United Methodists make global connections at gatherings
7/3/2001 News media contact: Tim Tanton · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn. NOTE: This report is a sidebar to UMNS story #305. By United Methodist News Service Methodism founder John Wesley once said that the world is his parish, and his spiritual descendants today exemplify those words in ways that he could only have imagined.
The United Methodist connection links people from the Americas to Africa to Asia to Europe. And each year, church members in the United States strengthen and celebrate those ties at their annual conference gatherings.
Bishop Ruediger Minor of the church's Eurasia Area may have had the heaviest schedule of any conference speaker, making appearances at gatherings from Alaska in the west to North Carolina in the east.
"He is one of the great heroes of the faith, as far as I'm concerned, in the United Methodist Church," said Bishop Lindsey Davis, who preached at the Alaska Missionary Conference gathering. Davis leads the denomination's North Georgia Annual (regional) Conference.
Alaska United Methodists joined with Moravian Church partners in celebrating the work of the Russia Far East Task Force, which is providing relief and economic development aid to the people of Chukotka, a region of Siberia. A group of Russians journeyed from Chukotka to visit the conference and share their stories. Native youth performed traditional dances during a celebration at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. The participants at the conference also shared in a Moravian Love Feast.
Later, at the Alaska Native Heritage Center, Minor said it was important "to tell all the world that this is what we stand for: to share and support those in need."
North Carolina members contributed $468,825 in cash and pledges for a chapel at the new Russia United Methodist Theological Seminary. Little Rock and North Arkansas members collected more than 700 Mission Arts Kits that will be used in Russian ministries ranging from orphanages to prisons.
When the Russia Annual Conference met in May, Bishop Marion Edwards of the North Carolina Conference, honorary chairman of the seminary's capital campaign committee, announced a $4 million campaign for a building and endowment fund.
The generosity of United Methodists was extended to other corners of the globe as well.
Northern Illinois members had a presentation on the Millennial Challenge, a campaign to raise $1 million in the next four years for children's ministries in Angola, India and the conference.
Alabama-West Florida designated the emerging Methodist Church in Ecuador as a mission focus for the next four years, and New England ratified a conference covenant with more than 200 churches in Nicaragua.
Central Texas reaffirmed its covenant relationship with the Eastern Mexico Conference, and members celebrated contributions of $172,000 during the past three years for churches and parsonages in the North Katanga Conference of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Central Texas also forwarded an $8,532 gift to the United Methodist Board of Pension and Health Benefits for the pensions of Central Conference pastors, and conference congregations contributed more than 1,000 used eyeglasses for recycling to Third World countries. The money was a gift from the United Methodist Publishing House.
At the Czech and Slovak Republic Annual Conference, held in April in the Czech Republic, Dick Arnold, consultant for the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, spoke about efforts to establish relations between U.S. and Czech and Slovak churches.
Wisconsin celebrated its partnership with Sierra Leone. With Bishop Joseph Humper's wife, Nancy, in attendance, the conference collected 11,668 teddy bears for traumatized children, plus nearly 4,000 school kits and 6,000 pairs of tennis shoes. More than $15,000 was given to help with shipping costs and the "Hope for the Children of Africa" appeal's goal of a transitional home for Sierra Leone children and youth.
Representatives of the Methodist Church of Haiti and the Liberia Annual Conference attended the Detroit Conference gathering. Detroit is a mission covenant partner to each, and the members collected $43,876 to be divided between the two. The conference also adopted a resolution to intensify United Methodist mission support in Liberia, and local churches donated $100,000 worth of school and health supplies for Haiti. The Haitian church's hot lunch program provides 2 million meals a year for 60,000 children.
The Florida Annual Conference collected $133,844 toward the $250,000 cost of the Bishop Cornelius L. and Dorothye Henderson Secondary School in Muxungue, Mozambique. The school was a dream of the late bishop, who died in December after a battle with cancer.
Missouri East and West affirmed their relationships with Mozambique's churches. Troy members voted to support a Mozambique Volunteers in Mission team to their conference in 2003, and Germany North raised $91,000 for flood recovery efforts in Mozambique.
Kentucky United Methodists contributed more than $50,000 in response to a challenge last year from Bishop Nkulu Ntanda Ntambo to provide a scholarship for a potential leader from Congo.
Holston members raised $117,286 to build a school and collected toys, food, clothing, kitchen, medical, sewing and school supplies valued at $194,206 for a mission project in Zimbabwe.
Baltimore-Washington celebrated its covenant relationship with the church in Zimbabwe.
South Indiana members celebrated raising more than $1 million to build two dormitories at United Methodist-related Africa University in Zimbabwe. While the conference was in session, 11 young people and five adults were in Africa, providing leadership training in scouting.
Nebraska members passed a resolution for a Nigeria/Nebraska Partnership with the goal of raising $250,000 by 2003.
Red Bird Missionary Conference raised more than $12,000 to build a residence at Maua Hospital in Kenya, and sent forth 32 people to work as Volunteers in Mission in Kenya.
South Georgia gave $135,000 for East Africa during a service led by children. The money will be used in children's ministries. South Georgia and East Africa are partner conferences through the Initiative on Children and Poverty.
Illinois Great Rivers collected more than $81,000 in shoes, medical supplies and other items for Liberian children, and $28,000 was donated to cover shipping costs.
The diversity that comes with being a global church was evident around the connection. In Minnesota, for example, prayers were offered in Spanish and Hmong, and an Ojibwa pipe ceremony opened a worship service. North Georgia noted the start of new churches or mission congregations serving Anglo, African-American, Asian-Indian, Haitian and Hispanic believers.
The gatherings had an ecumenical flavor too. In addition to the Moravians participating in the Alaska Missionary Conference, a Lutheran minister named Gunnar Weckström was the conference speaker at the Finland-Swedish Annual Conference meeting.
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