wfn.org | Ecumenical relations agency will seek interim staff executive

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

July 7, 2003   News media contact: Joretta Purdue7(202) 546-87227Washington 
ALL{350}

NOTE: This report is a sidebar to UMNS story #349.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (UMNS) - Along with issues of structure, the United
Methodist Church's ecumenical relations agency acted on several other items
at its June 26-30 session.

Directors of the Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns
moved to seek an interim general secretary for the first six months of 2004.
Because of the 12-year limitation on elected staff, the Rev. Bruce Robbins
will be leaving the commission staff's top spot at the end of this year. In
addition, the commission extended the election of Associate General Secretary
Anne Marshall to the end of June 2004. She too is completing her 12th year in
that position.

The commission agreed that the National Council of Churches of Christ in the
USA had corrected its financial problems and reorganized it procedures. The
commission is recommending that the interest the NCC has paid on the $400,000
loan granted by the General Council of Finance and Administration on behalf
of the United Methodist Church be given back as specified in the original
agreement.

Looking at their own achievements, members of the commission affirmed their
work on racism and homosexuality, including supporting acts of repentance
observances in most of the annual (regional) conferences and dialogues on
homosexuality conducted with the Council of Bishops, the General Council on
Ministries and racial and ethnic constituencies. A fourth dialogue for youth
and young adults is scheduled this fall.

"We've only scratched the surface on these substantive issues," said Janice
Love, a co-chairwoman of the task force that shaped the dialogues. She spoke
of "a great hunger for models of grace-filled civility." Participants voiced
the belief that the worship settings for the dialogues were absolutely
essential in establishing a tone of civility in which people were able to
express themselves and disagree.

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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