wfn.org | Initiative on children, poverty, takes many forms

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

May 1, 2003 News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn. 
10-71BP{256}

DALLAS (UMNS) - This summer, more than 500 children will have daily,
one-on-one reading time with United Methodist volunteers in churches across
the city. The kids will receive a hot lunch. And they will learn about Jesus.

Project Transformation, a program of the North Texas Annual (regional)
Conference, will be staffed by 57 college-age students and more than 1,000
volunteers. It has become so successful that other conferences have launched
or are planning similar ministries.

It is among many examples of how one conference is responding creatively to
the United Methodist Council of Bishops' Initiative on Children and Poverty.
Launched in 1996, the initiative has become a focal point for the church's
ministry around the world. The international council received an update from
its initiative task force during an April 28-May 2 meeting in the Dallas
suburb of Addison.

"We live in a time of almost boundless capacity for fear," said Gary
Gunderson, director of the Interfaith Health Program at Emory University's
Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta. "The challenge that I know you
live with on a daily basis is the question, 'Is it possible to systemically
build the capacity for hope (on) the same scale as the fear?'"

Never before has there been a time when people could imagine that every child
could grow to maturity without the burdens of hunger and poverty, he said. He
reminded the bishops of a meeting several years ago, as the initiative was
being developed, when those gathered were "stunned" after spending time
reflecting on what Jesus and John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, had to
say about children and poverty.
 
"This is an initiative that is clearly designed to be in line with the
incendiary hopes of Wesley at a time when it is possible to implement in a
way that has never been true before," Gunderson said.

Sarah Wilke, Dallas Area coordinator for the initiative, gave the bishops a
report from the front lines, telling how Project Transformation and other
ministries are changing lives.

John  Wesley Foundry Ministries, for example, sought out a Dallas
neighborhood in need and without a church presence of any kind. Wilke found a
neighborhood defined by strip clubs and bars, with an apartment community of
5,000 children under the age of 12 and living below the poverty line.

"Today, a young United Methodist pastor, two seminary students and a growing
cadre of volunteers are reaching deep into the lives of those children and
their families," Wilke said. On Ash Wednesday, they launched a new church in
the preacher's home in the neighborhood.
 
"The initiative has helped people find their place in the story of faith,"
said Pamela Couture, a consultant to the initiative task force and associate
professor of pastoral theology at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in
Rochester, N.Y. Couture analyzed 19 interviews that were conducted this year
with annual conference coordinators for the initiative.

One coordinator said the initiative was taking her annual conference back to
its Wesleyan roots. John Wesley's ideas are being "reintroduced (and)
re-energized, moving  us ... to help 'the least of these,'" the coordinator
said. 

She likened the development of the initiative's relationships to a root
system. "In one place, there are shoots of connection between Shalom Zones
(community renewal areas) and congregations and the initiative; in another
between congregations and social services; in a third, between ...
missionaries and the initiative and congregations; in a fourth, between
congregations in the U.S. and in Africa," she said. The question is, "How can
the church discern and support the emerging networks doing ministry?" she
said.

"A cutting edge of the initiative has been congregational renewal," Couture
said. One area coordinator told of a dying church that adapted to its
changing neighborhood by reaching out to Hispanic people. As new people came
into the congregation, ministries such as English and Spanish classes were
launched. 

Area coordinators affirmed the value of having a bishop's initiative, saying
support from the church's top leaders boosts the morale of people involved in
ministries to the children and poor, providing "an antidote against the
isolation, depression and burnout" that many experience. It also has been a
morale booster for bishops, she added.

Bishop Ann B. Sherer, chairperson of the initiative task force and leader of
the church's Missouri Area, said the bishops are trying to discern next
steps. They will soon publish a third paper on the initiative, "The Beloved
Community," and a study guide for congregations, Community with Children and
the Poor, has just been released through Cokesbury, a unit of the United
Methodist Publishing House.

During their meeting, the bishops received material for use in discussing the
initiative at their annual (regional) conference gatherings, occurring in May
and June in the United States and at other times elsewhere around the world.

"The task force wants to make a holy intervention in your annual conference
agenda," Bishop Beverly Shamana told the council. Shamana, a task force
member, leads the church's San Francisco Area, which includes Northern
California and Nevada. 

Several conferences have sponsored children's marches on state capitals,
urging legislators to put priority on children and the poor during the budget
process. Shamana said plans are under way for similar marches in state
capital cities of Sacramento, Calif., and Reno, Nev. "We want the children to
make connections with the lawmakers," she explained.

Sherer told United Methodist News Service she senses that God is using
experiences with the poor to reshape the church. "There's a renewing energy
that we can be a church that reaches a variety of peoples and that is as
diverse as God longs us to be."

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United Methodist News Service
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