Dream, pray, work for community, bishops urge
11/5/2003 News media contact: Tim Tanton · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn. This report is a sidebar to UMNS story #532.
WASHINGTON (UMNS)-The United Methodist bishops are calling the church to action in a new statement on children and poverty.
· In "Our Shared Dream: The Beloved Community," they urge United Methodists to dream, pray and work for the day when:
· "The church is a more inclusive fellowship, in which dividing walls of race and gender, culture and class are broken down…
· "Church and world overcome the competitiveness that dominates relationships.
· "The ability to give with boundless generosity replaces the drive to collect, possess, own and withhold.
· "Our relations across the globe will be characterized not by charity, dependence and paternalism but by partnership and solidarity.
· "We are free from pride of self, group, tribe and nation and thus more completely reflect the image of the selfless, self-giving God who is within us and among us.
· "Every church conference asks: 'How are we living for the impoverished?' 'How are our individual vocations lived for the poor and contributing to the growth of beloved community?'
· "Every human community on earth is a place committed to preventing violence and offering healing to its victims.
· "All things have become new in Christ Jesus … and the beloved community is our reality."
The task force wrote the statement, adopted Nov. 4, for the Bishops' Initiative on Children and Poverty. |
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