wfn.org | Ceremonies mark new mission church in Ctte d'Ivoire

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

Oct. 16, 2003 News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212)870-38037New York
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By United Methodist News Service*

In ceremonies lasting three days in early October, the Protestant Methodist
Church of Ctte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) became a mission of the United
Methodist Church.

Now known as the Eglise Methodiste Unie Ctte d'Ivoire, the West African
church began its celebration Oct. 4 with ceremonies at the Filix Houphoukt
Boigny Stadium in Abijdjan, attended by more than 20,000 people.

A year earlier, the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries granted
mission status to the autonomous 1.4-million-member Methodist denomination,
an outgrowth of the British Methodist Church. Under the United Methodist Book
of Discipline, the agency is allowed to initiate, administer and coordinate a
mission, defined as an administrative body for work inside or outside the
structures of an annual or missionary conference.
 
The Oct. 4 celebration, witnessed by Laurent Gbagbo, the country's president,
was led by the Rev. Benjamin Boni, president of the Church of Ctte D'Ivoire.
United Methodist participants included the Rev. R. Randy Day, chief executive
of the Board of Global Ministries, and Bishop Ruediger Minor of Moscow,
president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops.

Ceremonies continued with an Oct. 5 worship service that recognized the 86
active pastors, elders and evangelists. An afternoon concert sponsored by the
women and youth, provided the color, movement, sound and rhythm of African
praise music. The celebration concluded Oct. 6 with groundbreaking for a new
conference building, which will replace the one built by the British mission
in 1928. The land for the office is strategically located between the
National Assembly (Congress) and the High Court of Ctte d'Ivoire.

With mission church status, Ctte d'Ivoire Methodists may later request a
provisional conference status. The church brings a 100-year history, schools,
a hospital, orphanage and ministries with women and youth, board officials
pointed out. In a nationally televised interview in Ctte d'Ivoire, Boni said
integration with United Methodists would allow the church to make its witness
as a part of a global church.

The Council of Bishops has named Bishop John Innis from neighboring Liberia
as the presiding bishop for the transitional period.
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*Rena Yocom, special assistant to the Rev. R. Randy Day, supplied information
for this story.

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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