wfn.org | Border Mission Advisory Committee

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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 (296
notes).

Note 295 by UMNS on Sept. 2, 1997 at 16:21 Eastern (3675 characters).

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
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CONTACT:  Linda Bloom                          483(10-21-71B){295}
          New York (212) 870-3803                    Sept. 2, 1997

United Methodists take new
approach to border ministry

               by United Methodist News Service

     The United Methodist committee that long has monitored
mission work along the U.S.-Mexico border is taking a new
direction.
     Today, the purpose of the newly-named U.S.- Mexico Border
Bilateral Mission Committee, is to "continue to foster and enable
relationships" between and within the denomination's U.S. annual
conferences along the border and the northern districts of the
Methodist Church of Mexico, according to the Rev. Conrado Soltero,
a United Methodist Board of Global Ministries executive.
     The 24-member committee -- formerly known as the Southwest
Border Consultation Committee -- had the first of its two
quadrennial meetings Aug. 29-30 in Tucson, Ariz.
     About 40 people attended the meeting, according to Soltero,
including representatives from each of the five community centers
located in border counties. Episcopal leadership was provided by
Bishop William Dew, Jr., of Phoenix, Ariz., Bishop Baltazar
Gonzalez of Mexico's North Central Conference and Bishop Antonio
Aquina Marques of Mexico's Northwest Conference.
     "They really talked about the need to communicate, to have
open dialogue, to strategize, and to have actual planning and
implementation," he said.
     Mostly populated by Mexican-Americans and Mexicans, the
manmade border of river, steel and desert has had a long history
of indigenous people who move freely from one side to the other
and back again, according to Soltero.
     At the meeting in Tucson, the economy -- employment,
underemployment and unemployment -- and the environment were
considered the major issues facing the region.
     Environmental issues include not just air and water pollution
and the depletion of the soil but the limited water resources.
Sometimes economic solutions cause environmental problems. "When
you bring a factory into town, it may create jobs, but factories
use a lot of water," Soltero pointed out.
     Through various mission projects and the denomination's Plan
for Hispanic Ministries, the church tries to assist people living
along the border.
     The Colonias ministry, for example, focuses on rural ghettos
of migrant workers that exist "below developing nations'
standards," according to Soltero. People often live in cardboard
houses and there are no services for water, electricity or sewage.
     Church workers and volunteers there provide ministries for
children and youth and construct homes and churches.
     But what the church is or should be doing locally is not
always known. That's why the committee hopes to foster better
communications among the U.S. and Mexican conferences themselves
and between the Mexican and U.S. church in general.
     Three working groups were established in Tucson to follow up
subregionally on the issues discussed. They are the McAllen Group,
covering Brownsville to Laredo, Texas; the El Paso group, covering
Alpine, Texas, through New Mexico; and the Desert Southwest and
California-Pacific group.
     The overall goal is for leaders in the region to set up their
own structure for ministry along the border by the Year 2000. The
Board of Global Ministries would still provide resources, but no
longer coordinate the work, Soltero explained.
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