wfn.org | Bishop stresses need to find common ground in diversity

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

Nov. 18, 2002	News media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.	  10-31-71BP{530}

NOTE: For related coverage, see UMNS stories #512, #527, #528 and #529.
Photographs are available.

By Linda Green*

MUTARE, Zimbabwe (UMNS) - Speaking to an audience representing a variety of
cultures, a United Methodist bishop emphasized the need for using diversity
to unite people.

Indiana Area Bishop Woodie White, one of the church's best-known voices for
civil rights, spoke on diversity in a sermon at Africa University's 10th
anniversary worship service Nov. 17. People from around the globe filled the
school's Kwang Lim Chapel for the service, which capped a weekend of
celebration. United Methodist churches in America, Africa and elsewhere were
expected to mark the school's first 10 years with special services that day. 

White centered his remarks on the apostle Paul's words to the Corinthians,
urging that they find common ground and join together to make something new. 

The ancient city of Corinth was like any metropolitan city today, with
different cultures, languages, races and ethnic groups, White said. As people
from all over converged on the city, its newly established church was
challenged to be true to itself and not be shaped by its cultural context, he
said.  

Divisions developed because the people adopted the "my is best" attitude, he
said. They engaged in debate about which part of the city or population was
most important. "They discovered that the diversity that God provided - and
was intended to be a gift - became the cause of chaos."

Everyone has a place in the world, the bishop said. "When you recognize your
giftedness, you will understand your importance," which comes from finding
common ground. In order to find commonalities, people must back away from
their "particularities," he said. "The purpose of diversity was not to
isolate the human family ... but to bring together the human family, with
each contributing to the body."

"God made the human family as God wanted to make the human family," he said.
"God knew that no one part of it was sufficient in and of itself. God
requires every part of God's creation to make a whole better."

He told the students and the congregation that their task is to find common
ground with one another, regardless of race, class, status, economics and the
numerous other "judgments" that keep people apart or separate.

"If there is not common ground, there can be no Africa University," he said.
"It is when each person understands that they contribute to the whole that
the university functions."

Africa University's diversity is evident in the more than 1,000 students
enrolled from 27 different African countries. The school is also diverse in
its staff, representing 24 countries.

For Christians, common ground is found through being in relationship with
God, the bishop said. The two words that open the Lord's Prayer, "our
father," make all Christians related, even though the people gathered at
Kwang Lim Chapel were of different colors, cultures, countries, income
levels, education and styles of dress, he said. "When we claim God as father
or parent, you have a whole lot of kinfolk you had not counted on. Our common
ground is our father."

White urged the congregation to not let any part of the family pull them out
of their relationship with God, the father and parent. Although families are
sometimes separated by ideologies and emphases, "we must find a way to live
together," he said.

During the worship service, the participants also celebrated the announcement
that Rukudzo Murapa's contract as vice chancellor had been renewed. The
university needs continuous leadership, said Bishop Emilio J.M. de Carvalho,
the school's chancellor, and the renewal recognized Murapa's efforts to
develop an international presence for Africa University.

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*Green is United Methodist News Service's Nashville, Tenn., news director.

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United Methodist News Service
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