wfn.org | Re: United Methodist Daily News note 561

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Reply-to: owner-umethnews@ecunet.org (United Methodist News list)
"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 (567
notes).

Note 567 by UMNS on Jan. 26, 1998 at 15:28 Eastern (4638 characters).

CONTACT: Linda Green				 40(10-34-71B){567}
	    Nashville, Tenn. (615)742-5470	 Jan. 26, 1998

Native American Plan focuses 
on enhancing native ministries 

by United Methodist News Service

	OKLAHOMA CITY —- The United Methodist Church's Native American Comprehensive
Plan is focusing on touching the lives of grass roots native people to make
life-changing differences.
	The Native American Comprehensive Plan, mandated by the 1992 General
Conference, emphasizes congregational and leadership development, Native
American spirituality and involvement in the total life of the United
Methodist Church.
	Meeting here Jan. 23-25, the 22-member task force approved three efforts
designed to enhance Native American ministries. The task force is trying to
help the church view Native Americans no longer as a mission cause but as
partners in ministry.
The church's task is to cause ripples in the world and to express the covenant
with God and each other for fairness, peace and love, said United Methodist
Bishop Bruce Blake of Oklahoma. 
He challenged the task force members, as part of a covenant community, to
ignore self-interest and to work in a way that would cause ripples of justice,
peace and love in the world.
The task force's three-point plan focuses on:
* A delegation to Hawaii.
	In February, a 10-member delegation will journey to Hawaii to enter into a
dialogue with indigenous people there. The delegation will talk to landless
and homeless people about issues of concern and discussing entering into
covenant agreements.
	The "Building Bridges With Hawaii" conference will  be an immersion
experience focusing on indigenous spirituality, solidarity and economics. It
will aim at developing collaborative strategies and actions.
	The delegation wants to begin building bridges of understanding, focusing on
areas such as religious freedom, reparation related to lost land and homes,
and sovereignty or self-determination.  
	The United Methodist Church has been instrumental in supporting indigenous
concerns in Hawaii for a number of years through its association with Native
organizations, said the Rev. Thom White Wolf Fassett, a task force member and
top executive at the denomination's Board of Church and Society. 
Native Americans are reuniting with Hawaiian people on common issues of life
and survival, he said.
Fassett said the consultation also will have implications for United Methodist
relationships with Pacific Islanders, who are facing similar land struggles.
He expects strategies to be developed for a model of relating, exploring and
establishing Native Hawaiian ministries, he said. 
* Development grants.
In an effort to strengthen Native American churches and ministries, the plan's
congregational development committee is announcing the creation of
congregational development grants.
The grants will be for congregational revitalization, congregational
transformation, new church starts and the creation of cooperative parishes.
Letters of inquiry are being accepted. Interested persons are encouraged to
write Ann Saunkeah, executive director of the Native American Comprehensive
Plan, P.O. Box 4609, Tulsa, OK 74159-0609.
"I am excited that we will be enabling churches to strengthen their
ministries," Saunkeah said. "We encourage churches to utilize the grant toward
accomplishing long-term goals."
* A pastoral care and AIDS conference. 
The Native American Comprehensive Plan, through its leadership development
committee, will conduct a pastoral care and AIDS conference in October.
The conference will help Native American pastors and lay people develop skills
in dealing with AIDS patients and their families, allow personal testimonies
of Native American AIDS/HIV victims and develop a network for sharing
resources.
The Rev. David Wilson, leadership committee chairman and staff member of the
Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference, said statistics show the rate of
AIDS/HIV infections is increasing rapidly in the Native American community,
particularly on the reservations and in closed communities. Education is
needed for those infected and for prevention, he said. 
Because of fear and a lack of education about AIDS, Wilson said victims are
often neglected by their families.
"Many of those infected are shunned by their families because stereotypes have
lead them to believe that AIDS is a homosexual disease and is a disease of
drug users."
He wants Native Americans to understand that AIDS affects everyone, not just
certain groups.
The Native American Comprehensive Plan task force's next meeting is set for
Aug. 13-16 in a yet-to-be-named place in the Northeast Jurisdiction.
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