wfn.org | Bishop Talbert to appear on 'Larry King Live'

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

March 11, 2003 News media contact: Kathy Gilbert7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.	10-71BI{135}

By United Methodist News Service

United Methodist Bishop Melvin Talbert will be part of a panel discussing
divisions within the religious community over the possibility of war with
Iraq on CNN's "Larry King Live," airing at 9 p.m. Eastern time today.

Talbert, ecumenical officer of the denomination's Council of Bishops, was
part of a delegation of religious leaders led by the National Council of
Churches that visited Iraq Dec. 29-Jan. 3. Since then, he said he has
committed himself to working to avert a war. Talbert has appeared in a
30-second commercial for cable television and has been interviewed by
numerous news outlets.
 
Other members of the panel are Bob Jones, president of Bob Jones University,
Greenville, S.C.; Max Lucado, pastor of Oak Hills Church of Christ in San
Antonio; Father Michael Manning, a Roman Catholic broadcaster who hosts "Word
in the World"; and John MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun
Valley, Calif. 

The retired bishop was part of an ecumenical group from the United States and
Great Britain that met recently with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to
express concerns about the possibility of war. Talbert also traveled with
other religious leaders to Baghdad just before the 1991 Persian Gulf War. 

Talbert has extensive experience with the National and World councils of
churches. He is a former president of the National Council of Churches and is
on its executive board.

Only the General Conference, the top assembly of the United Methodist Church,
speaks for the entire denomination. It meets every four years and will
convene in 2004. For an overview of its statements on war, see
http://umns.umc.org/backgrounders/war.html. 
For more information on the Iraq situation, go to
http://infoserv.umc.org/faq/iraq.htm, http://umc.org/headlines/iraq/ or
http://umc.org/headlines/military_outreach/default.htm.
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United Methodist News Service
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