NATION & WORLD
March 11, 2002
Short docket offers Judicial Council wide range of topics
By United Methodist News Service
The United Methodist Church’s highest judicial body will consider issues related to such diverse topics as annual conference structure and homosexuality when it meets in April.
The nine-member court will meet April 24-27 in Indianapolis for its spring session.
The Judicial Council has approved a request for reconsidering Decision 920, which the court rendered in October on a case involving self-avowed gay ministers in the Pacific Northwest Annual (regional) Conference. Bishop Elias Galvan is asking the court to reconsider the part of the decision that orders a bishop to suspend a clergy person who is undergoing an investigation or review through due process.
The case concerns a written statement by a pastor that she is "living in a partnered, covenanted homosexual relationship with another woman." The pastor, the Rev. Karen Dammann, disclosed the relationship in a letter early last year to Galvan. The annual conference later asked the court to rule on a possible conflict between two church laws, one requiring that clergy members in good standing be assigned to a ministry and the other prohibiting the assignment of practicing self-avowed homosexual clergy.
The court ruled in October that the rules are not contradictory and that declaring involvement in a same-sex relationship was enough to warrant review of a pastor’s ministerial standing. However, the council also said that a bishop cannot take unilateral action to deny an appointment but must follow the "fair and due process" of a review proceeding. Such a process is currently under way in Seattle for Dammann and another pastor, the Rev. Mark Edward Williams.
Galvan and the Rev. Wes Stanton, Pacific Northwest Conference secretary, have requested reconsideration of part of the decision, which stated that the bishop, "with the recommendation of the executive committee of the Board of Ordained Ministry, shall place the clergy person on suspension" during the review process. In his request, Galvan stated that the Book of Discipline uses the word "may" instead of "shall," placing the decision to suspend or not suspend in the hands of the bishop. The Council of Bishops has supported Galvan’s request for reconsideration.
Three of the seven items on the Judicial Council’s spring docket come from the North Carolina Annual Conference.
In one, the Judicial Council will consider the legality of a resolution encouraging local churches to study homosexuality using denominational materials. The resolution is from the annual conference session in June 2000.
The council will also consider two decisions of law made by Bishop Marion Edwards in response to questions submitted during the North Carolina Conference’s business sessions last summer. One concerns expenditure of funds by any United Methodist Church unit for any organization, institution, group or caucus that allows any portion of its property to be used to celebrate same-sex unions. The other relates to the resolution of a formal complaint lodged against a clergy member of the conference.
All decisions of law that bishops make during annual conference sessions automatically go to the Judicial Council for review.
Another docket item comes from Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference, where Bishop Hae-Jong Kim rendered decisions of law in response to a series of questions on annual conference structure.
The churchwide Commission on the General Conference has asked the council to make a declaratory decision on the meaning of the phrase "any organization" in Paragraph 507 of the 2000 Book of Discipline, the denomination’s book of rules and procedures. The paragraph specifies who may submit petitions to the General Conference, the church’s highest legislative body, and the process that should be followed.
The North Central Jurisdiction’s commission on archives and history has requested a declaratory decision related to Paragraph 638 of the Book of Discipline. The commission is asking about the necessity for annual conference structures to have a means for handling archival and historical matters.
Note: The Judicial Council’s official Web site at www.umc.org/churchlibrary/judicial/ contains the official docket, past decisions and information about the council.
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March 12, 2002
Older adults want church to eliminate mandatory retirement
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) — The United Methodist Committee on Older Adult Ministries is requesting that the denomination eliminate mandatory retirement requirements for all lay people and clergy members serving in the church.
Meeting March 8-9, the committee noted a contradiction between the denomination’s 2000 Book of Discipline and 2000 Book of Resolutions. The Book of Discipline, the church’s book of law and guiding principles, calls for the mandatory retirement at age 70 of all lay people elected to staff positions at churchwide agencies and of clergy members in full connection. However, Resolution 144, adopted by the 1988 General Conference and revised at the 2000 General Conference, calls for the elimination of mandatory retirement based solely on age at all levels of the church. General Conference is the church’s highest legislative assembly.
The 24-member Committee on Older Adult Ministries serves as a forum for cooperative planning of programs by, with and for senior adults. Created by the 1996 General Conference, it is administratively related to the Board of Discipleship, based in Nashville.
After discussing the conflict between the two books, the committee passed a resolution calling for the 2004 General Conference to eliminate mandatory retirement from the United Methodist Church. The committee is requesting that Resolution 144 be implemented and that retirement-related paragraphs in the Book of Discipline be deleted or amended.
Resolution 144 states that by 2030, older adults will outnumber the young people in the population. It calls attention to better health care, nutrition and job safety for people living into older adulthood. It notes that daily in the United States, 5,600 people celebrate their 65th birthday and 4,550 people aged 65 or older die, resulting in an increase of 1,050 older adults daily.
The older adults committee said there is no specific age when gifts of ministry are lost, and losses of those gifts vary from person to person. People are living longer and having more productive lives, the group noted. Increased life span in the United States has resulted in a population that is older, healthier and more active than in the past.
"It is a justice issue for older people who are capable and willing to serve the church," said committee Vice Chairman Julius Archibald, of Plattsburgh, N.Y. "In times of shortages, why are we dismissing capable and qualified people against their will?"
Church laws exist that address retirement of clergy and bishops who have passed their capacity for effectiveness, committee members noted.
In other action, the committee, through the Comprehensive Plan for Older Adult Ministries, is providing funding for helping U.S. annual conferences in ministries with older adults. Each annual conference is invited to send two people to a March 27-30, 2003, symposium on older adult ministries at Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville.
The committee also:
Approved the development of an advanced lay-speaking course, which will be made available in Spanish.
Requested that an advanced lay-speaking course be developed to equip lay people to lead worship services in retirement communities.
Requested that the Mil Voces Para Celebrar, the Spanish-language hymnal, be printed in large type.
Received a presentation on older adults and hearing loss from Wineva Hankamer, secretary of the denomination’s National Committee for Ministries with Deaf, Late-deafened, Hard of Hearing and Deaf Blind People.
Received a presentation on Primetimers, a churchwide Board of Global Ministries program that offers a continued mission experience for mature adults who cannot participate physically in a regular, strenuous United Methodist Volunteer in Mission experience.
Heard that the United Methodist Association, an organized body of health and welfare organizations, has opened its accreditation program to other faith-based organizations that serve a Christian-based mission.
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March 13, 2002
Lay leaders celebrate church’s global nature
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) — The United Methodist Church’s lay leaders took a step closer to becoming a more global organization by holding their annual meeting in Hawaii, in hopes of drawing more people from outside the United States.
Last year, the Association of Annual Conference Lay Leaders of the United Methodist Church began emphasizing the denomination’s global nature by dropping the word "national" from its name. The group also expanded to include conference lay leaders from the central conferences ofEurope, Africa and the Philippines.
The move to make the organization reflective of the entire United Methodist Church was evident at the group’s March 1-3 meeting in Honolulu, when more than 100 conference lay leaders, associate lay leaders, spouses and guests discussed what it means to be a global church.
The association provided financial assistance to enable lay leaders from central conferences to attend. Seven lay leaders from the North Germany, East Mindanao Philippines, Northwest Philippines and Northern Philippines annual conferences provided their perspectives of a global church and shared concerns about the future.
Each annual conference lay leaders is elected to promote lay ministry and develop lay leadership in partnership with the bishop and the clergy. The church has 65 annual conferences in the United States and 52 in Europe, Africa and the Philippines.
Affiliated with the United Methodist Board of Discipleship, the association seeks to strengthen the presence, voice and role of the laity in the church and in the world. The group’s primary goal is to assist annual conference lay leaders in training, supporting and advocating for district and local church lay leaders.
"The United Methodist Church, with 117 annual conferences around the world, shares a common name, but if we are serious about being the church we are called to be and have expressed a desire to become, we must begin to think and act globally by considering the global implications of our relationship with one another," said Gloria Holt of Trussville, Ala., who was elected association president at the meeting.
"We must begin to know and welcome into the family our sisters and brothers in other countries around the world, (and) we must all be willing to make some changes in our way of thinking and acting," she said. "We must be willing to give up some of our power and positions and must truly be willing to join hands with one another to fulfill the mission of the church." Each person must be engaged in partnerships, and the laity must be empowered worldwide to be about the business of the church, she said.
Hosted by the denomination’s Hawaii District, association members had opportunities to participate in community service work and in a cultural experience that gave them a better understanding of the church’s local ministry.
Darlene Webster, a lay leader of the Peninsula-Delaware Annual Conference, appreciated the connections made with central conference participants. Becoming a global church involves "building relations and making connections with our brothers and sisters in Christ from other countries," she said. "When we do that, we are breaking down the walls of Jericho."
During the meeting, a panel of churchwide executives offered insights into fulfilling God’s purpose for the church and developing a global nature. Moderated by Bishop Charles Wesley Jordan of Upland, Calif., the panelists included the Rev. Karen Greenwaldt, top executive at the United Methodist Board of Discipleship; the Rev. Jerome del Pino, top executive of the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry; Jim Winkler, top executive of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society; and Dan Church, top executive of the churchwide Council on Ministries.
Greenwaldt focused on building partnerships and sustainable systems of support for ministry in the central conferences, including resource delivery and the training and support of leaders. Partnerships "must be built from mutual relationships rather than from paternalistic models," she said.
In addition to Holt, other elected officers include Webster of Princess Anne, Md., secretary; Julius Archibald, Plattsburgh, N.Y., past president; Tommy Gleaton, Denver, vice president; Mike Krost, Chillicothe, Ill., treasurer; Lenora Thompson, Philadelphia, at-large member; Bill Wood, El Paso, Texas, at-large member; and Rolando Dizon, West Philippines, at-large member from the central conferences.
The lay leaders also:
Made seed grants to the North Central New York, North Arkansas, West Ohio, West Middle Philippines and East Mindanao Philippines conferences to train lay people.
Paid tribute to Tim Moss, who retired last December from the Board of Discipleship. He had served as the association’s liaison to the board.
Set the theme for the 2003 meeting in Fargo, N.D., as "One in Spirit—All in Ministry."
Lin Doyle, secretary of the Association of Annual Conference Lay Leaders, provided basic information for this report.
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March 13, 2002
Palestinians’ plight becomes personal for bishop
By United Methodist News Service
Late on Sunday night, March 10, Bishop Beverly Shamana felt compelled to call the Rev. Mitri Raheb, halfway around the world in Bethlehem.
"I just felt I needed to talk to him and find out what was happening," said the bishop, who leads the United Methodist Church’s San Francisco Area. She wanted to be sure that the pastor, his family and congregation were safe following the latest violence in the Middle East.
Shamana met Raheb while visiting the Middle East as part of a fact-finding delegation in February. She preached to his congregation at the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem on Feb. 24 and later spent time visiting with him, discussing the violence and struggles affecting the people of the area.
"There’s just a real commitment to stay involved as a result of my visit," Shamana told United Methodist News Service. "Their plight doesn’t go away."
Shamana was joined on the trip by three other United Methodist bishops, two top executives with general church agencies and a staff person. One of the group, Jim Winkler, top staff executive of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, visited the church with her.
By phone, Raheb shared with Shamana his concern about the Dar al-Kalima Model School and Wellness Center, which he founded as an outreach of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and the International Center of Bethlehem. The school, serving 240 children, was damaged during Israeli military action over the weekend.
Three tanks were stationed at the school before being withdrawn on March 9. Afterward, Raheb and other school staff hurriedly assessed the damage to the school.
They discovered that seven windows had been broken and eight iron doors and four interior wooden doors destroyed, according to an e-mail message from the Rev. Sandra Olewine, a United Methodist missionary working with Raheb at the International Center of Bethlehem.
The wooden cross at the school’s entrance had been removed and destroyed, along with a ceramic cross that had been a gift from an Evangelical Lutheran bishop in the United States. Some of the children’s artwork and paintings had been trampled upon, Olewine reported.
In addition, the rooms for the counselor and social worker in the Wellness Center had been damaged, and the men found signs of forced entry into the offices of the headmaster and secretary. A tank had struck a corner of the building, and other damage had been inflicted upon telephone lines, the school’s garden and driveway, according to Olewine. Several interior walls bore bullet holes and graffiti left by the soldiers.
Despite the withdrawal of the tanks, Raheb told Shamana by phone that he feared the army would return to the campus, which sits on a hilltop overlooking part of the city. On March 11, Israeli tanks did return and troops reoccupied the school buildings.
Soldiers were seen destroying a helicopter landing area often used as a parking area during school events, according to an e-mail report by Raheb and Nuha Khoury, school coordinator. "We are afraid that the Israeli army may use the school as a detention camp for the hundreds of civilians that it has and continues to round up from the neighboring Deheisha Refugee Camp and surrounding villages. Schools are for educating people and should never be used to imprison them.
"As no one is allowed to get close to the site, we do not as yet have a full picture of what is going on in and around our school," they wrote. "The physical and moral damage done to the site, the destruction of the access roads leading to the school, the psychological harm done to the school's children and the children from the neighboring refugee camps is of deep concern to us.
"The Dar al-Kalima's deep commitment to quality education, healthy and well community, and to nonviolent creative resistance is being challenged by this occupation," they wrote. "Nevertheless, we are determined to continue providing children with a place for wellness, which will help them to overcome all of the traumas, including those created by this latest attack."
The Wellness Center, to open in May, will focus on helping traumatized children and adults heal.
Many of Raheb’s church members and coworkers have witnessed the latest shelling and F-16 attacks, Shamana said.
Raheb told Shamana that the people continue going about their business despite the violence. "They’re just showing such strong reserve and such faith," Shamana said.
Preaching at the church in February, Shamana brought a message of hope, based on the spiritual "Hold the Light." "You’re not alone," she told the small congregation. "We’re holding the light with you as you work for peace and a just resolution." Church members expressed appreciation for her words.
Church youth were practicing hand bells during her visit. "They’re carrying on the normal work of the church in spite of all this threat all around them. They just keep going on. That’s what just pierces your heart. They just won’t give up; they won’t give in."
The International Center of Bethlehem’s programs include a workshop on "traditional women’s art," covering such activities as glass blowing, pottery, hand art and mosaic work, Shamana said. Raheb sees art as a means of strengthening the spirit of the people for "creative nonviolent resistance," the bishop said.
Shamana’s visit to the Middle East and her friendship with Raheb makes the Israeli-Palestinian situation real for her. "It’s no longer something you read about or see on CNN. You know that it’s real people, and they have a story to tell that has not been given headline importance." She added: "It makes you hungry, I think, to find out the real story."
Shamana draws hope from the current visits to the Middle East by U.S. peace envoy Gen. Anthony Zinni and Vice President Dick Cheney. "We have so much more that we can do as a leader in the world community, and we have just been very reluctant to take even tentative steps," she said.
United Methodists must be involved as a church community, she said. United Methodists can work for peace in the area by writing letters to their elected leaders, making phone calls, sending funds to support human rights efforts, she said.
"We have a lot of moral power that we can bring to bear that I would like to see us use."
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March 14, 2002
Georgia church gets $10,000 to train counselors in crematory scandal
(RNS) A Presbyterian church located just seven miles from the Georgia crematory where 339 corpses were discovered will receive $10,000 to train counselors to assist families whose loved ones were never cremated.
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, a relief arm of the Presbyterian Church (USA), gave the grant to Chickamauga Presbyterian Church, which has sponsored a grief ministry program for five years and helped train volunteers to work in New York after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The crematory scandal has rocked the tiny rural community, said the church's pastor, the Rev. Edward C. Langham. Investigators have found at least 339 corpses stacked around the crematory compound, and forensics teams say some may never be identified. As of Friday (March 8), authorities have charged Brent Marsh, the crematory operator, with 174 counts of theft by deception for discarding bodies he was paid to cremate.
"There's a lot of anger in our community now," Langham told Presbyterian News Service. "His (Marsh's) life on the street is not worth a plugged nickel. There have already been death threats."
The 85-member church has sponsored a grief program called Sunrise at Midnight for five years. A member of the congregation, Nancy Martin, is a psychiatric nurse-practitioner and is the coordinator for the Grief Recovery Institute for the Southeastern region.
Martin helped train volunteers and counselors in New York to deal with the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. Langham said he hopes to work with Martin to train 20 to 30 new counselors. The Sunrise at Midnight program will help deal with long-term counseling needs.
"This thing has affected our whole community," Langham said. "It's not something we asked for, or expected to happen -- but I'll tell you, our whole community has awakened."
--Kevin Eckstrom
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March 18, 2002
Retired Bishop Robert Blackburn dies at 82
By United Methodist News Service
Retired United Methodist Bishop Robert M. Blackburn, who led the church’s Raleigh, N.C., and Richmond, Va., areas, has died following complications from open-heart surgery. He was 82.
Blackburn died March 17, according to the Council of Bishops’ office. He had undergone surgery March 7 at Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla., and was there when he died.
Bishop Joseph Yeakel of Smithsburg, Md., remembers Blackburn as one of the "unsung heroes of the church," a leader who was committed to serving his local episcopal area. Both men became bishops in 1972 and forged a bond through that experience. Yeakel will represent the Council of Bishops at the funeral March 19.
"I’ve always appreciated Bob’s integrity," Yeakel said. "… He was strong and a good leader and a friend. He really made his major contributions in the (episcopal) area, and that’s really what we’re called to do."
The son and grandson of Methodist ministers, Blackburn served at local churches in Florida for 29 years before being elected bishop in 1972.
He led the denomination’s Raleigh Area from 1972 to 1980, then went on to the Richmond Area, where he served until retirement in 1988. During his last year in Richmond, the Virginia Annual (regional) Conference raised $19.4 million in a campaign for new church development, setting a record as the largest amount ever raised by a conference in a one-year drive.
Blackburn served on the boards of several general church agencies: the General Council on Finance and Administration, the Board of Higher Education and Ministry, the Board of Church and Society and the Commission on the Status and Role of Women. He also served as a trustee for more than a half-dozen United Methodist schools.
Robert McGrady Blackburn was born Sept. 12, 1919, in Bartow, Fla., the son of the Rev. C. Fred and Effie Frances Forsythe Blackburn.
After graduating from high school in Orlando, he earned his bachelor of arts degree from Florida Southern College in Lakeland in 1941, followed by his master of divinity degree from Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta in 1943. He later received honorary degrees from LaGrange (Ga.) College, Florida Southern, North Carolina Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount, and Shenandoah College and Conservatory of Music in Winchester, Va. Florida Southern also presented him with the school’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1973.
Ordained a deacon in 1943 and an elder in 1944, Blackburn went on to lead Florida congregations for nearly three decades, a tenure broken only by his stint as a U.S. Army chaplain from 1944 to 1946. He was active at the annual conference level and was regarded as an expert on financial issues. At the time of his election as bishop in 1972, he was leading First United Methodist Church of Orlando.
Blackburn served as a reserve delegate to General Conference in 1964 and a delegate in 1968, 1970 and 1972, as well as a delegate to the jurisdictional conference from 1964 to 1972. He was the United Methodist representative to the British Methodist Conference in Sheffield, England, in 1980, and the Council of Bishops’ representative to the European United Methodist Conference in Austria in 1984.
Blackburn married Mary Jeanne Everett in 1943, and the couple had three children: Jeanne Marie, Frances and Robert Jr. Like his father, Robert entered the ministry, becoming the fourth generation of the family to do so. The bishop’s wife died in 1977 after a long illness.
On Sept. 9, 1978, Blackburn married Jewell Haddock of Jacksonville, whom he had known years earlier. After the bishop’s retirement, they moved to Jacksonville.
The funeral service will be at 4 p.m. March 19 at First United Methodist Church in Jacksonville. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the church at 225 E. Duval St., Jacksonville, Fla. 32202
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March 12, 2002
At the Roots of Methodism: Wesley remained active to the end
A UMNS Feature
By John Singleton
As life spans lengthen in the developed countries, the contribution of elders to church and society is becoming a force to be reckoned with in the 21st century. In fact, compared to the lives of ordinary people in the times of John and Charles Wesley, average life expectancy in Britain and America today has almost doubled. Sadly, this is not the case in much of the developing world, where it remains appallingly and shamefully low.
By the time he died in March 1792 at the age of 88, John Wesley had lived a long and eventful life. His attitude toward encroaching old age was to ignore it for as long as possible and always to keep his mind active. And it could be said that, as he grew older, Wesley’s life was the very antithesis of ageism (discrimination on grounds of age).
As an octogenarian, Wesley seems to have spent his last years very much in a series of triumphal tours. Commonly, as the veteran evangelist passed through towns and villages, the streets would be lined with excited crowds.
While in his 80s, he still rose regularly at 4 a.m. and generally preached at 5 a.m. During his lifetime, Wesley was estimated to have preached more than 45,000 sermons and to have traveled (mostly on horseback) a distance equivalent to nine times round the world. He wrote 233 books and pamphlets and helped with the writing of up to 100 more. All of this must have stimulated his mind, to say the least.
"It is true, I am not so agile as I was in times past," Wesley reflected at the age of 85. "I do not run or walk so fast as I did; my sight is a little decayed. ... I find likewise some decay in my memory with regard to names and things lately past; but not at all with regard to what I have read or heard 20, 40 or 60 years ago. Neither do I find any decay in my hearing, smell, taste or appetite ... nor do I feel any such thing as weariness, either in traveling or preaching. And I am not conscious of any decay in writing sermons; which I do as readily, and I believe as correctly, as ever."
The fact that Wesley’s famous letter of support to the great anti-slavery campaigner, William Wilberforce, was written at the age of 88, in the last week of his life, exemplifies his clarity of mind to the last.
If the face of the younger Wesley, as depicted in portraits, was rather wane and ascetic, then the face of the very old Wesley was said by one historian to be "mellow, gracious and beatific." His wavy, white and silken locks of hair, expansive brow, aquiline nose and firm jaw, together with "his clear, ruddy complexion, his penetrating, kindly eyes and his radiant, permeating cheerfulness" all combined to give him the appearance of an old, saintly man. It was while in his 80s that Wesley once walked the streets of London for several days, collecting money for the poor.
By this time, the fury of the anti-Wesley mobs was no more. Indeed, many who once had cursed him were now praying for him. And not a few establishment clergymen who had long thundered against him from their pulpits were imploring him to preach from those same pulpits. Clergymen turned out everywhere to hear him preach, and even Church of England bishops were said to be in Wesley’s open-air congregations at this time. The tide had indeed turned.
It is interesting that, even in death, Wesley’s conviction and faith shone through. His funeral instructions included the request that his body be buried in nothing more costly than wool. His last will and testament stipulated that whatever remained in his bureau or pockets should be divided equally among four poor itinerants, whom he named. To each of the traveling preachers within the connection, he bequeathed copies of the eight volumes of his sermons. And ordering that neither hearse nor coach take part in his funeral, Wesley requested that six poor men, in need of employment, should be paid a pound each to carry his body to the grave.
For several days, Wesley’s body lay in state in his City Road chapel, where thousands of people filed silently past. In order to avoid any large-scale disturbance, the actual hour of his interment was kept secret from the public. The funeral was conducted by torchlight and concluded before dawn. All of Wesley’s burial instructions were observed punctiliously. His faithful medical adviser and loyal disciple, Dr. John Whitehead, delivered the funeral address, and an itinerant preacher performed the last rites.
Millions of Methodists from around the world have since visited Wesley’s Chapel in London, England, where the founder of the Methodist movement is buried.
*Singleton is former assistant editor of the Methodist Recorder newspaper in London, England, and currently full-time administrator for the Methodist churches and social projects in the Tower Hamlets area of East London. He can be contacted by e-mail at john@towerhamlets.org.
NOTE: This is a regular feature on Methodist history by John Singleton prepared especially for distribution by United Methodist News Service. An artist’s rendering of John Wesley is available at http://umns.umc.org/photos/headshots.html
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