wfn.org | Bishops Hold Hearing

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3271 notes).

Note 3270 by UMNS on Nov. 4, 1996 at 16:17 Eastern (7995 characters).

SEARCH: bishops, initiative, children, poverty
Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Thomas S. McAnally                  556(10-21-71BP){3270}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470              Nov. 4, 1996

NOTE:  Photos available with this story

Bishops host 24-hour hearing
on children and poverty

     ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. (UMNS) -- A teenage immigrant who fled
civil unrest in Liberia only to find "war" in the United States
was one of 35 resource people sharing their experiences with
United Methodist bishops here Oct. 31-Nov. 1.
     Sidney Koweh, 19, a pre-med student at Dekalb College in
Dunwoody, Ga., told of losing four friends to violence in Atlanta. 
"Our society is at war," he declared.  "What can you do to save
us?"  
     Reading from a poem he had written, titled "Distress Call,"
Koweh lamented, "We are the children of the world and we are
lost."
     Several young people participated in the 24-hour hearing on
children and the poor sponsored by the United Methodist Council of
Bishops during their semi-annual meeting here.  Most of the
speakers, however, were professionals who work fulltime with
children and poverty issues.
     A mother whose son was murdered urged the bishops to be more
aggressive advocates for the young.  "All children are at risk,"
she warned.
     A social worker told of little children "so abused they
couldn't cry anymore."
     The administrator of a United Methodist home for children
expressed disappointment that families in trouble do not feel at
home in the church.
     A physician told the bishops they are uniquely suited to be
advocates for children and the poor because of their resources and
political influence and bacause they preach "self-esteem and
hope."
     The worker in an agency that stresses the importance of
fathers in the home received applause when she declared, "It does
indeed take a whole village to raise a child."
     A family life education specialist expressed dismay at
societal attitudes and beliefs toward poor families and told the
bishops to open the doors of their churches to children in need. 
"It's not space science," she exclaimed. "Invite them in."
     The 24-hour emphasis, including two panel presentations of
about 18 people each, was planned not only to inform the bishops
but to serve as a model of what each bishop can do in his or her
own area, according to Bishop Marshall (Jack) Meadors, Jackson,
Miss.  Meadors chairs a task force planning the initiative that is
still in early stages of development.  In August the bishops
released a paper of "Biblical and Theological Foundations"
undergirding their initiative.
     After the hearings, some bishops suggested that
"collaborative" might be more appropriate than "initiative" since
so much already is being done in the church and society.  Instead
of "reinventing the wheel," the bishops were urged by one resource
person to "help make the wheel roll."
     Gary Gunderson of the Carter Center in Atlanta, urged the
bishops to support people who work fulltime with issues related to
children and poverty.  "I find an enormous thirst among
professionals who want their lives to make a difference," he said. 
"They need your support, nurture and encouragement."
     The Rev. Theodore W. Jennings Jr., a faculty member at
Chicago Theological Seminary and a consultant to the bishop's
initiative task force, concurred.
     Some who work in agencies serving children and the poor have
left the church, he said, "because of our institutional
preoccupation ... They are waiting for us to claim them."
     The bishops' call to commitment to children and the poor
comes at the same time as a call to spiritual renewal in the
church, Jennings observed.  "We can't find spiritual renewal by
following Jesus where he does not go ... God is near the
vulnerable and the poor, the 'least of these'."
     Jennings is author of Good News to the Poor" John Wesley's
Evangelical Economics  (Abingdon 1990).
     During an opening worship service, led by children, the
bishops were given packets of seeds representing "faith, hope and
love" and asked to plant the seeds "in remembrance of us."
     Individual bishops were given white ball caps imprinted with
the message "UMC 4 KIDS."  A small oak, "a living reminder of our
hope for the future," was given to the bishops who later planted
it on the grounds of Epworth By the Sea, the historic conference
center here owned by the South Georgia Annual Conference.  St.
Simons Island on which the conference center is located, has many
sprawling live oaks.  Methodism's founder John Wesley is said to
have preached under one such tree when he visited here in 1737.
     In a role reversal, bishops became the audience as the
children led them in a "children's sermon."
     Throughout the hearing, the bishops were reminded of
statistics showing the United States ranking high in infant
mortality and the percentage of children in poverty. 
     Stephen Thomas, associate professor of public health at Emory
University in Atlanta, warned the bishops that it would take more
than passion to change policies affecting children. He encouraged
them to "pick some simple victories" such as getting  stores to
move gun magazines out of the sight of children.  "Violence is a
learned behavior and can be unlearned," he declared.
     Several speakers expressed concern that poor children and
their families would fall between the cracks as a result of recent
welfare reform legislation.
     At the close of one panel presentation, Meaders asked the
youngest panel member, Joshua Michaels, a junior-high student in
Dekalb County, Ga., if he would like to make an additional
observation about what he had heard or experienced during his time
with the bishops.
     Young Joshua stood, took the microphone in hand and quietly
commented that as he walked through the parking lot he had
observed that bishops owned "some really nice cars."  He then told
how he and his mother send $20 a month to help a child in India. 
"Maybe you can help children ... support some of them, give them a
home and food to eat," he suggested.
     Later, one bishop suggested that young Joshua might better be
named Amos, the outspoken prophet of Biblical times.
     As the bishops reflected on their experience at the close of
the 24-hour period, task force members stressed that the
initiative would not be a "program" or something "passed down"
from the top.  Exactly what it will look like, Meadors said,
depends on what happens in each of the 50 U.S. episcopal areas and
17 episcopal areas in Africa, Europe and the Philippines.
     "Fundamentally we have a theological crisis," said task force
member Bishop Kenneth Carder of Nashville, Tenn.  "Nothing so
exposes the idolatry of our church as the plight of the children
and the poor."
     Pamela D. Couture, assistant professor of pastoral care at
Candler School of Theology and a consultant to the task force,
urged the U.S. bishops to take two immediate actions when they
return home: "Call your department of family and children services
and develop an ongoing relationship with a non-biological child"
and "make an appointment with your governors regarding welfare
reform and tell them they will have to answer to the church on the
way these reforms are constructed."
     "You have social clout out there," she said.  "You can make
it happen."
     Meadors expressed optimism.  "What we need is the vision, the
moral commitment and the will," he said.  In closing, the bishops
wrote personal covenants on small cards that were buried at the
base of the small oak tree.
     Presiding over the bishops' week-long meeting was Bishop
Woodie W. White, Indianapolis.  Next meeting of the council is
scheduled for the Boston area April 26-May 1, 1997.
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