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United Methodist News
UMW study on Middle East provides context for mission
For more than 75 years, United Methodist Women have sponsored “Schools of Christian Mission” as a means of informing and educating its members. But complaints have arisen about a geographic study on Israel-Palestine used in 2007 and which will again be used this year. The complaints question the study’s depiction of the issues between Israelis and Palestinians. The purpose of the geographic study, according to Harriett Olson, chief executive of the Women’s Division, United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, is to provide a context for the mission of the church.
Much of the 223-page study focuses on the political history of the region, accompanied by a “personal history” commentary by the author, the Rev. Stephen Goldstein, a Board of Global Ministries executive. Included is a study guide with personal stories of Israelis and Palestinians, study questions and worship materials, written by the Rev. Sandra Olewine, a board missionary. The other two studies being offered in 2008 are “Giving Our Hearts Away: Native American Survival,” and a spiritual growth study titled, “I Believe in Jesus.”
Filipino mother seeks justice for missing son
“Sometimes I wonder if he has a blanket or a pillow, or if he is being fed,” said Edith Burgos, her calm voice belying the anguish that only a mother whose son is missing could know. “I wonder if he is being tortured right now even as I speak.” An educator and widow of maverick Filipino journalist Jose Burgos, she spoke during Ecumenical Advocacy Days, held March 7-10 in Washington. The UM Boards of Global Ministries and Church and Society support this yearly event. Burgos’ son, Jonas, 38, was abducted in Manila April 28, 2007, by four armed men and a woman. Manager of his family’s organic farm, Jonas taught farmers about their rights and was critical of the Philippine government. Almost a year after the abduction Burgos is still trying to find her son. She is on a mission to speak out for the many Jonases in the Philippines, “When people are silent, when nobody talks, the victims are forgotten,” she said.
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Erica Winterling has found refuge at Ruth’s Place, a shelter for homeless women at First United Methodist Church in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. UMNS photos by Reed Galin. |
Ruth’s Place provides sanctuary for homeless women
In downtown Wilkes-Barre, it’s the end of the workday for people rushing around Erica Winterling, but there isn’t anywhere the 56-year-old homeless woman needs to be. In this twilight hour, she would have been contemplating another night under a bridge or in an abandoned building until she found Ruth’s Place. The only shelter for women in northeast Pennsylvania, Ruth’s Place operates out of First United Methodist Church and is supported entirely by private donations. The ministry provides a meal and sleeping accommodations for a few dozen women. Winterling keeps her few possessions at Ruth’s Place which provides her with a temporary sense of order. “The majority of these women have been living in chaos,” says shelter director Julie Benjamin. “We try to bring some direction in their lives that are not so chaotic.”
United Methodist video examines ‘white privilege’
In a church fellowship hall, a long line of people are beginning to realize that many of them live with “an invisible, unearned advantage” based on the color of their skin. They listen and respond as the Rev. Marion Miller, pastor at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, reads a list of commands in an exercise on “white privilege” in the United States. “If you should need to move,” she asks, “can you be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area you can afford and in which you would want to live? If this is true, take one step forward.” The questions continue and, by the end of the exercise, all of the white participants are steps ahead of the people of color. “Sensitizing white people to an invisible system of advantage is a healthy beginning in the journey,” said Blenda Smith, conference lay leader of the Wyoming Annual (regional) Conference and a board member of the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns.
A DVD called “Truth and Wholeness: Replacing White Privilege With God’s Promise” has been developed by the UM Commission on Religion and Race and the Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns.
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The Rev. Lloyd Calcote saws through a tree on the grounds of Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Gulfside Assembly, a United Methodist conference center in Waveland, Miss. The downed trees have been fashioned into a communion table and other worship aids for the 2008 General Conference. A UMNS photo by Scott Bell. |
Gulfside trees transformed into Lord’s table
Juanita Franklin remembers the sound of chapel chimes carried on ocean breezes echoing among the tall trees at Gulfside Assembly in Waveland, Mississippi. It’s a special memory of a special place, and she’ll likely never hear it again. Gulfside, a historic United Methodist conference center across the street from the Gulf of Mexico, was literally wiped off the map in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina. However, something of the spirit that moved through those trees was kept alive during the 2008 General Conference in Fort Worth, Texas. The meeting’s communion table, altar rail, baptismal font, lectern and a table were crafted from trees salvaged from the 64-acre Gulfside property, which served as a retreat center and meeting place for African Americans before the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
Retirement presents challenge for Estonian pastors
As he has for 34 years, the Rev. Peeter Piirisild, age 80, continues to preach each Sunday morning at the United Methodist church in Narva, a city near the top of the Estonia-Russia border. “I’m retired, but I’m not totally free yet,” he says. Piirisild’s story parallels those told by other retired United Methodist clergy and surviving spouses in Estonia when a delegation of United Methodists from the U.S. and Norway visited Estonia in 2006 in preparation for launching a campaign to raise funds for the denomination’s Central Conference Pension Initiative. The initiative is an effort to provide models for pension systems for UM clergy and lay workers in the church’s central conference regions – Africa, Asia and Europe. While the situation for retirees and widows in Estonia is less dire than in some of the other central conference countries, most still live below the poverty line of a little more than EEK $2000 (Estonia krooni), about US $200 each month. More information about the Central Conference Pension Initiative is available at www.ccpi-umc.org.
Foundation establishes Martha ‘Twick’ Morrison endowment
The Foundation for United Methodist Communications has established the Martha “Twick” Morrison Endowment to help United Methodist communicators outside the United States enhance their communication skills. Morrison, who served on the foundation’s Board of Trustees and was its president from 2004 to 2006, died Feb. 7 from cancer. She was 76. “The Board of Trustees unanimously voted to create this special endowment in remembrance of a very special person,” said Sue Sherbrooke, board president. “The Morrison Endowment will celebrate Twick’s deep interest in communication and empowering the lives of the ‘least of these.’” Details are available at www.umcom.org/foundation and at the Foundation for United Methodist Communications, P.O. Box 320, Nashville, TN 37202.
United Methodists score $3.35 million for Nothing But Nets
The people of The United Methodist Church have raised more than $3.35 million for the Nothing But Nets malaria prevention campaign – enough to cover the cost of 335,000 nets. Every $10 raised pays for the purchase and distribution of a long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito net to a family in Africa, where a child under 5 dies every 30 seconds from malaria.
“To think that we can, through a simple mosquito net, give every child in the world a chance to live the same long-sustained life that we anticipate for our own children, is a very exciting possibility. Even though we’ve had a wonderful period of success, we have just scratched the surface,” said Bishop Thomas Bickerton, Nothing But Nets spokesperson. “We have to keep raising awareness and money however we can. It’s wonderful to think that we have raised over $18 million with an average contribution of $60 per person. We’ve done it $10 at a time.”
Children who receive insecticide-treated bed nets may at the same time also get polio and measles vaccinations, de-worming medication, and vitamin A to prevent blindness. For more information, visit www.NothingButNets.net.
