wfn.org | Bishop Stith becomes interim pastor at troubled church

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

Jan. 6, 2000   News media contact: Tim Tanton·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-31-71B{009}
 
By Dean Snyder*

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - Bishop Forrest C. Stith has been named interim pastor of
a congregation whose former pastor has resigned from the United Methodist
Church, leaving behind an unfinished building and massive debts.

The retired bishop has been appointed to Resurrection Prayer Worship Center
of the United Methodist Church in Brandywine, Md. The appointment, effective
Jan. 1, was announced by the office of Bishop Felton Edwin May, who leads
the denomination's Washington Area. Stith led his first Sunday worship
service at the church Jan. 2. 

"We feel very positive with high expectations," Stith said in a Jan. 6
telephone interview. "We've experienced some very loyal and committed
Christians in the congregation."

The Rev. C. Anthony Muse, who had been Resurrection Prayer Worship Center's
pastor since 1984, announced his resignation as a United Methodist clergyman
in November. At the time of his resignation, an estimated $6 million was
owed on the church's new building. Both wings of classrooms, the balcony,
parking lot and landscaping are not completed, and the sanctuary is occupied
under a temporary construction permit. 

Many Resurrection Prayer Worship Center members have left the United
Methodist Church with Muse to form an independent church. 

Stith, 65, was a pastor, council director, and district superintendent in
the Baltimore-Washington Annual (regional) Conference for 33 years before
being elected bishop in 1984. He served as bishop of the New York West and
New York areas until his retirement in 1996. For the past three years, he
has been on special international assignment for the Council of Bishops,
supervising new congregations and mission projects in East Africa.

"Bishop Stith is an exceptional preacher, administrator and pastor," May
said. "He will provide the kind of compassionate and focused leadership the
congregation needs during the next six months as it determines its future."

Resurrection Prayer Worship Center had been one of the largest churches in
the conference. When Muse left, attendance initially dropped below 100 but
has been increasing since then. The Rev. Hal Henderson has continued to
serve the church as associate pastor.

"We do not know how the congregation will complete the unfinished building
and handle the debt, but we do know that we are committed to support their
ministry and mission in the Brandywine area," May said. "Bishop Stith will
provide critical strategic skills to assist the congregation and conference
in setting our course."

Stith will help rebuild the connections between Resurrection Prayer Worship
Center and the denomination and conference, May added. "Who better to help
this congregation appreciate the richness of its United Methodist global
connections than a bishop who has traveled and served the United Methodist
Church around the world?"

Stith expressed pain at seeing the problems of the 106-year-old United
Methodist church, "born amidst a depressed African-American community that
found the strength and source for a community to live."

"It pains me that it should be in such disruption," he said. "I am hopeful
for the future. It will rise again."

He said he has 3 goals: "1) to be a preacher and reconciler as much as
possible; 2) to be an enabler for the church to envision its future; 3) to
work with the annual conference as that strategy is implemented and
developed."

A graduate of the University of Nebraska and Drew Theological Seminary,
Stith served as senior pastor of Douglas Memorial United Methodist Church in
Washington and Sharp Street United Methodist Church in Baltimore. He was
executive secretary of the Baltimore Conference Board of Missions and Church
Extension, director of the Baltimore Conference Council on Ministries, and
superintendent of the Washington East District.

He has served as president of the General Council on Finance and
Administration, chairman of the Crusade Scholarship Committee, and member of
the Commission on the Status and Role of Women. He was a charter member of
Black Methodists for Church Renewal and served on the task force that
published Songs of Zion, a United Methodist African-American hymnal. 

He and his wife, Josephine M. Stith, have a daughter and son-in-law who are
both practicing attorneys in New York City.
# # #
*Snyder is director of communications for the Baltimore-Washington
Conference of the United Methodist Church.

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United Methodist News Service
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