wfn.org | Ohioans plan red carpet welcome for United Methodists in 2000

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

Nov. 23, 1998	Contact: Thomas S. McAnally((615)742-5470(Nashville,
Tenn.   {687}

NOTE TO EDITORS:  Several photos of Cleveland sites will be available in
a day or two for use with or without this story. You may want to use the
General Conference logo with this story: http://www.umc.org/gc2000 .

A UMNS News Feature
By Tom McAnally*

United Methodists of  Northeast Ohio are already making plans to roll
out the red carpet when the top legislative body of their church comes
to Cleveland for its first gathering of the new century.

The General Conference -- with nearly 1,000 lay and clergy delegates
from the United States, Europe, Africa and the Philippines -- meets
every four years to set policy, develop programs and budgets, and speak
to issues of the day.  It will convene Tuesday,  May 2,  2000,  at
Cleveland Convention Center and adjourn Friday, May 12.

Heading up the host committee for the 10-day event is the Rev. Kenneth
Chalker, pastor of Cleveland's historic, downtown First United Methodist
Church.  "Two thousand volunteers for 2000" has been the rallying cry
for the committee, which includes 24 sub-committees dealing with various
aspects of the international meeting.

Chalker  wants delegates from around the world to get a taste of United
Methodism in Ohio, the state with the fourth highest number (473,281) of
church members in the United States. He also wants them to experience a
city that has been undergoing a major transformation in recent decades.

Cleveland has had a hard time living down the reputation of being the
city where, in 1969, the Cuyohoga River caught on fire because of an oil
spill. But Chalker and local citizens are going out of their way to make
sure their United Methodist visitors see a vibrant, alive Cleveland that
has worked hard to overcome its sometimes rusty image.

As a starter, the traditional reception for the church's bishops and
their spouses, which opens the conference Monday evening, May 1, will be
held at the ultra-modern Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on the shore of Lake
Erie. And, with the venue, there will be innovations. Instead of having
a traditional receiving line where bishops are "on display," Chalker and
his committee are making a special effort to invite youth and young
people to visit with their bishops and spouses in informal settings
throughout the hall.

"Our church is growing older, so we are making a special effort to
invite young people  who in many cases are more familiar with rock and
roll than 'Rock of Ages,' " Chalker said.  He isn't revealing what kind
of music will be playing in the background, but one can assume it won't
be Bach or Beethoven.

The middle weekend of the conference has traditionally been an
opportunity for the host committee to showcase United Methodism in the
region. Ohioans are planning a major Sunday gathering at University
Circle, known by locals as an area for culture and entertainment. 

Delegates will be invited to stroll through the beautiful park-like
setting, stop in at the many museums and eat -- something United
Methodists often do when they gather. Museums in the area include
Children's Museum, the Health Education Museum, the Cleveland Playhouse;
Cleveland Museum of Art; Cleveland Institute of Art;  Botanical Gardens;
Museum of Natural History; the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum and the
Cleveland Institute of Music.

To cap off the day, the United Methodist delegates will be invited to a
special musical production at Severance Hall, home of the Cleveland
Orchestra. Built in 1931, Severance is undergoing a $30 million
renovation to be completed early in 2000.

The musical program will feature students from the five United
Methodist-related colleges in Ohio, one of eight states with five or
more United Methodist two- and four-year institutions of higher
education. Ohio also is home for two of the church's 13 U.S. seminaries:
United Theological Seminary at Dayton and Methodist Theological School
of Ohio at Delaware.

Before and during the General Conference, the host committee will give
special attention to delegates from outside the United States, many of
whom have never traveled abroad and need special assistance. Proceedings
of the conference will be translated simultaneously in several
languages, including German, French, Portuguese and Spanish.

Because United Methodism is on a numerical decline in the United States
but is growing rapidly in places such as the Philippines and Africa, the
proportion of delegates to the General Conference has changed in recent
years. At the most recent conference in 1996 at Denver, 160 of the
delegates were from outside the United States. At least that number will
attend the 2000 event.

Cookies have also become a tradition at General Conference. Millions of
the tasty morsels,  produced in kitchens throughout the host region, are
consumed by delegates and visitors during breaks in the proceedings. The
Ohio committee working specifically on the cookies is being co-chaired
by Lynda Slack of Alliance and Joan Wood of Steubenville.

"When we first heard about the task, we were a bit overwhelmed," Wood
told United Methodist News Service in a telephone interview. "But we're
beginning to get a network organized. It will be manageable." Wood is
associate director of the Urban Mission Ministries in Steubenville.

Methodists have long been known for their "methodical" way of organizing
to accomplish ministry and ministry. That certainly is true of the
"cookie" committee.

"We have in each district of the East Ohio Conference a cookie
coordinator and a worker coordinator who will organize people to come to
Cleveland and be hosts for a day," Wood continued. "A big issue is how
we get cookies and volunteers to Cleveland so we have a transportation
committee in each of the 12 districts. It will take 40 volunteers each
day to act as hosts."

While the cookie committee is waiting to learn the parameters of its
work, Wood said consideration is being given to offering more than
cookies -- possibly other food items, maybe from various ethnic
traditions. Some thought is also being given to providing non-sugar
cookies.  The committee has even anticipated what they will do with
leftover food each day. "Folks in the Cleveland District are helping us
find a way to deliver leftover cookies to homeless shelters in the
city," Wood said.

The host committee has special plans for the more than 2,000 visitors
expected to attend all or portions of the 10-day meeting. Initial plans
call for building two or three Habitat for Humanity houses in Cleveland
during the conference. Delegates from each of the church's conferences
(regional units) may be asked to bring to Cleveland with them one or two
skilled construction workers to help with the projects. 

United Methodists throughout the United States are deeply involved with
the Habitat program.  Millard Fuller, director of the national program,
is being invited to address the conference.

The General Conference always features some of the church's best music,
worship and preaching. Cynthia Wilson-Felder of Atlanta, co-director of
music for the 1996 conference, has already been named music director for
the 2000 conference. In addition to group singing, she will be in charge
of the selection process for guest choirs from around the world. The
host committee will be working closely with Wilson-Felder and others
planning daily worship.

Aside from the spiritual or religious aspects of the conference,
Cleveland business leaders are not unaware of the economic value of the
meeting.  The church has budgeted $3.2 million  for the conference --
including travel, meals and lodging for delegates.

The host committee will also be involved with various programmatic
aspects of the conference as they spill over in the community. These may
include issues related to racial reconciliation. The commission planning
the General Conference is considering holding a service of repentance
regarding African Americans, specifically addressing acts of injustice
that prompted
many blacks to leave the Methodist Episcopal Church to create their own
denominations.  Additionally, the church is looking at its own
institutional life, which for nearly 30 years included a segregated
Central Jurisdiction. The unit was created in 1940 with the reunion of
northern and southern Methodists and was not abolished until the union
of the Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren churches in 1968.

#  #  #

*McAnally is director of United Methodist News Service.

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
Releases and photos also available at
http://www.umc.org/umns/