wfn.org | United Methodist Church Donates $1.5 Million to Ecumenical Institute

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

1-November-1999 
99372 
 
    United Methodist Church Donates $1.5 Million 
    to Ecumenical Institute in Switzerland 
 
    Endowment will be used primarily to fund Bossey scholarships 
 
    by Edmund Doogue 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
GENEVA-One of the biggest churches in the United States - the United 
Methodist Church (UMC) - has announced an endowment of $1.5 million to an 
ecumenical studies institute run by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 
Geneva. 
 
    The gift, from the Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist 
Church, will fund a faculty chair in mission at the WCC's Ecumenical 
Institute.  The institute, located in the chateau of Bossey in the small 
Swiss town of Celigny, 15 kilometers from Geneva, is known simply as 
"Bossey" to two generations of pastors, theologians, lay church employees 
and Christian leaders, from all the main Christian traditions who have 
studied there in the 50 years since Bossey was established. 
 
    The institute's director, Heidi Hadsell, a Presbyterian from the U.S., 
told ENI Oct. 26, shortly after the announcement of the endowment, that 
Bossey's main goal was the formation - at Bossey's graduate school - of 
future leaders of churches and the ecumenical movement.  She 
enthusiastically welcomed the endowment and praised the UMC for its 
"vision" of the future of the church, demonstrated by the gift. 
 
    Asked why the UMC, other churches and individuals were prepared to fund 
the institute at a time when many churches and ecumenical organizations 
were facing major financial difficulties, Hadsell told ENI, "Bossey is a 
place of ecumenical and international encounter, and it provides training 
in leadership for the future generation.  Unless you have new leadership 
coming up, you don't have an ecumenical movement." 
 
    The Rev. John B. Lindner, who is Bossey's director of development and 
planning in the United States, where much of the institute's funding comes 
from, told ENI that the UMC was "the largest Protestant church involved in 
the ecumenical movement in the U.S." 
 
    According to the 1998 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, the 
UMC has about 8.5 million members.  "The UMC is also one of the most 
committed to global mission, as well as to the ecumenical movement," 
Lindner said.  "In some ways this [endowment] symbolizes what they are 
about." 
 
    Mission - the spreading of the Gospel - has become in the 1990s one of 
the most controversial issues in Christianity, particularly in Eastern 
Europe and Russia, where the dominant Orthodox churches resent the 
post-communist influx of Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries and 
clergy. 
 
    Hadsell said that Bossey was a particularly appropriate place to study 
mission.  "This subject is best taught ecumenically - if we can approach it 
that way, we can avoid the ground fighting." 
 
    She stressed that students at Bossey came from many countries -- in 
most years between 30 and 35 countries were represented - and from all the 
major Christian confessions, Protestant, Roman Catholic and Orthodox. The 
graduate school has 48 students this year. 
 
    "No one confession dominates, so the students are confronted with the 
views of churches other than their own," she said.  All the main Christian 
traditions are also represented by the institute's  academic staff - five 
resident staff at Bossey, along with visiting academics from the University 
of Geneva, other universities and the WCC. 
 
    Lindner said "Bossey is a place which graduates describe as one of the 
most formative in their ministry," adding that its influence was felt 
around the world.  "Several Bible colleges in Myanmar, for example, have 
principals who studied at Bossey." 
 
    Hadsell stressed in the interview with ENI that much of the money 
donated to the institute funded scholarships for students from around the 
world.  "In any given year, two-thirds of our students get some form of 
scholarship," she said.  "The lion's share of our gifts and endowments go 
to scholarships." 
 
    In many cases parishes in Switzerland, which make up one of Bossey's 
main benefactors, paid for scholarships, with some parishes giving several 
hundred Swiss francs a year, and some giving up to 30,000 francs 
(U.S.$20,000). 
 
    The UMC endowment, which is one of the biggest gifts received by the 
WCC in its 50-year history, will be managed for Bossey by the Ecumenical 
Trust in the United States, which invests funds for various ecumenical 
organizations, including the WCC and the U.S. National Council of Churches. 
The trust will pay the income from the endowment to Bossey to fund the new 
academic chair. 
 
    The UMC endowment supports a five-year redevelopment plan for Bossey - 
academic and financial - launched early this year. 
 
    Hadsell and Lindner said that many people had played important roles in 
negotiating the UMC donation.  "Any gift of this kind is the result of a 
lot of people dreaming and working together to make it possible," Hadsell 
said.  They expressed special gratitude to retired UMC bishop James M. 
Ault, Carolyn Johnson, who is former president of United Methodist Women, 
and Randolph Nugent, general secretary of the UMC's Board of Global 
Ministries. 
 
    Bossey also serves as a conference center, and, as well as the graduate 
school, holds seminars on ecumenical formation and other issues of 
importance to the world-wide church. 

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