wfn.org | Methodist bishops call for continued support for Kosovo

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

July 15, 1999 News media contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York
10-21-71B{376}

By United Methodist News Service

United Methodists and other concerned people outside the church have
contributed $4 million to the denomination's relief efforts for the people
of Kosovo.

But the denomination's Council of Bishops is hoping its members can do more.
Working with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), its executive
committee adopted a statement, issued July 15, entitled "A Call to United
Methodists for Continued Support for the People of Kosovo." The statement
seeks to elicit "a faithful response to reach out to our suffering
neighbors." President of the committee is Bishop Robert C. Morgan of
Louisville, Ky.

Many of the Kosovar refugees are returning to villages that were nearly
destroyed. A survey released in early July by the U.N. High Commissioner for
Refugees revealed that two-thirds of the homes in many villages are
uninhabitable, mostly because of burning by Serbs. Schools also have been
destroyed and water systems have been polluted.

"In addition to rebuilding homes, schools and the infrastructure, there is a
great need for emotional, psychological and spiritual healing from the
trauma of war," the bishops pointed out. "Children and youth need programs
such as the youth houses established by the United Methodist Committee on
Relief in Bosnia and in the Republics of Georgia and Armenia.

"Women and their families need counseling to deal with the personal trauma
and social stigma of rape. People of all ages will have to cope with the
loss of loved ones. In a country where ethnic tensions remain high, there is
urgent need for ministries promoting tolerance, understanding and
reconciliation."

Bishop Marshall L. (Jack) Meadors Jr. of the church's Mississippi Area has
been leading the Council of Bishops on this issue. Meadors was part of the
religious delegation assembled by the Rev. Jesse Jackson that convinced
Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic to release three captive U.S.
soldiers.

After that visit, Meadors said, "I felt a need and I guess maybe a call to
see the war from the other side." At the end of June, he visited refugee
camps in Albania and spent two days in Kosovo.

United Methodists have "five primary ways" to continue to respond to the
people of Kosovo, according to the bishops. Those ways include:

	*	Prayer.
	*	Raising concerns and awareness in worship and in times of
fellowship and education.
	*	Financial gifts to these Advance Numbers: Kosovo Emergency
Relief, No. 982450-8; Mother/Child Survival, No. 982645-1, Kosovo; Youth
House, No. 982844-8, Kosovo.
	*	Material resources, such as hygiene, school and layette kits
and medicine boxes.
	*	Volunteers in Mission teams.

UMCOR has been working in Kosovo and in the refugee camps through Action by
Churches Together (ACT), and the relief agency recently opened an office in
Pristina, funded by a $100,000 grant from the United Methodist Board of
Global Ministries. Angela Oliver, a United Methodist from the Atlanta area
who has worked for UMCOR in Bosnia, is running the office.

Sam Dixon, the executive in charge of UMCOR's NGO (nongovernmental
organizations) office in Washington, said the denomination's work there will
involve shelter rehabilitation, community development and trauma counseling.
Christian Aid -- an organization supported by 42 denominations including the
British Methodist Church - is providing an initial $1 million for UMCOR's
shelter project.

At first, the shelter rehabilitation work in the Orahova area and in two
villages in Mitrovica will be done by families and local hired workers.
Dixon expects to place volunteer work teams eventually, but he said the
current situation in Kosovo is not stable enough for volunteers.

A few small United Methodist congregations had been established in Kosovo
before the war. United Methodist Bishop Heinrich Bolleter of Zurich,
Switzerland, has reported that Mehmet Sopaj - the lay pastor for those
congregations - has safely returned home. Sopaj is trying to make two
habitable rooms out of the remnants of the parsonage for his family, the
bishop said, and has learned that his daughter, who had remained behind, is
safe.

Donations can be made to UMCOR through local churches or directly to 475
Riverside Dr., Room 330, New York, NY 10115. More information is available
by calling the agency's hotline at (800) 841-1235.

______________
United Methodist News Service
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