan of Seattle noted that more involvement with churches of
the Southern Hemisphere "would give our churches a better understanding of
Latin American cultures so they can be more effective in ministry right
here."

Besides the Council of Bishops, supporters of the mission priority will take
their request to the General Council on Ministries, other general agencies
and, eventually, to the denomination's top legislative body, General
Conference, which meets in April 2004 in Pittsburgh.

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United Methodist News Service
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