World Methodists plan evangelistic witness events in '05
2/5/2004 News media contact: Linda Bloom · (646) 369-3759 · New York Photos are available at umns.umc.org. By United Methodist News Service* World Methodists are planning a year of intense evangelistic witness that will follow a series of events marking "Ten Days of Faith" between Pentecost and Aldersgate observances in 2005.
The celebrations will be a focal point of the World Methodist Evangelism Emphasis 2004-2006, a response to a resolution of the 2001 World Methodist Conference in Brighton, England, which called "the Methodist people around the world to prayer and fasting and to spreading the good news of Jesus Christ."
On a global level, the Methodist movement is growing at a rate of more than 1 million believers annually, according to the Rev. Eddie Fox, director of World Methodist Evangelism, a program of the World Methodist Council. He said he hopes the growth rate can be doubled during 2004-06.
The "Ten Days of Faith" events will be 10 "high-visibility" evangelistic celebrations held May 15-24, 2005, in different parts of the world. Faith-sharing training, local church evangelism workshops and evangelism leadership training will be part of the celebrations. In addition, resources will be available to help churches, districts and conferences throughout the connection plan their own celebrations.
Throughout the year after those celebrations, Methodists around the world will be trained and equipped for evangelistic witness. One of the special events will be the 8th International Christian Youth Conference on Evangelism, set for July 19-26 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Plans for the evangelism emphasis are being finalized in a series of evangelism leadership summits in different regions of the world. From Jan. 7-14, for example, more than 120 Methodist and Wesleyan leaders from the Americas and Caribbean met for a summit in Havana, Cuba. The meeting was sponsored by the council's world evangelism division and by the World Methodist Evangelism Institute at Candler School of Theology, at Emory University in Atlanta.
One resource for the emphasis is a worldwide Bible study of John 14-17, written by Methodist Bishop Paulo Lockmann of Brazil. Lockmann introduced the study during daily teaching sessions at the Cuban summit meeting.
Participants witnessed the vitality of Cuban worship, particularly in the Methodist Church of Cuba, and attended a mass baptism of more than 200 adults. Fox and Methodist Bishop Ricardo Pereira of Cuba also blessed the final 10 of 500 new bicycles, dubbed "Evangebicys," which were given to the Cuban church through World Methodist Evangelism.
Many of the Methodist leaders served as guest preachers or liturgists during Sunday morning services Jan. 11. That evening, summit participants gathered with more than 2,000 Cuban Methodists at Pereira's church for an evangelistic pageantry service that included preaching by Bishop John Bryant of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
A delegation of World Methodist leaders also received permission to meet with Caridad Diego, director of religious affairs for the Cuban government, to discuss relations between the government and the Methodist Church in Cuba. The delegation said it received affirmation that further interaction between Cuban Methodists and churches outside that country was possible and that the government would consider allowing the Cuban church to construct some desperately needed church buildings.
Delegation members were Fox; Pereira; Lockmann; the Rev. Winston Worrell, director of the World Methodist Evangelism Institute; the Rev. George Freeman, executive director, World Methodist Council; United Methodist Bishop Robert Fannin, vice chairperson of World Evangelism; Bishop Nathaniel Linsey of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, regional secretary for North America; and Costa Rican Bishop Luis Palomo, regional secretary for Central America, who was accompanied by his wife.
More information is available from World Methodist Evangelism at www.worldmethodist.org online.
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*World Methodist Evangelism of the World Methodist Council provided information for this story.
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