wfn.org | UMNS# 04452-2006 World Methodist assembly will focus on

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2006 World Methodist assembly will focus on reconciliation 

Oct. 1, 2004	 News media contact:   Kathy  Gilbert * (615) 7425470* 
Nashville {04452}

NOTE: For photographs and additional coverage of the World Methodist
Council's executive committee, see UMNS stories #434 and #451 at
http://umns.umc.org.

By Kathy L. Gilbert*

PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa (UMNS)-The "life and death issue" of
reconciliation will be the theme for the World Methodist Council's next
assembly, set for 2006 in South Korea, according to the event's program
chairperson.

The 19th World Methodist Council will meet July 20-24, 2006, in Seoul under
the theme, "God In Christ Reconciling."

Gillian Kingston, a layperson from the Methodist Church of Ireland, is the
first woman to serve as program chairperson for a World Methodist Council
event. The 2006 meeting is expected to draw more than 5,000 delegates from
around the world to the Kum Nan Methodist Church for the council's
quinquennial gathering.

Taken from 2 Corinthians 5:16-20, "the theme is a relevant message for people
worldwide," she told the council's executive committee at a Sept. 15-18
meeting in Port Elizabeth. Reconciliation is a ministry, a theological issue
and a "life and death issue" for all people, she said.

"Reconciliation Among Nations," "Reconciliation in Society," "Reconciliation
in the Church," and "Reconciliation for the Individual" will be sub themes
for each day of the meeting, she explained.

Kingston is working to have as many cultures as possible represented among
speakers for the event but said "we cannot hear every voice every time."

George Freeman, top staff executive of the council, asked that people across
the Methodist-Wesleyan connection pray for the conference.

"Pray that we will honor God and help us all in our ministry of
reconciliation," he said. "We are praying this conference will bring together
this family in a common witness and that the people called Methodist might
bring about better lives through reconciliation." 

The council, representing 76 denominations with roots in the Methodist
movement, meets every five years. The last gathering was held in Brighton,
England, in July 2001.

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer in Nashville, Tenn.

News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

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United Methodist News Service