wfn.org | Men's commission to create hunger relief advocates nationwide

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Sept. 21, 1998	Contact: Linda Green*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
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NASHVILLE (UMNS) - In an effort to help eradicate hunger in America, the
churchwide Commission on United Methodist Men will join with a national
organization to establish hunger relief advocates in each of the
denomination's 66 annual conferences in 1999.

The 23 governing members of the men's ministry program voted at their
Sept. 11-12 meeting to expand the commission's partnership with the
Society of St. Andrew, a national hunger relief organization based in
Big Island, Va., by becoming advocates for the poor and for children,
with a special emphasis on hunger. The partnership also is intended to
show the United Methodist Bishops' Initiative on Children and Poverty at
work. 

United Methodist Men, through their 10-year-old Meals for Millions
program, have provided more than 80 million servings of food to the
nation's needy. Through the new hunger relief partnership, the
commission aims to create opportunities for people throughout the
denomination to become involved in hands-on ministry to the hungry.

The expanded partnership with United Methodist Men is "an historic
opportunity to begin to take steps that will lead us to the day when we
do not have any hungry people in our country," said Ken Horne, a
director at the Society of St. Andrew. 

"This is something that I personally believe that God is calling the
United Methodist Church to take the lead in and for United Methodist Men
to lead the United Methodist Church in that direction," he said. 

The program's intent is to put United Methodist Men in a position to
bring the church into solidarity with the poor and hungry. The
denomination's bishops, through their initiative on children and
poverty, have seen the direction the church needs to take on behalf of
the poor, and the relief program is one way for United Methodist Men to
move in that direction, he said.

About 32 million Americans are hungry or at risk of hunger on a regular
basis, Horne said. "What this means is that even with food stamps and
all of the state programs and respites, somewhere between 20-30 million
of our brothers and sisters, four to seven days a month, wind up with
nothing to eat," he said.  

"Hunger is curable, particularly in America,"  he said, because "there
is more than enough wasted food in the United States to feed every
hungry person."

More than 25 percent, or about 96 billion pounds, of all the food
produced in the United States is wasted at the retail, consumer and food
service levels, Horne said.

"This is enough to feed everyone in this country that ever went hungry,
with more than enough left to send to the hungry overseas," he said. "If
we could focus our moral and our physical resources on this problem, we
could create a society without hunger. And it is not that big a deal;
we've got all we need to do it."

The Hunger Relief Advocate program is modeled after a similar program of
the Presbyterian Church and will be based in the Nashville office of the
Commission on United Methodist Men. It will be funded from the
increasing receipts of the Meals for Millions program with assistance
from the Society of St. Andrew. It will ultimately consist of a
full-time paid coordinator, part-time paid advocates in each conference,
volunteer advocates in each district United Methodist Men's unit and
volunteer advocates in each local United Methodist Men's group. 

The 18-year-old Society of St. Andrew will establish the advocate
program in Nashville in 1999. It will begin with a full-year, part-time
position, with funding from society resources for two years. After two
years, the position will be funded by the Commission on United Methodist
Men's Meals for Millions program. At that point, the commission and
society will begin transforming the conference volunteer hunger relief
advocates into paid positions. Forty percent of money from the meals
program will fund the position, and the remaining 60 percent will be
used for direct hunger relief through Society of St. Andrew operations.

Once the Hunger Relief Advocate program is fully operational, the
coordinator will be responsible for a multitude of activities that focus
on the needs of the poor and children and for being an advocate to the
men's commission. Responsibilities will include coordinating conference
advocate activities and training; providing resources on poverty and
hunger issues to United Methodist men and others; developing strategies
for engaging the entire United Methodist Church in combating hunger at
the local, district and annual conference levels; establishing a local
gleaning network in Nashville that will be duplicated nationwide; and
developing ways to strengthen Scouting ministries through hunger relief
activities.

In a matter related to Scouting,  the commission, through its executive
committee, filed a "friend of the court" brief on behalf of the Boy
Scouts of America. The Scouts are appealing for power to select their
leaders without interference from the state of New Jersey. The issue of
practicing homosexuals being Scout leaders is at the center of the case,
Dale vs. the Boy Scouts of America. A New Jersey court has ruled that a
Boy Scouts organization must accept a homosexual scoutmaster.

Through a mail ballot, commission members gave blanket approval to join
the "amicus" brief in support of the Boy Scouts being able to select
their leaders without state interference, and in accordance with the
United Methodist Church's position that the practice of homosexuality is
incompatible with Christian teaching.

The United Methodist Church is the No. 1 denominational sponsor of Boy
Scouts of America, according to Larry Coppock, national director of
scouting ministries, a component of the men's commission. Joining with
other churches in filing the brief was important "because it
demonstrates our support for them to able to select their leaders in
accordance with their guidelines and principles," he said.

Coppock said the brief was filed in conjunction with the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Catholic Church and the Lutheran
Missouri Synod. 

In other business, the commission, through its emerging ministries
committee, decided to give presentations to the students at Candler
School of Theology in Atlanta and Asbury Theological School in Wilmore,
Ky., in anticipation of the schools starting a pilot program for
seminarians on men's ministries.

Commission members also:
*	attended a daylong retreat to build the United Methodist Men's
vision and purpose in the context of the 21st century church;
*	learned that men's ministry across the church has been revived
and that 2,844 new United Methodist Men's units have been chartered this
year;
*	decided to enter into discussions with United Methodist
Communications about linking the denomination's Web site to the
commission's Web site; and
*	learned that the agency is operating at a deficit because money
from its two primary funding sources, the World Service Fund and the
United Methodist Men's Foundation, has not been allocated as scheduled.
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