Nov. 25, 2003
Pension board votes to eliminate Diversified Investment Fund

EVANSTON, Ill. (UMNS)—Directors of the United Methodist Board of Pension and Health Benefits have approved an investment change that will affect all active fund participants.

During a Nov. 21 meeting, board members accepted the recommendation of the board’s asset/liability committee to discontinue the reserve-based Diversified Investment Fund (DIF) as an investment fund for all general board plans and replace it with the market-based Multiple Asset Fund (MAF).

All eligible participant accounts and conference deposits in DIF will move to the MAF when operationally feasible and when DIF has a positive reserve.

Target dates of the transfer are Feb. 28 for conference deposits and March 31 for the Ministerial Pension Plan (MPP), Staff Retirement Benefits Program (SRBP), Cumulative Pension and Benefit Fund (CPBF) and Defined Benefit Service Money (DBSM).

Participants 61 and older will have an option to gradually convert their accumulated employer account balances to an investment fund with a very relatively low risk of loss of principal.

Account balances of MPP participants 62 or older or with 35 years of service as of June 30, 2003, will not be affected by this decision. These balances were promised an annuity conversion rate of 8 percent and the market risk associated with these balances will remain with MPP.

"The DIF appeared to protect the financial security of participants, (but) in reality, participants have been exposed to market risk all along," said Will Green, the asset/ liability committee chairman. "The nature of a reserve fund like DIF in a defined contribution plan masks that exposure."

Although participants now will directly see the impact of market exposure, the board says participants who maintain a long-term investment in a market-based fund will have the best chance of achieving their financial goals at retirement.

According to Dave Zellner, chief investment officer at the pension board, it has become apparent that moving balances in DIF to a market-based fund better aligns market performance with participant opportunity.

"Over long periods of time, the investment returns of a market-based fund are expected to closely match that of a reserve fund," he explained. "MAF returns during the last 10 years have averaged nearly 10 percent per year and the current year-to-date returns are 18.8 percent through Nov. 21."

In addition, current participants must wait until the DIF reserve limit of 14 percent is fully realized before they can begin earning special distributions. A market-based fund allows participants to benefit from a rising market immediately.

To protect participants against loss of purchasing power resulting from inflation, the board also authorized the establishment of a new fund known as the Inflation Protection Fund, composed exclusively of Treasury Inflation Protected Securities issued by the U.S. government. The fund is expected to become available for PIP participants Jan.1.

More information is available at www.gbophb.org , the pension agency’s Web site.

*Information for this story was adapted from a release sent by Mike Lee, senior communications officer for the United Methodist Board of Pension and Health Benefits.


Dec. 3, 2003
Methodists inspect ‘fruit’ of church’s repentance for racism
By Linda Green*

BALTIMORE (UMNS) — Three years have passed since the United Methodist Church apologized for the sin of racism and sought to reconcile with African-American Methodist denominations that formed during the 18th and 19th centuries.

During that repentance service at the 2000 General Conference, United Methodists were warned that the fruits of their repentance would be under scrutiny by the African-American churches.

"The ritual act of repentance alone would not lead to the development of a new attitude or a new social consciousness," said Bishop Clarence Carr, with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, at the end of the repentance service.

"The ritual tree of repentance is barren without fruit worthy of repentance," he said. "Repentance leads to redemption, and redemption demands restitution, reparation, liberation — a new sense of freedom — both for the victim and the victimizer."

Calling the act a defining moment for the church of John Wesley, Carr said that he and other members of African-American Methodist denominations would not judge the United Methodists but would be "fruit inspectors." The denominations were formed largely because of racism in the United Methodist Church’s predecessors.

Since then, most of the 64 United Methodist annual conferences in the United States have held repentance services. Local congregations have engaged in partnerships with members of the African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion and Christian Methodist Episcopal churches. Members of those denominations also hold membership on the governing bodies of United Methodist boards and agencies.

But what else has been done? Members of the Commission on Pan-Methodist Cooperation and Union, which consists of representatives from all four denominations, and the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns are looking for the fruits of repentance.

Representatives of the African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, Christian Methodist Episcopal and United Methodist churches came together in Baltimore before Thanksgiving in search of the fruit and to see how they would journey together in Christ in the future. Native American United Methodists also participated.

The United Methodist Church has made strides in its repentance, but it needs assistance in identifying the missing pieces, said Anne Marshall, a staff executive with the denomination’s Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns.

The consultation focused on identifying next steps for the United Methodist Church to take beyond the act of repentance to reconciliation.

Several ideas for next steps included moving beyond the "safe" observances, focusing on people 25-45 years old, acknowledging the intersections of race, and tearing down walls that separate various races. The group also discussed encouraging the startup of cooperative congregations under the pan-Methodist banner.

After all of the churchwide and caucus reports on racism and the ritual acts, "where are the fruits of repentance?" asked the Rev. William McClain, professor of preaching and worship at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington. In the keynote address, McClain wondered aloud whether any fruit exists or "do we still produce wild grapes?"

"If a tree is purporting to be an apple tree, the way to tell if it is so is to taste the fruit, examine the fruit," said Staccato Powell, an African Methodist Episcopal Zion representative from West Chester, Pa. "So if the United Methodist Church is genuinely repentant for its actions of the past, then we want to know that by their current deeds and practices."

Powell asked how the United Methodist Church could reach beyond its institutional walls if it continues to exclude those who never left its ranks — a reference to the racism that still exists in the denomination. He also questioned whether the act of repentance was an attempt to "bring people of color back in to reverse the cycle of the downward spiral in terms of membership, or is this an attempt to control and dominate as the past has proven?"

The United Methodist Church should "walk the walk and not simply talk the talk," Powell said.

He also called for a pragmatic process or strategic plan with measurable action steps to help the churches in their journey together.

Using the image of a rear-view mirror, McClain said it is important to reflect on history, looking at how mistakes have prohibited reconciliation and prevented the denomination from becoming "the church in the world."

It is time to get serious about living out the faith, he said. "We need to be serious in not simply talking about multiracial churches or multicultural events and people holding office and serving the church, but in fact doing it." The barriers to reuniting the pan-Methodist denominations must be removed, he said.

McClain suggested that reconciliation is possible if the United Methodist Church "confesses and ... straightens out what we messed up."

Listening, sharing and trusting will move the four denominations toward becoming the Methodist family again, she said. She indicated that she was not talking about merger or organically becoming one, but in developing concrete relationships within communities.

The Rev. Lisa Lewis Balboa, pastor of Phillips Chapel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in Elkton, Ky., focused on relationship building. Accompanied by the Rev. John Reilly, pastor of Peachtree Memorial United Methodist Church, Elkton, Ky. ,she discussed how, through participating in a study called Learning and Repentance: Steps Toward Wholeness , their congregations overcame differences and established relationships.

"It was a scary and wonderful experience," Balboa said. "We did not know what to expect. In the end, we had a bond and a relationship."

The four churches’ journey together will not end, Marshall said. "Once you develop a relationship, there is not an end to it. You will always be on this road together. The destination is one where we listen to each other with respect and work together with integrity and come together in a relationship that has trust."

*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer in Nashville, Tenn. News media can contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org


Dec. 4, 2003
West African ‘miracle tree’ offers nutritional benefits
By Nancye Willis*

DAKAR, Senegal (UMNS) — An ecumenical relief agency is cultivating a West African "miracle tree" that could be a nutritional dream come true in nations devastated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, widespread poverty and resulting malnutrition.

Pioneering research by Church World Service, the relief ministry of the U.S. National Council of Churches, in cooperation with the Senegalese organization Alternative Action for African Development, has documented the moringa tree’s value as a local, sustainable solution to malnutrition, especially among infants, children and mothers.

In Africa, a continent particularly hard hit by HIV/AIDS, the organization has planted a million of the fast-growing, drought-resistant trees, which have the potential of building immune systems, an important consideration in treating AIDS.

Lowell Fuglie and his wife, Caroline, help tend the patch on what was once an arid patch of land north of Dakar. Fuglie’s work as head of Church World Service’s West Africa regional office involves promoting the use of the moringa’s edible leaves and pods, which have twice the calcium as milk, as a nutritional supplement for Senegalese.

The moringa tree, also rich in iron and potassium, flourishes in tropical settings, and produces so many useful vitamins that many call it "the miracle tree." With four times the amount of vitamin A in carrots, the moringa helps prevent blindness, Fuglie says. "In the Third World, there are hundreds — thousands — of people who go blind every year for lack of vitamin A."
Also called "the miracle tree", the moringa has many uses for the people of Africa.

The leaves, leaf powder, pods, seeds, flowers, roots and bark of the drought-resistant moringa are edible, even palatable. Parts of the tree can also be used for animal feed, domestic cleansers, perfume, dye, fertilizer, medicine, water clarification, rope fiber, and as an agent for tanning hides. "It is miraculous that one single tree can offer so many uses for people," Fuglie says.

The moringa tree comes into full leaf at the end of the dry season, precisely when other foods are the scarcest. Moringa leaf powder conserves well, is easy to use in many recipes and helps purify contaminated water by settling the particulate matter.

As a result of the agency’s pioneering moringa research, the government of Senegal is promoting moringa as part of the national diet. Health workers and representatives of other community and local non-governmental organizations in areas of the most severe malnutrition are being trained in its benefits.

The organization has promoted similar projects in Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mali and Niger, where mothers, children, and other members of various communities are benefiting from eating the leaves, seeds and pods of the moringa tree.

Church World Service is supported by 36 U.S. denominations, including the United Methodist Church, and it works in partnership with indigenous organizations in more than 80 countries worldwide.

The United Methodist Church has been responding to the AIDS crisis since the early 1980s through its Board of Global Ministries and other church programs. The HIV/AIDS Ministries Network, related to Global Ministries’ Health and Welfare Ministries unit, is a network of United Methodists and others who care about the global HIV/AIDS pandemic and those whose lives have been touched.

More information on United Methodist work in HIV/AIDS is available at Global Ministries’ Web site, http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor . Donations to support "Global HIV/AIDS Program Development," UMCOR Advance No. 982345, or "AIDS Orphan Trust," UMCOR Advance No. 982842 can be made through local United Methodist congregations, at http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor or by calling (800) 554-8583.

More information on Church World Service may be found at the organization’s Web site http://www.churchworldservice.org , and on the moringa tree project at http://www.moringatrees.org .

*Willis is a staff member of United Methodist Communications.


Dec. 1, 2003
African churches adopt 10-point plan for HIV/AIDS
By Carol Fouke*

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (UMNS) – Christian leaders from around Africa have pledged to support a 10-point covenant for fighting HIV/AIDS that emphasizes prevention and the provision of affordable drugs for all who need them.

As World AIDS Day – Dec. 1 – approached, church leaders from across the continent prayed, sang and spoke out boldly as they made a commitment to defeat HIV/AIDS. During a Nov. 26 all-day focus on the pandemic, delegates to the All Africa Conference of Churches Eighth Assembly reviewed the dire facts and figures, heard testimonies from HIV-positive clergy and laity and adopted the 10-point covenant.

To dramatize the importance of HIV screening, the assembly offered free, voluntary on-site testing. According to clinic staff, 105 of the assembly’s 800-plus participants were tested and, when supplies ran out, others were given vouchers for testing the next day.

"As far as we are concerned, this is war," said the Rev. Mvume Dandala, a Methodist pastor who serves as chief executive for the All Africa Conference of Churches. "We declare unequivocally that HIV/AIDS is not the will of God for Africa. We will try with all we have to resist it."

At a candlelight vigil and service, Dandala had strong words for international pharmaceutical companies and countries in the northern hemisphere that are falling short in their support of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

"The church must resist any tendency by the pharmaceutical companies to see Africa as an open market for HIV/AIDS drugs because of the virus’ prevalence on the continent," he said. Such an attitude would be a sign of moral bankruptcy, he added.

During the candlelight vigil, three phalanxes of about 1,000 people each walked from three downtown Yaounde intersections to the headquarters of the Federation of Protestant Churches and Missions in Cameroon, the nation’s ecumenical council. Assembly delegates went by bus from their meeting site.

Addresses included words from Cameroon’s health minister, Urbain Olanguena Owono, who praised the comprehensive commitment of the churches to fighting HIV/AIDS, to working against stigmatization of people with HIV/AIDS, and to extending care and compassion to those affected by HIV/AIDS.

"HIV/AIDS is the most awful and insidious destroyer of African life," he said. "If we don’t stop this insidious terrorist, all our development efforts may be in vain."

Delegates stood to adopt a 10-point covenant for the council, which Dandala described as "a guiding document for all our churches as well as a position paper that is going to give guidance to the kind of response the church has to give to the HIV/AIDS pandemic."

Dandala called for more research dollars for Africa’s scientists seeking treatments and a cure, and for strengthening of Africa’s health services, 40 percent of which are in the hands of the church.

In the 10-point covenant, delegates pledged to:

The All Africa Conference of Churches has 169 national member denominations and 27 national ecumenical councils, comprising 120 million Christians in 39 countries. The United Methodist Church is active throughout Africa and supports many ministries that are addressing the AIDS crisis.

*Fouke is a communications staff member of the U.S. National Council of Churches. Dave Wanless also contributed to this story.