wfn.org | Year-end wrap-up: United Methodist leaders call for peace

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Nov. 26, 2002  News media contact: Kathy Gilbert7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.	10-21-30-71BP{548}

NOTE: Photographs are available with this report.

A UMNS Report
By Kathy Gilbert*

In a year in which the nation observed the somber anniversary of the Sept.
11, 2001, terrorist attacks, United Methodist leaders lifted their voices in
opposition to a war with Iraq and called the nation to unite in prayer for
peace.

Bishop Sharon A. Brown Christopher, president of the United Methodist Council
of Bishops, sent a pastoral letter asking United Methodists - including
President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney - to join in praying
for peace.

"A pre-emptive war by the United States against a nation like Iraq goes
against the very grain of our understanding of the Gospel, our church's
teachings and our conscience," wrote Christopher, of Springfield, Ill., in a
letter issued Oct. 4.

Jim Winkler, staff head of the churchwide Board of Church and Society, was
one of the first leaders in the denomination to voice opposition to a war
with Iraq. 

"I beseech the president and vice president to provide leadership into a new
era of Christian discipleship," he said. "We must as a people and nation
recast our personal and national priorities so that God's creation and the
needs of the least, the last, and the lost are first in our hearts."

Other leaders and organizations joined in the call for peace, including the
denomination's Virginia Conference Board of Church and Society; the Board of
Global Ministries; several professors and theologians at United
Methodist-related seminaries; the European Methodist Youth Council; the
president of the British Methodist Church; the World Methodist Council's
executive committee; the World Council of Churches' central committee; the
World Methodist Council Youth Committee; and the National Association of
Deaconesses and Missionaries of the United Methodist Church.

Not everyone in the church echoed the call for restraint, however. The Rev.
Kirbyjon H. Caldwell, pastor of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in
Houston and a self-designated "spiritual supporter" of President George Bush
supported the president's stand. 

"President George Bush has made it clear that for the sake of security and
the sake of our children, Saddam Hussein has to go," he said. "I am not a big
proponent of war, but neither do I want anybody else to fly anything into
another building or sabotage our water system or attack the transportation
system.

"If we go to war, hopefully it will be clear to the average American that we
are going to war in order to make America and the world a safer place," he
said. "Hopefully the dots will have been connected, and it will be very clear
if we take out this guy and that guy and another guy, the risk of terrorism
has been severely reduced."

Remembering 9-11

As America marked the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks,
many United Methodists in the Baltimore-Washington area and New York
continued to wrestle with the personal impact of last year's events.

"Things are returning to normal, but normal now is not the same as normal a
year ago," said the Rev. Dennis Yocum, a chaplain with the 167th Air Wing of
the West Virginia Air National Guard. "There are new realities present in the
world."

During a commemoration service on the first anniversary of the attacks, the
Rev. Frank Trotter, pastor of Metropolitan Memorial United Methodist Church
in Washington, recalled weeding his garden on the day of the attacks, then
realizing that he was watering the weeds he had just uprooted. That was the
year, in a nutshell, for many Americans, he said. "I was feeling punitive and
healing all in the same moment."

Even as he paid tribute to the victims and rescuers, New York Bishop Ernest
Lyght reminded worshippers that they were not there "to hold a funeral
service" but to move forward from this anniversary with faith.

"We must remember 9-11, but somehow we must help each other through the
difficulty and the pain we've experienced, to move on to a new place," he
said.

United Methodist bishops encouraged congregations to set aside Sunday, Sept.
8, as a day of remembrance, and proclaimed September "United Methodist Open
House Month." The request for the bishops' actions came from the Igniting
Ministry staff at United Methodist Communications, which established Open
House Month in 2001 to coincide with the debut of the denomination's TV
advertising effort. A church TV spot called "Amen," prepared in remembrance
of the tragedy, aired twice on NBC's "The Today Show" on the anniversary of
the attacks.

Responding to the tradegy

The nearly $20 million in donations from United Methodists that had poured in
by April 2002 in response to the Sept. 11 tragedy continued to be allocated
for programs and projects by the United Methodist Committee on Relief. Among
the major allocations were $5 million for a three-year New York City-based
program focusing on assistance to the secondary victims of 9/11; $4.4 million
for the five-year recovery plan of the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference;
$1.5 million to establish a field office in Kabul, Afghanistan, for
humanitarian work there.

Later in the year, UMCOR approved a $973,192 grant to help the denomination's
Virginia Annual Conference assist 9/11-related victims in that area. The New
York Conference, which spent a $1 million allocation in 2002 on outreach
programs at local churches, received an additional $500,000 for local
programs. 

Anti-Muslim feelings 

The terrorist attacks sent a wave of anti-Muslim feeling over much of America
and spread among some evangelical circles in the United States and other
countries.

During an interview with CBS-TV's "60 Minutes," the Rev. Jerry Falwell
labeled the Prophet Muhammad a "terrorist." The National Council of Churches,
representing 36 church bodies and more than 50 million U.S. Christians,
declared that Falwell's words were "not Christian and shockingly uninformed."

During the past year, religious leaders across the country have nurtured the
impulse felt by many Americans since the attacks to reach across faith
boundaries, and they have organized interfaith dinners, services and other
activities. 

Their efforts are in defiance of the attacks that not only left thousands
dead in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania but also threatened the
religious harmony that has made this country unique, they say.

A national four-year dialogue between United Methodists and the Muslim
community is set to begin next year Establishment of such a dialogue was
approved by the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and
Interreligious Concerns. 

Sniper shootings

Religious leaders from around the Washington metropolitan area gathered Oct.
22 to offer prayer and support for community and law enforcement officials
investigating the series of sniper shootings that almost paralyzed the area.

Ten people were killed and three others wounded before John Allen Muhammad,
41, and John Lee Malvo, 17, were arrested at a highway rest area west of
Frederick, Md. One of the victims was a United Methodist layman.

At Faith United Methodist Church in Rockville, Md., just blocks from
Montgomery County police headquarters and near several of the shooting
scenes, United Methodist Bishop Felton Edwin May of the Washington Area led
the worship service of healing, hope and peace. He also moderated a press
conference in the church's courtyard before the service.

"I see the fear in people's eyes," the bishop told the media. "I sense the
anxiety in people's souls. It is for such a time as this that 'community'
becomes even more important. We must band together to offer each other our
care and support; to let each other know that violence in any form is not
acceptable and that the most important thing we have in life is each other."

Racism

Many of the church's U.S. annual (regional) conferences held services of
repentance for racism, continuing a series of actions that began formally
with the Act of Repentance and Reconciliation at the 2000 General Conference
in Cleveland. 

The United Methodist Publishing House, once known for its resistance to
promoting minorities, formally repented for its racism during a worship
service that brought out the injustices of four decades ago.

The repentance service, held in an African-American United Methodist church
in north Nashville, was marked by testimonials from people of different
races. Acknowledging the painful past, the group also set its vision on a
better future.

"We are not what we ought to be, but thank God we are not what we used to
be," said the Rev. John Corry, the first black district superintendent in the
Tennessee Annual (regional) Conference and current president of the United
Methodist Judicial Council. "And by the grace of God, we are not yet what we
shall be."

Around the globe

People from around the world gathered at United Methodist-related Africa
University in Mutare, Zimbabwe, to celebrate the school's 10th anniversary.
Ten years is a short time in the life of a university, but Africa University
has become one of the most active on the continent in that time, noted Vice
Chancellor Rukudzo Murapa. 

The school was born in a scrub field in 1992, with 40 students meeting in
renovated farmhouses for classes in theology and agriculture and natural
resources. The Zimbabwe university today has a world-class campus and a
diverse community of 1,500 people. It is the first United Methodist-related,
degree-granting institution in Africa.

United Methodist bishops meet with leaders of CIEMAL (Council of Evangelical
Methodist Churches in Latin America) on addressing the concerns of
impoverished children and their families in Latin America. The triumphs and
challenges facing their Methodist kin in Latin America topped the fall agenda
of the 120-member Council of Bishops. Besides the daylong dialogue, the
United Methodist bishops, meeting for the first time in Latin America, joined
together at the Puerto Rican island of Vieques for worship and a
demonstration against continued U.S. military occupation of the island.

A group of about 60 United Methodist leaders met in Senegal to discuss
developing a holistic strategy for ministry in Africa. The Holistic Strategy
Task Force was formed at the direction of the denomination's Council of
Bishops. The Africa consultation drew bishops from Africa, Asia and the
United States; lay people from several African central conferences; and top
executives and other staff from churchwide boards and agencies.

The president of the Republic of Macedonia, Boris Trajkovski, received the
2002 World Methodist Peace Award for his leadership and efforts to bring
peace to his region of the Balkans. He was presented the award in a special
ceremony during the World Methodist Council executive committee meeting in
Oslo, Norway. Trajkovski is a lay leader and president of the United
Methodist Church Council in Macedonia. 

"Every nation strives for peace," Trajkovski said in his acceptance speech.
"But the only peace that lasts forever is found through a true and lasting
relationship with Jesus Christ."

Leadership changes

The Rev. Soomee Kim and the Rev. Raponzil "Ra" Drake were named co-general
secretaries for the United Methodist Commission on the Status and Role of
Women. They are the first two clergywomen of color - Kim is Korean American,
Drake is African American - to lead the agency. 

The Rev. Randy Day, a member of the United Methodist New York Annual
(regional) Conference, was elected new chief staff executive of the United
Methodist Board of Global Ministries. On Jan. 1, he will succeed the Rev.
Randolph Nugent, who has led the Board of Global Ministries for the past 21
years. Nugent, who is retiring, will undertake a two-year mission lectureship
for the agency.

Passings

Three retired United Methodist bishops died during 2002. Roy C. Nichols, the
first African-American bishop elected after the United Methodist Church was
created in 1968, died Oct. 9 at the age of 84. Dwight E. Loder, 88, died Nov.
9 at his home in Worthington, Ohio, after a lengthy illness. Robert M.
Blackburn, 82, who led the church's Raleigh, N.C., and Richmond, Va., areas,
died March 17 following complications from open-heart surgery. 

Other church related deaths included United Methodist layman John R. Harper,
92, longtime member of the executive committee of the World Methodist
Council, Oct. 12; the Rev. Robert L. "Bob" Robertson, 70, longtime United
Methodist communicator and pastor, July 31; the Rev. Thomas Roughface, 66,
superintendent of the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference, May 9; the Rev.
Konstantinas "Kostas" Burbulys, 98, a pastor who helped build the foundation
of the Methodist Church in Lithuania before World War II, Jan. 29. 

Also noteworthy

Other highlights of 2002 included:
7	United Methodists watched the tense and sometimes violent election
season in Zimbabwe with some concern.
	
7	The Board of Church and Society joined the Campaign for Tobacco-free
Kids in efforts to raise state cigarette taxes nationwide.
	
7	United Methodists responded to tornadoes that swept across the United
States, severe flooding in Europe and other natural disasters elsewhere in
the world.
	
7	Despite severe cuts to staff and programs, budget woes tied to the
stock market continued to plague the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries. Board Treasurer Stephen Feerrar reported in October that although
the agency had underspent its 2002 budget, cost containment measures would
continue into 2003.
	
7	The Rev. Ben Witherington III, a New Testament professor at Asbury
Theological Seminary and a writer for the Biblical Archaeology Review, took
part in the national announcement that a limestone ossuary recently
discovered in Israel appears to provide the oldest archaeological evidence of
Jesus Christ. Writing on the ossuary led scholars to believe that the box
might have belonged to Jesus' brother James.
	
7	The denomination's Board of Church and Society supported a ban on
embryonic stem cell research based on the church's stated opposition to any
procedure that creates waste embryos.

# # #

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer. This story was
compiled from UMNS reports throughout the year. The Baltimore-Washington
Conference's UMConnection staff provided some of the Washington quotes in the
"Remember 9-11" and "Sniper shootings" sections. 

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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