wfn.org | ABCUSA: Biennial Meeting Update: June 28 #1

["SCHRAMM, Richard" <Richard.Schramm@abc-usa.org>]

'CENTERED IN CHRIST' BIENNIAL MEETING OPENS WITH INSTALLATION SERVICE
	(Richmond, Va. 6/28/03)--The 2003 Biennial Meeting of American
Baptist Churches USA opened last night with a moving service of installation
for General Secretary the Rev. Dr. A. Roy Medley and a sermon and choral
performances that lifted up the gathering's theme, "Centered in Christ" and
the evening's subtheme, "An Inviting People."
	In selecting "Centered in Christ," the Biennial Program Committee
complemented Medley's vision statement of the same title.  In that statement
he has articulated ministry and Christ-centered servanthood expressed in
prayer, worship, evangelical outreach, ecumenical cooperation, social
justice, soul liberty, religious freedom and constructive dialog.  
	Medley has served since January 2002 as general secretary of
American Baptist Churches USA.	He has been active at local, regional,
national and international levels of denominational life over the past three
decades, most recently as executive minister of the American Baptist
Churches of New Jersey. 
	Joining Medley were participants who represented the various current
and former American Baptist ministries Medley has been involved in: the Rev.
Dr. Robert C. Campbell, general secretary 1972-1987; the Rev. Dr. Sumner
Grant, executive director, Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board; Melva
Gray, budget review officer; the Rev. Dr. Denton Lotz, general secretary,
Baptist World Alliance; Arthur Munson, interim executive director,
Educational Ministries; the Rev. Dr. Walter L. Parrish II, executive
minister, ABC of the South; the Rev. Dr. John A. Sundquist, executive
director, International Ministries; the Rev. Dr. Edwin Tuller, general
secretary 1960-1971; the Rev. Elisa Vazquez, pastor, Christ the King Baptist
Church, Corona, N.Y.; the Rev. Dr. Cheryl H. Wade, associate general
secretary and treasurer; the Rev. Dr. Daniel E. Weiss, general secretary
1988-2000; the Rev. James Willis, executive director, Curtis Park Community
Center, Denver, Colo.; and the Rev. Dr. Aidsand F. Wright-Riggins, executive
director, National Ministries.
	Also joining in the service were regional executive ministers and
several invited leaders from other denominations.
	The two-part service included a litany based on Medley's vision
statement, "Centered in Christ."  "My vision for ABCUSA is that we become
increasingly centered in Christ as his disciples," Medley said. "To be
centered in Christ is to find in him our true home and our true identity as
children of God.  As Baptists we are unabashedly Christocentric in our
worship, our theology, our hymnody, and our spirituality.  We are a Jesus
people, captured by his love and grace, who know that life--true life,
eternal life--is found in Christ alone."
	The service additionally included a time of affirmation and
covenanting designed to support the general secretary in the many challenges
and opportunities he faces.  In a closing time of the laying on of hands,
attendees and participants together voiced a prayer for "the new day you
have prepared for your people": "Gracious God, we send forth our brother and
our shepherd, Roy Medley, into your keeping.  Grant him the manifestations
of your love that will sustain him in the challenges before him.  Strengthen
him, guide him, challenge him and uphold him. We are a special family of
faith only if our witness glorifies you, and only if our ministry truly
makes a difference in a world in need of your Son. Help us now to be what
you would have us be, and grant this man of your calling a pastoral and
prophetic presence among us as we move forward into the new day you have
prepared for your people."   
	The Rev. Dr. Joan Parrott, vice president of the Children's Defense
Fund and former American Baptist Churches USA deputy general secretary for
Cooperative Christianity, preached during the service. Drawing a text from
Isaiah 40, she applied the message of God-empowered strength and renewal in
challenging times ("...those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength;
they will soar on wings like eagles...") to the opportunities and challenges
General Secretary Medley will face.  For Isaiah, she said, "When God was
with him, it was more than all the world against him."	Even though
loneliness often accompanies leadership, "You can always talk with God," she
said.  For the new general secretary, she prayed he would be empowered to be
"a real eagle...to stand and be renewed."
	Music was provided by the Shokei Girls' Choir from Sendai, Japan;
the Richmond Biennial Mass Choir; flugelhornist David Wells; organist James
Abbington; and songleaders Sandra Collins and Brad Berglund.  Abbington,
Collins and Wells will be performing throughout the week.
	During the evening session U.S. Congressman John Lewis of Georgia
received the Edwin T. Dahlberg Peace Award for his more than 40 years of
work for peace and justice, beginning in the Nonviolent Civil Rights
Movement and continuing today in the U.S. national political arena.
Encouraging American Baptists to pursue ministries of reconciliation, he
urged them to focus on the challenge of peace, which "is as old as the
beginning of time and as new as today's morning newspaper."