by Steve | May 25, 2011 | Magazine Articles
By Elliott Wright
The United Methodist Church’s worldwide mission agency took historical steps on April 12 toward becoming more flexible, effective, and cost efficient in response to contemporary mission opportunities.
The directors voted to reduce their number by two-thirds, from 92 to 32, while retaining a strong balance among members from the United States and units (called “central conferences”) in Africa, the Philippines, and Europe.
Another action affirmed a proposal that would make the agency’s Women’s Division “structurally separate” but “missionally connected” to Global Ministries. The division is the corporate arm of United Methodist Women.
Denominational Concerns
The possibility of small board sizes is among a number of theological and organizational issues under discussion within the denomination as part of a “Call to Action” initiated by the Council of Bishops. Also, earlier research indicated too much “distance” between program agencies and congregations.
Global Ministries is also studying ways to strengthen its responsiveness to congregations and annual (regional) conferences. “There is a clear recognition,” Bishop Ough stated in an interview, “that as the policy board becomes smaller, the need to connect with constituent groups becomes larger.”
The proposals to reduce board size and to separate the Women’s Division from Global Ministries will be submitted for final decision by The United Methodist Church’s policy-making General Conference in 2012. Changes approved would go into effect at the start of 2013.
Board Size and Purpose
The issue of board size has been under consideration for about a year by a committee charged with studying possible governance changes to the largest of the 13 United Methodist general agencies. The resolution to drop the number from 92 to 32 came from the board’s executive committee. In presenting the committee report on April 11, Bishop Peter Weaver of New England said that a board of directors was a means, not an end, and did not depend on the number but on the nature of its members.
Directors of the mission board, he said, must have a clear vision and “focus on where God is leading us into the future.” He said the ideal directors are Christ-centered, have an ability to tell the truth in love, are deeply collaborative, and are more about the macro than the micro.
Issue of what is commonly called the ‘‘worldwide nature” of The United Methodist Church is often and currently under study. A report on this topic will come before the 2012 General Conference, and a preview of key provisions was presented to Global Ministries directors on the evening of April 11 by Bishop Scott Jones of the Kansas Area, the study commission chair. The study proposes that basic aspects of United Methodist polity and practice, including historical theological affirmation, would apply on a global basis while other matters, such as publication of educational materials, would be addressed at regional levels.
Distribution of Directors
The formula for the distribution of Global Ministries directors beginning in 2013 would assign 15 seats to five geographical jurisdictions in the US, with three each for the North Central, Northeastern, and South Central jurisdictions, and four to the Southeast and two to the Western, proportioned by membership size. Two spots would go to US bishops, for a total US representation of 17, or 53 percent.
Ten places, nine for clergy and laity and one for a bishop, would go to the central conference outside the US, or a total of 31 percent. There are some 7.8 million US United Methodists and more than 4 million in Africa, Europe, and the Philippines. Membership is growing outside the US and Europe.
The agency has experienced significant staff reduction in recent years, partly in an effort to more closely define priorities. But money is also a big factor. All 13 of the denomination’s “general agencies” are budgeting at lower levels for 2012 and beyond than was the case over the last four-year budgeting cycle.
Elliott Wright is a communications consultant to the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
by Steve | May 25, 2011 | Magazine Articles
By Linda Bloom
The Rev. Joseph Bishman loves motorcycles so much that he’s ridden nationally on behalf of Harley-Davidson.
So it seemed only natural for the United Methodist West Ohio Annual (regional) Conference to ask the 62-year-old Shawnee district superintendent to hold a motorcycle ride for Vietnam mission work.
What was unexpected was what happened next. His district of mostly small, rural churches on the edge of Appalachia has pulled together to raise nearly $650,000 so far for the conference’s support of Vietnam churches through the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
The district has held three “Rally in the Valley” events for Vietnam, with a fourth one approaching in May. Key to their fundraising success has been Bishman’s decision to treat the 159 churches in his district—which spans nine counties and 4,700 square miles—as one large congregation.
Or, as he characterizes it, “If we’re going to move a mountain, what would happen if we put all our shovels together on one single initiative?”
Bishman shared his strategies with Global Ministries’ directors on April 12 during the board’s spring meeting in Stamford, Connecticut. West Ohio Bishop Bruce Ough, who also serves as the board’s president, introduced him as a spiritual, visionary, passionate teacher in his region. “There’s one word that describes Joseph: leader,” Ough said.
A missional priority
Vietnam is part of the Southeast Asia Mission Initiative. It is one of the mission initiatives launched in recent years in countries where United
Methodist work did not previously exist or was disrupted in the past by political factors.
The work of the initiatives involves evangelism, social ministries, and church growth—including a commitment made in 2009 by the Board of Global Ministries to develop 400 new congregations outside the United States over a four-year period. About 280 congregations already can be counted toward that goal.
In a live webcast on the initiatives following Bishman’s presentation, board directors spoke via Skype with a district superintendent from Bulgaria, learned how the church in Cameroon uses play dates for children to grow membership and talked with church members in Senegal and Thailand about the difficulties in evangelizing in countries with non-Christian majorities.
Back in the Shawnee Valley, the missional connection with Vietnam has helped some in West Ohio—including Bishman himself—deal with the brokenness caused by the dispute over a long-ended but still unpopular war.
“We’ve really not known what to do about Vietnam for our own healing,” he states. “This has given a unique platform for many of our veterans to go back.”
Some have returned on the motorcycle rides, carrying Bibles instead of weapons. The most recent ride, involving a mission team from the Shawnee Valley District and Grove City United Methodist Church, occurred from late February to early March.
“I’ve put 36 new motorcycles in the hands of our pastors in Vietnam just through the motorcycle ride itself,” Bishman said.
Beyond motorcycles, the connection with Vietnam has helped bring the district together in a unique way. “What the Vietnam church has given us is an inspirational challenge which is unimaginable,” he said.
Becoming self-sufficient
The partnership in Vietnam is not based on dependency, Bishman pointed out. Both Vietnamese leaders and denominational supporters immediately began developing a plan for self-sufficiency, with the goal that every church pay its own pastor’s salary and that members look to their “responsibility to the rest of the world as well.”
Ough, who was recently named by the denomination’s Council of Bishops to provide episcopal oversight to the Southeast Asia Mission Initiative, travelled to Vietnam with a small delegation during Holy Week to preside over the church’s annual meeting. The church in Vietnam currently has about 12,000 participants in 200 congregations.
The West Ohio Conference presented $12,000 worth of seed corn to the Vietnamese church. “They will double or triple it, and next October they will bring the harvest in,” Bishman said.
When the Vietnamese take their first national offering this year, they will donate one-third of the total to new church development, one-third to Wesley Theological College in Ho Chi Minh City, and one-third to mission work in Laos, he added.
The church also continues to work toward official recognition by the Vietnamese government. A year ago, the new United Methodist Mission Center was dedicated in Ho Chi Minh City, one of the steps deemed necessary to achieve that end. Another requirement is a constitution and bylaws. “We have a draft of a constitution done,” Ough said. “It is now being translated into English so it can be reviewed by legal counsel.”
The bishop expects that Vietnamese United Methodists will have an organizing conference a year from now to approve the constitution and elect their own leaders.
“It’s a very exciting time for Vietnam,” Ough said. “We’re running to keep up with what God is doing there.”
Linda Bloom is a United Methodist News Service multimedia reporter based in New York.
by Steve | May 25, 2011 | Magazine Articles
By Joey Butler
Since 1955, April 15 has signified Tax Day in the United States—a pretty tragic date in our minds. But prior to that, April 15 always marked an even larger tragedy: the sinking of the RMS Titanic.
This year marked the 99th anniversary of the famous shipwreck that claimed almost 1,500 lives, and as the centennial draws nearer, interest in the event is ramping up.
Of note to United Methodists is the fact that two of the members of the famed Titanic band were Methodists themselves.
A recently released book by music journalist Steve Turner detailing the lives of the musicians cites the Methodist heritage of bandleader and violinist Wallace Hartley and cellist John Wesley Woodward, and speculates how their faith influenced their decision to play until the last.
In The Band That Played On, Turner wrote: “[Hartley’s] moral character and his personal assurance that death was not the end must have stirred his bandsmen. Together as a band under Hartley’s leadership, they transcended their personal limitations.”
Wallace Hartley was raised in Colne, England. His father, Albion Hartley, was choirmaster and Sunday school superintendent at Bethel Independent Methodist Chapel. Perhaps a foreshadowing of things to come, it was choirmaster Hartley who introduced the hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee” to the congregation.
Colne had deep ties to Methodism, although its introduction to the movement wasn’t the best first impression. Several times John Wesley visited the mill town, which had a tough reputation, and was always met with opposition and, in some cases, violence. During one visit, he was met by an angry mob, and one of his helpers was thrown to his death off a bridge.
However, Methodism was eventually embraced in Colne, and Methodist chapels sprang up there.
Born in 1878, young Wallace studied at Colne’s Methodist day school, sang in Bethel’s choir, and learned violin from a congregation member.
Less is known about the band member with the most “Methodist” name—John Wesley Woodward—but the cellist was raised in the Methodist tradition, and his father was an officer at Hill Top Methodist Chapel in West Bromwich, England.
That fateful night. The Titanic sailed from Southampton, England, but its band was hired in Liverpool, making them, behind The Beatles, maybe the second-most famous band to emerge from that port city.
Hartley was among three of eight Titanic musicians who were engaged to marry in the summer of 1912. Sadly, like many of his bandmates, Hartley’s intent was to make this his last sea voyage and return home to concert work instead.
Owing to the contract they’d signed with their Liverpool management, the musicians were considered second-class passengers, rather than part of the crew. Therefore, they were not under the order of the captain.
A crowd of 40,000 lined the streets of Colne, England, to witness the May 18, 1912, funeral procession of Titanic band leader Wallace Hartley.
When the ship struck the iceberg around 11:40 p.m. on April 14, the band would have already finished playing for the night. Yet, something led them to gather up their instruments and head to the first-class lounge. One survivor later claimed that, as she passed the men, one of them told her they were “just going to give them a tune to cheer things up a bit.”
“No one knows for sure why the band played,” Turner said. “We do know that Wallace Hartley once told a friend about the power of music to prevent panic. My feeling is that he was a person of great moral authority as well as a born leader, and therefore his wish at that time was passed on to all the men.”
Hartley’s was one of only three musicians’ bodies to be recovered and identified, and the only one returned to his home. He was given a hero’s welcome as his funeral procession drew a crowd of 40,000—almost twice Colne’s population at the time—and several memorials were crafted in his and the band’s honor.
Urban legend? The two most popular beliefs surrounding the Titanic band are that they played until the ship went down, and their last song was “Nearer, My God, to Thee.”
Because no definitive eyewitness accounts exist to prove either, even those who have studied Titanic history disagree. And survivors had, in some cases, completely contradictory details about whether the band was playing, where they were playing and what song they were playing.
Once the band was playing on the deck (they began their last performance in the first-class lounge), it’s not known how the two pianists would’ve participated, as there weren’t pianos on deck.
But Phillip Gowan, a United Methodist and Titanic historian, thinks the band did, indeed, play on.
“From all the accounts I’ve either read, or people who were there that I’ve interviewed, I do think the band played till the end,” Gowan said. “Most of the survivors that were in an area where they could’ve heard did claim that they heard the band playing.”
Turner said, “I think they played for as long as they could. There were some reports of them playing while the water began to engulf them and others of them eventually packing their instruments into cases.”
As for the last song the group performed, no one can agree, all survivors are now deceased and no living person will ever know for certain. Since their goal was to keep spirits up and keep passengers calm, a hymn typically reserved for funerals may not have been the best choice. But once their outcome was certain, who knows?
“It’s more likely that they played a French waltz called ‘Songe d’Automne.’ The most reliable accounts I’ve heard mention that song,” Gowan said.
“Wallace Hartley once told a friend that if he was on a ship going down, the best thing he could do would be to play a hymn like ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee,’” Turner said.
“One of the most convincing accounts I read, by one of the sailors, was that at the end, there was a lone violinist playing ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee.’ I suspect that was Wallace Hartley.”
Joey Butler is editor of young adult content, United Methodist Communications, Nashville, Tennessee.
by Steve | May 25, 2011 | Magazine Articles
By Linda Bloom
When Maria, an Armenian citizen, ended up in Dubai, she resisted attempts by her traffickers to force her into prostitution.
In retaliation, they threw her off the top of a three-story building.
Maria survived the fall, eventually escaped her captors and was repatriated to Armenia, where police referred her to the Anti-Human Trafficking Project run by the United Methodist Committee on Relief.
To date, the UMCOR project has helped 93 women move on to new lives after becoming entangled in what is considered the second-largest and fastest-growing global criminal enterprise, said Kathryn Paik, UMCOR’s Armenia program officer.
Paik and two staff executives with United Methodist Women, Carol Van Gorp and Susie Johnson, spoke about how United Methodists are addressing the human trafficking problem during a March 28 panel discussion at the offices of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
United Methodist Women and its parent organization, the board’s Women’s Division, have focused on human trafficking for more than a decade and started the current campaign, “The Protection Project,” in 2009.
“Since the campaign, our trafficking team has educated and opened the eyes of over 7,500 people,” said Johnson, who spoke by phone from Washington, where she oversees public policy work for the division.
The United Nations defines human trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of people—by threat, abduction, deception or abuse of power—for the purpose of sexual or labor-related exploitation. Eighty percent of those trafficked are women and girls, and half of all trafficking victims are under the age of 13.
Providing shelter
UMCOR was the first nongovernmental organization to work with Armenian authorities in all regions of Armenia to reintegrate trafficking survivors back into society, Paik said.
At UMCOR’s shelter, survivors receive medical services, legal counseling, vocational training and psychosocial support. The length of stay varies by individual case, but about 90 percent of participants have successfully returned to society. “Shelter staff also have ongoing contact with the victims and their families,” Paik said.
But the successes are not without effort. “We have many challenges in Armenia for this program,” she explained. “The greatest is probably economic empowerment.”
Without other viable options for employment, it is difficult to break the cycle of trafficking. And societal changes are needed to address populations vulnerable to trafficking. In Armenia, for example, more than 10,000 “extremely vulnerable” children living in boarding schools and orphanages are often left without a home or social support as they grow older.
So, in addition to the shelter, UMCOR Armenia has established a toll-free anti-trafficking hotline, conducted awareness campaigns through presentations, community outreach and mass media, and advocated for victims’ rights.
In the United States, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000—also called TVPA—increased penalties to traffickers from five years to 20 years to life and mandated the creation of an interagency government task force that meets annually.
The State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons assesses and rates 194 countries each year to show whether problems of trafficking are being addressed. Countries that lag on the issue risk losing funding from the United States. Task forces coordinated by the Department of Justice link federal and local law enforcement officers to pursue traffickers.
The department’s “2010 Trafficking in Persons Report,” released last June, was the first to rank the United States alongside other nations.
On a denomination-wide level, General Conference, the church’s top legislative body, first adopted a resolution calling for the abolition of sex trafficking in 2004. The church also has supported “global efforts to end slavery” since 2000, and has long called for the eradication of abusive child labor.
Linda Bloom is a United Methodist News Service multimedia reporter based in New York.
by Steve | May 25, 2011 | Magazine Articles
By Jeff Walton
The public policy arm of the United Methodist Church has once again voted to introduce legislation to the 2012 General Conference that would remove disapproval of homosexual practices and effectively liberalize the church’s teachings on sex.
In a lopsided vote, directors of the General Board of Church and Society (GBCS) adopted a resolution at the agency’s spring meeting February 9-13 that would swap the current text of the church’s “Social Principles” in the denomination’s Book of Discipline with neutral language that was termed more conciliatory. Of the 63-member board, only two directors opposed the resolution, while one abstained. An undetermined number were not present for the vote. The two “no” votes were Mark Parris from North Alabama Conference and Steve Furr of the Alabama-West Florida Conference.
GBCS has a long-time tradition of asking General Conference to liberalize the church’s sexual teachings. Every General Conference has rejected these appeals.
The Book of Discipline declares that “The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching,” which is in the “Social Principles,” and instructs elsewhere in the Discipline that “self-avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in The United Methodist Church.” The Board’s resolution only addressed the “Social Principles” language.
In a change from how other proposed resolutions were introduced at the meeting, GBCS Human Welfare Committee Chair Bishop Jane Middleton of Central Pennsylvania asked directors to first pair off into groups of two. The directors were asked to, in under a minute, share with the other how they had arrived at their current position on the human sexuality language. After each director had shared with the other, they were then to explain what they had learned from the other. Following this discussion session, the plenary session editing of the resolution resumed.
Several directors were not present for the meeting held at a United Methodist retreat center outside of Orlando, Florida, but the overwhelming margin of the vote would seem to signal GBCS’s determination to see the language changed.
The move paves the way for human sexuality disputes to once again be at the forefront of the United Methodist General Conference when it meets in 2012. As the denomination’s highest rulemaking body, only the General Conference can vote to change language in the Discipline.
The board’s vote in favor of removing the “incompatible” language, which dates to 1972, coincided with a statement issued in February by a group of retired United Methodist bishops in which they called upon The United Methodist Church to remove the ordination standards regarding homosexual practice.
The retired bishops’ statement quickly drew rebuke from a coalition of traditionalist groups who aim to uphold church teaching on the matter.
“The path urged by the retired bishops, if adopted, will leave The United Methodist Church barely distinguishable from the culture, particularly in the Christian West,” read a statement by the Renewal and Reform Coalition. “All this would be done for the sake of expediency and convenience, a desire for ‘relevance,’ and a misapplied sense of social justice. In reality, the retired bishops’ position is in a distinct minority across the Church universal and has only resulted in dissension, schism, and the weakening of the Church where it has been adopted.”
Some bishops expressed disappointment with the retired bishops’ public opposition to the Book of Discipline’s current rule.
“I think that it’s unfortunate that this group of bishops has stepped outside of the covenant relationship and find this the only way in which to voice their opinion about the issue of homosexuality,” Oklahoma Bishop Robert E. Hayes Jr., said in an interview with United Methodist News Service.
He said the statement steps outside the accepted process for changing church policy. Any person, regardless of whether that individual is clergy or a layperson, can petition General Conference to ask for a change.
“This circumvents our way of handling difficult issues,” Hayes said. “I am very disappointed the bishops chose this way to make their opinions known.”
Two bishops from Africa also spoke out against the statement.
“Africa should not be pushed on this issue,” said Bishop Eben K. Nhiwatiwa of Zimbabwe. “The position of The United Methodist Church right now is the position that is in sync with the context of the African church right now.”
Bishop John Innis of Liberia agreed. “We are all created by God,” he said. “A person who practices homosexuality can be my friend, but I cannot condone that behavior.”
In 2008, delegates to the General Conference voted 517 to 416 to retain the church’s official stance holding homosexual practice as “incompatible with Christian teaching.” The margins on the church’s prohibition against active homosexual clergy and same-sex unions were larger, sometimes surpassing 70 percent.
The presence of 192 African delegates, who were outspoken in their defense of the church’s current position on homosexuality, was credited by traditionalists as providing the votes necessary to prevent deleting the “incompatible” clause. The number of African delegates will increase to nearly 300 at the 2012 General Conference. Although over 4 million United Methodists now live in Africa, over one-third of the denomination, only 3 Africans serve on GBCS’s 63-member board.
The 2008 General Conference also voted, by larger margins, to “support laws in civil society that define marriage as the union of one man and one woman,” to affirm that “sexual relations are affirmed only within the covenant of monogamous, heterosexual marriage,” and to maintain the current prohibitions of same-sex union services and the ordination of “self-avowed practicing homosexuals.”
Jeff Walton is Communications Manager for the Institute on Religion & Democracy.
