wfn.org | Board's resolutions to General Conference run gamut of social iss ue

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TITLE:Board's resolutions to General Conference run gamut of social issues

Oct. 12, 1999	News media contact: Joretta Purdue·(202)546-8722·Washington
10-71B{526}

NOTE: For other coverage of the United Methodist Board of Church and
Society's meeting, see UMNS story #525.

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - Issues as diverse as human cloning, workers' rights and
gun violence are addressed in the dozens of resolutions that the United
Methodist Board of Church and Society is sending to General Conference.

Meeting Oct. 7-10, the governing members of the Board of Church and Society
approved proposals for resolutions on those topics and others, such as drugs
and alcohol, economic justice, genetic science, environmental stewardship
and the global debt crisis. The resolutions will be considered by the nearly
1,000 delegates who will gather for the 2000 General Conference, the United
Methodist Church's top lawmaking body. The assembly will be May 2-12 in
Cleveland.

After General Conference, many of the statements found in the denomination's
current Book of Resolutions will disappear automatically as a 12-year rule
comes into play for the first time. Resolutions passed in 1988 or earlier
will expire if not updated or revised by General Conference.

While issues such as drugs and alcohol are familiar terrain for the
denomination, some of the Board of Church and Society's resolutions will
address new topics. For example, the board is calling for a moratorium on
human cloning. It also is condemning acts of hate, and in specific ways it
calls on people to be active in dealing with that issue. 

New resolutions also will address globalization and human rights, care for
the dying and restorative justice. Some of these deal particularly with life
in the United States and address such areas as women and Social Security,
the church's response to aging, and treatment of immigrants.

The three dozen or so resolutions that were adopted at the meeting will join
others that had been approved by the board earlier. In addition, General
Conference will receive proposed resolutions from other agencies,
organizations, congregations and individuals.

Most of the resolutions passed at the meeting had been worked on previously
and appeared in agenda books mailed to the voting members weeks earlier.
However, not previously available to the members was a proposed addition to
the Social Principles on sustainable agriculture. It was brought from
Germany and was approved for submission to General Conference in German with
an English translation. That will be among a number of changes that the
board is proposing for the Social Principles, which are contained in the
denomination's Book of Discipline.

In other business, the board endorsed a petition to keep the current six
special Sundays with offering. The petition is being submitted to General
Conference in cooperation with several other agencies. The board also agreed
to send a small Peace with Justice delegation to Vieques, a Puerto Rican
island that has been used for target practice by the U.S. Navy; and endorsed
joining a new health care coalition working on Medicare.
 
The first day of the board's meeting was marked by the rededication of the
United Methodist Building, which had opened in 1924 and had recently
undergone renovation. Several former agency employees and donors to the
building campaign attended the ceremony. The board's governing members had
authorized the renovation to install a new heating unit and to better
configure the work space. The renovation was completed within its $5.1
million budget. A building fund campaign, which will conclude in July, has
already raised about $2.5 million.

A celebration of the building's 75th anniversary included a reception in one
of the Senate office buildings with remarks from Senators Max Cleland
(D-Ga.) and Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), both United Methodists. Other
speakers included several figures from Washington advocacy offices for other
denominations and faiths, and the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, top staff
executive of the National Council of Churches.

Preliminary action to consider two boycotts was taken. The board agreed to
send a three-member delegation to visit church leaders in North Carolina and
others in the state in regard to working conditions at the Mt. Olive Pickle
Co. and its suppliers. The delegation may recommend future action to the
board.

The board also agreed to explore the possibility of boycotting Kraft
macaroni and cheese in opposition to marketing practices related to Marlboro
cigarettes, both items being products of the Philip Morris company. The
board has been invited to join a boycott by INFACT, a coalition working on
corporate responsibility.

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United Methodist News Service
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