wfn.org | Community worship emphasizes unity, relationships

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

Nov. 25, 2002 News media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn. 
   10-31-71B{545}

NOTE: The following may be used as a sidebar to UMNS story #544. 

By Edna Steinman*

LOS ANGELES (UMNS) - A litany, recited during a service of renewal, summed up
in one line the commitment of four different Methodist traditions to one
another.

"Though we stand as a member of one of the four Methodist denominations, we
are one body," said the 400 people attending a service of renewal and
commitment Nov. 19. The Commission on Pan-Methodist Cooperation and Union
sponsored the community gathering, a traditional feature at the group's
semi-annual meetings. The host church was Lewis Metropolitan Christian
Methodist Episcopal Church in South Central Los Angeles.

The commission consists of representatives from the African Methodist
Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, Christian Methodist Episcopal
and United Methodist churches. Speakers from each tradition spoke of unity
and the relationships among their churches. The speakers included the Rev.
Parris Lester, pastor of Lewis Metropolitan Christian Methodist Episcopal
Church; African Methodist Episcopal Zion Bishop Clarence Carr, Southwest
Rocky Mountain Conference; Christian Methodist Episcopal Bishop Henry
Williamson, Los Angeles; and layman Byrd Bonner, a United Methodist from San
Antonio.

"Make us one, Lord," said the Rev. Carolyn Tyler Guidry, African Methodist
Episcopal presiding elder of the Southern California area, in her greeting.
"Any separation between us is of our own making."

"Do we really believe it's coming to pass (unification) or are we out there
marking time?" asked African Methodist Episcopal Zion Bishop Richard K.
Thompson and president of his denomination's Board of Bishops. Preaching on
"The Power of a Great Expectation," he said that "to test the quality of our
expectation, we must do great things for God. ... Expectation is a powerful
force. It makes us see something out there, and it blinds us to something
else out there." His sermon was based on the story of the unclean woman who
was healed when she touched Jesus' robe.

An offering of $932 was designated for the Pan-Methodist Campaign of Children
in Poverty.

En route to the community meeting, commission members visited a faith-based
ministry at work, the FAME Renaissance Center, an economic development
initiative of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles. 

Since 1992, FAME Renaissance has operated several major social and economic
assistance programs designed to reinvigorate neglected communities in Los
Angeles County. A California nonprofit corporation serves as the primary
funding source for the Renaissance initiatives, explained the Rev. Mark
Whitlock, executive director.

The center's services include the Business Incubator Program, which guides
new companies through the initial stages of development; the Welfare to Work
program, which provides case management, job training and counseling; the
Home Loan Program, which provides loans to people who may not qualify for
traditional mortgage financing; the FAME Equity Fund, which invests in
merging businesses owned and operated by minority entrepreneurs; and the
Environmental Protection Department.

# # #

*Steinman is the interim editor of the Circuit West United Methodist Review,
the newspaper of the California-Pacific Annual Conference.

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United Methodist News Service
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