Bishop Wilson: Inspire Next 7 Generations

by Steve | Jul 5, 2024 | July-August 2024

Bishop Wilson: Inspire Next 7 Generations

By Todd Seifert

Bishop David Wilson, the denomination’s first Native American bishop, encouraged General Conference delegates to consider the people who inspired their faith in the past while considering how decisions today can inspire United Methodists far into the future.

During the morning worship May 1, Wilson, who leads the Great Plains Conference, drew upon Indigenous cultures and his background working at General Conferences of the past.

An ensemble from the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference, where Wilson served before his historic episcopal election in November 2022, sang and highlighted a segment of the church often overlooked despite its long history with Methodism.

Many of the Native people relocated to present-day Oklahoma brought the Methodist theology of Christianity with them in the 1840s. The bishop, now serving the Great Plains Conference, showed delegates a design of footprints on his crozier that symbolizes the deadly trek from the southeastern United States to what is now Oklahoma.

Wilson encouraged delegates to remember the constituents they serve. “We come from four continents, speaking more than 10 languages,” he said. “We come with the commonality of our belief and service to Jesus Christ and the world. And we are also here because we believe in the life and future of this United Methodist Church. My friends, we have much more in common than not.”

Wilson shared Hebrews 13:7-8, CEB: “Remember your leaders who spoke God’s word to you. Imitate their faith as you consider the way their lives turned out. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever!”

The bishop, wearing special white moccasins given to him by the Rev. Thomas Roughface, who preceded Wilson as the superintendent of the OIMC, recalled growing up in a Native Methodist congregation in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and how he was nurtured there by adults — including a pastor who recognized God’s call on Wilson’s life.

“I remember those leaders so often, those who first taught me about the Creator God, about faith, love, forgiveness and more,” Wilson said. “Most of all, I remember their witness of how they cared and loved others and modeled and taught me to be proud of my culture.”

Wilson acknowledged the period of disaffiliation that took such a large toll on the denomination. While noting the pain and challenges that resulted in approximately 25% of American congregations leaving The United Methodist Church, Wilson also expressed amazement at the tenacity and faithfulness of laity across the connection who chose to remain, even when their local church decided to leave.

He shared the story of one congregation in Imperial, Nebraska, a town of about 2,000 people in the far southwestern portion of the state. The move to disaffiliate passed by a single vote, leaving about half of the congregation to either give in or move on.

They decided to start something new. The bishop shared a quote from a story told on the Great Plains Conference website.

“We had to make the decision not only to remain United Methodist, with the theology and all the things that went with that, but we had to think about what was important to us. Was the building and the cross and the Bibles and the piano — were those the things that were going to make us stay there? Or was the way we believe and the things we find important, were those the things that were going to make us leave?”

“The people were happy,” Wilson recalled, “and I could tell they meant what they said earlier: It was their belief in Christ and all that was important to their faith that kept them there as United Methodists.”

The commonalities shared by the people in the new congregation — and their love for all people — led to a recollection of a dinner Wilson had with a group of clergy from Great Plains. He described sitting at the table with Kenyans, Koreans and Anglos. The host, the Rev. Anne Gatobu, who is from Kenya, explained the African Christian perspective of loving neighbors known as “Ubuntu.”

Wilson learned that Ubuntu spotlights the humanness found in being with others. He said when someone pulls away to pursue their own interest, the life-giving force found in the interwovenness of life experiences is lost.

“Because of Ubuntu,” Wilson said, “the message of love in Africa has been preached with great ease and effectiveness as it resonates with the innermost being of people.”

Wilson, who often shares the way Indigenous cultures look far into the future as they consider decisions, closed with a story from the six tribes that make up the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in the northeastern United States.

When major decisions must be made, Wilson said, care and attention go into not only thinking about the ramifications for the present or even a year later. Instead, thought is given to what the results of a decision could be to people living seven generations down the road.

“You heard that correctly: the next seven generations,” Wilson said. “What would that look like if we made plans, looking ahead seven generations and how these decisions affect all people? Can you imagine how that would impact this denomination and, most importantly, this world?”

The service concluded with a time of remembrance of bishops, spouses and delegates who have died since the last General Conference.

Todd Seifert is communications director in the Great Plains Conference. Image: Bishop David Wilson, the first Native American to be elected a United Methodist bishop, preaches on May 1 during morning worship at the United Methodist General Conference in Charlotte, N.C. Photo by Paul Jeffrey, UM News.

Bishop Holston: Become “who God Needs Us to Be”

by Steve | Jul 5, 2024 | July-August 2024

Bishop Holston: Become “who God Needs Us to Be”

By Jessica Brodie

Bringing a word on staying who “God needs us to be” in spite of the ever-changing noise of this world, Bishop L. Jonathan Holston of the South Carolina Conference delivered the Council of Bishops’ Episcopal Address to kick off Day 2 of the General Conference.

“When things are happening all around us, God uses the church to make a difference,” Holston proclaimed before the crowd of delegates, observers and volunteers gathered at the Charlotte Convention Center April 24. “The church was never built for our pleasure. The church is built for God’s purpose.”

Holston was selected by the Council of Bishops to deliver the address on their behalf. The council comprises 59 bishops presiding over conferences and episcopal areas across the globe, as well as retired bishops.

Holston opened the address with a prayer calling on God to create a clean heart and renew a right spirit within United Methodists as they strive to put love first.

“When the world shouts hate, help us to love,” Holston prayed. “When the past won’t let go, help us to love. When we feel broken, betrayed or rejected, help us to love. Even when it seems impossible or doesn’t make sense, help us to love.”

He shared how so much has happened since an episcopal address was last delivered at General Conference 2016, eight years ago.

Citing wisdom from former United States ambassador and pastor Andrew Young, Holston noted the paradox of humanity can be described in this way: “We live in the tension of who we are, who we say we are and who we want to be.”

As a lengthy montage displayed examples onscreen, Holston reviewed the changes that have occurred in the church and the world since General Conference last met — the highs and lows, the opportunities and challenges, the tensions as people of faith pivot between the best and the worst of human nature.

“Since 2016, TikTok launched, Saudi Arabia legalized women driving, the northern white rhino became extinct, Notre Dame burned, ChatGPT was created, elephants are being studied to treat cancer,” Holston said.

The list goes on: Elections. Natural disasters. Terrorist attacks. Good things and bad.

Yet amid what Holston called this “noisy backdrop of world events,” God’s people still did what they could across the world to be God’s church.

He lifted up numerous examples of this, from baptisms and new churches rising up to powerful mission work done in the name of the Lord to fight trafficking, provide economic opportunity and deliver desperately needed medical care in remote areas.

“We fall short,” Holston said. “Yet even in our shortcomings as imperfect humans, we strive for who we want to be — holding before us the vision of God’s kingdom built, the hope of Christ fulfilled, as we move toward that vision with courage. All of this because we know that God prevails — the victory has already been won in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

He urged delegates and other United Methodists to keep their focus on what is important as they tune out the noise.

“Friends, this is who God needs for us to be,” Holston said, urging all gathered to continue God’s work in the midst of divisive, joyful and sometimes terrible situations.

Striving to be who God needs us to be should be the only priority, he said.

Glancing backward is fine, but the focus must be the future, he said. “There’s a reason that rearview mirror is so much smaller than the windshield itself. We are only meant to glance backward. We are meant to fix our gaze ahead, following where Christ leads.”

Where Christ leads is God’s kingdom, Holston said, and it’s being built now. And even though church members may be uncertain about exactly what this looks like, they must press on, surrendering to God’s will in the busy circumstances surrounding them.

“We sometimes fall into thinking that if we have God’s peace, then there will be no tension, no conflict, no issues to face,” Holston said.

But this world will always have tension and conflict. And just as pilots must train to fly the plane in spite of what they face in the sky, “They have to fly the plane, set their bearings and don’t lose sight … There is no room for fear or doubt when the plane is in the air.”

Jessica Brodie is the editor of the South Carolina United Methodist Advocate. Image: Bishop L. Jonathan Holston gives the Episcopal Address during the United Methodist General Conference April 24 in Charlotte, N.C. Holston, who leads the South Carolina Conference, encouraged delegates to tune out the noise and focus on God’s work. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Prayer Room was Sanctuary for Delegates

by Steve | Jul 5, 2024 | July-August 2024

Prayer Room was Sanctuary for Delegates

By Audrey Stanton-Smith

At the end of a quiet hallway on the upper floor of the Charlotte Convention Center, delegates and visitors find space to pray.

“It is quiet, and it’s sort of away from everybody,” said Amy Steele, dean of the chapel and executive director of program ministries for The Upper Room. “And, yes, it is a walk down the hallway, but that’s a chance to let go, breathe deeply, center and prepare yourself for prayer. It is an escape not just from the external noise, but (also) the internal noise.”

Karen Hayden knows how important such a space can be.

“In 2016, I was a delegate, and I stumbled upon that dedicated space. I went back to it regularly while at General Conference,” said Hayden, a member of the Missouri Conference. A certified spiritual director, she returned this year as one of 42 prayer room volunteers. “It was helpful. Comfortable. I just remember feeling refreshed.”

The “Cultivating the Garden of the Heart” prayer room at E222 was open to all and included prompts and Scriptures in Portuguese, Korean, French, Spanish and Kiswahili.

“A prayer room at General Conference is absolutely essential because our work needs to be a practice of holy conferencing and discernment, and you can’t do holy conferencing and discernment by resolutions and votes,” said Thomas Albin, a prayer room volunteer and former dean of the chapel for The Upper Room.

Hosted by The Upper Room and sponsored by Wesleyan Impact Partners, the United Methodist Foundation of Western North Carolina, Oklahoma Methodist Foundation and United Methodist Foundation of North Carolina, the prayer room featured three dedicated prayer altars and eight prayer stations with Scripture-based activity prompts.

Prayer altars with kneeling benches on loan from New Market United Methodist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, were dedicated to prayer for an end to sexual violence and human trafficking, an end to war and armed conflict, and prayer “for a hope that hopes beyond hope.”

Prayer stations are “opportunities to connect on a deeper level with Scripture,” Steele explained. “So, there is opportunity to just say a prayer, alone or with someone, or you can give yourself over to a different kind of prayer experience at each of the stations.”

For example, the “Tending Wilted Leaves” station references Psalm 1:3 and invited visitors to write a prayer request “for an area of your life where you feel you are wilting” on a leaf-shaped slip of paper and pin it to a tree while asking God to hear your prayers and water your life and the life of the church.

“Chasing the Foxes” refers to Song of Solomon 2:15 and invites participants to name their foxes — a habit, attitude or obsession — “that is running wild in your vineyard.” A small cage on the table invites participants to lock those foxes away, “out of the garden of your mind and heart and out of the church.”

Other stations invite visitors to remember baptism, bloom in God’s abundance, pray for God’s guidance and simply rest in God’s grace. Visitors may opt to remove shoes, take a pair of socks from a basket and take a reflective walk around a labyrinth rug. Others may enjoy watching a sugar cube dissolve into a fish bowl seascape as they consider “living forgiveness.”

“The sugar cube is a chance to think about your sin, and when you drop your sugar cube into the water, it’s like casting your sins into the sea of forgiveness,” Steele explained.

The prayer room also offered spiritual guidance in the form of 50-minute, one-on-one sessions with certified spiritual directors. Conference attendees interested in a free private session in a curtained-off space simply sign up for an available time slot at the prayer room’s entrance.

“Our intent with the spiritual directors is not to direct anyone,” Steele said. “It is just to sit and listen to them and whatever issues or concerns they may have. It is just a chance to help them process.”

Melinda Trotti, a volunteer spiritual director from Michigan, said her training has reminded her to remind others that God is God regardless of what happens in the business of The United Methodist Church.

“The spiritual direction time is whatever people want it to be,” Trotti said. “We’re here to support, to pray with people if they want that, and to ask helpful questions.”

“No agenda,” Hayden added. “Just a space to listen.”

Audrey Stanton-Smith is editor of United Women in Faith’s Response magazine. Image: Norma Villagrana of the Western North Carolina Conference prays at an altar in the General Conference prayer room in Charlotte, N.C. The “Cultivating the Garden of the Heart” prayer room is sponsored by The Upper Room and includes prompts and Scriptures in Portuguese, Korean, French, Spanish and Kiswahili. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

General Conference News Briefs

by Steve | Jul 5, 2024 | July-August 2024

General Conference News Briefs

July/August 2024

– Delegates celebrate success, growth of
Africa University

By Eveline Chikwanah

General Conference delegates, church leaders and alumni celebrated the impact of Africa University and the support from United Methodists across the connection who have helped provide quality education to thousands of students.

Also referred to as “the school of dreams in the valley of hope,” the institution opened its doors in 1992. Since then, it has afforded 12,000 graduates — many of whom are first-generation college students, mainly women — the opportunity to study and become leaders in Africa and beyond.

True to its mantra, “Leaders are made here,” around 200 graduates stood up in the auditorium when called by James H. Salley, president/chief executive officer of Africa University Inc. and associate vice chancellor for institutional advancement for Africa University. The alumni included delegates, observers and volunteers at the conference.

AIDS Conference aims to break down barriers

By Neill Caldwell

United Methodists and friends gathered in the ornate sanctuary of First United Methodist Church on April 22 to get updates on an ongoing and important church issue: AIDS ministry.

Through worship, speakers, panels and workshops, the United Methodist Global AIDS Committee facilitated the daylong Breaking Barriers AIDS Conference as part of the run-up to the start of The United Methodist Church’s long-delayed General Conference.

More people are living longer with HIV — in many cases much longer — thanks to combinations of prescription drugs. Still, 39 million people were living with HIV worldwide in 2022, according to UNAIDS, and 630,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses that year.

“It’s still an issue, and I’m glad to see there is still an interest in it,” said host pastor the Rev. Val Rosenquist of First United Methodist Church.

In her welcome, the Rev. Sunny Farley, Global AIDS Committee coordinator, said, “We pray we will all celebrate together in an AIDS-free world.”

The Rev. Donald E. Messer, chair of the group’s executive committee, said that “people are here because they care, and they have cared for many years.”

Bishops, delegates join rally for Palestine

By Neill Caldwell

While pro-Palestinian rallies are happening across the U.S., United Methodists at General Conference had their chance to gather in a peaceful show of support on the eve of April 25.

Sponsored by United Methodist Kairos Response, the rally brought together more than 100 United Methodist delegates and observers — along with at least six bishops — to hear from a variety of speakers and sing hymns in solidarity.

Theresa Basile of United Methodist Kairos Response said she was glad to call attention to Palestinian-related petitions submitted to General Conference.

Resolution opposes investment in Israeli bonds

By Neill Caldwell and Sam Hodges

General Conference delegates approved a resolution calling on United Methodist institutions not to invest in bonds of Israel, Turkey and Morocco because of those nations’ long-term military occupations.

This General Conference has occurred as pro-Palestinian protests on U.S. college campuses have met with many arrests. At General Conference, some delegates, bishops and observers staged a protest of Israel’s ongoing, comprehensive military operations in Gaza, which were triggered by Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.

The resolution regarding the three nations’ bonds was
approved on a consent calendar on April 30. It’s advisory, and does not change Book of Discipline Para. 717, on sustainable and socially responsible investments.

Apology OK’d for church role in Hawaiian history

By Sam Hodges

Hawaiian United Methodists are cheering the decision by General Conference to approve a formal apology for the denomination’s role in the overthrow of the 1893 Hawaiian monarchy.

“I am ecstatic, just thrilled after so many years of waiting for this to finally happen,” said the Rev. Amy Wake, pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Pearl City, Hawaii. “It means we can go back to (Native) Hawaiians and tell them The United Methodist Church has heard you and The United Methodist Church is with you.”

The apology petition was supported overwhelmingly in committee and gained final approval during plenary on April 29, as part of the consent calendar.

“This is a great way of expressing repentance for our sins and brokenness. This gives us a chance to make right what we’ve done wrong in the past,” said the Rev. Won-Seok Yuh, pastor of First United Methodist Church of Honolulu.

In 1993, Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed legislation acknowledging that the overthrow of the kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the participation of agents of the United States and that the Native Hawaiians never relinquished their claim to sovereignty.

Joyce Warner, late historian of First United Methodist Church of Honolulu, discovered in her research for the church’s 150th anniversary celebration that one of its early pastors, the Rev. Harcourt W. Peck, had played a role in the overthrow of Queen Lili’uoklani’s monarchy of the Hawaiian islands on Jan. 17, 1893.

The overthrow was led by independent sugar cane plantation owners and backed by U.S. Marines. Peck, according to the petition approved by General Conference, served as a sharpshooter and aide to the commander of the overthrow.

A year later, he would become pastor of First Methodist Episcopal Church in Honolulu, rejoining a sharpshooter company and serving as chaplain to the new Republic of Hawaii.

The petition calls for the conference to have a task force to engage with and listen to native Hawaiians, as part of nurturing “authentic community.”

Abortion

General Conference approved a petition affirming a right to abortion and pledging “solidarity with those who seek reproductive health care.” The petition, “upholds a person’s right to an abortion after informed consideration with their family, medical practitioners, pastor, and other pertinent counsel.” It also denounces abortion bans. Delegates deleted the words, “we are equally bound to respect ther sacredness of the life and well-being of the mother and the unborn child.”

Thursdays in Black

By Melissa Lauber

Thursdays in Black, an initiative of the World Council of Churches, encourages wearing black clothing on this one day of the week to witness to realities, like those reported by the United Nations. Among those is that globally an estimated 736 million women — almost one in three — have experienced physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both, at least once in their life.

One of these women, Bishop LaTrelle Miller Easterling, episcopal leader of the Baltimore-Washington and Peninsula-Delaware annual conferences, stood before General Conference on Thursday morning and testified to the damage the church can do when it is silent on this issue.

Too often, she said, silence “has been the church’s response to domestic abuse, intimate partner violence, rape as a weapon of war, incest, violence against the transgender community, as well as the abduction and disappearance of Indigenous women.”

Time put aside at General Conference to lament abuse

By Jim Patterson

“We affirm the stories of pain and suffering (that) women, children and men have experienced due to sexual misconduct,” said the Rev. Stephanie York Arnold, the United Methodist pastor of First Church Birmingham in Alabama, who led the Service of Lament, Confession and Hope at the Charlotte Convention Center.

“We join our voices to sing for justice as we tell the truth of our own complicity in the perpetuation of sexual misconduct and abuse in The United Methodist Church,” Arnold said. “We recognize that we have a long way to go to repair trust, restore integrity and tend the wounds of those who have been harmed by our church.”

The service was held April 29 after the afternoon plenary session at General Conference, where United Methodist delegates have gathered to make decisions to set the course for the denomination. The meeting, normally held every four years, was twice delayed by COVID-19.

The United Methodist Commission on the Status and Role of Women organized the event, holding two services to make it more convenient for people to attend.

During the gathering, five crosses were displayed with pieces of glass from broken plates attached. The plates had been prepared in Georgia, where women who had been harmed wrote the initials of their abusers on the dishware, then wrapped the plates in towels and struck them until they broke into pieces.

“Through our brokenness, Christ is seen and able to heal us through our cracks,” Arnold said.

Welcoming churches back

By Heather Hahn

“With a spirit of grace, we welcome those churches which have disaffiliated or withdrawn to rejoin The United Methodist Church,” the newly adopted policy says. “Where applicable, every annual conference shall have a policy of reaffiliation for the churches seeking to return to the connection.”

Delegates amended the petition to require that returning churches affirm their commitment to the denomination’s trust clause.

“I believe we need to leave the door open,” said Helen Ryde, a delegate from the Western North Carolina Conference and an organizer with the advocacy group Reconciling Ministries Network. “This movement to bring our church to a new place has never, ever been about asking people to leave.”

Deacons can now preside at sacraments in their appointments

By Jessica Brodie

Deacons can now preside at the sacraments in their appointments without needing explicit permission from their bishop.

In what presiding Bishop David Graves called a “historic moment,” General Conference on May 2 passed new legislation granting authority to deacons to preside at the sacraments in their ministry settings.

This means deacons can now offer Holy Communion and conduct baptisms where they have been appointed to serve, whether that is a church, outreach ministry, or mission.

Full communion with Episcopalians gets closer

By Jim Patterson

Delegates to the United Methodist General Conference approved full communion with The Episcopal Church on April 30. The agreement needs the approval of the Episcopalians before going into effect.

During the conference’s “Ecumenical Day,” the morning plenary session was halted briefly to acknowledge the vote.

“We want to lift up and recognize this moment, which is an incredibly significant moment, especially on this day as we celebrate our ecumenical relations,” said the Rev. Gary Graves, secretary of the General Conference.

“As you adopted that resolution,” he noted, “you adopted the full communion relationship with The Episcopal Church in the United States, that has been worked on for many years.”

…If The Episcopal Church affirms the agreement, which might not happen until meetings scheduled for 2027, it will mean that the two denominations recognize each other as “one, holy, catholic and apostolic church in which the Gospel is rightly preached and taught.”

“Once we make that full communion, then all of us have full communion with each other — the Episcopalians, the Lutherans, the Moravians and us,” she said. “Then we don’t have to have all these individual coordinating (joint) committees. We could all be one coordinating committee, perhaps, that would be cheaper and far more creative and interactive.”

Communion would also mean that United Methodists and Episcopalians would recognize the authenticity of each other’s baptism and Eucharist; extend sacramental hospitality to one another’s members; recognize ordination of each other’s priests, elders and deacons; report regularly to one another; formulate joint educational materials and encourage continuing education opportunities for lay and clergy leaders regarding full communion; and agree to cultivate and maintain active partnership and consultation with each other.

Translators bridge language gaps

By Eveline Chikwanah

There are more than 760 United Methodist Church delegates from across the globe, gathered April 23-May 3 in Charlotte, North Carolina, to determine the denomination’s future, and many identify with different “international” languages, depending on their nationality.

English, French, Portuguese and Kiswahili speakers dominate the auditorium, and it was up to dedicated translators, numbering about 180 during the first week, to ensure they understood each other to contribute meaningfully to conversations.

In the makeshift Daily Christian Advocate translators’ lounge, three groups of six volunteers diligently translate the daily proceedings’ written material into French, Portuguese and Kiswahili, sometimes working till midnight.

Church leaders decry attacks against Asians

By Sam Hodges

“The United Methodist Church has a moral obligation to be vocally and visibly outraged at these shootings and this precipitous rise in violence and hatred against the Asian American community,” said the Rev. John Oda, who directs The United Methodist Church’s Asian American Language Ministry Plan.

North Georgia Conference Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson said United Methodists in the Atlanta area mourn the loss of eight lives and condemn the killings.

“We note the alarming spike in crimes against Asians and Asian Americans and deplore hateful rhetoric that fuels these crimes,” she said. “We continue to focus upon … our anti-racism work.”

The Rev. William Seihwan Kim, pastor of Korean Church of Atlanta UMC, said the church is trying to organize a way to help those affected by the tragedy.

New clergy retirement plan approved

By Sam Hodges

A new retirement plan for United Methodist clergy in the U.S. has won approval overwhelmingly at General Conference.

The plan is called Compass, and was conceived and championed by Wespath, the denomination’s pension and benefits agency.

Wespath retirement plans going back generations have offered U.S. clergy a monthly pension benefit for life, but Compass is a defined contribution plan, more like a 401(k) offered by most corporate employers.

Wespath leaders said the denomination’s steady numerical decline over many years required a new, sustainable approach to supporting retired clergy.

Deacons can now preside at sacraments in their appointments

By Jessica Brodie

Deacons can now preside at the sacraments in their appointments without needing explicit permission from their bishop.

In what presiding Bishop David Graves called a “historic moment,” General Conference on May 2 passed new legislation granting authority to deacons to preside at the sacraments in their ministry settings.

This means deacons can now offer Holy Communion and conduct baptisms where they have been appointed to serve, whether that is a church, outreach ministry or mission.

Deacons and elders are considered clergy in The United Methodist Church, but deacons are ordained for ministries of word, service, compassion and justice — serving as a bridge between the church and the world. Elders are ordained for ministries of word, sacrament, order and service.

We are grateful for the ministry and gifts of our communication colleagues who were part of the UM News coverage team: Heather Hahn, Jim Patterson, Neill Caldwell, Sam Hodges, Eveline Chikwanah, Melissa Lauber, and Gladys P. Mangiduyos Image: James Salley leads a service of dedication for the South Indiana Hall of Residence at Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe, during the school’s 10th anniversary celebration in 2002. File photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.