wfn.org | World Methodists plan evangelistic witness events in '05

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Feb. 5, 2004   News media contact: Linda Bloom7(646) 369-37597New
York7E-mail:  newsdesk@umcom.org ALL-HIS-I {037}

NOTE: Photos are available at umns.umc.org.

By United Methodist News Service*

World Methodists are planning a year of intense evangelistic witness that
will follow a series of events marking "Ten Days of Faith" between Pentecost
and Aldersgate observances in 2005.

The celebrations will be a focal point of the World Methodist Evangelism
Emphasis 2004-2006, a response to a resolution of the 2001 World Methodist
Conference in Brighton, England, which called "the Methodist people around
the world to prayer and fasting and to spreading the good news of Jesus
Christ."

On a global level, the Methodist movement is growing at a rate of more than 1
million believers annually, according to the Rev. Eddie Fox, director of
World Methodist Evangelism, a program of the World Methodist Council. He said
he hopes the growth rate can be doubled during 2004-06.

The "Ten Days of Faith" events will be 10 "high-visibility" evangelistic
celebrations held May 15-24, 2005, in different parts of the world.
Faith-sharing training, local church evangelism workshops and evangelism
leadership training will be part of the celebrations. In addition, resources
will be available to help churches, districts and conferences throughout the
connection plan their own celebrations.

Throughout the year after those celebrations, Methodists around the world
will be trained and equipped for evangelistic witness. One of the special
events will be the 8th International Christian Youth Conference on
Evangelism, set for July 19-26 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

Plans for the evangelism emphasis are being finalized in a series of
evangelism leadership summits in different regions of the world. From Jan.
7-14, for example, more than 120 Methodist and Wesleyan leaders from the
Americas and Caribbean met for a summit in Havana, Cuba. The meeting was
sponsored by the council's world evangelism division and by the World
Methodist Evangelism Institute at Candler School of Theology, at Emory
University in Atlanta.

One resource for the emphasis is a worldwide Bible study of John 14-17,
written by Methodist Bishop Paulo Lockmann of Brazil. Lockmann introduced the
study during daily teaching sessions at the Cuban summit meeting.

Participants witnessed the vitality of Cuban worship, particularly in the
Methodist Church of Cuba, and attended a mass baptism of more than 200
adults. Fox and Methodist Bishop Ricardo Pereira of Cuba also blessed the
final 10 of 500 new bicycles, dubbed "Evangebicys," which were given to the
Cuban church through World Methodist Evangelism.

Many of the Methodist leaders served as guest preachers or liturgists during
Sunday morning services Jan. 11. That evening, summit participants gathered
with more than 2,000 Cuban Methodists at Pereira's church for an evangelistic
pageantry service that included preaching by Bishop John Bryant of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church.

A delegation of World Methodist leaders also received permission to meet with
Caridad Diego, director of religious affairs for the Cuban government, to
discuss relations between the government and the Methodist Church in Cuba.
The delegation said it received affirmation that further interaction between
Cuban Methodists and churches outside that country was possible and that the
government would consider allowing the Cuban church to construct some
desperately needed church buildings.

Delegation members were Fox; Pereira; Lockmann; the Rev. Winston Worrell,
director of the World Methodist Evangelism Institute; the Rev. George
Freeman, executive director, World Methodist Council; United Methodist Bishop
Robert Fannin, vice chairperson of World Evangelism; Bishop Nathaniel Linsey
of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, regional secretary for North
America; and Costa Rican Bishop Luis Palomo, regional secretary for Central
America, who was accompanied by his wife.

More information is available from World Methodist Evangelism at
www.worldmethodist.org online.

# # #

*World Methodist Evangelism of the World Methodist Council provided
information for this story.

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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