wfn.org | Year-end review: Disasters, same-sex unions drew church

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attention in '98

Nov. 24, 1998 Contact: Tim Tanton*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.   {691}

NOTE TO EDITORS: You may wish to divide this long story and run it as a
series.

A UMNS Feature
By Tim Tanton*

1998 has not been a dull year for United Methodists.

A few words speak volumes: Diversity dialogues. Natural disasters. CPT
and a "transformational direction" for the church. The bishops'
initiative for children. Conference restructuring.

Jimmy Creech. Church trial. Judicial Council. Social Principles. Greg
Dell.

If we remember only a few key stories from this year, however, they can
be summed up under the headings "natural disasters" and "same-sex
unions." For better or worse, no two areas absorbed more of the church's
attention.

The year began with United Methodists responding to Typhoon Paka in
Guam. Then disaster followed upon disaster in the United States, Central
America and elsewhere, climaxing with hurricanes Georges and Mitch in
the Caribbean and Gulf Coast states. Throughout the year, it seemed that
virtually every state drew its share of misery in the form of tornadoes,
floods, wildfires or other calamities.

The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) was everywhere,
arranging aid for flood-stricken families in Del Rio, Texas,
coordinating relief for hurricane survivors in the Gulf, and helping
tidal wave victims in Papua New Guinea.

Tornadoes and wildfires raged during the first half of the year.
Twisters killed dozens of people across the United States. An April 8
twister near Birmingham, Ala., killed 33 people, including seven United
Methodists, and damaging or destroying several churches. Eight days
later, six United Methodist churches in Nashville, Tenn., were damaged
by tornadoes, and general agency employees were forced to take shelter.
At least 11 people died and 15 United Methodist churches were damaged in
June 27 storms that caused severe flooding in southeastern Ohio.

Then,  the hurricanes began.

Hurricane Bonnie hit several East Coast states in late August, while
Charley moved in on Texas and the Gulf Coast. Winds and rain generated
by Georges in September caused widespread destruction and killed more
than 500 people, prompting the United Methodist Church's bishops and
finance agency to launch an appeal Oct. 9 for a special offering to help
survivors. The crowning blow came from Hurricane Mitch, which killed
more than 10,000 people in Central America in October.

United Methodists responded to the crises with money, supplies and
volunteer support. The denomination worked with autonomous churches
throughout the affected areas of Central America and other relief
organizations.

Division in the church

While United Methodists were indeed united on many fronts, they were
distinctly at odds on one issue: homosexuality. Whether lay people or
pastors, conservatives or liberals, the debate over same-sex unions took
on a distinctly uncivil tone at times during 1998.

The central figure in the debate was the Rev. Jimmy Creech, who went to
a church trial in March for performing a same-sex union service the
previous fall. Creech, then senior pastor of First United Methodist
Church in Omaha, Neb., was charged with disobeying the order and
discipline of the denomination for holding the service. He was narrowly
acquitted on March 13. He was not reappointed to First Church in June
and is currently on leave of absence in North Carolina.

Creech's defense hinged on his argument that a statement in the Social
Principles forbidding such unions was not enforceable as church law. The
passage states that services celebrating homosexual unions shall not be
performed by United Methodist ministers nor held in United Methodist
churches.

After the trial, the debate over "holy union" ceremonies for same-sex
partners only intensified. The South Central College of Bishops asked
the church's supreme court, the Judicial Council, to rule on whether the
statement in the Social Principles was enforceable. Similar requests
came from other quarters.

Meanwhile, the Council of Bishops issued a pastoral letter on April 30,
stating its intent to uphold the denomination's Book of Discipline and
Social Principles regarding homosexuality issues. Several people and
groups in the church also pushed the bishops to call for a special
session of the General Conference to deal specifically with same-sex
ceremonies. However, the bishops said they would wait until the Judicial
Council had a chance to address the questions regarding the Social
Principles.

Meeting in August for a special session, the nine-member Judicial
Council ruled that the statement in the Social Principles was
enforceable and that ministers who violate it are liable to be brought
to church trial. 

A month later, the Rev. Gregory Dell performed a same-sex union for two
men at Broadway United Methodist Church in Chicago. Nearly a third of
Dell's church members identify themselves as gay or lesbian. Bishop C.
Joseph Sprague filed the complaint against Dell, saying he felt
dutybound to do so. However, the bishop said he personally disagreed
with the denomination's position on the issue. 

At about the same time, two women who hold leadership positions in the
California-Nevada Annual Conference said they will celebrate their
longtime relationship with a holy union service. The ceremony will unite
Jeanne Barnett, the conference lay leader, and Ellie Charlton, a member
of the board of trustees. Set for Jan. 16, 1999, the service will be
co-celebrated by dozens of clergy. 

The church probably put its best foot forward during the debate over
holy unions with its final Diversity Dialogue session, held in February.
Twenty-three participants, liberals and conservatives, discussed
theological diversity in the church. The Dallas session followed a
similar forum in Nashville the previous fall. Participants in the
sessions didn't find common ground on homosexuality and other issues,
but they did agree on 10 rules for civil discourse. They also produced a
document aptly titled "In Search of Unity." In it, they noted that
issues related to homosexuality represent a fundamental challenge "so
deep as to harbor the danger of explicit disunity or schism" in the
church. Despite their disagreements, participants rated the sessions
positively and called on the bishops to lead further conversations.

The chasm in the church yawned on the West Coast, where 18 clergy and 25
lay people in the California-Nevada Annual Conference asked that they be
allowed to separate from the regional body. "We are divided beyond
reconciliation," the evangelicals said, pointing to differences in
theology, worship, morality and other areas. The proposal for a separate
organizational entity for evangelicals was rejected by the conference's
ministry staff in May. Leaders of the Evangelical Renewal Fellowship
later quit the denomination, and most members of the Kingsburg United
Methodist Church in San Francisco left to form the new Kingsburg
Community Church.

Nebraska United Methodist officials gave 325 members who broke away from
First Church in Omaha permission to form a new congregation. The members
had left First Church after Creech's acquittal.

Three churches in Georgia and one in Tennessee voted to withhold 1998
apportionments, which are funds that a church contributes as its fair
share of ministry and administrative costs beyond the local area. The
withholding of apportionments was seen as a way to express displeasure
with a denomination that the churches viewed as departing from
traditional doctrine or not being strong enough in condemning
homosexuality. Most, if not all, of the churches later resumed their
apportionment payments.

Missions and ministry

In a way, 1998 was a poster year for apportionment giving. Besides
providing relief for disaster victims, United Methodists' dollars funded
missionary work and outreach around the world.

The church started sending a new type of  United Methodist missionary,
recruited specifically to address children's needs, to Africa. The
"Missioners of Hope" program, adopted by the United Methodist Board of
Global Ministries, is focusing on the children and families who have
suffered through conflict on the continent. One hundred Missioners of
Hope will serve for two- to five-year periods in the joint effort of the
Board of Global Ministries, United Methodist African Central Conferences
and other Methodist bodies in Africa.

In Zimbabwe, United Methodist-related Africa University partnered with
UMCOR and the ecumenical organization Action by Churches Together to
establish the first training program in emergency response and
management in Africa. Construction crews also started earthwork for a $5
million library at Africa University. The school began the 1998-99
academic year with a record enrollment of 784 students, an increase of
164 students over the previous academic year.

Congregations in the newly expanded East Africa United Methodist Annual
Conference continued to grow, despite poverty and internal conflicts.
Formerly known as the Burundi Annual Conference, East Africa now
includes Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan and Uganda. More than 100
representatives from those districts met in August in Kenya. They took
action to clean up problems of mismanagement by Uganda's United
Methodist leadership. 

The church's work is strong in Russia also. The Rev. Bruce Weaver, who
is coordinating ministries in the country, said that 35 Russian United
Methodist congregations have been organized during this decade. In
Moscow, the Russia United Methodist Theological Seminary had its second
commencement June 13. 

The Board of Global Ministries commissioned the first group of
Korean-American "mission pastors" as part of a plan to improve ministry
to that population. The number of Korean-American United Methodist
congregations has jumped from less than dozen to nearly 300 in recent
years.  Since 1981, more than half of the new United Methodist churches
formed in the United States have been Korean-American. The first
national Korean-American United Methodist Mission Convocation also was
held, May 4-7, in Los Angeles.

Hispanic congregations also are growing. A United Methodist National
Plan for Hispanic Ministry, adopted in 1992, has resulted in 223 new
congregations in 48 annual conferences, the Committee on Hispanic
Ministries learned. The committee approved mission initiative grants of
$50,000 each to the Central Texas, Desert Southwest and South Carolina
annual conferences.

The Board of Global Ministries' directors earmarked $941,450 in grants
to bolster the Methodist Church in Cuba and a $350,000 grant for a
mission center in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia. 

The board's directors also committed nearly $25 million for new mission
work at their April meeting and another $10 million for three new
program initiatives in October. The measures include deploying hundreds
of missionary workers and volunteers, establishing regional board
offices and support for the East Africa Annual Conference; acting on
emerging mission opportunities in Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia;
and addressing the causes of hunger and poverty in communities where
United Methodists live.

A new group, the 20-member United Methodist Native American Economic
Development and Empowerment Task Force, met for the first time in May.
Members adopted a mission "to enable the United Methodist Church and
other churches to be more engaged in assisting Native Americans, Native
Alaskans and Native Hawaiians in their efforts for economic
development." Later in the year, the United Methodist Church's Native
American Comprehensive Plan hosted an AIDS conference in Oklahoma City
to help pastors and lay people learn more about the disease and develop
skills in dealing with patients and families. Of  2 million Native
Americans in the United States, 1,700 are infected with HIV.

Annual conference issues

Restructuring was a major theme during the 66 U.S. annual conference
sessions in May and June. The Judicial Council provided some guidance on
those efforts at both its spring and fall sessions. At the April 22-25
session, the council ordered the Northern Illinois and the Kansas West
annual conferences to undo their restructures, and the Louisiana and
Holston annual conference restructures were similarly rejected. Kansas
West and Holston conferences had not yet implemented their plans.

Some of the problems, according to the various decisions, included
failure to provide for connectional relationships, acting on an
amendment to the church's constitution without enabling legislation from
the General Conference, and failure to provide for financial oversight
and decision making in the manner provided by the Book of Discipline.

Another common theme running through the annual conference sessions was
a focus on children. While issues related to homosexuality attracted
attention at most of the meetings of the U.S. annual conferences, major
emphasis was also placed on children, poverty and Africa. The
conferences gave at least $264,000 to the Bishops' Initiative on
Children and Poverty and more than $46,000 to the "Hope for the Children
of Africa" campaign. Thirty-nine conferences dealt with homosexuality
issues, primarily by affirming the Book of Discipline and Social
Principles.

The denomination's 30-year decline in membership continued but at a
significantly slower rate, according to statistics compiled from the
U.S. annual conferences. In 1997, the most recent year for which
statistics are available, the church unofficially reported a loss of
about 47,000 members. If officially confirmed by the church's General
Council on Finance and Administration, the 1997 figures would represent
the smallest decline in a decade. For each of the previous two years,
the church lost 49,000 members. The denomination has 8.5 million U.S.
members but is growing rapidly in other areas of the world, where it has
another 1 million members.

Preparing for General Conference

Many annual conferences and general agencies of the church also spent
time looking ahead to the 2000 General Conference, which will be May
2-12 in Cleveland. The Connectional Process Team met with agency boards
and other parts of the church as part of its work to map out a
"transformational direction" for the denomination. The 38-member CPT,
created by the 1996 General Conference, will put out a first draft of
its proposal early next year. The plan is expected to include a
recommendation that the United States become a central conference and
relate to a new global General Conference in the same way as the current
central conferences abroad.

A task force studying the funding of United Methodist churchwide
ministries said it would recommend taking the number of members out of
the equation that the denomination uses to assess the amounts of money
requested of each annual conference. Any changes in the churchwide
apportionments will be determined by the next General Conference in
Cleveland in the year 2000.  The new formula would be based on ability
to contribute, task force members say, rather than on a share of the
amount needed.

The open arms and wounded hands of Christ welcoming all persons to the
table is the central feature of a new logo approved for the 2000 General
Conference of the United Methodist Church. The logo incorporates the
Scriptural theme, "We who are many are one body." 

Pittsburgh was chosen as the site for the 2004 General Conference.

Judicial Council rulings

All eyes were on the Judicial Council throughout 1998. The court ruled
on several key issues in addition to the homosexuality-related
questions. It ruled that the General Conference may not enact enabling
legislation on any constitutional amendment until the measure has been
ratified by the annual conferences. In this decision, the council denied
a request that would have permitted the church's top lawmaking body to
enact enabling legislation based on a constitutional amendment that is
proposed for ratification by the same General Conference.

In another landmark decision, the Judicial Council ruled that United
Methodist annual conferences may not identify themselves with or take on
the label of an unofficial body or movement. This ruling, which
prohibits these regional bodies from adopting such
labels as "reconciling conference" or "transforming conference," arose
out of the Northwest Texas Annual Conference's decision in June to
become a "confessing conference." "Such identification or labeling is
divisive and makes the official bodies of the church subject to the
possibility of being in conflict with the Discipline and doctrines of
the United Methodist Church," the council said, reversing earlier
decisions it had made.

Use of the cross and flame logo of the United Methodist Church is
limited to official bodies, which the council defined in April as those
units at various levels of the church administration that are mentioned
in the Book of Discipline, such as a church, annual conference or
agency.

Fellowship and dialogue

Leaders of single-adult ministries got down at "Jammin' In Jackson," a
training event in Mississippi held July 30-Aug. 2. Sponsored by the
Board of Discipleship and United Methodist Single Adult Leaders, it was
one of countless events focusing on specific areas of ministry in 1998.
Two "Dancing on the Web" teleconferences were held to help churches use
the Internet in their ministries.

About 1,100 African-American men of the Methodist family gathered in
Atlanta for a historic three-day conference Oct. 15-18 to discuss issues
facing them today and into the 21st century. The 1998 National Black
Men's Conference, with the theme "Brother to Brother," united
African-American men in the United Methodist Church with men from the
African Methodist Episcopal (AME), African Methodist Episcopal Zion
(AMEZ) and Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) churches for the first
time

Nearly 10,000 women gathered May 14-17 in Orlando, Fla., for the United
Methodist Women's Assembly. During the three-day event, the participants
took several actions related to goals of care and justice for women and
children around the world.

United Methodists also were in dialogue throughout the year with other
denominations.
For example, in Salt Lake City, an elder of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints joined United Methodists Feb. 20-22 for the first
formal dialogue between the two denominations.

Church programs at work

The United Methodist Publishing House launched a new business
development team to focus on nontraditional ways of reaching customers.
The unit will focus particularly on reaching children and youth through
avenues such as the Internet. President Neil Alexander also announced
plans to upgrade the Cokesbury retail stores in the next five years. The
Nashville, Tenn.,-based Publishing House exceeded its sales goal for the
1998 business year ended July 31, with total sales of $110 million, up
3.6 percent over 1997. 

In Evanston, Ill., the United Methodist Board of Pension and Health
Benefits put itself in crisis mode in an effort to resolve customer
service problems. The agency had received a high volume of calls since
it converted to a new investment plan in January. A study by a board
task force also found that providing for retirees' future medical
coverage is the most pressing benefits issue facing the United Methodist
Church in the years ahead.

The church's treasurer, Sandra Kelley Lackore, noted during the fall
that United Methodists have continued to increase their giving to
churchwide ministries, despite stock market fluctuations and economic
uncertainty. Lackore said receipts for apportionments were almost $57
million on Sept. 30, up more than 2 percent from a year earlier.

The Board of Discipleship's Committee on Ethnic Local Church Concerns
directed thousands of dollars in grants for programs. The grant for the
Samoan American Caucus Leadership Training Program of Long Beach,
Calif., is part of $112, 929 awarded recently to 11 United
Methodist-sponsored projects.

United Methodist Communications announced a major effort aimed at
increasing the public's awareness of the United Methodist Church through
television commercials. The Nashville, Tenn.,-based agency's commission
approved a plan for a four-year media campaign, starting in 2001. UMCom
will take the proposal to the 2000 General Conference.

United Methodist Communications also unveiled a redesigned Internet site
for the denomination, still at http://www.umc.org . 

Governing members of the United Methodist General Council on Ministries
held their regular semi-annual meeting in Switzerland Oct. 26-30, the
first time a governing board of a United Methodist agency had convened
outside the United States.

The denomination's Board of Higher Education and Ministry in Nashville,
Tenn., approved a four-year, $4 million program to help United Methodist
students attending any regionally accredited academic institution in the
United States. "The Gift of Hope: 21st Century Scholars" program will
grant $1 million a year in scholarship funds from 1999-2003, providing
$1,000 scholarships to 1,000 United Methodist students annually. 

Educators representing Methodist schools around the world met in Bath,
England, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Kingswood School, the
precursor to the church's commitment to education. The school was
founded in 1748 by the father of Methodism, John Wesley, as an answer to
the rampant social and religious ills in England during the 18th
century.

The Shared Mission Focus on Young People, a four-year churchwide
program, joined the ranks of 500 Promising Practices cited by the White
House as models for improving race relations. 

In the headlines

United Methodists were vocal and visible in reacting to major events of
the year, including the terrorist bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya
and Tanzania and the subsequent U.S. retaliation;  and the
hate-motivated killing of gay college student Matthew Shepard. Church
leaders also were active in advocating for peace in the Middle East and
a more open relationship with Cuba.

President Clinton's crisis drew mixed reactions from prominent United
Methodists and lay people, ranging from words of forgiveness to calls
for his resignation. President and Mrs. Clinton attended Foundry United
Methodist Church in Washington on Sept. 20 for the first time since the
president's Aug. 17 testimony before a grand jury about his improper
relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.  During the
Foundry service the Rev. J. Philip Wogaman's sermon included the text
from Matthew 7:1, "Judge not, lest ye be judged."

United Methodists provided relief and help at the scenes of man-made
disasters, such as the shootings that occurred at schools in Jonesboro,
Ark., on March 24, and in Springfield, Ore., on May 21. In both cases,
heavily armed boys opened fire on classmates and teachers, killing
several people.

An Upper Room employee also became a victim of murder. The skeletal
remains of Donna Farr, 44, who disappeared on March 29, were found in a
wooded area near Nashville, Tenn. A bullet was found in the soil beneath
the remains. Farr, the mother of two boys, disappeared on her way to
church..

First United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City showed that life and
ministry do continue even after horrific tragedy. Three years ago, the
historic church was severely damaged by the bombing of the Alfred P.
Murrah Federal Building across the street, which killed 168 people. On
April 19, the congregation dedicated a new, larger sanctuary in what had
been the church parking lot. The new sanctuary represents the completion
of phase one of the congregation's building plan. The original building
and its structures will be converted into a family life or heritage
center and a new educational facility.

Other newsmakers

Many United Methodists made news in 1998. Here are a few:

*David Satcher, former president of United Methodist-related Meharry
Medical College in Nashville and director of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Surgeon
General.

*The Rev. Charles R. Stith, a United Methodist clergyman in Boston who
is founder and president of the Organization for a New Equality, became
the U.S. ambassador to the East African nation of Tanzania.

*Cynthia P. Schneider, a member of Oakdale-Emory United Methodist
Church, Olney, Md., became U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands. She was
an associate professor of art history at Georgetown University in
Washington.

*Kofi A. Annan, secretary-general of the United Nations, received the
1998 World Methodist Peace Award for his pursuit of human reconciliation
and world peace. He received his primary education at a Methodist school
in Ghana.

*The Rev. Chester R. Jones, superintendent of the United Methodist
Church's Pine Bluff (Ark.) District, was elected general secretary of
the denomination's Commission on Religion and Race, effective Jan. 1.
He will succeed Barbara Ricks Thompson, who retired. 

*The Rev. Paul Beeman, 70, a retired United Methodist pastor, was named
national president of  Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and
Gays (PFLAG). He was a pastor and district superintendent in the
Pacific-Northwest Annual Conference for 40 years.

*John Pople, professor of chemistry at Northwestern University in
Evanston, Ill., was one of two recipients of the 1998 Nobel Prize in
Chemistry in the area of quantum chemistry. Pople and his wife, Joy, are
active members of First United Methodist Church in Evanston. 

*The Rev. Diana Eck, a United Methodist pastor and professor at Harvard
University, was chosen by President Clinton as one of nine 1998
recipients of the National Humanities Medal. She is creator and director
of the Harvard Pluralism Project on religious diversity.

*The Rev. Kathryn J. Johnson, 44, was named executive director of the
Methodist Federation for Social Action, effective Oct. 1. She succeeded
the Rev. George McClain, who left after 25 years as executive director
of the independent United Methodist network.

*Donald L. Hayashi, 51, a staff executive for the United Methodist
General Council on Ministries, was elected to a two-year term as
chairman of the board of  Project Equality. The Kansas City, Mo.,-based
national program works to change employment practices through the
purchasing power of its corporate members.

*Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu announced he would spend the 1998-99
academic year at United Methodist-related Emory University in Atlanta,
where he will be in residence at Candler School of Theology as the
Robert W. Woodruff Visiting Professor of Theology. The South African
Nobel laureate will spend the fall semester speaking on and off campus
and working on a book. During the spring semester, he will teach two
courses. 

*The Rev. Paul Dirdak, a pastor from the California/Nevada Annual
Conference, was elected in April to lead the United Methodist Committee
on Relief . 

*The Rev. James M. Lawson, pastor of Holmon United Methodist Church in
Los Angeles, was a central figure in The Children, a book written by
David Halberstam. The book was, in many ways, a biography of Lawson's
ministry in the civil rights movement. Lawson went to Nashville to
officiate at the April memorial service for the Rev. Martin Luther King
Jr.'s convicted assassin, James Earl Ray. Lawson was Ray's prison
pastor.

*Bishop Mvume Dandala, presiding bishop of the Methodist Church of
Southern Africa, and Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu conducted the July
18 wedding ceremony of South African President Nelson Mandela and Graca
Machel. Machel, the former first lady of Mozambique, is a United
Methodist. Mandela attended Methodist schools and Sunday schools as a
youth.

*Bishop Joseph Humper of Sierra Leone left the United States July 25 for
his home in Freetown, after being forced to flee his native country
because of civil war in 1997.

*Bishop Mary Ann Swenson of the Denver Area and her husband, Jeff
Swenson, successfully finished a tandem bicycle ride across the United
States. Their 58-day journey took them through 11 states, including the
four in the bishop's area.

*Jeff Smith, the celebrity chef known as "the Frugal Gourmet," reached a
settlement on July 2 with seven men who had accused him of sexually
molesting them. Smith, 59, of Tacoma, Wash., is an ordained United
Methodist minister but is not under appointment.

*All lawsuits against the Central Texas Conference, its officials and
First United Methodist Church  related to former pastor Barry Bailey
were settled. Bailey was the senior pastor at the 10,500-member First
Church when allegations by several women of sexual misconduct surfaced
in 1994.  In August of that year he retired, ending 18 years as the
pastor.

Deaths in 1998 included retired Bishop W.T. Handy Jr., 74, on April 12
in Nashville; the Rev. Donald English, 68, honorary president and former
chairman of the World Methodist Council, on Aug. 28 in Oxford, England;
the Rev. Jean Cramer-Heurman, 44, pastor of the Wesley Foundation at the
University of Illinois and past national president of the Methodist
Federation for Social Action, on April 20 in Champaign, Ill.; Margaret
Adger Pitts, 104, United Methodist philanthropist, on July 16 in Waverly
Hall, Ga.; retired Bishop Louis W. Schowengerdt, 72, of Dennison, Texas,
on Aug. 10; Samuel W. Witwer Sr., 90, a former Judicial Council member,
on Sept. 13 in Evanston, Ill.; George Wallace, 79, former Alabama
governor, on Sept. 13; the Rev. Amos Seung Woon Rhee, 62, pastor of
First United Methodist Church in Flushing, N.Y., the largest Korean
American congregation in the denomination, on Sept. 29; the Rev. Maud
Keister Jensen, 94, the first woman to receive full clergy rights as an
ordained pastor in the Methodist Church, on Oct. 12 in Madison, N.J.;
Craig R. Hoskins, 46, a former general counsel of the United Methodist
General Council on Finance and Administration, on Oct. 27 in Deerfield,
Ill.
# # # 
*Tanton is news editor of United Methodist News Service.
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