wfn.org | Dream, pray, work for community, bishops urge

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

Nov. 5, 2003 News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn. 7 
E-mail:newsdesk@umcom.org 7 ALL {533}

NOTE: This report is a sidebar to UMNS story #532.

WASHINGTON (UMNS)-The United Methodist bishops are calling the church to
action in a new statement on children and poverty.

7	In "Our Shared Dream: The Beloved Community," they urge United
Methodists to dream, pray and work for the day when:

7	"The church is a more inclusive fellowship, in which dividing walls
of race and gender, culture and class are broken down... 

7	"Church and world overcome the competitiveness that dominates
relationships. 
7	"The ability to give with boundless generosity replaces the drive to
collect, possess, own and withhold. 

7	"Our relations across the globe will be characterized not by charity,
dependence and paternalism but by partnership and solidarity. 

7	"We are free from pride of self, group, tribe and nation and thus
more completely reflect the image of the selfless, self-giving God who is
within us and among us. 

7	"Every church conference asks: 'How are we living for the
impoverished?' 'How are our individual vocations lived for the poor and
contributing to the growth of beloved community?' 

7	"Every human community on earth is a place committed to preventing
violence and offering healing to its victims. 

7	"All things have become new in Christ Jesus ... and the beloved
community is our reality."

The task force wrote the statement, adopted Nov. 4, for the Bishops'
Initiative on Children and Poverty.

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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