wfn.org | United Methodists approve four more years of 'Open Hearts. Open Minds. Open Doors.'

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

May 5, 2004 GC04-080

By Nancye Willis*

PITTSBURGH (UMNS)--The United Methodist Church will share its "Open Hearts.
Open Minds. Open Doors." messages with a wider audience in 2005-08. But it
will have to do so with less money than proposed. 

Delegates to General Conference, the church's top legislative body,
overwhelmingly approved May 5 a proposal from United Methodist Communications
to expand its successful media effort. The vote paved the way for the
denomination's communications agency to add 18 weeks of additional airings of
denominational TV advertising to its established schedule and to develop a
youth component. 

However, the amount of funding made available for the core TV advertising was
reduced from a proposed $33.5 million to $22 million. Proponents of the
increased airings argued that inflation had significantly reduced the amount
of time that can be bought with the funds.

The youth strategy survived with its proposed $5.4 million funding intact. A
proposal to reduce the amount to $3 million in view of tight finances was
narrowly defeated by a vote of 488-440.

All requests for funds will be reviewed by the Council on Finance and
Administration. That fiscal agency will present its budget recommendations
for all general church funds to the May 8 closing plenary session for final
action. 

Delegates also defeated a proposed amendment that would have allowed shifting
funds among the youth strategy, an expanded core program of television
advertising and a communications initiative in churches outside the United
States. 

Sue Mullins, Corwith, Iowa, proposed an amendment specifying that no approved
funds "will be used to promote the slogan 'Open Hearts. Open Minds. Open
Doors.'" 

Arguing against the amendment, Mike McCurry, a first-time delegate from the
Baltimore-Washington Annual (regional) Conference, and former White House
press secretary, said, "No one single issue defines open-mindedness; no
single painful controversy can break an open heart." 

The slogan, he said, serves to "remind the world who we United Methodists are
and who we can be."

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*Willis is editor of Public Information for United Methodist Communications.

News media contact: (412) 325-6080 during General Conference, April 27-May 7.
After May 10: (615) 742-5470. 

 
 

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