wfn.org | United Methodist advocacy agency targets church members

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Oct. 10, 2000 News media contact: Joretta Purdue ·(202) 546-8722·Washington
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NOTE: This report is accompanied by a sidebar, UMNS story #460.

WASHINGTON (UMNS) -The voting members of the United Methodist Church's
advocacy and social action agency have agreed on an expanded program for
interacting with and educating church members. 

Meeting Oct 5-8, the new board also elected officers for the 2001-2004
quadrennium and bade farewell to the Rev. Thom White Wolf Fassett, who is
leaving his position as the agency's top staff executive at the end of
October.

The board added money to its 2001 budget to underwrite the costs of the
expanded program for reaching church members.

The Board of Church and Society's most visible change will be sending its
magazine Christian Social Action to every U.S. congregation, bishop,
district superintendent, council director, and General Conference and
jurisdictional conference delegate. This move will increase the
publication's circulation from 3,000 to 50,000. 

The plan also includes sponsoring a legislative and public policy briefing
in March 2001 and offering small group visits to the board in Washington for
church leaders to engage in dialogue, discussion, Bible study and worship,
while meeting with board staff.

The briefing is being planned for March 24-26, immediately following the
board's spring meeting so members can attend. The event will be designed for
annual (regional) conference church and society chairpeople, including
central conference chairpeople; Peace with Justice coordinators;
environmental justice coordinators; and other social action leaders.
Representatives of United Methodist youth and board networks, such as the
Children's Action Networks, also will be included.

For decades, United Methodists have participated in an annual interfaith
legislative and policy briefing, but that event was not held this year and
is not scheduled for 2001. 

Also during the meeting, the board elected new officers for the next four
years: president, Bishop S. Clifton Ives, West Virginia Area; vice
president, Bishop Beverly Shamana, San Francisco Area; secretary, Barbara
Wendland, Temple, Texas; assistant secretary, Helenmae Newcomer, Scranton,
Pa.; and treasurer, John Redmond, Greenville, S.C.

The board members joined their predecessors in nominating James Winkler,
currently a staff executive, for the agency's top staff position. His
election, together with that of the heads of the other program agencies,
awaits a vote of the denomination's General Council on Ministries Oct.
20-24. He is expected to take office Nov. 1, succeeding Fassett.

Board executive Robin Ringler, who is married to Winkler, was asked to stay
on staff beyond Nov.1 to provide time for finding and training her
replacement. Ringler, who works with Peace with Justice, had already
submitted her resignation in keeping with church policies on nepotism.
However, the board voted an extension of her tenure not to exceed March 31,
to further the work of a staff that already has several key vacancies.

Winkler told board members he sees three challenges facing the agency:
reconnecting the board with annual conferences and local churches, helping
church members link justice and mercy, and continuing the board as "a
strong, prophetic voice in the corridors of power."

He urged expansion of the Christian Social Action distribution list and
establishment of a program for church leader visits to board headquarters on
Capitol Hill. He also said the board should host a major United Methodist
event every year or two. Such an event would combine study, worship,
workshops and meetings with congressional and administration officials, he
suggested. 

He advocated more work with international members. He also said he hopes to
see the creation of weeklong pastors' internships, an idea originally
envisioned by Fassett.

Fassett was honored at a farewell dinner at his last board meeting as
general secretary. He reminded the board and guests not to forget the
denomination's history.

"Methodism has always been embroiled in controversies related to the public
expression of personal piety," he said. Such issues as the American
Revolution, slavery, alcohol prohibition, gambling, dancing, prizefighting
and the more recent discussions of "poverty, unemployment, child labor,
civil rights and other moral imperatives gave shape to our current church,"
he said.

Systems of nationalism are being rendered obsolete, Fassett observed. "The
same is true for our economic and monetary systems, our language and
cultural systems." The faith documents of the church point to alternative
directions toward a just society, he said.

"As a community called to be the 'salt' and 'light' in the midst of conflict
and strife, we may well be the instruments through which it will be possible
for justice and peace to kiss each other," he said, drawing on Psalms 85:10.
He concluded, "May God have mercy upon us."

In other business, the board:
·	Approved the nominations of at-large members.
·	Ended an experiment with a compressed nine-day, two-week work
period.
·	Heard an explanation of the general agencies' reserves and how that
brought about a $2 million reduction in the agency's four-year budget from
church appropriations.
·	Agreed to pay costs associated with a companion to accompany
disabled board members if the companion's presence was necessary.
·	Supported continuing to meet at the Gallaudet University conference
center if contract considerations permit.
·	Pledged to watch the negotiations among the Farm Labor Organizing
Committee, growers and the Mt. Olive Pickle Co. to encourage non-retaliatory
treatment of participants.
·	Affirmed the goals and objectives of the Hugh Moore Population
Project, being conducted by staff executive Jane Hull Harvey. 

Board members donated $800 to the Global Children's Foundation. The
organization was founded by Lee Hee Ho, the wife of South Korean President
Kim Dae Jung, to relieve children's hunger and address related economic
issues. 

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United Methodist News Service
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