wfn.org | Christian educators' conference begins with message of faith

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Oct. 9, 2000  News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn. 10-71BP{455}

NOTE: A photograph is available with this story. For related coverage of the
Christian Educators Fellowship meeting, see UMNS stories #453 and #454.

SAN DIEGO (UMNS) - United Methodist Christian educators gathering for their
biennial convocation Oct. 2 were reminded that God is at work even when
there is no clear visible evidence.

"It is a difficult time we live in," said the Rev. Philip Wogaman, in an
opening sermon for the five-day Christian Educators Fellowship (CEF)
conference. "The world challenges our belief that God really is at work."

Biblical texts for the opening worship were Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is the
assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen," and II
Corinthians 5:7, "For we walk by faith, not by sight."

Wogaman contrasted the "ancient hatred and bitterness" erupting in Jerusalem
to South Africa, where bloodshed was averted as the black majority gained
power after years of oppression. "All the evidence seemed to indicate that
the two forces (blacks and whites) would come together in a terrible
catastrophe," he said. "But we have a clever God who invented Nelson Mandela
and Desmond Tutu. They had a deep faith that God is real and that faith
matters. What they did turned South Africa around."

Wogaman, pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, a seminary
professor, and widely known church leader, challenged his audience of nearly
600 Christian educators to have faith that God desires a truly global
community of peace and justice.

"We must try the patience of God," he exclaimed, citing the years it took
the Methodist Church to rid itself of a racially segregated Central
Jurisdiction in the United States.  When some church leaders were asked in
the 1940s and 1950s if the jurisdiction would be abolished, Wogaman said
they responded "this will never be." Others said it would happen, but not
soon. The last vestiges of the jurisdiction, created in 1940, were not
dissolved until 1968, when the Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren
churches merged to form the United Methodist Church.

Wogaman compared that issue to the church's current exclusion of
homosexuals.  Admitting "deep disappointment" at actions taken by the
General Conference in May, he said the church "continues to attach serious
stigma to large numbers of people, many of whom I serve as a pastor."

"Will it (the full acceptance of homosexuals) come? I'm confident it will,
because I know people in this struggle and their relationship with God and I
know God is standing with them," he said.  

Regardless of the issue, he said it is important for all Christians,
particularly Christian educators, to be devoted by faith to causes whose
outcomes "almost certainly will not happen in their lifetime."

Several of the featured Bible study leaders and preachers at the conference
spoke of the need for reconciliation at a time when borders, barriers and
divisions are rampant, even within the church. These included the Rev.
Minerva Carcano, a faculty member at Perkins School of Theology at Southern
Methodist University in Dallas.

"In the ministry of reconciliation, we have work to do," Carcano said. "We
are a church at war, liberals and conservatives, a church that has lost
members and spirit. ... If we are at war with each other, then we are at war
with God."

Carcano received a significant number of votes for bishops during the recent
series of jurisdictional conferences in July. In that process, she said she
was surprised and saddened to learn that, to some people in the church, "I
had become the enemy. When did that happen?"

Reflecting on Paul's admonition to be "ambassadors for Christ," she asked,
"How can we share God's radical love to Christian brothers and sisters who
stand against us in Christian ministry?" 

She expressed regret at the estimated loss of 50,000 United Methodist
members last year alone. "Imagine what we could do if all around us we would
simply reach out and invite people to know the Christ we have known," she
said.

In both the early church and today, she said, "God is making his appeal
through us.  Reaching out, inviting in. Come, Holy Spirit. Make it so."

Marjorie Suchocki, a faculty member at Claremont (Calif.) School of
Theology, also dealt with the need for reconciliation between people and
with God. 

"Even in the church of Jesus Christ, diversity tends to become a chasm," she
said. "The division is so deep sometimes. ... There is this divide, a canker
of hatred begins to grow in the very heart of God because it is so against
the gospel to hate one another because we differ with one another." She
mentioned the divide between those who accept and don't accept homosexuals,
the divide between clergy and laity, and "even between deacons and elders."

"God has made us one in Christ Jesus," she emphasized. "Regard one another
in love, not hatred . . . Turn diversity into means of blessings." Walls are
broken down by the "lavish love of God," she continued. "Where there is
hatred, speak love."

In a communion service at First United Methodist Church in San Diego, the
Rev. Lynne Westfield, a faculty member at Drew University Theological
School, said educators are called to be more than professional Christians.
"Be reminded that Jesus is the center of your joy. Jesus is the port in
every storm. Being an apostle, you are not alone." 

She reminded Christian educators who sometimes see themselves in a
second-class ministry that they serve "the great Rabbi."

Other speakers during the conference included Anne Steary Wimberly of the
International Theological Center in Atlanta; the Rev. Charles R. Foster of
United Methodist-related Candler School of Theology in Atlanta; the Rev.
James Bryan Smith of Friends University in Wichita, Kan. Director of music
was Mark Miller, music associate and assistant organist at the Riverside
Church in New York. 
  
The Rev. Brad Motta, Morristown, N.J., headed the design team for the San
Diego event. The next conference will be Oct. 3-8, 2002, in Norfolk, Va.

CEF, with offices in Nashville, was organized in 1968 and includes 43
chapters in the United States. It has more than 1,200 members, ranging from
local church volunteers and staff members to seminary professors. The
organization includes members from several denominations in addition to
United Methodists.

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United Methodist News Service
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