The Monthly Update
November 2002 Update
Bits and Pieces from across
the United Methodist Church
You can
accomplish more in one hour with God than one lifetime without Him.
-
God's Little Devotional Book for Women
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(UM) Bishops.
+ Bishop Timothy Whitaker.
[Note: Bishop Whitaker offers refreshing honesty.]
LEESBURG -- Florida Conference Bishop
Timothy Whitaker set a tone of honesty and apostolic vision for participants at
the first gathering of the Florida Conference's Conference Table Aug. 28-29 at
the Life Enrichment Center here. The Conference Table was approved at the 2002
Florida Annual Conference Event as a forum for discussing and discerning how
the Florida Conference can fulfill its vision to make disciples of Jesus
Christ. Whitaker's opening comments challenged participants to be honest in
their assessment of the church today and free in visioning what the
church can become. "Christendom has fallen apart,"
Whitaker said. "Much of the culture has freed itself from collusion with
Christianity...and does not want to be aligned with any one religion. "The
missionary church must witness to the kingdom of God in a culture of moral
confusion, consumerism, militarism and ethnic hatred. Congregations do not stand
alone, but must understand themselves as part of a larger missionary
church."
Whitaker believes the United Methodist connection is not effective in
helping churches fulfill their missionary calling. "The connection is an institutional
structure, rather than a web of people in relationship for a common
mission," he said. "There is
not a lot of connecting in
the connection." People in the
connection need to embrace freedom and "surrender our
defensiveness," Whitaker said. ".
. . This does not mean everything old must be discarded. Freedom is a gift...we're going to have to
give one another and..we're going to have to pray for."
The church must also be focused on transformation rather than growth,
Whitaker said. "What is important
is not growth, but it is transformation.
When a church is a healthy, living organism, it grows." The
conference must begin to articulate expectations of its congregations and their
members, Whitaker said. "We are not
providing Christian direction on how to love God and how to love our
neighbors." Congregations should be considered missions, new,
transforming, exploring or parish.
Missions and new congregations would be defined as they currently
are. Exploring congregations are those
in the process of assessing their mission and future. Transforming congregations are those in the
process of transforming their mission and ministry. Parish congregations are those participating
in worship, pastoral care and some mission, but are not transforming themselves
or their members. Whitaker said the conference must be in the process of
developing clergy and lay leadership and facilitating better relationships
between pastors and congregations.
Calling clergy the "workforce-spiritual leaders in
congregations," Whitaker said the conference must help them develop new
skills for ministry, provide periodic brief sabbaticals and relief for spouses
and children. He also said the
conference needs to seek new ways to work through conflicts in churches and
provide for long-term ministry. The laity are "hungry to be confirmed as
ministers and be employed in the adventure of mission in the world," he
said. The role of the annual conference in equipping churches to be in ministry
must change, Whitaker said. "There
are many resources available to local congregations . . . that don't need to be
repeated by
the annual conference." Whitaker said
the conference needs to re-examine the connectional giving system and how it
funds its ministries. He said the annual
debate over funding campus ministry "shows we're not convinced the current
method of delivery is best."
"The CCOM [Conference Council on Ministries] does its budgeting
expecting it will only get 60 percent of its budget," he said. "This is not a healthy development."
-
Florida United Methodist Review, editor Michael Wacht.
+ Bishop Joseph Sprague.
Methodist Minister Rebels Against Bishop's Heretical Statements
Conservative
Leader Says 'No More' to Undesignated Giving to Local Church
A respected and well-known United Methodist
minister in Mississippi says he will no longer be giving undesignated funds to
his denomination [through the apportionment]. He says his action was triggered
by a UMC bishop who recently announced that he rejects the basic tenets of the
Christian faith. The "apportionments"...are used to fund such things
as the salaries for Methodist bishops. That...category has caused one Methodist
leader to take action with his wallet. Dr. Don Wildmon, an ordained Methodist
minister and chairman of the American Family Association, says while he will
continue supporting his local church financially, his giving will be to
designated causes only -- thereby eliminating the possibility that any of his
tithes and offerings will go to pay bishops' salaries. Wildmon's decision follows
a controversial speech by Methodist Bishop Joseph Sprague of Chicago, who
rejects the biblical teaching that salvation can be found in Christ alone.
Wildmon says in light of the fact that Methodist bishops are elected for life
and supported by local churches, he will only designate his funds to causes
that are in harmony with the scriptures. "When a bishop in the United
Methodist Church...denies the basic tenets of Christianity -- virgin birth,
death, burial, resurrection [of Jesus Christ], the atonement -- and continues
in that capacity, then it's time to take some action," he says.
"...no charges have been filed by any of the other bishops. I don't want
my money being used to pay this man's salary."
According to Wildmon, his denomination holds apportionment giving in
high esteem. "Giving to the denomination, called apportionments, is the
'sacred cow' in the United Methodist Church," he says. "The
leadership does not look kindly when the sacred cow is touched." He
indicates that his actions could lead to some type of punitive action by his
superiors, although he doubts that will happen. He says one ploy being used by
the denomination is to suggest that anyone who expresses concern about
apportionments is "suffering from depression." But Wildmon says Sprague's
speech was the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back."
Wildmon has written to 50 active UMC bishops, asking them why he should
pay Sprague's salary. He says although 44 of the bishops did not even bother to
respond, Bishop Sprague has been challenged. "One good thing has come out
of this," he says. "Bishop Timothy Whitaker from Florida has
responded to Bishop Sprague's presentation [and] denial [of basic Christian
tenets] -- and to my knowledge, this is the first time ... that one Methodist
bishop has challenged another Methodist bishop in public."
Wildmon also has notified 15,000 local United Methodist churches of his
decision, and put supporting material on the website TheMethodistChurch.com. He
adds that he has heard from other individuals and local churches that they plan
to begin designating their giving as well. -
Jim Brown and Jody Brown; AgapePress;
October 3, 2002.
+ Bishop [Timothy]
Whitaker [issued a definitive, orthodox response to Joe Sprague's heretical
statements] that was apparently stimulated by a person in his conference who
wrote to him and asked why he should continue to support the Episcopal Fund and
help pay Joe Sprague's salary for the rest of his life. Good question. More folks ought to ask their
own Bishops the same question, and ask them to give their own response to
Sprague's challenge to historic Christian faith. It's time to ask them to stop the...double-speak
response of "Well, the Bishop says he affirms orthodoxy." In fact, he does not. He uses the vocabulary of orthodoxy, but he
uses an entirely different and essentially contradictory dictionary. - E-mail from Ms. Helen Rhea Stumbo
+ Council of Bishops' president joins calls
for restraint on Iraq
WASHINGTON. The president of the United
Methodist Council of Bishops has added a pastoral letter to the voices calling
for restraint in dealing with Iraq, and she is asking United Methodists -
including the U.S. president and vice president - to join in praying for peace.
"A pre-emptive war by the United States against a nation like Iraq goes
against the very grain of our understanding of the Gospel, our church's
teachings and our conscience," wrote Bishop Sharon A. Brown Christopher,
of Springfield, Ill., in a letter issued Oct. 4. "Pre-emptive strike does
not reflect restraint and does not allow for the adequate pursuit of peaceful
means for resolving conflict," she wrote. "To be silent in the face of
such a prospect is not an option for followers of Christ." Christopher
acknowledged that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's treatment of people in his
own country and in neighboring nations has been horrifying, but she asserts,
"Jesus rejects the violent response to evil." [Note: This reflects
inadequate examination of the facts; for eleven years of Iraqi violations our
national leadership has exercised considerable restraint.]
-
UMNS; Joretta Purdue; Washington; 10-21-71BP{454}; Oct. 7, 2002.
(UM) General Board of Church and Society
(GBCS).
HERNDON, Va. [UMNS] - Members of the United
Methodist social action agency have passed a resolution offering a vision of
peace as they seek to call the nation away from war with Iraq. "We must
never forget that war is not the only option," said the Board of Church
and Society in the resolution, passed at its Oct. 10-13 meeting. That week, the
U.S. House of Representatives had voted 296-133 to grant President Bush the
authority to make war on Iraq. Later, the Senate
voted 77-23 in favor of the authorization.
Undeterred, the board passed its resolution Oct. 12.
"Christians must confront the powers
of evil and injustice with a different set of tools - tools that make for
peace," the board said. "We applaud the U.S. administration for
seeking (U.N.) Security Council enforcement of its disarmament resolutions
toward Iraq," the board stated. "We do not believe that peaceful
means have been exhausted. Further, we do not believe that war would achieve a
safer or better world." [Note: As has been stated previously, these people
do not have sufficient expertise in international relations to give responsible
counsel in these areas.]
-
United Methodist News Service; Joretta Purdue; Washington; 10-21-71B{474}; Oct.
16, 2002.
(UM) General Board of Global Ministries
(GBGM). The Rev. R. Randy Day is the nominee for
chief executive of the GBGM. Day, who currently oversees the mission agency's
program areas of
Evangelism and Church Growth and Community
and Institutional Ministries, was among three finalists for the top staff
position of general secretary. Board directors will vote on Day's nomination at
the October annual meeting in Stamford, Conn. If approved, his nomination would
be forwarded to the denomination's General Council on Ministries for final
action. He would
succeed the Rev. Randolph Nugent, who is
retiring after 21 years as chief executive.
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UMNS; Linda Bloom; New York; 10-21-71B{393}; Sept. 5, 2002.
(UM) General Conference. 2004 General Conference planners promise 'holy
conference'
PITTSBURGH (UMNS) - Planners of the 2004
General Conference hope logistics for the upcoming legislative assembly of the
United Methodist Church will allow more time for prayer, biblical reflection
and non-political fellowship - and will foster less divisive politicking - than
at previous global law-making sessions. The 16-member Commission on General
Conference said that the church's top law-making gathering, held for two weeks
every four years, should embody Christian fellowship, worship and face-to-face
discussion about important church and social issues. Instead, commissioners
lamented, recent sessions of the quadrennial gathering have degenerated into a
morass of dueling theological and political factions, exhaustive parliamentary
quagmire and contentious caucusing and debate. At their Oct. 3-5 meeting in
Pittsburgh, site of the 2004 assembly, commission members said they hope to
restore the spirit of "Christian
conferencing" at the upcoming General
Conference by recommending:
- Open seating in daily worship services.
In past sessions, the 1,000 voting delegates to General Conference were seated
by regional (annual conference) delegations.
- Bishops serve as chair people of the 11
legislative committees. Instead of electing delegates to oversee the work of
the committees - which review, amend and forward petitions to the whole
assembly - bishops would lead, with a secretary elected to report to the whole
conference.
- Daily Bible study and time for
meditation, discernment and conversation before voting on tough issues.
These changes would become effective at the next General Conference, set
for April 27-May 7, 2004. The group also voted to move the Episcopal Address
from 8 p.m. the first evening to earlier that afternoon, and to limit the
address to one hour. The group forwarded to the rules committee a
recommendation about the 2008 General Conference requiring that individual
petitions to change church law be filtered through an annual, jurisdictional or
central (outside the United States) conference, or through a churchwide agency.
Gail Murphy-Geiss of Centennial, Colo., and adjunct professor at Iliff
School of Theology in Denver, chairs the ad hoc subcommittee that suggested
several changes in the way General Conference runs. Rancor and divisiveness
marked the 2000 assembly, she said, with heated
demonstrations and debate on the issue of
homosexuality and other hot-button topics. "We're assuming that all people
come to the conference with open hearts and that they want more dialogue and
less political posturing," she added. [Note: This is far from reality;
many delegates go to the conference with the most serious intent of passing
their key issues.]
Likewise, commission members hoped assigning bishops to preside over the
11 legislative committees would de-politicize and ensure more consistent
administration of the legislative process. (Currently, bishops preside only at
the plenary sessions in the second week. Bishops still would have neither voice
nor vote.)
[Note: This will tighten control over the
legislative process and is not seen as a good change.]
In other action, the Commission on the
General Conference:
- Unveiled the 2004 General Conference
logo, under the theme "Water Washed, Spirit Born." The emblem
features the United Methodist cross-and-flame symbol centered in the globe,
with Pittsburgh's three converging rivers - the Allegheny, the Monongahela and
the Ohio - flowing
from the foot of the cross.
- Approved plans to translate the 2004
Advanced Daily Christian Advocate (containing petitions and reports to the
General Conference) into German, French, Portuguese and English, and to provide
language interpreters on site to translate the proceedings into those languages
plus Spanish and Swahili to accommodate delegates from outside the United
States.
- Recommended to the church's fiscal agency
a $6 million budget for the group's work in 2005-08. - UMNS; M. Garlinda Burton; Nashville, Tenn.; 10-21-71BP{453};
Oct. 7, 2002.
* * * *
*
Tact is the art
of making a point without making an enemy.
-
God's Little Devotional Book for Women, p. 246
Global Outlook
A father is a man
who expects his son to be as good a man as he meant to be.
-
The Navigators' Daily Walk, February 1993.
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The Episcopal Church.
Episcopal Bishop Ousts Priest Called Defiant
PHILADELPHIA. An Episcopal priest who says
the church has become too liberal on issues like the ordination of women and
the recognition of same-sex unions was defrocked today by the bishop of
Pennsylvania. The priest, the Rev. David L. Moyer of the Church of the Good
Shepherd in Rosemont, is a leader of Forward in Faith, a 19,000-member
conservative movement in the church. Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr. said it was
not Mr. Moyer's beliefs but his rejection of the bishop's authority that
prompted his dismissal from the ministry. Bishop Bennison supports ordaining
women and recognizing homosexuals in committed relationships.
Nationally, the Episcopal Church allows the
ordination of women. It officially opposes same-
sex relations, but in practice brings no
sanctions against those who ordain actively homosexual clergy or conduct
same-sex unions. [Note: This action promises serious problems in our own
denomination if this is the "logical" progression of the controversy
over homosexuality.] The Internet link to the ousted priest's traditional
movement within the Episcopal church:
http://www.forwardinfaith.com/news/news-index.html
-The
Associated Press, September 6, 2002
Islam. ...let
me highly recommend a book just released--Islam at the Crossroads:
Understanding its Beliefs, History and Conflicts; it's written by Paul
Marshall (of Freedom House), Roberta Green and Lela Gilbert. Islam at the
Crossroads is short and very readable; you can very likely read it in an
evening or two. The conflict with radical Islam is going to be with us for many
years--when you read this book you will understand why. -
E-mail from Ms. Helen Rhea Stumbo
Macedonia. [At a meeting of the] World Methodist Council
the World Methodist Peace Award [was presented] to Boris Trajkovski, president
of the Republic of Macedonia, on Sept. 18. He expressed his heartfelt
appreciation to executive committee members the next day. "That a
Methodist lay leader could be elected as president of Macedonia shows God's
hand at work," he said. Bishop Walter Klaiber of Germany quoted an article
on Trajkovski that had appeared in a leading German newspaper: "The president
is a Methodist lay preacher, and he speaks like a Methodist lay preacher. This
may be the reason he dares to try the impossible."
-
UMNS; Kathy L. Gilbert; Nashville, Tenn.; 10-71BP{446}; Oct. 2, 2002.
The National Council of Churches (NCC).
+ Falwell's words on Islam are 'not
Christian,' NCC says
NEW YORK (UMNS) - The Rev. Jerry Falwell's
"hateful and destructive" statements about Islam and the Prophet
Muhammed do not represent the views of most Christians, according to the
National Council of Churches. The council's executive committee, meeting Oct.
7-8 in New York, voted unanimously to "condemn and repudiate"
statements made by Falwell during an interview with CBS-TV's "60
Minutes," broadcast on Oct. 6. The leader of the conservative Moral Majority
group labeled the Prophet Muhammed a "terrorist." Such inflammatory
remarks have put the lives of Christians around the world at risk, the
executive committee declared. "His statements about Islam and the Prophet
Muhammed are not only factually untrue and offensive but are
dangerous to the national security of every
nation where Christians and Muslims are seeking a peaceful relationship,"
said committee members in a resolution. Such remarks "create ideal
conditions for breeding terrorism among those who may not understand that he
does not represent the majority of Christians or Americans."
Representing 36 church bodies and more than 50 million U.S. Christians,
the NCC leaders declared that Falwell's words were "not Christian and
shockingly uninformed."
[Note: It should be observed that the
speaker's choice of words give the impression that he speaks for 50 million
Christians; this is not the case. In reality the denominations making up the
NCC comprise approximately one-third of America's Christians. As far as Islam,
it is important in light of today's dangerous world to view Islam with a
realistic objectivity, not with "political correctness." While Rev.
Falwell's choice of words may have been injudicious, this religion does need to
be recognized for what it is. In addition Rev. Falwell's words have not
increased the danger of Christians around the world; the NCC's silence on Islam
has.]
-
UMNS; Linda Bloom; New York; 10-21-71B{461}; Oct. 8, 2002.
+ NCC asks Bush to hear faith community on Iraq
NEW YORK (UMNS) - Leaders of the National
Council of Churches's executive committee sent a letter to President Bush
during its Oct. 7-8 meeting in New York, signed by the ecumenical body's
president, Elenie Huszagh, and its chief executive, the Rev. Robert Edgar, a
United Methodist pastor.
"On many occasions, you have cited your reliance on principles of
faith," the leaders wrote to Bush. "It is just such principles that
have motivated the letters from the many Christian leaders and their
constituents who oppose such a strike. Millions of American Christians are
members of the churches whose leaders have written to you in this moment of
grave decision-making." United Methodist expressions of concern include
statements from Bishop Sharon Brown
Christopher, president of the
denomination's Council of Bishops, and Jim Winkler, chief executive of the United Methodist Board of Church and
Society. The NCC executive committee urged Bush to "reverse the
momentum" toward a war with Iraq.
NCC members also will join others in the religious community to press
for alternatives to a U.S. attack on Iraq through a seriesf of events Oct. 9-11
in Washington. The events include a 6:30 p.m. prayer vigil Oct. 10 on the lawn
of the United Methodist Building at Capitol Hill. [Note: Of course, this would
have already been held.]
- UMNS; Linda Bloom; New York; 10-21-71B{463};
Oct. 9, 2002.
Sudan.
...the Sudan Peace Act was passed on October 10th! The week long Vigil for
Sudan organized by IRD [the Institute on Religion and Democracy] helped
heighten awareness of the desperate plight of Christians in the southern
Sudan...People came from all over the country to participate. You can read the actual provisions of the act
at www.freedomhouse.org, by clicking on the Center for Religious Freedom
section. Many of you have prayed for
this for many months, and grieved over the fact that its passage last year was
derailed by the aftermath of 9/11. Those
of you in [the] South Georgia [Conference] will remember that our annual conference
passed a resolution in June of 2001(!!)
supporting the passage of this bill--it's been a long time coming, but
we can rejoice. As Christians in Muslim lands continue to suffer for their
faith, the Sudan Peace Act will make a difference for Christian brothers and
sisters in that tragic land. Your
prayers and contacts with your Congressmen/women and Senators contributed to
this victory.
-
E-mail from Ms. Helen Rhea Stumbo
The World Council of Churches (WCC).
World Council of
Churches delegates ponder group's future
While tackling global issues and addressing
relations between denominations, participants in the recent World Council of
Churches Central Committee meeting faced a larger question: What is the future
of the ecumenical organization? UM representatives were among those pondering
the answer at the Aug. 26-Sept. 3 gathering in Geneva. The WCC represents a
fellowship of
342 church bodies in more than 100
countries. Although dwindling financial support for the 54-year-old council is a
very real issue, it is not the only one that needs examination, according to
Lois Dauway, an executive with the Women's
Division of the United Methodist GBGM. "The world is changing, and many of
the organizations that the WCC helped give birth to are growing in strength and
vitality," she said. Perhaps the council should reshape itself to work in
partnership with these regional ecumenical groups and not duplicate their
efforts, she said. Such partnerships were endorsed by the Rev. Konrad Raiser of
the Evangelical Church in Germany, the WCC's chief executive, who called for a
"new ecumenical configuration" for the 21st century during his
opening report to the 158-member central committee. He pointed out that the
ecumenical
movement is no longer drawing enthusiastic
support from youth and has always been shunned by some conservatives within the
church.
-
UMNS; Linda Bloom; New York; 10-32-35-71B{400}; Sept. 10, 2002.
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Worth repeating:
Have you no wish
for others to be saved? Then you are not
saved yourself. Be sure of that.
-
Charles H. Spurgeon
6