wfn.org | Bishops vote to continue initiative on children

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

May 7, 1999 News media contact: Tim Tanton*(615) 742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
10-21-31-71B{257}

CHATTANOOGA (UMNS) - The bishops of the United Methodist Church have voted
to continue their Initiative on Children and Poverty for another four years,
noting that young people bear the brunt of the dangers that exist in the
world today.

The Council of Bishops was unanimous in its vote May 6, following
impassioned testimony from African and U.S. bishops about the dangers facing
children.

"Children are all we've got in Africa," said Bishop Nkulu Ntanda Ntambo, of
the denomination's North Katanga Area in the Congo. "Children are the center
of our hope. Children are the center of our development. Children are the
center of our future."

Yet they are also at the center of suffering in Africa, he said, noting that
most of the people killed in wars on that continent are children and women.

"When you have no children, I don't know how you can survive in Africa," he
said.

The Initiative on Children and Poverty was launched in 1995. Its aims
included evaluating everything the church does in light of its impact on
children and the poor; providing resources on the crisis facing those two
groups and enabling the church to respond; and proclaiming the Gospel among
children and the impoverished.

In addition to continuing the emphasis, the council also voted to hire a
retired bishop to staff the initiative.

Atrocities are going on throughout Africa, Ntambo said. Africa needs
international help, particularly from America, to stop the wars, he said.

"The same situation in Colorado is the same situation going on 24 hours in
Africa," he said, referring to the recent massacre of students at a
Littleton, Colo., high school.

Other bishops described the widespread rape of young girls and women, the
displacement of thousands of people, and the forced recruitment of children
into armies.

"Africa is crying," said Bishop Joseph C. Humper of the Sierra Leone Area.

In addition to war, AIDS is having a devastating effect on the lives of
African children. Bishop Christopher Jokomo of the Zimbabwe Area noted that
many children are AIDS orphans.

"About 48 percent of the population in Zimbabwe is below age 15," Jokomo
said. The parents are in the 25 to 39 age group, which is hard hit by the
illness and death resulting from AIDS, he said. Recent estimates place the
mortality rate at about 1,000 deaths a week from AIDS, he said.

"This has resulted in a very difficult social problem, including a situation
where you have a household directed by a child," he said. He cited one
example of a 12-year-old boy who is the head of his family, which includes
two other boys.

The problems that children face are made worse by poverty, he said.

"Our Initiative on Children and Poverty is the right initiative at the right
time in the history of our denomination," said Bishop Felton E. May of the
Washington Area.

"At some point in time, this council must stand and say enough is enough,
and we will use our considerable resources to care for the children of
Africa and the world," May said. "For as Africa goes, so goes the world."

A task force guiding the bishops' initiative has decided to designate
$750,000 for the construction of homes for children in Burundi, Angola,
Mozambique and Liberia, said Bishop Elias Galvan of the Seattle Area. The
Advance Special for the children is #101000-4. 

The next steps for the initiative will include developing a foundation paper
on community and justice, to make sure the effort is deeply grounded in the
Bible and theology, said Bishop Kenneth Carder of the Nashville Area after
the vote.

Community and justice are on the "growing edge" of the initiative, he said. 

Community includes all of God's children, he said. He emphasized the need
for relationships in which the rich not only serve the poor but also receive
from them. 

"God is the God who comes to us in the least of these, and therefore we
cannot know and serve God without relationships with the least of these," he
said.

Noting that the rich are accustomed to giving to the poor, Carder said that
"what we need to learn is to receive from the poor." The poor offer
spirituality, openness to grace and a sense of what a priority is, he said.

Commenting on some of the biggest problems facing children, Carder said
society has the medical and agricultural technology to solve poverty, hunger
and premature deaths. "What we lack is the moral vision."

In its interim report to the council, "Community with Children and the
Poor," the initiative's task force spelled its vision.

"We prayerfully seek specific and dramatic ways to bear witness to the
coming of God's reign in which human division is abolished," the reported
stated. "Concretely, we seek to be and to build up the body of Christ as
community with and among the impoverished, in which the spiritual and
material gifts of poor and rich are shared with one another."

Bishop Arthur Kulah of the Liberia Area stressed the urgency of moving ahead
as he thanked the bishops for their vote.

"Now it's time for action," he declared.

And from the audience, someone said: "Amen."

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