by Steve | May 18, 2020 | Magazine, Magazine Articles, May/June 2020
The Mushambi family celebrates Palm Sunday at home in Harare, Zimbabwe, during 21 days of lockdown in the country due to the coronavirus pandemic. Photo provided by United Methodist News Service.
By Pricilla Muzerengwa –
Traditionally, United Methodists parade through the streets carrying palms on Palm Sunday. Communities would also typically see Christians marching in the early morning on Easter Sunday singing praises of victory.
That’s all changed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Zimbabwe is on lockdown and everyone is expected to stay at home. As of April 8, Zimbabwe has confirmed 11 cases and two deaths.
Prior to the lockdown, The United Methodist Church suspended all activities in Zimbabwe from March 24 in an effort to help curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Bishop Eben K. Nhiwatiwa said in a statement that in consultation with other leaders, the church suspended all church gatherings until further notice.
The Rev. Alan Gurupira, administrative assistant to the bishop, reminded all pastors that they are on call as always. “Continue to shepherd the flock by means of making good use of technology to reach members with words of comfort,” he said.
The Rev. Gift Machinga, Zimbabwe East Conference Board of Discipleship chairman and Cranborne United Methodist Church senior pastor, said the church is feeling the impact.
“By nature, the church is an institution that traditionally meets physically for worship,” he said.
The inability to meet physically calls for churches to adopt alternative methods to remain relevant.
The Rev. Sophrins Sign, Zimbabwe East connectional ministries director, explained that the church’s doors may be closed, but church activities are continuing in isolation.
“Members are conducting services in their homes and, as for the areas where some families cannot be reached through WhatsApp or SMS text messaging, pastors are improvising or finding best ways to communicate with their people,” Sign said.
Despite all odds, Palm Sunday was observed in different ways. Families decorated their homes and gates with palms and tree branches and sang “Hosanna” as they marched around their homes waving branches.
Meanwhile, Cranborne United Methodist Church is continuing to feed members spiritually despite the restrictions. Before the coronavirus epidemic, the church livestreamed services every week on Facebook.
“I predicted the lockdown coming and started putting things together. All sermon recordings were done by March 29,” Machinga said. “We already have pre-recorded worship services … ”
Machinga called pastors to uplift the flock spiritually and encourage social support during this time of fear, panic, anxiety, and hopelessness. “We can encourage our congregants to create space in their homes and be in a position to feel God’s presence, thereby, keeping hope alive,” Machinga said. “Our primary responsibility is to be in the trenches ensuring safety and protecting the welfare of our flock.”
Priscilla Muzerengwa is a United Methodist communicator in Zimbabwe. Distributed by United Methodist News Service.
by Steve | May 18, 2020 | Magazine, Magazine Articles, May/June 2020
Three crosses stand above the cemetery at Israel United Methodist Church near Montrose, W.Va. Photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS
By Maxie Dunnam –
To be a Christian is to change. It is to become new. It is not simply a matter of choosing a new lifestyle, although that will change. It has to do with being a new person. A new person does not emerge fully formed. Conversion – passing from death to life – may be a miracle of a moment, but the making of a saint is a process of a lifetime. The process of saint-making is to work out in fact what is already true in principle. In position, in our relationship to God in Jesus Christ, we are new persons. Now our condition, the actual life we live, must be brought into harmony with our new position.
Paul contended that we are to become new creatures in Christ Jesus. In fact, that’s the way he defined a Christian: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Nothing less is the aim of the Christian life: to be new creatures in Christ Jesus.
In our preaching and teaching, we too often put most of our emphasis on our coming into the Christian life; in confessing, repenting, and trusting Christ as Savior, and receiving his forgiveness. The theological or biblical term for God’s work in this dynamic is justification. When we think and talk about salvation, this is often where we center.
This is limited thinking. John Wesley, who with his brother, Charles, was one of the founders of the Methodist movement, used the term salvation in a broader and deeper way, referring to the entire saving activity of God in human lives. “By salvation I mean, not barely … deliverance from hell, or going to heaven; but a present deliverance from sin, a restoration of the soul to its … original purity; a recovery of the divine nature; the renewal of our souls after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness, in justice, mercy, and truth.”
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul calls us to “grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ” (Ephesians 4:15). It is a call to full salvation: maturity in Christ, spiritual adulthood, perfection in love.
In the Wesleyan tradition, we acknowledge this and talk about going on to salvation. Beginning with justification, full salvation includes sanctification, which is the theological word for God’s cleansing and purifying work within us. In his sermon “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” Wesley used the term “full salvation,” saying, “It is thus that we wait for entire sanctification; for a full salvation from all our sins – from pride, self-will, anger, unbelief; or, as the Apostle expresses it, ‘go unto perfection.’ ”
The climactic work of full salvation is glorification, the answer to Jesus’s prayer for his followers: “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world” (John 17:24).
To seek and save the lost. If you ever attended Sunday school as a child, you heard the story of Zacchaeus. You probably sang this song: “Zacchaeus was a wee little man,/ a wee little man was he./ He climbed up in the sycamore tree,/ for the Lord he wanted to see.”
Some have called him a “treetop saint,” one not quite ready to say yes or get involved in the available opportunities to know Jesus. Whatever else we might say about him, and a lot has been said (and sung), we can confidently say he was curious; not yet convinced, but curious.
He had heard so much talk about Jesus, and, hearing that Jesus had come to Jericho, Zacchaeus wanted to see him. He knew the crowd would be great and all would be pressing in to see and maybe to touch or speak to Jesus. How could he navigate the crowd? Being a “wee little man,” he had only one option: he would climb the sycamore tree. There, above the crowd, he would have a commanding view. Also, being a chief tax collector, he would not be seen and embarrassed by his curiosity. The crowd would not know he was anywhere around.
But Jesus knew. He not only saw Zacchaeus but also spoke to him, even calling him by name: “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” Because he didn’t hesitate a moment, we can easily believe that Zacchaeus had been pondering his life situation, feeling deeply the absence of meaning, obviously knowing he was “up a tree” in all sorts of ways. He jumped at the opportunity to come down. His response was as specific as the immediacy of his action: “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
Jesus was also immediate and specific in his response. “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Knowing salvation. Most people in the Methodist/Wesleyan tradition of the Christian faith know at least the broad outline of the life of our founder, John Wesley. In 1725, having been nurtured by his mother, Susanna, and his father, Samuel, a priest in the Church of England, John, while a student at Oxford University, had a conversion to the ideal of holy living. There are few examples in history of a more disciplined religious person: he rose at 4 a.m., read the New Testament in Greek for an hour, and then prayed for an hour with his brother Charles and others who had joined him in what was derisively called the Holy Club. He spent time visiting prisons and gave to the poor all of his money except that which was absolutely necessary for his own living. He was almost neurotically preoccupied with the right use of his time.
He was a man desperately seeking salvation and assurance of his salvation. He was tirelessly bent upon achieving that and drove himself as a merciless taskmaster in all the religious disciplines and services that could be imagined. He even went to the American colonies as a missionary to the Indians, but failed in that, and returned home from Georgia, downcast in mind, despondent in spirit, pierced to his heart with the futility of all his efforts and the emptiness of his soul.
It was in that despondent mood that he went to a prayer meeting on Aldersgate Street, London, on May 24, 1738. A layperson read Martin Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans and Wesley described later what happened in his own life: “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for my salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
This was the watershed experience that gave Wesley assurance of his salvation. The transforming work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer was the chief theme of John Wesley’s life and work, and a distinctive contribution the Methodists make to the rest of the church. The British Methodist William B. Fitzgerald summarized Wesley’s theology of salvation with this fourfold dictum: All people need to be saved from sin, all people may be saved from sin, all people may know they are saved from sin, and all people may be saved to the uttermost.
This Aldersgate experience transformed Wesley from a slave to a son. He knew that, in his words, “Christ had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
Sanctification. In his introductory comment to Wesley’s sermon “Christian Perfection,” Albert Outler wrote, “If, for Wesley, salvation was the total restoration of the deformed image of God in us, and if its fullness was the recovery of our negative power not to sin and our positive power to love God supremely, this denotes that furthest reach of grace and its triumphs in this life that Wesley chose to call ‘Christian Perfection.’ ”
Christian perfection is another term for sanctification. “Just as justification and regeneration are thresholds for the Christian life in earnest (‘what God does for us’), so also sanctification is ‘what God does in us,’” said Wesley, “to mature and fulfill the human potential according to his primal design.”
Wesley particularly emphasized this idea that “all can be saved to the uttermost”; he called it “going on to perfection,” drawing on Hebrews 6:1. By this he didn’t mean a sinless kind of moral perfection, nor a perfection in knowledge, but a perfection in love. The single identifying mark of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives is love. Do we love God and do we love one another? That’s the test of our sanctification.
Wesley was always deeply disturbed when he saw Christians who were more like the Pharisees, people who trusted in their own righteousness, and consequently, showed little evidence of the growing presence of God’s love in their lives. He spoke of this often.
I don’t know where I heard the story, and it could be apocryphal, but it illustrates Wesley’s passion about the issue. Once while he was preaching, he noticed a lady in the congregation who was known for her critical attitudes toward others. All through the service she stared at his tie, with a frown on her face. At the end of the service, she came up to him and said very sharply, “Mr. Wesley, the strings on your bow tie are much too long. It offends me.” Wesley immediately asked for a pair of scissors, and when someone handed them to him, he gave them to the woman and said, “Then by all means, trim it to your satisfaction.” She did so, clipping off an inch or so from each side. “Are you sure they’re all right now?” he asked, and she replied, “Yes, that’s much better.”
“Then let me have the scissors for a moment,” Wesley said, “for I’m sure you won’t mind a bit of correction either. I do not wish to be cruel, madam, but your tongue offends me; it is too long. Please stick it out so that I may trim some of it off.” Needless to say, this critic got the point.
The work of the Holy Spirit is transformative. We can better understand the full impact of that transformation by 
reflecting on the distinction between God’s action for the sinner – pardon and justification – and God’s action in the pardoned sinner’s heart – restoration of the broken image of God and of the human power to avoid and resist intentional sin. Again, Albert Outler expresses it clearly: “We have no part in our justification before God, save the passive act of accepting and trusting the merits of Christ. But we have a crucial part to play in the further business of ‘growing up into Christ, into the stature of the perfect man.’ ”
In the dynamic process of sanctification, “Christian perfection,” we work out in fact what is already true in principle. In justification, our position in relation to God is that we are new persons; now, in sanctification, our condition, the actual life we live, is brought into harmony with our position.
Maxie Dunnam is the director of Christ Church Global at Christ United Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. He is the former president of Asbury Theological Seminary and world editor of The Upper Room. This excerpt is adapted from The Wesleyan Journey: A Workbook on Salvation (Abingdon). Reprinted by permission.
by Steve | May 18, 2020 | Magazine, Magazine Articles, May/June 2020
The Minneapolis Convention Center had been scheduled to host the 2020 General Conference. Photo courtesy of Meet Minneapolis.
By Thomas Lambrecht –
News that General Conference 2020 has been postponed until sometime in 2021 has thrown the denomination into a temporary limbo regarding a future amicable separation.
Beyond question, this was the right decision. With the spreading coronavirus making travel all but impossible, holding General Conference would also have been impossible. We need to prioritize the lives and health of all concerned. Right now, our focus needs to be on ministry in our various communities, not addressing internal denominational issues.
We join our hearts and prayers with all those who are suffering from COVID-19 and with the people on the front lines of this destructive pandemic. As followers of Christ, we are being called to pray fervently, imagine new ways to remain connected with our local churches under the shadow of “social distancing,” and minister with compassion to those in need.
Dealing with Disappointment
As United Methodists who are concerned about a faithful future for a Wesleyan witness, we must also think through the implications of postponing General Conference.
Probably the greatest reaction to postponing General Conference other than concern for those suffering or threatened by the pandemic is a sense of disappointment. Many were looking forward to resolving the denominational conflict that has somewhat paralyzed the denomination, in order to move forward in a positive direction.
Traditionalists are eager to move into a more spiritually unified, theologically traditional denomination that can reconfigure itself to be more nimble and effective in ministry. Progressives are eager to rid the denomination of what they perceive to be unwarranted discrimination against LGBTQ persons. Both groups were primed and ready to support the Protocol for Amicable Separation. Many others are ready to be done with the conflict, regardless of their personal views. All will have to wait an additional year or more to move toward their preferred future.
The postponement of General Conference does not change the fact that our church is still in an irresolvable conflict. When the pandemic is over, the conflict will remain. In that sense, the momentum toward amicable separation will continue. The only way to end the conflict will still be to allow different groups in the church to go their separate ways.
In light of that fact, it would be inadvisable for local churches and clergy to prematurely separate from the denomination. There may be situations where local churches or clergy in a hostile and intolerant annual conference need to separate now for their own spiritual health and the wellbeing of their ministry. But for most, it will be possible to continue in the current circumstances for another year. The pandemic, postponement, and stock market volatility may necessitate a postponement of some clergy from their plans to retire from active ministry. Where possible, it would be helpful for long-tenured clergy to continue serving their congregations to help them through this time of waiting and transition into a new reality in 18 months.
The delay in General Conference can actually be helpful in some ways. Both a new traditional denomination and a new “liberation”/progressive denomination can use this extra time to continue developing their structure. The fast approach of General Conference this May was forcing both groups to move more quickly than they were perhaps comfortable moving in trying to develop the skeleton of a new denominational structure.
Having more fully fleshed out options for whatever new denominations will form will benefit all United Methodists as we move toward decisions on alignment after General Conference.
Traditionalists gather
A group of nearly 30 diverse United Methodist Church bishops, clergy, and laity – men and women, African-American, Asian, Caribbean, Caucasian, and Hispanic persons – from every U.S. jurisdiction, and three central conferences met in March in Atlanta to explore ways to reach consensus about the shape of a new traditional denomination.
The meeting was convened by the Rev. Keith Boyette (president of the Wesleyan Covenant Association – WCA), Bishop Scott Jones (Texas Annual Conference), and Mrs. Patricia Miller (executive director of The Confessing Movement) in response to the “Protocol of Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation,” which proposes a denominational separation plan.
Following the Atlanta gathering, 28 of the attending leaders signed a vision document for a proposed new Wesleyan Methodist movement and released the following statement:
“Although no one yet knows what the United Methodist Church will look like following the [2021] General Conference, it is clear that our denomination is no longer unified in its beliefs. Therefore, some sort of separation is probable. As such, we felt it necessary to begin conversations about what the new traditional expression of Methodism might look like.
“This gathering in Atlanta represents one conversation among many currently going on in the life of the United Methodist Church. A statement was drafted, and ideas were shared about how to proceed if the Protocol is adopted.” The drafted statement and vision document, along with a full list of signatories, is available at NewWesleyanDenomination.com.
The group that gathered in Atlanta was broadly representative, focusing on three groups: renewal and reform group leaders, traditionalists who are not part of a renewal group, and bishops, including three bishops from central conferences. Many people assume that a new traditionalist Methodist denomination would be “the WCA Church.” However, this broader group gathered to demonstrate that is not the case. The WCA is one stream that will feed into a new denomination. Other streams, including whole annual conferences, will also feed into the new church. Only the inaugural General Conference of a new denomination, including representation from all traditionalists wanting to join it, will finally determine the structure and polity of the new church.
“What a beautiful thing,” said the Rev. Dr. Jan Davis, Senior Pastor at Central UM Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas, “to be in a room with broad diversity, people from all over the world, from many different perspectives, yet we were solidly of one mind in our mission for a new denomination – proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord! It brought me to tears.”
The Rev. Dr. Jan Davis, Central United Methodist Church
Davis, a woman who leads one of the fastest growing large UM churches in the U.S., and was one of the participants who has never aligned with any of the renewal and reform groups, added, “I want to be part of a clergy covenant that shares my core beliefs – a high Christology, the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and the authority of Scripture. I want to be in a system that holds one another accountable for preaching and teaching basic Christian doctrine and beliefs.”
The vision adopted by the group inspires a commitment to a new Wesleyan way of doing church:
“God calls us to embrace a new day as the people called Methodists. Established in the faith entrusted to us by our forbearers, we discern the Holy Spirit reviving the Methodist movement in a new work. We are committed to God’s vision given to our predecessors ‘to reform the continent[s] and spread scriptural holiness over the lands.’
“If the [2021] General Conference adopts the Protocol legislation, with one voice and a spirit of humility we intend to form a global Wesleyan movement committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the authority and inspiration of the Scriptures, and the work of the Holy Spirit in conveying God’s truth, grace, renewal, and sanctification to all people who repent and believe.
“We are committed to being a people who covenant together around time honored core doctrines, ethics, and mission. We aspire to be a covenant community, watching over each other in love. We long to reclaim the Wesleyan genius of mutual accountability throughout our connection.
“We will be a church that is truly global in nature, fully welcomes people of various ethnicities and women into every level of ordination and leadership, and is characterized by joy. We will be committed to the Christian faith as expressed for 2,000 years, the four-fold movement of grace, compassion, and a passionate desire for people to experience a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We will inspire growth in discipleship, holiness, and a commitment to service, mercy, and seeking God’s justice.”
The proposed vision centers on “engaging people in lifelong, intentional formation as disciples” through spiritual disciplines and “communion and accountability with one another in the Body of Christ.” A church “deeply committed to prayer and dependence upon the Holy Spirit” would “reach out to the world at its points of deepest need through ministries of mercy and justice.”
The group is committed to “Episcopal appointment of clergy that practices true open itinerancy with enhanced models of consultation with congregations and clergy, ensuring equity in pastoral appointments for women and persons of varying ethnicities.” There was much discussion about the need to overcome historic patterns of racism and sexism in the church, and particularly in the appointment process.
The new church would be “passionate about planting new churches, revitalizing existing churches, and apostolic ministry” – going into uncharted territory with the Gospel and replanting a traditionalist Methodist church in parts of the U.S. and the world that currently lack it.
The group pictured a denomination that is a “nimble and less bureaucratic institution, continuously led by the Holy Spirit,” which is “more movement than institution.” At the same time, the church would “embody our global nature in every aspect of doctrine, relationships, structure, and church culture.” It would aspire to be a truly global church.
The new church would have “bishops elected for one 12-year term, rather than lifetime service” and “a global Council of Bishops consisting only of active bishops.” Bishops would be “elected, assigned, and accountable regionally, with clearly established means of global accountability.”
Annual conferences would work at “recruiting, developing, credentialing, and deploying lay and clergy leaders to equip the Church.” The main focus of annual conferences would be “resourcing local churches for effective mission.” They would “ensure that those who are currently Licensed Local Pastors are equal partners in ministry, with a pathway to ordination as elders and with voice and vote on all clergy matters within their order.”
These and other specifics may be found by reading the entire statement. It concludes: “Our covenant with God and each other will be renewed as we claim, teach, and live into a life-affirming confession of faith rooted in Scripture and our doctrinal standards. We worship God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are sent to be disciples and to make disciples of Jesus Christ. And we are called to be the Body of Christ in the world, bearing witness to the transforming power of the Good News as we humbly, but boldly, strive to serve others in Christ’s name.
“By the power of the Holy Spirit, this new traditional Methodist denomination is dedicated to fulfilling this mission. May we be a people of integrity, living out what we believe as the Church. May God grant us the grace and wisdom to grow into this Church so conceived!”
Our perseverance and patience are again being tested by the circumstances surrounding Covid-19 and the postponement of General Conference. By God’s grace, we will prayerfully meet that challenge, remaining faithful to Christ and the ministry he has called us to. As we pray for one another and minister to our world, may the light of Christ shine through us.
Thomas Lambrecht is a United Methodist clergyperson and the vice president of Good News.
by Steve | May 18, 2020 | Magazine, Magazine Articles, May/June 2020
By Heather Hahn –
The pandemic-forced postponement of General Conference has left United Methodist financial leaders with big questions about the denomination’s budget.
The General Council on Finance and Administration board spent much of a March 27 teleconference grappling with how to act within the bounds of church rules while recognizing the new economic realities caused by COVID-19.
The board was dealing with the unprecedented situation of needing to set 2021 apportionments — that is, requested giving from conferences — before the denomination’s top lawmaking assembly can adopt an apportionment formula for the 2021-2024 general church budget.
Ultimately, a majority of GCFA board members decided they had no choice but to extend into 2021 the apportionment calculations approved by the 2016 General Conference.
A majority also voted to request that the Judicial Council, the denomination’s top court, rule on whether the board’s action was in keeping with church law. Neither voice vote was unanimous.
Rick King, GCFA’s chief financial officer, told the board that whatever apportionments the next General Conference sets would apply retroactively to the start of 2021. General Conference organizers are looking at rescheduling the event for next year.
“What we are trying to do now is to make sure there is some budget in place so the general church can continue,” King said.
Ken Ow, a GCFA board member with long experience in the U.S federal budget process, likened the board’s action to a continuing resolution. The U.S. Congress passes a continuing resolution to fund government functions until regular appropriations are enacted.
“A continuing resolution usually operates at the same rate as the previous year,” Ow said. Still, a number of board members expressed concern that using the higher apportionment base rate approved in 2016 would make the board look out of touch in a health crisis causing rising death, unemployment and canceled worship services around the globe.
“I’m thinking of how this increase in the base rate will significantly impact our annual conference ministries,” said the Rev. Dustin Petz, GCFA board member and chief executive of the Kansas Area United Methodist Foundation.
“As this goes up, their ability to do ministry in their conferences will go down, which is where I think there is a tremendous need, given our current state of pandemic.”
Vasanth Victor, a board member from the Greater New Jersey Conference, echoed that concern. “This is just an unreasonable burden to put on annual conferences,” he said. “And it’s just going to make them unable to pay so they won’t pay.”
The GCFA board already was planning to submit to the next General Conference the smallest denominational budget in more than 30 years.
Petz moved that GCFA request apportionments based on the reduced base rate it was proposing rather than the significantly higher rate the 2016 General Conference previously approved. That motion did not pass.
The sticking point for a number of board members was whether GCFA had the authority to request apportionments using a formula General Conference had not yet approved.
Bryan Mills, GCFA’s interim general council, told the board he and his team searched through the Book of Discipline, the denomination’s policy book, and Judicial Council decisions for guidance.
“We have found nothing that addresses what happens if General Conference fails to meet in the year it was originally scheduled,” Mills said. “There is complete silence.”
However, he added, the Judicial Council has consistently ruled that neither General Conference nor annual conferences can delegate their budget authority to some subordinate group to make decisions on an interim basis.
“We don’t see how we as GCFA could have any authority to do something different than what the General Conference has already decided,” Mills said.
“Unfortunately, it’s not maybe what we want to do or what we believe is reflective of reality. But it’s our conclusion that this is the most viable option and hopefully most consistent with the (denomination’s) constitution.”
Mary A. Daffin, a lawyer and a Texas Conference chancellor, agreed with Mills. As chair of the board’s Legal Responsibilities and Corporate Governance Committee, she made the motion for the Judicial Council to rule on GCFA’s actions.
She also acknowledged some trepidation in going to the Judicial Council. “When I am in the courtroom, I do not like to ask a question I do not know the answer to,” she said.
The Rev. Moses Kumar, GCFA’s top executive and a licensed local pastor, told the board that general church agencies and other denomination-wide ministries were already preparing for the coming reductions. This year, most church agencies are budgeting for a 70 percent to 75 percent apportiment collection rate.
Bishop Mike McKee, GCFA board president and leader of the North Texas Conference, also assured the board that GCFA’s communications to conferences will recognize the ongoing pandemic and the greater needs conferences face.
“We’re going to say what needs to be said,” he promised, “so it doesn’t look like we’re in another universe.”
Heather Hahn is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News.
by Steve | May 18, 2020 | Magazine, Magazine Articles, May/June 2020
Chaplain (Capt.) Amor Woolsey, a United Methodist elder, has been mobilized with the Maryland Army National Guard as it sets up coronavirus testing sites and distributes food in the Baltimore area. Woolsey’s full time job is leading two United Methodist churches in Maryland. Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Michael Davis Jr.
By Sam Hodges –
The skies were gray. The faithful had to wear masks and keep their distance. But Lt. Cmdr. Genevieve Clark, a United Methodist chaplain in the U.S. Navy, was still able to lead an Easter sunrise service on the flight deck of the USNS Mercy, a hospital ship deployed to Los Angeles to help in the coronavirus pandemic.
“I tried to encourage these sailors that although there is chaos and even clouds literally covering the sunrise during the Easter crisis of 2020, we can still be and are still being the hands and feet of Jesus,” Clark said.
About three weeks ago, Clark was assigned to the Naval Medical Center in San Diego and looking forward to a summer deployment aboard the USS George H.W. Bush. Then the coronavirus pandemic gripped the U.S., and the USNS Mercy was tasked with taking on hospital patients to free up bed space for expected coronavirus victims. Chaplains would be needed. “I was offered the opportunity to come aboard the ship,” Clark said. “I had about 24 hours’ notice.” For now, Clark lives on the USNS Mercy, temporarily separated from her husband.
“We care for everyone on board, regardless of religious affiliation or no religious affiliation,” she said of herself and fellow chaplains. “We do that by walking around, visiting with people, hearing their stories. If there’s something we can help them with that’s specifically spiritual, we try to talk to them in their spiritual language.”
Earlier on April 12, and across the country, Maryland Army National Guard Chaplain (Capt.) Amor Woolsey led Easter morning services at two guard armories. Social distancing was required there too, but that didn’t get in the way. “It was such wonderful worship,” said Woolsey, a United Methodist elder. “We celebrated the risen Christ together.”
While Woolsey is a 10-year veteran of guard chaplaincy, her main work is leading Calvary United Methodist and Wye Carmichael United Methodist, two small churches in Queen Anne’s County, Maryland. The 37-year-old Wesley Theological Seminary graduate and granddaughter of a Methodist missionary, embraces her life in parish ministry. But she also has felt called to part-time military chaplaincy, feeling she can help ease the burden of those traumatized by wartime service and separation from loved ones.
She’s been with the guard as it has set up coronavirus testing sites and substituted for nonprofits in delivering food to the needy. “The most powerful ministry within the guard is the ministry of presence, being there when they’re doing their thing, even if it’s just filling sandbags,” Woolsey said. “They appreciate their chaplain being with them.”
This Holy Week found her recording messages for her churches’ online worship, while also leading services for guard members On Easter, she was glad to be wearing fatigues and a stole, bringing what she called a “faith over fear” message to some of those deployed with her.
“I reminded them that as Christ brings hope to us, we bring light and hope to those we interact with — especially during this time.”
Sam Hodges is a Dallas-based writer for United Methodist News.
by Steve | May 18, 2020 | Magazine, Magazine Articles, May/June 2020
By Laurie Drum –
As of this writing, I am in my third week of shelter in place in Spain, one of the deadliest of the epicenters of the coronavirus pandemic. Life and circumstances change by the hour nowadays. Such a paradox, to be sitting still and locked in our homes, yet circumstances outside are changing so rapidly. By the time this goes to print, I have no idea how things will have evolved and what life will look like. The only certainty is that it will have changed.
There are so many questions on the minds of those who have moved overseas to be cross-cultural witnesses. Never did I consider a pandemic when we were answering the call to go and serve and love our neighbors in another land. What does Love your Neighbor look like when you are forced inside? What effect does lockdown and social isolation have on sharing the gospel? What effects will the traumas of forced isolation, illness, and death have in the long term in our communities?
For us in southern Spain, the government decreed state of alarm has been a harsh blow to life as we know it. We cannot leave our homes, not even to go for a walk. Most homes have no yard or garden. The only way to leave home is to go to buy food, and you must go alone. Police and military are on the streets enforcing the lockdown. In a culture that prides itself on close-knit extended families, social connection, community bonds, and a pedestrian lifestyle, this has been almost unbearable. The impact and loss that is being felt by all is possibly as devastating emotionally as the physical devastation of the virus itself. We are, after all, created to be in relationship. We are created for connection. The grief of forced disconnection has been brutal.
And yet…
Neighbors gather at their windows and on their balconies each evening to applaud those who continue to be on the front lines of this battle every day, and to encourage each other as we wait out our confinement and fight our own struggles of isolation and the inevitable fears that creep in.
Neighbors who were casual nod-and-wave folks are now jumping up and down when we see each other and waving wildly from our living room windows. Neighbors who casually chit chat as we stand in line at the bakery are now singing and dancing on their balconies and cheering each other on as we rejoice in another day of health. We worry about the neighbor on the corner who hasn’t opened their blinds for two days. We call out to the neighbor who has an 85-year-old mother and check to see that Miss Ana, the matriarch of the neighborhood, is well. Even “the cranky neighbors” have changed their tune and have been showing up each night on their balcony to clap and wave and ask how we are doing.
When this is all over, we’re going to have one heck of a neighborhood cookout! In fact, we’re going to have one every month. We’re going to find excuses to gather often and love each other well. Because this is a new beginning. This is a new start for “love your neighbor” in Spain!
Doors are being opened to spiritual conversations. Now, during times of forced isolation when we are only connected to our friends and neighbors via text messages and social media groups, more and more spiritual comments and ideas are popping up in the conversations and we are able to join together in those and connect in ways that show our commonalities and diminish our differences. We are able to enter in to spiritual conversations that have been quite taboo in a country that has been steadily distancing itself from anything having to do with religion.
It has been eye-opening for some, the realization that we are more alike than different, the idea that we all have something deep within us that asks spiritual questions and seeks answers. If this is a product of this pandemic, it would be a huge step forward and a step toward reconciliation and peace among people seeking God in Europe.”
Laurie Drum serves as the director of training and formation for TMS Global. She and her family served in Peru before moving to Spain, where they help refugees and immigrant populations to navigate their new reality in Europe.
