wfn.org | Hispanic Methodists tackle justice issues at assembly

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Nov. 28, 2001 News media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
10-32-71B{554}

By Michael Wacht*

MIAMI  (UMNS) -- Issues of peace and justice within the United Methodist
Church and in the world were the focus of the 30th annual assembly of the
denomination's Hispanic caucus.

Methodists Associated Representing the Cause of Hispanic Americans (MARCHA)
met Nov. 15-18 around the theme "Renewing and Strengthening: Doing Justice
in the Power of the Spirit." Caucus members discussed undocumented people,
peace for the island of Vieques and better Hispanic/Latin representation in
the council of bishops, denominational agencies and annual conferences.
	
Delegates represented United Methodist boards and agencies, annual
conferences, jurisdictions, and Hispanic and Latino churches and ministries
throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. The assembly also included
bishops from the Council of the Evangelical Methodist Church in Latin
America and the Caribbean (CIEMAL) and missionaries to and from Latin
America.
	
Reports about the recent crash of the American Airlines flight bound for the
Dominican Republic inspired delegates to approve a letter to the Evangelical
Church of the Dominican Republic expressing compassion for the victims and
their families.

In a letter to the Methodist Church of Cuba, caucus members expressed unity
with people there who are recovering from Hurricane Michelle. The Rev.
German Acevedo-Delgado, caucus president and an executive with the United
Methodist Board of Global Ministries, called on members to support the
United Methodist Committee on Relief's (UMCOR) efforts to relieve the
immediate suffering caused by the storm and the long-term impact on the
island's agriculture and food supply.

"It's important that we support UMCOR," he said. "We need to be in
solidarity with the people of Cuba."
	
Acevedo-Delgado also asked the MARCHA delegates to show support for the
people of Vieques, a Puerto Rican island used by the U.S. Navy for bombing
practice. Delegates honored Acevedo-Delgado for his recent arrest for
entering Camp Garcia in protest of the Navy's presence.

In his report, Acevedo-Delgado asked the caucus to write a letter to the
mayor of Vieques, expressing solidarity in the fight to end the bombing and
to have the land contaminated by the bombing cleaned. He asked MARCHA to
denounce as excessive the mayor's four-month prison sentence for his part in
the protests. Acevedo-Delgado served five days for his offense.

Bishop Juan Vera Mendez, bishop of the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico,
thanked Acevedo-Delgado and MARCHA for its solidarity with the people of
Vieques and its testimony before the religious community.

The group also expressed support for efforts to establish a United Methodist
presence in Honduras. Gary and Amparo Garay, Board of Global Ministries
missionaries to Honduras, told delegates the Methodist presence in the
Central American country has grown to 11 churches in four years. They said
the churches are being served by pastors from Puerto Rico and Brazil as well
as Honduran pastors and lay people.

Bishop Armando Rodriguez, former bishop of the Methodist Church of Cuba and
missionary to Honduras now serving a church in the Florida Conference,
shared how the Honduran church began with sermons preached in a park and the
feeding of street children in Tegucigalpa. The United Methodist Church has
been well received by the religious leadership in Honduras, who said the
structure and history of the United Methodist Church will be "a great
blessing" to the churches of that nation, according to the bishop.

Rodriguez said the efforts in Honduras did not represent a return to
19th-century colonialism, as charged in a report by the United Methodist
Missionary Association, an independent association of active and retired
United Methodist missionaries. The association accused the Board of Global
Ministries and the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico with mismanaging mission
efforts in Honduras.

MARCHA members passed a resolution asking for an apology from UMMA to all
those named in the report and endorsing the efforts to recruit and deploy
Hispanic/Latino missionaries in Honduras and throughout the world.

Delegates also expressed their solidarity with ministry throughout Latin
America and the Caribbean through the efforts of CIEMAL. Four Methodist
bishops from CIEMAL were present at the event and shared their desire for a
closer relationship with the United Methodist Church.

Bishop Isaias Guteirrez, president of CIEMAL and bishop in Colombia, said
the United Methodist Church "is a light" to Methodists throughout the world,
who want to learn from it.

Vera Mendez said the Council of Bishops' Initiative on Children and Poverty
is enabling the United Methodist Church to help Africa and other parts of
the world, "...but not in Latin America, and we're right here in front of
you. This is the moment to unite the United Methodist Church and the
Methodist Church in Latin America and the Caribbean in a process of better
connection."
	
He also asked MARCHA to help make Latin America and the Caribbean a mission
priority in the United Methodist Church.

Delegates later approved a resolution to lobby the denomination's bishops,
general boards and agencies, annual conferences and media to make CIEMAL and
its ministry in Latin America and the Caribbean "a priority of special
importance."

MARCHA members turned their focus to issues within the United States,
especially those facing undocumented people living in the country. Emma
Lozano, from Chicago, introduced a resolution asking MARCHA to support the
work of a recent consultation on immigration ministry held at Garrett
Evangelical Theological Seminary and bring resolutions supporting the
legalization of the undocumented to the Council of Bishops and annual,
jurisdictional and general conferences. Delegates approved the resolution.

The caucus also responded to recent announcements of budget and job cuts
within denominational boards and agencies. The Rev. Carmen Gaud, editor with
the Upper Room in Nashville, Tenn., asked MARCHA to write the top executives
of United Methodist agencies asking them to be sensitive to Hispanic/Latino
people and issues when making their financial decisions. She specifically
asked that the number of Hispanics hired by the boards and agencies and
funding for Hispanic/Latino programs and ministries not be cut.

A resolution calling for the United Methodist Church to improve Hispanic
representation on the Council of Bishops and in the leadership of churchwide
boards and agencies and annual conferences was tabled until next year
because of one paragraph naming six people as potential candidates for the
episcopacy. The Rev. Minerva Carcaqo, a candidate for bishop in 2000, was
one of those named. She told delegates that episcopal elections are a hard
process that affects all aspects of the candidate's life. She said because
the church is still divided over issues of race and sex, some people are
still not receiving the support they should.

"Let's really consider the impact of doing this," she said. "Let God guide
us."

Delegates agreed to take a year of discernment to consider the issue of
leadership in the church and to pray about and interview potential leaders.
# # # 
*Wacht is the assistant editor of the Florida Annual Conference's edition of
the United Methodist Review.

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United Methodist News Service
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