wfn.org | Christians must break cycle of violence, church exec says

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Oct. 16, 2001    News media contact: Joretta Purdue 7(202)
546-87227Washington    10-71B{474}

NOTE: This report is a sidebar to UMNS story #473.

HERNDON, Va. (UMNS) - The United Methodist Church's social action agency
must follow the example of Christ in helping the world overcome violence,
its top staff executive told his board of directors.

Jim Winkler, top executive of the United Methodist Board of Church and
Society, chose "Breaking the Cycle of Violence" as the title for his
semi-annual report to the agency's governing members, who met Oct. 11-14.
Both he and Bishop S. Clifton Ives, board president, expressed concern for
peace with justice.

"This is not a normal meeting of the General Board of Church and Society,"
Winkler said. "We are in a different time." 

Following the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, he and other Americans
"better understand the realities" faced by board members from Africa, the
Philippines and other areas that have known terror, he said.

"There are different kinds of terrorism," Winkler observed. "One is blowing
up buildings such as the Murrah Building, the Pentagon and the World Trade
Center. Another is the silent terror where 32,000 children die each day from
preventable causes. This board must address both."

Winkler urged following the example of Christ as a way to help the church
and the world break the cycle of violence. He encouraged the board to
propose viable alternatives to military action. Such alternatives must be
international, interfaith and ecumenical, he said. 

He was pleased that the United States has made progress on paying its United
Nations dues, he said.

"Meanwhile, in Washington all that has happened means much of what we
thought Congress would deal with this fall is being put off until later,"
Winkler said. "We must remain vigilant, though, to ensure bad legislation is
not adopted under the cloak of patriotism."

The board's primary task remains that of seeking implementation of the
denomination's Social Principles, he said. The principles include statements
on issues related to alcohol, tobacco, work, gambling, consumerism, the
death penalty, gun control, the environment.

"We witness to powers and principalities in state capitals, Washington and
at the United Nations not because we seek special favor or legislation for
the United Methodist Church or believe that salvation is derived through
lobbying, but because our faith in the risen Christ compels us to call
institutions to accountability on behalf of the children, the widow, the
weak and the impoverished," he declared.

Ives outlined the mandates to the board from the denomination's Book of
Discipline and said that the agency must define itself by that book of
rules.

"The United Methodist Church expects the board to make a forthright
witness," he said. "We must speak our convictions and interpretations to our
church and to the world."

Ives said he believes it was fitting that the board was meeting one month
after the terrorist attack. "It would not be right for us to leave here
without giving attention to peace and justice," he said, "and we have."

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United Methodist News Service
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