wfn.org | Men's commission grows, gains momentum

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Sept. 22, 2000 News media contact: Linda Green·(615)742-5470·Nashville,
Tenn.     10-71B{422}

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - The Commission on United Methodist Men has started
a new four-year period of work with an expanded board and strong sense of
momentum.

With 2000 General Conference approval, the commission increased its
membership from 23 to 39. The increase had three purposes: to make the
agency's board comparable to those of other churchwide commissions; to help
it reflect the church's inclusive and global nature; and to respond to the
General Conference's call for all boards and agencies to have
representatives from the three African-American Methodist denominations. The
predominantly black denominations and the United Methodist Church work
together in the Commission on Pan-Methodist Union and Cooperation.

The Commission on United Methodist Men met Sept. 18-20 to reorganize and
help new members get oriented to the agency's work. The 1996 General
Conference created the commission to coordinate programs and resources for
men's ministries. 

"This commission has experienced its infancy," said newly elected president
Bishop Ernest Lyght of White Plains, N.Y. "It has learned a variety of new
realities of what it means to be an agency of the United Methodist Church,
and it is clear to me that the members of the commission and of the staff
are committed to building men's ministry throughout the denomination. This
commission understands that foundation is spiritual and not programmatic,
and on that basis, we can do our ministry."
  
After four years, "we are learning how to be an agency, and we are growing
and maturing," said the Rev. Joseph Harris, the top staff executive at the
commission. 

The agency was established with a proposal that it be self-supporting in
2001, at which point it wouldn't need financial support from the church's
World Service Fund or any other apportioned funds. However, financial
solvency did not become a reality for the agency, and Harris told commission
members about the importance of the church's connectional process and how
the agency should be connected through World Service Funds.

"Self-sufficiency was unrealistic for this agency," said Lyght, who heads
the New York Episcopal Area. In order for the commission to be
self-supporting, it would need to receive a donation of $50 million to $100
million, he said. As a church agency, the commission is entitled to World
Service money by the General Conference, he said.

In other discussion, commission members dealt with the controversial issue
involving gay scout leaders being prohibited by the Boy Scouts of America.
The commission has been in the middle of the issue as the church agency
responsible for promoting Scouts in the denomination. The commission has
stood by the Boy Scouts' argument that the organization has the right to
choose its own leaders. The agency showed its support by joining a
friend-of-the-court brief in the New Jersey Boy Scout case. 

On the other side, the United Methodist social action agency, the Board of
Church and Society, urged the Supreme Court to rule against the Boy Scouts.
The board based its position on a church policy supporting the civil rights
of all people, including homosexuals.

In a June 28 ruling on Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, the U.S. Supreme Court
agreed with the Scouts that the organization could bar homosexuals from
leadership positions. James Dale, a former Eagle Scout, had become an
assistant scoutmaster at the age of 18. Later, when a newspaper story quoted
him discussing his homosexuality, the Monmouth (N.J.) Council of the Boy
Scouts revoked his registration. Dale sued under New Jersey civil rights
law. He lost the first court decision in 1995, but won a unanimous ruling by
the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1999. The Boy Scouts appealed successfully
to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled 5-4 that forcing the Scouts to accept
homosexual troop leaders would violate the group's constitutional rights to
free expression and free association.

"I don't believe this is the end of this issue," said Larry Coppock,
director of the commission's office of scouting. 

Harris agreed and said the Boy Scouts of America cannot ignore the issues
raised by the Supreme Court case. The agency, through its scouting office,
has been encouraging the Boy Scouts to form a committee that would review
all of its membership requirements and look at all of the related issues, he
said. 

"We will be monitoring and be a partner in potential reviews of any
membership standards," Coppock said.

In other action, commission members:
·	Disbanded the nearly 20-year Moving United Methodist program because
it is no longer viable. The program's funds will be used to update and
maintain the commission's Web site operations.
·	Recommended sending a proposal to the General Council on Ministries
for seed money from the World Service Contingency Funds to support Brothers
United retreat conferences across the country.
·	Learned that scouting is highlighted prominently in the new
2001-2004 Book of Discipline, reflecting positive ecclesiastical direction
for local churches.
·	Heard that the United Methodist Church remains the No. 1 charter
organization for scouting.
·	Recommended that agency staff create a partnership with Brentwood
(Tenn.) United Methodist Church to plan and implement a "rite of passage"
model, working in some way with scouting.
·	Learned that Mary Leigh Sanders, of Richardson, Texas, is the first
recipient of the Good Samaritan Award. The commission's Office of
Youth-Serving Agencies of the United Methodist Church created the award to
recognize young people who demonstrate the attributes of the Good Samaritan
in helping people in need.

Others elected to serve as officers were Robert Powell, Dothan, Ala., vice
president; Harold Yannayon, Erie, Pa., secretary; Denver King, Kingsport,
Tenn., treasurer; Gilbert Hanke, Nacogdoches, Texas, president of the
National Association of Conference Presidents of United Methodist Men; and
Anton Zakharchenko, Samara, Russia, Central Conference president of United
Methodist Men. Elected to at-large positions to fulfill inclusive geographic
and age-level requirements were Eluid Rios, San Antonio, Texas; Fred Shaw,
Milford, Ohio; Lane Davis, Montgomery, Ala.; Walter Gilstrap, Atlanta; and
Philip Howard, Indianapolis.

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United Methodist News Service
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