wfn.org | Teens Form Interfaith Community

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (219
notes).

Note 219 by UMNS on July 15, 1997 at 16:13 Eastern (8133 characters).

CONTACT:	Joretta Purdue  	407(10-31-33-71BP){219}
		Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722  	July 15, 1997

United Methodist teens help build community
of faith, action in a capital experience

	WASHINGTON (UMNS) -- A new community began emerging in the opening week of a
first-of-its-kind experience for a group of U.S. teens on the campus of United
Methodist-related American University here.
	"It has been amazing," said Anne Heuer, a member of Broadway United Methodist
Church in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on the fifth day of the intensive three-week
program that began June 29.
	A new high school graduate like the other 58 participants in "E Pluribus
Unum," Heuer was invited partly based on her active involvement with her
faith. In her home congregation, she is helping start a contemporary worship
service and serves on the youth council.
	E Pluribus Unum -- a Latin phrase meaning "out of the many, one" and a motto
of the United States -- was designed to help young people develop leadership
for a democratic and pluralistic society, "one nation, under God."
	The first-time event, underwritten by the Lilly Endowment Inc., was sponsored
by the Washington Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values in cooperation
with the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry and the National
Council of Churches.
	"We'll be friends for the rest of our lives," Heuer said of the group that is
about evenly divided among Protestant, Roman Catholic and Jewish young people.
She added that differences among them are not limited to religious beliefs,
but also include economic levels, size of hometowns and racial background. 
	The program stresses community, she explained, and the students have
discovered respect for each other and for each other's beliefs. "We're all
strong in our convictions," she added.
	Colleen McCoy, a member of Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church in Marietta,
Ga., and the conference and jurisdictional councils on youth ministry,
reported learning more about the Roman Catholic and Jewish faiths. While that
exposure has broken some of the stereotypes she held, McCoy said, she has also
learned more about her own faith.
	McCoy, who was a chaplain of the North Georgia Youth Annual Conference last
year and has attended the Youth Theology Institute at Candler School of
Theology, expressed the belief that the community was moving toward a
"spiritual bonding." 
	Heuer and McCoy spent two afternoons a week at the Children's Defense Fund
office preparing mailings, one of which was Children's Sabbath materials for
the members of Congress.
	All the students participated in such community service -- disbursing to
several sites by van or bus twice a week for the three weeks of the
conference.  Community service was one of the program's four components, along
with academic reflection, arts and worship as spiritual expression, and
community living.
	Wesley Holloway expressed gratitude that community service was a part of the
schedule. "I like the idea of integrating that in everything we do," he said.
He and 11 others served at the Capital Area Community Food Bank, which last
year provided 17.5 million pounds of food to more than 600 service
organizations in the area.
	Holloway was active in Acton United Methodist Church in Granbury, Texas,
where his father was pastor until he became the district superintendent in
Waco last year. The teen remained in Granbury for his senior year of school.
This fall he will move again, to Southern Methodist University, to begin
religious studies.
	At E Pluribus Unum, Holloway said he has seen "similarities and differences"
but also saw the diversity forming a community. 	"In our local towns, we've
kind of excluded ourselves from one another," but here, he commented, the
students learned to be leaders who use their faith as an example to help other
people.
	Betty Kim of Grace Korean United Methodist Church in Ridgewood, N. J., has
been active in the denomination through the National Youth Ministry
Organization (NYMO) and serves as a voting member of the Commission on
Religion and Race this quadrennium. 
	"Although I have been active in the Methodist community, I haven't had an
opportunity to get better understanding of other people's faiths until now,"
Kim stated. She said she appreciated the opportunity to understand what others
believe and why.
	Her community service occurred at the national office of the Older Women's
League in downtown Washington.
	Cami Baker of First United Methodist Church, Eugene, Ore., worked at Grass
Roots Environmental Effectiveness Network (GREEN).
	She noted that the three weeks of the conference each have a topical focus:
human rights the first week, then poverty and hunger, then environmental
issues.
	Baker said she had particularly appreciated the interfaith workshop and
opportunities to ask others about their faith.
	"Most of the learning that takes place is by interacting and asking
questions," she observed.
	Brit Holmberg of New Hartford (N.Y.) United Methodist Church found particular
meaning in the music workshop -- one of five spiritual arts workshops in which
the students were encouraged to express their beliefs through creative arts.
The other four areas were visual art, drama, movement and creative writing. 
	Holmberg chose singing, he said, because "when I sing, I feel with the
Spirit. [It] feels like a duet with God. A song stays with you."
	Attending the Youth Theology Institute last summer changed his life, Holmberg
said. Since then he has written prayers and songs for his church. 
	Christian Kirby, one of the mentors in community living, said of the
students, "These young people are wonderful: bright, caring, serious yet
playful, and faithful to each other, to society and to the God of their
understanding."
	A student at Wesley Theological Seminary, Kirby has been a teacher at a
private school in Washington for 11 years and has worked with youth at Mt.
Zion United Methodist Church in Georgetown. He explained that the mentors were
in residence with the students and were mainly responsible for the
living-in-community component of the program.
	"I've seen the kids establish profound relationships across religious, racial
and economic lines," Kirby said. "That's one of the purposes of the conference
-- to bring together a diverse group of students to engage in intentional
exploration of the other."
	Another United Methodist seminary student, K.B. "Kali" Kucera, formerly of
Seattle, was one of the spiritual arts faculty, teaching drama. He stressed
the importance of having the arts impact the content, "not just to illustrate
it.
	He said he believes the program is quite revolutionary in several ways. Among
them was the intentional combining of people from different faiths in the kind
of program that traditionally has been conducted within denominational or
like-faith lines.
	The staff and faculty were also a diverse group. A Jewish rabbi was the
conference director, and conference manager was a communicator with experience
as a Jesuit volunteer in the Pacific Northwest. She was assisted by a United
Methodist student, Richard Green, originally from Alabama, who has interned on
Capitol Hill with a member of Congress and with the United Methodist Board of
Church and Society.
	Among the academic faculty, the Rev. Youtha Hardman-Cromwell represented
Protestant traditions. A member of the Virginia Annual Conference, she is a
visiting associate professor of pastoral theology at Howard University
Divinity School in Washington, works with a fellowship program for divinity
students and is spiritual director of an interfaith ministry.
	She and the Jewish and Roman Catholic faculty members were responsible for a
like-faith study session held each weekday morning for 90 minutes to explore
the relationship between faith, public policy and citizenship and for a daily
"interfaith plenum" of equal length. They explored the week's theme through
policy speakers, practitioners and interactive sessions confronting the issue
-- often through a game or simulation specifically designed for the group.
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