Oct. 1, 2002
Georgia children's home answers lawsuit, sees implications

By Alice M. Smith*

ATLANTA (UMNS) - A lawsuit brought against the United Methodist Children's Home, the Georgia Department of Human Resources and its chief executive, Jim Martin, has far-ranging implications.

"This is potentially a ground-breaking case," said the Rev. Richard Puckett, director of public relations and development for the Decatur, Ga., home. "It could concern any religious-related institution that receives money from the state of Georgia."

Filed in the Superior Court of Fulton County July 31 by seven Georgia taxpayers, the lawsuit charges the home with using state funds to discriminate in employment and to indoctrinate foster youth in religion. Such action by the home, the lawsuit states, is in violation of the Georgia Constitution, the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, and a federal nondiscrimination law, specifically Section 702 of Title VII. The children's home claims exemption as a religious institution from Section 702.

The charges of employment discrimination relate to Aimee Bellmore, a counselor employed by the home, who says she was fired because she did not "ascribe to UMCH's religious beliefs, including regarding homosexuality," and Alan Yorker, a psychologist, who says he was denied an employment interview because he is Jewish.

In its Sept. 5 response to the lawsuit, the home states its employees must be "Christian, married or celibate" and agrees that Yorker was denied an interview because he is Jewish.

Before any individual - including Bellmore - goes to work at the home, he or she must sign a statement outlining the United Methodist position on family, marriage and human sexuality, part of which is taken directly from the denomination's Book of Discipline.

The statement also says, "As a United Methodist Church institution, we operate under the guidelines above. ... We do not believe that two persons should engage in a sexual relationship outside of marriage. Any act of sexual harassment, any sexual contact between staff members and residents of the UMCH will not be tolerated." The same statement also contains a paragraph prohibiting employees from smoking at any time on the grounds.

Two charges in the lawsuit that the home denies categorically are that the home places youth struggling with gay or lesbian tendencies "in dangerous psychological intervention therapies aligned with the home's religious doctrine," and that the home requires every resident - regardless of their faith commitment - to attend United Methodist church services.

Instead, Puckett elaborated in an interview, "We work with them to hook them up with (their particular) religious body or faith. We take children of other faiths; that (Christian belief) has never been a criterion. If a child comes in that is a member of the Muslim faith, we try to hook them up with a mosque."

While the lawsuit focuses on the issue of receiving state money to promote religious beliefs, the religious component is only a part of the comprehensive care the home provides to its residents, since the youth who are placed there have been abused or neglected.

"We try to provide the holistic kind of support for the kids that leads to their maturation and independence," Puckett said. The overall program includes mental and physical health services, a social component that helps residents establish good relationships with their peers and mentors, and an educational component.

The money the home receives from the state is a per-diem amount for each child placed in its care by the state, but the home also accepts private placements. The per-diem state rate "covers about 50 percent of the cost to keep a child," Puckett said.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs seek a jury trial; the reinstatement of Bellmore and the hiring of Yorker, with a monetary award for lost compensation; the granting of an order forbidding the Department of Human Resources from giving further grants to the home; and the reimbursement by the home for funds it has received "at least since Alan Yorker's rejection for employment up (until) it ceases ... violation of the Georgia and U.S. Constitution."

In addition to Bellmore and Yorker, the five other plaintiffs in the case are Stephanie Swann, an assistant professor at the University of Georgia and founder of YouthPride Inc. in Atlanta; Rabbi Joshua Lesser, rabbi of Congregation Bet Haverim in Decatur; Thomas Morton, president of the Child Welfare Institute, headquartered in Duluth; the Very Rev. Harry Pritchett, rector emeritus of All Saints Episcopal Church in Atlanta; and Gloria Rutherford, mother of a gay teen-age son and a board member of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

As with most lawsuits, this one likely will stretch out over a period of months, Puckett said. Now that the home has answered the lawsuit, the next phase will be a period of discovery that could include interrogatories and depositions. "You can't predict a lawsuit's potential," he said. "It could last for a while."

Meanwhile, the home continues its ministry with troubled youth. "It's a challenge even without the lawsuit to give the very best care you care to our kids," Puckett said. "We want to continue to try to do that. These are important issues (in the lawsuit), but it does make it difficult sometimes for us to continue to do the best we can (with regard to residents)."

As with all church agencies that operate on tight budgets, the home is concerned about the potential cost of the lawsuit, Puckett said. "It's going to cost a substantial amount of money to deal with a lawsuit of this size. We're concerned about that, and we're going to try to formulate some plans on how to deal with that."

*Smith is editor of the Wesleyan Christian Advocate, the newspaper of the United Methodist Church's North and South Georgia annual conferences.

top


Sept. 23, 2002
Black clergywomen 'build bridges' with others

By Melissa Lauber*

COLUMBIA, Md. (UMNS) - Integration has not yet come to the United States or its churches, an African-American pastor told 60 women at the annual meeting of the Black Clergywomen of the United Methodist Church.

"I've never experienced integration. True integration means the power structure has to change," said the Rev. Katie G. Cannon, the first African-American woman ordained in the United Presbyterian Church (USA) and a professor of theology at Union Theological Seminary. She spoke at the United Methodist black clergywomen's Sept. 16-19 meeting.

Black clergywomen represent only 1 percent or 497 of the total of 44,118 United Methodist pastors, according to denominational statistics.

"Many of us serve in churches that are miles away from other black clergywomen," said the Rev. Beverly L. Wilkes of Lebanon, Ill., superintendent of the Mississippi River District of the Illinois Great River Conference. "It's essential for us to come together to celebrate who we are and share our stories. It's an opportunity to not wear masks. It's a time of challenging and a time for the healing of our spirits."

In addition to hearing speakers, the women expanded on the conference's theme of "building bridges" by hosting an inter-ethnic panel to discuss challenges facing women in the ordained ministry. The Rev. Gennifer Brooks, pastor of Bethany United Methodist Church in Brooklyn, N.Y., moderated.

The Rev. HiRho Park, a native of South Korea and a professor at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, said that the difficulties faced by female pastors were systemic throughout the denomination. The church, she said, seems to function with unspoken rules of tokenism.

Park, also the chairwoman of the Baltimore-Washington Conference Commission on Religion and Race, drew applause when she shared the Greek myth of Procrustes.

Procrustes ran an inn with a special bed that had the unique property of assuming the length of whoever lay down upon it, Park said. As he offered hospitality to passersby, Procrustes did not mention that this phenomena of "a perfect fit" involved stretching on a rack the visitors who were too short or chopping off the legs of guests who were too long.

The United Methodist system today is like Procrustes, Park said, chopping up and stretching the gifts, abilities, and identities of its ethnic minority pastors to make them fit.

"It's time. We need to put Procustes into his own bed," she said.

The Rev. Laura Easto, pastor of College Park (Md.) United Methodist Church, shared stories from early in her career when she worked as a summer chaplain at Yellowstone National Park.

The only woman pastor in the park, she preached at seven services each Sunday. "Not a Sunday passed without someone standing up while I preached and reading aloud Scripture that they felt provided God had not called women to preach," Easto said. Her parents sent her a plane ticket home. She hung it on her wall with the note: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Easto, chairwoman of the Board of Ordained Ministry of the Baltimore-Washington Conference, rejoices that many women today do not face the trials of being the first woman pastor in a church. However, she believes that as a group, women clergy have become fractured.

"Somewhere along the line, we stopped supporting each other. We decided it was more important to advance politically," she said. "But we need to gather. We need to hear each other's stories again. We need to remember."

For the Rev. Tweedy Sombrero, pastor at Globe (Ariz.) United Methodist Church, the trials of being a Native American female pastor of a white United Methodist church in Arizona are still daunting. A Navajo, she said, she wrestles with people's perceptions of Indians as stupid or lazy.

"The people tried to make me their mission project instead of their pastor," she said. "I have to work hard to keep that from happening."

However, claiming her authority as a pastor and balancing Native and Anglo customs and traditions is not always easy. "Recently, I went to visit a parishioner in the hospital. They wouldn't let me in because they didn't believe I was the pastor," she said.

The Rev. Dorothy Watson Tatem, director of urban ministries in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, represented an African-American view on the panel and stressed that these incidents, and women's history in the church, should be remembered.

"We may fall to our knees, but that's all right because we can hear God on our knees and then we can get up," she said.

The women on the panel offered ideas to improve the status of women pastors in the church, such as nurturing specific leaders, forming more intentional networks of support, and providing additional funding for education and other opportunities.

"We need to dream off the page and not worry about what we don't have," Tatem said. She encouraged women throughout the connection to "come together in the halls of the mundane" and share their everyday struggles.

"We need to identify leaders," Tatem said. "But we also need to build the body, so that if one gets struck down, there are hundreds to step forward and serve."

Bishop Linda Lee of the Michigan Area also spoke at the conference during the opening worship service. "It's our time," she told the black clergywomen. "It's our turn to be blessed."

*Lauber is associate editor of the UMConnection newspaper in the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

top


Sept. 24, 2002
Emory receives $10 million for new doctorate program

By Elaine Justice*

ATLANTA (UMNS) – Emory University's Candler School of Theology has received a $10 million grant to build an internationally recognized, model doctoral program in practical theology and religious practices.

The grant from Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc. is expected to help change the course of graduate education in religion and improve the training of a new generation of ministers and religious leaders. The new doctoral program represents a major shift in seminary education and addresses the critical national shortage of faculty to train ministers, according to United Methodist-related Emory.

"The program is designed to produce very quickly at Emory 40 new Ph.D.s – a significant community of teacher-practitioners – who intend to teach in the areas of religious practice or practical theology in theological schools across the country," said Emory Provost Howard O. Hunter.

Those people will be in high demand because "the current supply of well-trained scholars in the ministerial or practical fields – persons equipped to teach and play leadership roles within theological school – is inadequate," said the Rev. Russell E. Richey, dean of United Methodist-related Candler School of Theology and grant director. "These fields of study desperately need the renewal and strengthening that this project envisions."

During the past year, Candler faculty and administrators have conducted more than 100 interviews with denominational leaders, pastors, seminary deans and presidents, as well as faculty in practice-related fields. Their findings track closely with a recent study by the Auburn Center for the Study of Theological Education, which found that more than half the faculty members currently teaching in the practical fields are scheduled to retire by 2006. The study also found an inadequate supply of people with doctorate degrees to fill those vacancies.

"Every indication is that the need for such scholars will increase dramatically in the near future," said Carl Holladay, C.H. Candler Professor of New Testament and chairman of the grant proposal committee. "Significant changes in American church life demand a new kind of pastoral leadership. It's essential that tomorrow's pastors be taught by professors who can equip them to serve in a perplexing and fast-moving world of many cultures, many faiths, many competing values and many hungers. Recruiting and training these professors are urgent concerns in theological education."

Each year for five years, the new doctoral program will admit eight candidates who intend to teach in the areas of religious practice or practical theology, such as preaching, pastoral care, worship, religious education, ministry, administration or evangelism.

Emory faculty and administrators credit their success in the field of religious practice and practical theology to strong ties among the school's Ph.D. program in the Graduate Division of Religion, the Department of Religion and Candler.

The study of religious practice is a focus of not only much of the religious scholarship at Emory, but interdisciplinary inquiry as well. A faculty survey two years ago found that some 300 faculty on campus have a stated scholarly interest in the study of religion, and only a third of them teach religion or theology.

Faith communities also stand to benefit, said Steve Tipton, director of the Graduate Division of Religion and professor of the sociology of religion. "More diverse, better-educated communities of faith in our society have grown hungrier for practical wisdom in shaping their worship and way of life."

*Justice is associate director of media relations at Emory University in Atlanta.

top


Sept. 25, 2002
People of color urged to join fight against offensive mascots

By M. Garlinda Burton*

WAVELAND, Miss. (UMNS) — Native Americans on the racial justice agency of the United Methodist Church have invited members of other racial advocacy groups — including the church’s ethnic minority caucuses — to join their fight against the use of offensive stereotypes, images and names for U.S. sports teams.

A panel of Native Americans, addressing the annual Commission on Religion and Race meeting Sept. 21, vowed to engage secular and church racial advocacy groups in efforts to stop the use of team names, mascots and other images by such teams as the Washington Redskins and the Atlanta Braves.

In turn, commission members representing the four other United Methodist ethnic minority caucuses — black American, Hispanic, Asian and Pacific Islanders — agreed to lobby their memberships to address the mascot issue, and began planning an inter-ethnic caucus to address mutual social and moral concerns.

The anti-mascot effort has gained momentum in recent years, says the Rev. Ken Deere, a Muskogee pastor and executive with the Commission on Religion and Race. Deere was one of five Native Americans who discussed the personal and societal affects of the "racist, demeaning portrayal of our people."

Native Americans, he said, are the "landlords of this nation," yet are "invisible" to most of U.S. society except for stereotype logos during weekend sportscasts.

Gary Metoxen Sr., an Oneida layman from DePere, Wis., said flatly: "I have endured racism and stereotypes all my life, and it is time to end it. If we have teams called the ‘pale-faces’ or the ‘black-skins,’ we wouldn’t stand for it."

"When we challenge the mascots, we are told that we are interfering with ‘tradition,’ but I would ask you to consider whose tradition is being affected," Suanne Ware-Diaz, Los Angeles laywoman and a Kiowa, told the racial justice commission.

She and other panel members said that the use of such images and names by sports teams — national and local — have historically wrecked havoc on the self-respect of Native Americans. Further, they said, it fosters racism against Native Americans today, and the young people especially are negatively affected. Ware-Diaz cited statistics that suicide and drug use among Native American youth are as much as 17 times the U.S. national average. Deere also reflected on the use of alcohol and drugs — "or if they can’t afford it, sniffing gasoline fumes" — as a way for "Indian kids to escape a society that demeans them."

The Rev. Marion Moore-Colgan, a Mohawk from Poultney, Vt., said Native American children in her community often had been invited to wear native clothing and dance for special events. However, when the youth began raising concerns about their education and culture, and wanted to discuss their academic development, "the invitations stopped coming."

Geneva Foote, a retired teacher and Kiowa from Sapulpa, Okla., told about taking tribal clothing to school for a lesson on local Native American history. "The only response I got from the students and teachers was a war whoop someone yelled behind my back as I finished my presentation," she said. "I decided then not to bring my clothing and things back to the school until there was an effort to teach respect for Native American people."

In response, several non-Native American members of the commission agreed that the issue of derogatory portrayals should be of concern — and cause for action by the entire church. The Rev. Jacob Williams, an African-American pastor from Lafayette, Ind., urged the commission to call on all United Methodist ethnic caucus to put the Native American mascot issue on their agendas. James Salley, an African-American layman from Nashville, Tenn., agreed to contact the NAACP.

"This is not just your issue," Williams said, while expressing appreciation to the panel. "This is a justice issue for the whole church."

During the 2000 General Conference, the international United Methodist legislative assembly, Native American church members staged public demonstrations denouncing the name, logo and mascot (Chief Wahoo) of the Cleveland Indians baseball team. Meeting in Cleveland at the time, General Conference delegates passed a resolution opposing the use of "offensive racist logos" and calling for advocacy and dialogue with sports groups.

Since then, Native American United Methodists – who account for almost 20,000 of the denomination’s 10 million members worldwide – have urged church groups to avoid holding churchwide meetings in cities where major league teams use Native American names, stereotypes or mascots. Last year, the Commission on Religion and Race gave a $10,000 grant to an Illinois group seeking to eliminate Chief Illiniwek as a symbol of the sports program at the University of Illinois at Champaign.

In other action, the Commission on Religion and Race agreed to ask President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress for an official policy and full redress for people affected by nuclear testing on the Marshall Islands and in Micronesia. This comes in response to a 2000 General Conference resolution of support for this effort. In addition, the denomination’s Western Jurisdiction and Asia and Pacific Islander caucuses urged the racial justice commission to write the president and Congress.

The commission also:

• Approved a request to denominational funding sources for a 200 percent increase in its budget for 2005-2008, most of which would be used for grants to local and regional racism and racial empowerment ministries. The $18 million request must be approved by the denomination’s financial agency and the 2004 General Conference. Although seemingly large, it represents "the first increase, in terms of real dollars, in the agency’s Minority Grant Self-Determination Fund in nearly 20 years," reported agency treasurer James Taylor.
  
  
• Approved in principle a proposed resolution, "In Defense of Refugees," to strengthen the denomination’s official call for justice, Christian welcome and support for "the refugee, immigrant and undocumented" people, and calling the church to counter anti-immigrant racism and persecution.
  
  
• Noted a 4.32 percent decrease in the number of racial and ethnic minority employees at churchwide agencies.
  

The Commission on Religion and Race is one of 14 churchwide program and administrative agencies of the 10 million-member United Methodist Church. Its duties include monitoring church agencies for racial justice and inclusiveness, and keeping before the church the issues of racial-cultural injustice facing the larger society.

*Burton is director of United Methodist News Service.

top



Oct. 1, 2002
Methodist leaders from around world call for peace

By Kathy Gilbert*

OSLO, Norway (UMNS) — Methodists around the world are being asked to pray and "use every means at their disposal" to bring about a peaceful resolution to the violent situations in Iraq, the Palestinian territories and Israel, and Zimbabwe.

The World Methodist Council’s executive committee adopted three resolutions on peace during its Sept. 16-22 meeting.

The resolutions, brought by the council’s social and international affairs committee, note that Oslo is the host country of the Nobel Peace Prize. The World Methodist Peace Award, given annually by the council to individuals or organizations that have acted significantly in peacemaking, "expresses the conviction of the people called Methodist that the way of peace is the way of our Lord," read a statement following each resolution.

The president and general secretary of the World Methodist Council, along with leaders and members of all Methodist churches, are called upon to contact the United Nations to urge Iraq to comply with U.N. security resolutions. The United States, United Kingdom and any other nation threatening to take pre-emptive action are asked to comply with the U.N. charter of 1945, which states that a sovereign nation may not go to war unless the Security Council has taken measures to maintain peace.

"Everyone in this room is concerned with the rhetoric that is taking place, even as we speak, not just about the threat of war, but the actual preparation and planning for war," said the Rev. George H. Freeman, top staff executive of the council, in his report to the executive committee. "The church has the moral right to speak to this issue and to insist that every available channel for peace and reconciliation be taken."

In a resolution on the Middle East, the executive committee urges the United Nations to send an international peace delegation to visit government leaders in Israel and the Palestinian territories, and encourages regional and intergovernmental bodies to send human rights monitors to the area.

The committee also called upon the government of Zimbabwe to find peaceful and just ways to resolve its land crisis, noting in the resolution that indigenous communities in the southern African country have been deprived of their historical lands.

"We acknowledge with deep remorse that we have been too silent on the issues of land dispossession. This has neither been helpful nor God-pleasing," the committee stated in its resolution. "We call upon all member churches to pray for all Zimbabweans as they seek to deal with the land crisis and also as they now encounter the devastation of drought and famine."

At the conclusion of the meeting, Ann M. Connan, a laywoman from the Uniting Church of Australia, said, "There was an openness and understanding that the church is changing and that the World Methodist Council will have to change with it."

"It was a very good meeting," said the Rev. Jill van de Geer, of the New Zealand Methodist Church. "People were ready to address issues, and the social and international affairs committee put up three strong resolutions."

"I was very impressed with the energy among committee members. The group came together and dealt with some sensitive issues," said the Rev. W. Darin Moore, a pastor with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in New York.

The World Methodist Council represents more than 37 million people from 78 member churches in 132 countries.

*Gilbert is a news writer for United Methodist News Service.

top



Oct. 1, 2002
Agency directors seek to broaden media campaign’s scope

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) — The impact of the United Methodist Church’s media campaign in reaching people ages 25 to 54 has led the church’s communications agency to look at broadening its message for a global audience and also designing a youth-oriented component.

The Commission on Communications, UMCom’s governing body, approved three forms of expanding the Igniting Ministry campaign during its Sept. 26-29 meeting. That approval paved the way for UMCom to ask the 2004 General Conference to provide $41 million to support the evangelistic effort. The money would be used to sustain the already established campaign; to have a media presence, as well as church communications training and consultation, in Africa, Asia and Europe; and to incorporate a grass-roots, youth-oriented expression.

Igniting Ministry uses evangelism, modern technology and television, complemented by regional and local church efforts, to raise public awareness of the United Methodist Church. The campaign offers local churches new evangelism tools, highlighted by a series of national cable network commercials.

More than 65 million people have been impacted by the denomination’s "open hearts, open minds, open doors" messages since the campaign began two years ago, according to Igniting Ministry officials.

UMCom seeks to broaden the scope of Igniting Ministry in three ways.

In an effort to keep the denomination at the top of people’s minds in between the Lenten, back-to-school and Advent seasons — the times when commercials about the United Methodist Church air – the commission approved a 22-week extension to the national Igniting Ministry campaign.

Between the current "three pillars" of advertisements, commercials on selected news networks will keep the presence of the United Methodist Church on the minds of the "unchurched," according to the Rev. Steve Horswill-Johnston, Igniting Ministry director. "We are extending our reach to the unchurched."

A second phase of the campaign would be a global expression providing a media presence in Africa, Asia and Europe. If approved by the 2004 General Conference, this component could involve CNN International and select, local forms of media. The broadening would also involve collaboration with United Methodist bishops and other leaders to determine the types of communications needed, including training.

"In a world that is broken, destructive and unjust, we have learned through Igniting Ministry that we can deliver messages of hope, healing and redemption," said the Rev. Larry Hollon, UMCom top executive. "People all over the world need to hear a clear voice of affirmation and acceptance. Therefore, we are exploring how we can work in partnership with brothers and sisters in the global connection to extend the voice of the United Methodist Church in new ways through a global expression of Igniting Ministry."

Messages would be created for people living in "particular circumstances" and would be sensitive to their "unique realities," Hollon said. In each instance, he said, the messages will "reveal the compassionate voice of the church as it seeks to express the good news of God’s love for all people."

The commission also acted on a proposal for adding a youth component to the campaign. The proposal highlighted the fact that God calls "all" people to become part of a community of faith, and a youth component would help young people bring others to their churches.

The expanded effort is a natural progression to convey the messages of the United Methodist Church and the gospel to those 14 to 18 years old, Horswill-Johnston said. "This is something that we feel has been a need in the denomination for a time — to have a coordinated strategy for youth to invite youth into their local church ministries."

The youth component has a threefold purpose: to increase awareness and recognition of the United Methodist Church’s basic beliefs among teens; to foster among youth a positive feeling and willingness to visit a local United Methodist church where active youth programs exist; and to renew a sense of commitment in the denomination’s youth.

An Igniting Ministry youth expression is the result of numerous requests from the denomination’s youth leaders and youth themselves.

Children born after 1982 are the largest generation in American history, with 53 million K-12 "millennial" students in school this fall, UMCom officials said. In addition, millennials are seen as more spiritual than previously thought. Twelve years ago, prayer clubs or circles were not the norm in U.S. schools, but today, the nation has more than 10,000 student prayer clubs.

"The United Methodist Church offers more real opportunities to change our spiritual and societal lives than almost any denomination, and we have a consistent commitment to youth ministry," Horswill-Johnston said.

The youth component would be a coordinated, grass-roots effort to assist young people of United Methodist congregations in inviting peers into their ministries. Coordinated marketing strategies and advertising materials would support it. "It will be evangelistic in nature and share the gospel in a compelling multimedia," he said.

It will not be a national television advertising effort, he said, because not enough congregations have active youth ministry programs. However, thousands of local churches have healthy youth ministries, and these materials would be available to them. The proposal notes that about 464,000 youth are members of United Methodist Youth Fellowship ministries.

"Our vision is to increase youth participation in communities where local churches have vital youth ministry programs and to encourage other churches to embark upon establishing youth ministries," Horswill-Johnston said.

The proposal involves five efforts: local church tools for youth; local church advertising resources; grants; Web sites; and training. UMCom is partnering with the United Methodist Board of Discipleship to write the materials.

top



Sept. 27, 2002
Church men’s leaders seek special Sunday observance

By the Rev. J. Richard Peck*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) – United Methodist churches may be observing one more special Sunday if a request from the denomination’s Commission on United Methodist Men is honored.

Meeting Sept. 12-13, the commission’s executive committee and annual conference presidents of United Methodist Men also attended a memorial service for one of their early leaders and took steps to help families of men who are incarcerated.

The committee agreed to ask another church committee studying special Sundays to add "Men’s Ministry Observance" to the three special Sundays without churchwide offerings. If approved, the recommendation would be taken to the 2004 General Conference, the top legislative body of the denomination.

The United Methodist Church currently recognizes six special Sundays with churchwide offerings, three Sundays without offerings, and four Sunday with opportunities for annual conference offerings.

Commission members also attended a memorial service for James H. Snead Jr., longtime director of the United Methodist Men Foundation, who died Sept. 11 of liver cancer. "Jim provided a solid foundation from which (the commission) got its launch," said the Rev. Joseph Harris, top staff executive of the agency.

Last spring, annual (regional) conference presidents of United Methodist Men agreed to work with the United Methodist Board of Church and Society to help establish ministries to families of men who are incarcerated. At their fall meeting, the presidents appointed a three-person team to attend a three-day, mid-October meeting in Washington to plan for this restorative justice ministry.

In other business, the commission’s executive committee:

• Agreed to return to Purdue University for the July 15-17, 2005, United Methodist Men’s Congress.
  
  
• Learned that the commission will sponsor a luncheon for some 500 delegates to the 2004 General Conference in Pittsburgh.
  
  
• Received an update on the commission effort to remind local churches that the Book of Discipline requires all United Methodist congregations to have a chartered unit of United Methodist Men.
  

Harris also told the executive committee that an international Fellowship of Methodist and Uniting Church Men will officially begin at the 2006 World Methodist Council meeting in Seoul, South Korea. The group was established at the July 2001 meeting of the council in Brighton, England, where Harris was named president. However, the 2006 gathering will be the first opportunity for representatives of the 77 participating denominations to formally adopt a constitution and bylaws.

Officers of the global organization are surveying participating denominations to determine which ones have groups responsible for men’s ministries, Harris said. Conversations are also under way with Stop Hunger Now to find ways for the new fellowship to aid the efforts of that international body.

Leaders of the United Methodist Men Foundation met the day after the executive committee. In that session, they created a five-member investment committee to guide the foundation’s Oklahoma-based fund managers in investing funds that now total $1.6 million. Currently, 60 percent of the funds are invested in stocks and 40 percent in bonds. The investment committee will review that guideline along with other long-term policies. The foundation supports scouting ministries, the Upper Room Prayer Line and other men’s ministries.

*Peck is communications consultant for the churchwide Commission on United Methodist Men.

_{Back to the Top}