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Foundations - 2004 Foundations - 2001 Make A Donation Hope for the Children of Africa A Church for All
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The Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church Bishops' Appeal: Hope for The Children of Africa "Relief, Reconciliation and Rebuilding" Biblical and Tehological Foundations The Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church believes that a new moment of decision in regard to the church's witness in Africa is upon us. With this Bishops' Appeal, the Council is answering God's call to witness for peace, justice and compassion by leading the global United Methodist family in the rebuilding of the church in Africa and the renewal and restoration of spiritual and material ministries for children. This appeal is a significant extension of the ongoing Episcopal Initiative on Children and Poverty that is revitalizing our church. You are invited to study and reflect on the biblical and theological foundations undergirding the Council's work and to pray for and with the members of the Council of Bishops as they undertake this appeal to the church. The ground of hope for the children of Africa, as for all God's children, is found in the mission and ministry of Jesus, in his announcement and enactment of the coming of the divine reign of justice, generosity and joy. And we know that this hope is sure by his resurrection from the dead. The church of Christ has been given the commission to be a sign of hope in a world that is perishing, a sign that the dominion of division, destitution, despair and death is being overcome through the love of God that is poured out in our hearts and made manifest by our deeds. This appeal is an opportunity for us to give dramatic testimony to the unity of the body of Christ, to the mutuality of love, to the promise of life that overcomes death. United Methodists in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas will be enabled through this appeal to attest to our unity in the spirit of love that binds us together. The Crisis Of all the things the diverse nations of the continent of Africa have in common, none is so stark as the shared fact of the conflicts that have plagued so many nations for so many years. The nature of those conflicts differs from country to country, but the results are the same: chaos and hardship caused by forces of evil that threaten the peace and ignore God's promise of abundant life for all God's children; country after country and ministry after ministry hobbled by the devastation; families torn apart and children left to fend for themselves in a world where neighbors are turned against each other, hope is battered and dreams are trampled. The fallen buildings left in the wake of fighting assault the eye. But it is the damage to the ministries once housed within them – ministries that breathed life into those structures by serving God's children – that assault the spirit. |
... and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the
nations. - Rev. 22:2 NRSV