Nov. 25, 2002
Arkansas annual conferences vote to merge
By Jane Dennis
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (UMNS) – Arkansas United Methodists adopted a plan of union Nov. 23 that will merge the Little Rock and North Arkansas annual conferences and create a single statewide church body.
The newly formed Arkansas Conference will be officially launched at the Uniting Conference June 11. The new entity will encompass 737 local churches, 144,000 lay members and 826 clergy, and operate with a first-year budget of more than $11.5 million.
"I am proud of both conferences for making a decision that, in my opinion, is the right decision at the right time for a better future for the United Methodist Church in Arkansas," said Bishop Janice Riggle Huie, shortly after nearly 1,000 voting members of the two conferences approved the plan. The special called session was held at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.
"The vote of this body will open up a new horizon for ministry in this state," said Asa Whitaker, North Arkansas Conference lay leader and co-chair of the transition team that developed the plan. "We have only begun the journey."
Voting separately during a four-hour special session, Little Rock Conference members supported the plan of union 294-150 (66 percent), while North Arkansas Conference members approved it 282-246 (53 percent). A simple majority was required for passage.
The merger decreases the number of United Methodist annual conferences in the United States to 63. Last June, the members of the Missouri East and West annual conferences voted 747-528 to unite, effective Jan. 1.
"It’s like building a building," said the Rev. Jack Wilson, superintendent of the Little Rock Conference’s Arkadelphia District and co-chair of the transition team. "The hard part, occupying the building, is in front of us. We now must take full opportunity of what God is calling us to be."
The Little Rock Conference, which covers the southern half of the state, and the North Arkansas Conference, in the northern half of the state, have existed separately yet worked cooperatively since the early 1900s. One bishop has historically served both conferences.
The conferences have considered union at least three times in the past 50 years. Each time, the idea failed to win broad support. In 1998, the two conferences moved toward greater shared ministry by replacing separate conference council on ministry staffs with an Arkansas Area ministry team that serves the entire state. The conferences also share an area newspaper, foundation, insurance program and treasurer, and work cooperatively in other areas, including leadership development and pastoral appointment-making by the bishop’s cabinet.
Several factors regarding the health of the conferences weighed on the minds of voting members. Membership has been declining steadily in both conferences, dropping from combined totals of 176,000 to 144,000 in the past 25 years. With fewer people entering the ministry, the number of pastors available to fill pulpits has been in short supply. Each year, more struggling, small-membership churches have closed their doors. In addition, rising health insurance costs have burdened the conferences and local churches.
Opposition to the plan of union came from a group of mostly retired North Arkansas clergy, who produced a two-page document urging defeat of what they termed the "flawed" plan. A motion to suspend the rules of order and require a 60 percent margin for approval rather than a simple majority was defeated.
In the end, voting members backed the plan and signaled agreement with the Rev. David B. Wilson, senior pastor of Hot Springs First United Methodist Church and head of the Little Rock Conference delegation to General Conference. "I believe uniting the conferences will give us a united witness in the state," he said. "We will speak as one voice, not two. We will speak as the United Methodists in Arkansas."
The 12-member transition team, consisting of clergy and laity from both conferences, developed the plan over the past two and a half years. The move to explore union was proposed by the two conference delegations to the 2000 General Conference and approved later at the 2000 annual conference sessions. Afterward, the transition team held 24 listening sessions to hear concerns.
The Uniting Conference will be June 11-14 at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville. Huie expressed hope that those attending would view the historic event as "an opportunity to connect more deeply to Christ, one another and our neighbors in the world."
Dennis is editor of the Arkansas United Methodist newspaper.
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Nov. 19, 2002
Benefits agency maps out pension plan changes
By United Methodist News Service
United Methodist Church employees could be getting more flexibility and greater protection in their pension plans in the next few years, through a proposal being developed by the denomination’s benefits agency.
The proposed changes would replace the current pension plan with a new one that combines the features of a defined contribution plan with those of a defined benefit plan.
"For the participant, (the defined benefit piece) provides a level of protection that they can count on at retirement and that they know they’ll have for the rest of their life," said Woody Bedell, chief strategic officer for the United Methodist Board of Pension and Health Benefits in Evanston, Ill. The participant will receive a guaranteed monthly payment at retirement.
"The defined contribution (piece) provides a contribution equal to 3 percent of a person’s compensation," he said. The contribution would be based on an individual’s level of compensation, he said. At retirement, constituents could do as they pleased with their account balances, which would no longer have to be annuitized.
Annual conferences would fund the basic clergy pension benefit, and the conferences would have the option of adding to that benefit.
The new pension plan would provide similar benefits to the current one, while creating less liability for the annual conferences and reducing overall costs, Bedell said.
The recommendation would also provide for full- and part-time lay employees with a year or more of permanent service to receive a minimum benefit of 3 percent of compensation to a defined contribution plan. Church sponsors would have the option of adding to that.
The governing directors of the Board of Pension and Health Benefits approved the proposal, recommended by their Benefits 2004 Task Force, during a Nov. 15-16 meeting in Tampa, Fla.
"It’s an historic moment," said Barbara Boigegrain, top staff executive of the board. "The board has responded with insight and integrity by preserving what participants have liked about the benefits while protecting the long-term security of the pension benefits."
The agency will present its proposal to the General Conference, the denomination’s highest legislative assembly, which meets in 2004 in Pittsburgh.
The directors also decided not to pursue developing a unified health plan, which had been discussed at an earlier meeting. Instead, they will focus more on marketing the existing HealthFlex plan as a voluntary option for all conferences. The agency will create greater provider networks for discounts, and it will promote health and wholeness initiatives identified by the task force, Bedell said.
The proposal reflects many of the comments that the task force gathered during a series of "listening" events held with church employees around the United States.
"The task force recommendations sought to balance the paradoxes of fair and equitable availability while managing cost," Bedell said. The group considered many options, and in "the final analysis, it came down to providing benefits in a different way," he said. "Our job now will be to help the church understand how the new program works both for the church and the individual."
The board’s directors also made several decisions regarding the investment options available to people who have retirement savings in the agency’s Personal Investment Plan. As of Nov. 18, the board has started making two new investment options available for participants’ plan contributions: the Multiple Asset Fund and the Stable Value Fund.
The Diversified Investment Fund will remain available as an investment option for employer and conference contributions. However, as of Dec. 31, the board will no longer offer the fund to Personal Investment Plan participants. The Diversified Investment Fund is designed for long-term investment, and allowing participants to move in and out of the fund at any time is inconsistent with that philosophy, the board decided. The two new funds will have some of the same investment features while enabling Personal Investment Plan participants to move their money around with greater ease.
More details about these and other changes, as well as information on the board’s investment funds, are available at www.gbophb.org or by calling the Participant Response Center at (800) 851-2201.
Mike Lee, a staff executive with the Board of Pension and Health Benefits, contributed to this report.
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Nov. 20, 2002
United Methodist pastor freed from Israeli prison
A UMNS Report
By Linda Bloom
Despite his ordeal in an Israeli prison, the Rev. Gordon "Gordy" Hutchins said he is not as concerned about his own treatment as he is about the continuing plight of the Palestinian people.
That concern drew the 46-year-old United Methodist pastor from Tieton, Wash., to the West Bank, where he was arrested Nov. 15 with other international demonstrators. "We were there as peacekeepers, as nonviolent advocates for discussion and trying to bridge the gap between the Israelis and the Palestinians," he told United Methodist News Service during a Nov. 20 telephone interview from his hotel in Jerusalem.
In one respect, he said, the demonstrators succeeded. He explained that no one was badly injured when a group of Palestinian villagers in Jayyous tried to stop Israeli bulldozers from clearing land for a "separation wall" that the villagers say will illegally annex much of their fertile farmland into Israel. But the incident also led to a prison stay for Hutchins and three other men.
He was abruptly released from Massyahu Prison in Ramle around 9 p.m. Nov. 19, but he has no idea what his status is with the Israeli government. "I haven’t seen one word or heard one word or been told anything officially," he said.
Hutchins was in a front row of seated demonstrators, including a few Palestinian women, during the Nov. 15 incident. When soldiers fired tear gas in the direction of the women, the pastor tried to help, but he found himself temporarily overcome by the "excruciating pain" caused by the gas. "The three minutes I couldn’t breathe were the worst minutes of my life," he recalled.
Once he recovered, Hutchins and other demonstrators tried to get between the Palestinians and Israeli soldiers. One demonstrator, Thomas Linner of Canada, had been hit in the stomach with the butt of a gun and was being further abused when a Palestinian woman came and stood between him and the soldier. "That was probably the most courageous thing I’ve ever seen," Hutchins said.
He noted that the commander of the military in that area, who was present, seemed particularly sadistic in the treatment of the protestors.
When the soldiers tried to arrest the lone Israeli demonstrator, Hutchins grabbed his arm and would not let go. In the end, 10 demonstrators were arrested.
The aftermath was a lesson in endurance for Hutchins. After a couple of hours at a military base, the demonstrators were taken to another police station and then to the police station at Ben Gurion airport. By then, the women had been released, and five men, including an Irish citizen who was soon deported, were left in shackles there.
At about 4 a.m. Nov. 16 – after little food and no sleep since early the day before – the remaining four men were led to a paddy wagon to sleep. But in reality, Hutchins said, they were regularly disturbed by police to prevent any sleep and finally driven to the Massyahu prison, where they arrived at 7:15 a.m. Two hours later, they were strip-searched and interrogated again.
"What they were trying to do, I’m firmly convinced, was to make one of us lose our cool so they would have an excuse to punish us further," he declared.
Pleas to call an attorney or the U.S. consulate were ignored. The four men were separated and moved to different cellblocks. For a day and a half, Hutchins sat in a cell with seven other men, none of whom spoke English. Finally, on the afternoon of Nov. 17, he was able to buy a black market phone card and call an attorney, the U.S. state department, and United Methodist Bishop Elias Galvan of Seattle.
When a state department representative came to visit the next afternoon, Hutchins was still wearing the same clothes from three days earlier. The representative was able to get him a towel, soap and water. The next night, the pastor was called to the gate and released without explanation.
Hutchins has since rejoined the Lutheran group that he had traveled with to Israel and the Palestinian territories. He said he had been to the area nine times before as a tourist, pilgrim and group leader, but this time he wanted to see for himself "what really was happening here."
The pastor is totally disheartened by what he found. "The people of Palestine are being systematically destroyed," he said. "The objective of Israel is ultimately to be the only people in this country."
Hutchins admitted that he knows his words are harsh, but added that he has witnessed the encroachment of Israel upon the Palestinians over the years.
"I love Israel and the people of Israel, but something’s gone terribly, terribly awry."
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Nov. 21, 2002
Ad campaign increases awareness of United Methodist Church
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) – The United Methodist Church’s 2-year-old national advertising campaign has significantly increased the public’s awareness of the denomination, according to Barna Research Group Inc.
The Rev. Steve Horswill-Johnston, head of the Igniting Ministry campaign at United Methodist Communications, said new Barna research conducted for the church shows awareness of the denomination has increased 15 percent among adults 25 to 54 years old in the two years since the campaign began.
Research by Barna, a respected firm based in Ventura, Calif., shows that 46 percent of people who saw the ads expressed willingness to attend a United Methodist church, Horswill-Johnston said.
"These people are searching for deeper meaning in life and are finding a word of hope in the messages we show on television across the country," he said. "Our messages are resonating with people looking for a place to live their faith."
The campaign had set goals of 20 percent viewer recall of the United Methodist denomination and of a 10 percent increase in willingness to attend a church. "We’ve reached three-fourths of the awareness goals in just half the time and have far surpassed the willingness goal," Horswill-Johnston said.
The Barna research dovetails with data showing increases in worship attendance at United Methodist churches across the country in 2001, he said. Total attendance increased by 7 percent compared with 2000, almost double the 4 percent increase objective set for the entire 2001-04 quadrennium.
"First-time attendance has also dramatically risen," Horswill-Johnston said. "We are on track to meet and exceed our goal of a 5 percent increase in first-time worship attendance."
The percentages are based on attendance figures at 153 United Methodist churches, representing each U.S. jurisdiction.
Igniting Ministry’s new evangelism tools combine modern technology, including national cable network commercials, to raise public awareness of the denomination.
The effort premiered just one week before the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001. As the disaster unfolded, the Igniting Ministry team transformed the United Methodist Council of Bishops’ pastoral message of healing and call for prayer into a new television spot, completed that same day and transmitted via satellite to 13 cable networks.
A year later, many United Methodist bishops encouraged congregations to set aside Sept. 8, the Sunday nearest the anniversary, for "Remembering 9/11" services. The request for their actions came from Igniting Ministry staff.
The Commission on Communication, UMCom’s governing body, recently approved a proposal paving the way for the agency to ask the 2004 General Conference for $41 million to sustain and expand Igniting Ministry through the 2005-08 quadrennium.
The plan includes additional airings between the three annual established flights of commercials; a media presence, including church communications projects and consultation, in Africa, Asia and Europe; and a grass-roots, youth-oriented expression.
Related resources, training sessions, matching grants and a Web site, www.ignitingministry.org, supplement Igniting Ministry’s core television components.
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October 25 , 2002
Army chaplains represent holy in times of war, peace
A UMNS Feature by Kathy L. Gilbert*
It’s dark at 5 a.m. The oppressive heat of a South Carolina summer day hasn’t hit yet, but it will.
The 60-plus men and women enrolled in the Army Chaplain Officer Basic Course on this August morning are running, doing push-ups, sit-ups and flutter kicks and shouting, “We like it! We love it! We want some more of it! Make it hurt, drill sergeant, make it hurt!” And from 5 to 6 a.m., he does.
United Methodist pastors line up next to Catholic priests, Jewish rabbis, Muslim imams and other chaplains-in-training representing more than 20 faith groups. Everyone looks alike in the PT (physical training) gear – black gym shorts and gray T-shirts. They range in age from early their 20s to early 60s. They are assembled on a grassy field, obeying the commands of Sgt. 1st Class James S. Stewart.
These men and women have been called by God to serve as “representatives of the holy,” often in the most unholy of places. Their congregation consists of soldiers and Army families.
Many come to the Army Chaplain Officer Basic Course with no military experience. These men and women go from being leaders of congregations to being told when to eat and sleep and how to dress. They come in not knowing how to put their boots on, and in 12 weeks they are trained to be Army officers.
“We take the cream of the crop, the best, and they come here and we tell them, ‘Don’t take any initiative, do what we tell you to do.’ The first thing they have to learn is how the Army does things,” says Chaplain Maj. Jo Ann Mann, an instructor at the Fort Jackson U.S. Army Chaplain Center and School.
Dressed in green and gray camouflage they look just like any other soldiers, but with a big difference: Instead of a gun by their side, they wear emblems of their faith on their collars. And they will not be carrying weapons on the battlefield.
Chaplains are trained to “perform or provide, cooperate without compromise, and do anything for the good of the solider,” says Chaplain Col. Samuel J.T. Boone, deputy commander of the center and school.
Chaplains perform or provide religious services for their troops. If a soldier’s need falls outside the realm of the chaplain’s particular faith group, appropriate religious leadership is found.
During Desert Storm, Baptist chaplains dug a foxhole in the middle of the desert, filled it with water and baptized soldiers.
In the Gulf War, a rabbi was put on a ship and sent out to sea so Jewish soldiers could come in boats to celebrate Passover.
In Kosovo and Bosnia, Muslim soldiers were able to observe their holy days with appropriate leadership.
Chaplains are the ones handed personal letters, wedding rings and last wishes to convey to family members. Chaplains bless helicopters before takeoff for the battlefield. Chaplains must be tactically and technically proficient. And chaplains are trained to help people die.
“Out in the battlefield, chaplains become the most valuable player,” says Chaplain Lt. Col. Charles Howell, chief of officer training at the school.
“Burying the dead is the heart and soul of Army chaplaincy,” says Chaplain Maj. Peter A. Baktis, while teaching a class on military funerals.
At the Fort Jackson center and school, the mission is: “To train newly accessioned active- duty National Guard and Army Reserve chaplains and chaplain candidates in their initial course of combat-focused, critical-task-driven training to prepare them for ministry at battalion level.”
Pastors, preachers, priests, rabbis, imams and others work side by side. They learn combat survival and how to serve as special staff officers. They train in 41 chaplain-specific critical tasks and are equipped for deployment.
Five chaplains in last summer’s course last summer were United Methodists.
‘A sense of call’
Chaplain Capt. Edward H. Franklin Jr., an ordained elder in the South Carolina Annual (regional) Conference, has a quick and easy smile. In a room full of fellow chaplains, you hear his laughter and sense the ease with which he relates to people. He is a natural leader who is reverent when talking about his beliefs and love for the United Methodist Church and the Army.
“God has instilled within me a sense of call to serve as an Army chaplain and to truly make a difference in the lives of soldiers and their families as they endeavor to serve our country,” he says.
The Army and the church are intertwined in his life. He is the son of a United Methodist pastor, and like a lot of children of pastors, never thought he would go into the ministry. He served as an officer with 3/37 Armor (a tank battalion) in the 1st Infantry Division in Desert Storm. After leaving the Army, he pursued a civilian career before beginning the discernment process for ministry. He was ordained a deacon in 1996 and an elder in 1998. He served Walnut Grove United Methodist Church in Roebuck, S.C., for four years before answering the call to return to the Army as a chaplain.
“I have people ask me ‘why are you leaving the ministry?’ I am not leaving the ministry,” he emphasizes. “Army chaplaincy is a valid and much-needed ministry. People in the pews, the pulpit and the (bishop’s) cabinet need to hear that.”
Franklin is married and has three children, ages 9, 6 and 2. After his training, he began active duty at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. He has been on the front line before and doesn’t really want to see war up close again. But he has no doubt about his call or his duty.
“A chaplain ministers to those who are fighting for our country,” he says. “They are my family. If they are going, why not me?”
Still in ministry
Like Franklin, Chaplain 1st Lt. Ernest P. West Jr. has prior experience with the military. An ordained elder from the West Virginia Annual Conference, he served in his state’s National Guard from 1987 to 1992. He was serving as pastor at Calvary United Methodist Church, Potomac Highlands District before joining the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps. He is now on active duty at Fort Campbell, Clarksville, Tenn.
He has also struggled with those who think he has left the ministry and he often feels his church does not understand his calling.
“It fills me with reverence to think about kids – 18, 19, 20 years old – willing to give their all, their lives for their country,” says West, a tall, soft-spoken man. “It is a holy opportunity to share the Good News with them.” He too emphasizes, “I didn’t leave the church.”
He has a 13-year-old son and a 6-year-old daughter.
Holding her own
2nd Lt. Jayme L. Kendall is the youngest of the group and the only woman. She has bright blue eyes and a soft smile. A seminary student at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky. and a member of the West Michigan Conference, she holds her own in a setting that is not always accepting of women as pastors or soldiers. She is also the daughter of a United Methodist pastor who is an Army chaplain.
“I felt called into ministry while I was a freshman in college. I called home and told my dad I was changing my major and thinking about ministry, and he says, ‘Do you want to be a pastor?’
“At that time, I didn’t even know women could be pastors,” she says, laughing. Her father assured her she could be, and he led her through Scripture and talked to her about her call.
Her father also encouraged her to think about the military. She decided to enlist, and then she applied to be a chaplain assistant.
Chaplain assistants work with chaplains in a ministry unit team. They assist in preparing for religious services, perform administrative duties and bear arms. They protect the chaplain, who does not bear arms.
“I am really glad I have the experience as a chaplain assistant and in being part of a ministry unit team,” Kendall says. “I know all the chaplains in Michigan and the assistants. It has really let me get experience and see if this is what I really want to do.”
She feels the Lord’s hand has been in everything she has done. She is in seminary and must graduate and serve as a pastor for three years before she can go into active duty as a chaplain.
Some chaplains at the training center are in denominations that do not ordain women as pastors. Because of their beliefs, they cannot participate in a worship service with a woman.
Mann explains how the Army accommodates those beliefs. “Some chaplains may not share a pulpit with other chaplains, because of their denomination’s theology, but we share in performing and providing ministry together. We have two symbols on our collars. One is the cross (or faith group symbol) and the other is our rank, and that must be respected. We are officers and colleagues working together for the same goal.”
Homeland security
Chaplain 1st Lt. Jeffrey S. Harper is in the National Guard and will return to his two-point charge in McComb, Ohio. He is an ordained elder from the West Ohio Conference.
Chaplain 1st Lt. Robert D. Crawford is a “weekend warrior” in the Army Reserves and an ordained elder in the North Georgia Conference.
“The difference between reserve and guard is that National Guard (personnel) are also under the authority of the governors of their respective states and can be mobilized to help with state disasters,” Crawford explains. “They also are on the front of homeland security. The reserve is under the direct authority of the president (federal). We can be brought to active duty and be deployed in a conflict situation for up to two years.”
Chaplain First Lieutenant Robert D. Crawford, an ordained elder from the North Georgia Annual Conference, has 18 years of experience as a parish pastor and is still in full connection in North Georgia. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose.
Crawford has 18 years’ experience as a parish pastor and is still a clergy member of the North Georgia Conference. However, he is taking time off to complete a master’s degree in business at Georgia Tech University.
Called to this ministry
Franklin, West, Kendall, Harper and Crawford have answered a call from God to serve the church and the men and women in the U.S. Army. They will introduce soldiers to Christ, perform their weddings, baptize their children and preach their funerals.
“God has allowed me to serve both as a soldier and as a pastor as a means of preparing me for the challenge of being a chaplain,” Franklin says. “During my time as a soldier, I learned the rigors and rewards of Army life both in peace and in war. God has prepared me to be a spiritual leader for today’s military family.”
Army chaplains are “representatives of the holy,” wherever they are called to serve.
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Oct. 25, 2002
What does it take be an Army chaplain?
By United Methodist News Service
Some United Methodist pastors who have answered God’s call to become chaplains in the U.S. Army have felt misunderstood and even abandoned by their church.
They have been asked, "Why are you leaving the ministry?"
Being an Army chaplain means spending more time in foxholes, on ships and jumping out of airplanes, than behind pulpits in church buildings.
Chaplains are trained to "perform or provide, cooperate without compromise, and do anything for the good of the solider," says Chaplain Col. Samuel J.T. Boone, deputy commander of the Fort Jackson U.S. Army Chaplain Center and School in Columbia, S.C.
"These are gifted men and women, who bring both discipline and grace to a challenging and potentially dangerous context," says the Rev. Pat Barrett, staff executive in the denomination’s Section of Chaplains and Related Ministries.
"In addition to being spiritually fit --and spiritual maturity is essential to this ministry -- they must be physically fit enough to keep up with the troops. They must have both the gifts and the skills for the public and the personal ministry, caring for the heart and speaking to authority."
In the United Methodist Church, applicants for chaplaincy in a military branch must obtain ecclesiastical endorsement through the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry’s Section of Chaplains and Related Ministries, Nashville, Tenn. Applicants must be ordained and in full membership in an annual conference and they must graduate or have graduated from an accredited college and seminary.
"I believe there is one ministry of Jesus Christ, expressed in diverse ways and many places, and utilizing a variety of gifts. The ministry of chaplains is one of those expressions, and calls for particular gifts," Barrett says. "From time to time we hear that we have ‘left the ministry,’ but in reality by appointment we are extending the ministry of the church to persons and places beyond the local church. So we are partners in ministry, not deserters," Barrett says.
Applicants for U.S. army chaplaincy must have:
* An ecclesiastical endorsement from their faith group
* Spiritual, moral, intellectual and emotional qualifications to serve as a chaplain
* Sensitivity to religious pluralism and the ability to provide for free exercise of religion by all military personnel, their family members and civilians who work for the Army
* A baccalaureate degree of not less than 120 semester hours
* A master’s degree in divinity or a graduate degree in theological studies, which includes at least 72 hours.
* U.S. citizenship or green card
* Physical fitness for general service based on an examination by the military
Ordained United Methodists may serve in the Army as a full-time active or part time as a reservist. Army chaplains enter the service as an officer after attending the Chaplain Officer Basic Course.
"Some tell me they chose to be Army chaplains as a way of expressing citizenship; others, who met Christ through the ministry of a chaplain, want to share Christ in that community; some grew up in the service, others were introduced to the setting through retired military or reservists in their congregations. But all affirm that this is first a call to ministry," Barrett says.
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