Front Page

Ethicists Challenge Justification for Pre-emptive War

May 5, 2003, WASHINGTON - Five ethicists of differing perspectives voiced grave concerns about the concept of pre-emptive war as foreign policy and spoke specifically on the conflict in Iraq. "Wars rarely bring freedom, justice and peace," observed Gerald F. Powers, director of the Office of International Justice and Peace of the U.S. Catholics Bishops Conference. He cited Afghanistan as an example. The Churches' Center for Theology and Public Policy organized the May 1 symposium, "Ethical Issues Raised by Pre-emptive War." The ecumenical research center is supported by several denominations.

Summit of Religious Leaders Considers Consequences of Iraq War

May 5, 2003 – As Americans celebrate the military victory in Iraq, a group of about 80 interfaith religious leaders - most of whom opposed military action in Iraq - gathered in Chicago April 30 to consider the humanitarian, spiritual and civil consequences of that war. "The purpose is to look at the next steps in the healing process and to talk about the consequences of war," said the Rev. Robert Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, the ecumenical organization that called the summit. In a joint statement, "An Urgent Call for Reflection, Hope and Action," the Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders argued that American society is "at a moment of choice even more urgent than before the war in Iraq began. We are faced with choices between hope and courage or fear and violence; between a future characterized by global solidarity, international cooperation and multilateral action or one characterized by unilateralism and wars by choice rather than necessity; continuing terrorism; unfettered efforts to extend U.S. power and the exploitation of fear."

Preaching Peace in Wartime Characterizes Spiritual Formation Conference

May 5, 2003 – "Life is too short for nastiness," retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu told participants at the first of two Spiritual Formation Conferences sponsored by Trinity Church Wall Street and held at Camp Allen, Texas, April 7-11. "Have you ever thought of yourselves as a center of peace, as a pool of serenity?" Tutu asked his audience. "God only does something in the world with you, through you God needs you. God is omnipotent, yes, but God is also impotent. God is weak because God needs you." The Spiritual Formation program is a new mission outreach of Trinity, intended to introduce lay and ordained church leaders to the latest and the best methods of empowering the spiritual development of individuals and congregations and to equip attendees to introduce new practices and liturgies into their own parish programs.

General News

Council's New President Hopes to Be Catalyst for Bishops

May 5, 2003, DALLAS - Bishop Ruediger Minor sees his election as president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops as an important symbol for the international body. "Most people look at the United Methodist Church as a U.S. denomination," he said. "Now the presiding bishop is from another country." Though he is not the first bishop from outside the United States to become president, he is the first from a former Soviet bloc country. Minor, 64, was elected president during the council's April 28-May 2 semiannual meeting in the Dallas suburb of Addison. He had served the previous year as president-elect and succeeds Bishop Sharon A. Brown Christopher, whose one-year term ended May 2.

Associated Church Press Honors Lutheran Communicators

May 5, 2003, INDIANAPOLIS - Numerous awards were presented here April 29 to publications associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) during the annual convention of the Associated Church Press (ACP). ELCA publications won two first-place awards and one second-place award for overall excellence. "Lutheran Woman Today," the magazine of Women of the ELCA, won 12 additional ACP awards. The ACP is an 87-year-old professional association of 200 publications, news services, Web sites and individuals, representing a combined circulation of more than 28 million.

Executive Council Wraps up Triennium with Reflection, Action

May 6, 2003 – Winding up the business of the last three years and moving on towards this summer's General Convention was the dominant theme of the last Executive Council meeting of the triennium, held at a conference center in Ellicott City, Maryland, April 28-May 1. The council spent a day evaluating its performance and "graduated" 19 of its 38 members, who will be replaced in elections held in Minneapolis this summer. But the "class of 2003" left continuing members with plenty to do and think about, including revisions to a handbook for the next Council and preparations for renovating the Episcopal Church Center in New York. Members also passed resolutions calling for opposition to expansion or extension of the USA PATRIOT Act and other curtailments of civil rights and adopting a policy of disinvestment from U.S. defense contractors.

Korean United Methodists Celebrate 100-year History

May 5, 2003, HONOLULU - Members of the Inchon Nairi Methodist Church in Korea "brought the light" to Hawaii, to celebrate 100 years of mission and ministry started by the first 50 Korean immigrants. Many of the first immigrants were members of Inchon Nairi Methodist Church. The symbolic lighting of a candle began the April 24-27 celebration of the United Methodist Centennial Celebration for Korean American Mission in America.

Small Congregations Are Backbone of Episcopal Church, Study Finds

May 5, 2003 – "The relationship between congregation size and church growth is surprisingly tricky to measure," says C. Kirk Hadaway, the Episcopal Church's new director of research, in a new study just released by his office. The study seeks to provide a more balanced perspective and combat what he calls "misinformation being circulated around the church using inadequate research procedures that gave an erroneous picture of the relationship between church size and growth, denigrating smaller churches and over-emphasizing the contribution of larger churches to the growth of the Episcopal Church."

Three Church Leaders Share Common History

May 5, 2003, HONOLULU - Jo Ann Yoon Fukumoto, Kathleen A. Thomas-Sano and Colleen Kyung Seen Chun are three strong United Methodist women with a common history. They are descendants of the first Korean immigrants to Hawaii. Their grandmothers were "picture brides" - women who sailed from Korea to Hawaii to marry Korean immigrants. Fukumoto serves as co-chairperson of the California-Pacific Annual Conference Committee. Thomas-Sano is a staff executive at the United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race, Washington. Chun is the first ordained woman of Asian descent in the United Methodist Church and pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Pearl City, Hawaii.

Wesley Valued Differences in Pursuit of Perfection

May 5, 2003, DALLAS - For John Wesley, Christian perfection was all about "the pure love of God and neighbor" - a love that can be strengthened by disagreements or differences with others, a United Methodist theologian says. Marjorie Suchocki took the denomination's bishops on a trek through Wesley's book, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection at their spring meeting, to mark this year's 300th anniversary of the birth of John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement. The international council met April 28-May 2 in Addison, Texas.

Association Removes Church for Baptizing Homosexuals

A North Carolina church accused of baptizing two unrepentant homosexuals was removed from the Cabarrus Baptist Association April 28 by a vote of 250-11. The church, McGill Baptist in Concord, N.C., now in its centennial year, was a founding member of the association. The church baptized the two men last June, and association officials met privately with church officials before taking action. The two men are living together.

Methodist Membership Figures Show Strength Outside U.S.

May 5, 2003, DALLAS - Numbers might never lie, but in some cases they say different things to different people. New data on church membership trends drew divergent reactions from the United Methodist Church's bishops during their April 28-May 2 meeting. Some bishops, focusing on the U.S. figures, expressed a sense of urgency about reversing the downward membership trend. Other bishops, noting the lack of global data, said the U.S. research didn't necessarily reflect the strength of the denomination as a whole.

Ecumenical News

Work with Muslims Requires Sensitivity, Board Exec Says

May 2, 2003, DALLAS - The rhetoric of some Christian organizations toward Islam "is not always helpful" for those doing ministry in Muslim countries, the top staff executive of the United Methodist missions' agency says. The Rev. R. Randy Day emphasized that the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries never ceases to proclaim Christ in its work around the world. At the same time, he said, it's important for Christians to understand Islam, to be "students of the Quran as well as the Bible," in order to understand their faith and work cooperatively with Muslims.

Terry Waite Urges Church to Be a 'Voice for Peace'

May 7, 2003 – "The world of international affairs is a moral mess," Terry Waite, the former Anglican envoy held hostage for four years in Lebanon, told an audience at the Salt Lake City Library auditorium May 3. "I don't know who is going to clean it up." Waite was in Utah for the annual Dewey Lecture Series, and preached the following day at Salt Lake City's All Saints Church. He served as an envoy of Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie in the Middle East during the 1980s, negotiating with kidnappers in Iran and Libya, when he was taken hostage by the group Islamic Jihad in Lebanon in 1987. He was released after 1,763 days in captivity in November, 1991.

Spanish News

En lugares antaño prohibidos, mujeres y niños todavía están en guerra

Siguiendo los esfuerzos de ayuda hasta los umbrales de los grandes problemas humanitarios de Irak se llega a lugares que los forasteros rara vez visitaban en tiempos pasados. El anterior régimen de Irak prefería claramente los palacios a la pobreza, como lo confirma una simple ojeada al horizonte de Bagdad. Pero yendo mas allá de los imponentes monumentos -incluida una mezquita ya mayor que un estadio cubierto, que debería terminarse en 2015- se encuentran bolsones de pobreza antes no autorizados y ocultos, ahora accesibles en las afueras de la ciudad.

CMI coauspicia consultas sobre VIH/SIDA en Nairobi

6 de Mayo de 2003 – Dos consultas sobre VIH/SIDA, coauspiciadas por el Consejo Mundial de Iglesias (CMI), Caritas Internationalis y la Conferencia Mundial sobre Religisn y Paz, y acogido por la Conferencia de Iglesias de Toda el Africa, tendran lugar una despuis de la otra del 7 al 13 de mayo en Nairobi, Kenya.

New York Metropolitan Area

Mission Church Surviving, Growing by 'Grace of God'

May 5, 2002 – The Rev. Min Seok Yang, pastor of Lilly Korean United Methodist Church, came to America on faith three years ago. Tall, thin and soft-spoken, Yang gave his testimony as a pastor of one of the Korean mission churches in America. A mission church is not chartered by any annual conference and has limited resources from the church. Yang's Bayside, N.Y., church had a membership of 17 adults when he arrived. Now, three and a half years later, it has a membership of 50 adults and 30 children. Speaking of his small church brings a smile to Yang's face.

National News

Lutherans Assess Damage in Midwest after May 4 Tornadoes

May 7, 2003, CHICAGO - Lutheran Disaster Response, a ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), are assessing damage in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee after storms and tornadoes brought death and destruction May 4. "At least 38 people are known dead and hundreds injured," said the Rev. Gilbert B. Furst, director for Lutheran Disaster Response. "At least 10 people were killed in Madison County, Tenn.," he said.

Churches, Communities Assess Damage from Tornadoes

May 5, 2003 – Communities from western Texas to Georgia were assessing damages May 5 after tornadoes struck the south central and southeastern United States, leaving at least 35 people dead. United Methodist officials in some states gave preliminary reports on the damages in their communities, even as the assessment - and the storms - continued.

United Methodists Push for Responsible Investing; Corporations Listen

May 2, 2003, CHICAGO - Money talks; and with $10 billion to invest, the United Methodist Church's General Board of Pension and Health Benefits has a loud voice to encourage corporations to consider their "triple" bottom-line responsibilities, namely financial, social and environmental. According to Vidette Bullock Mixon, director of corporate relations and social concerns for the pension agency, during the recent proxy season, when most publicly traded companies hold their annual meetings, the agency used that financial clout to file more than 32 shareholder resolutions. "The (companies) that received resolutions are ones in which the General Board [of Pensions and Health Benefits] has a significant investment, are traditionally located in the Chicago metro area and are leaders in their industry," Mixon told a gathering of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations on Wednesday.

Methodists Applaud Navy Withdrawal from Vieques

May 2, 2003, DALLAS - Methodist leaders are applauding the withdrawal of the U.S. Navy from the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. "This is a very special day for me and for the people of Vieques and Puerto Rico," Bishop Juan Vera Mendez of the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico told members of the United Methodist Council of Bishops. "This morning (May 1), at 12:01 a.m., 64 years of struggles, fear, suffering and domination on Vieques have ended." Vera, whose joyful comments drew strong applause during the council's semiannual meeting in Addison, Texas, called the withdrawal "a celebration of the triumph of just peace over the power of military might."

International News

NEPAD Hit by New Wave of Terrorism and Militarism Says Frank Chikane

May 5, 2003 – The world has been plunged into an international crisis marked by terrorism and militarism. As a result, the momentum towards the realization of the NEPAD (New Partnership for Development) dream has been interrupted. This observation was made in Nairobi by Rev Dr Frank Chikane, the Director General in the Office of the President, South Africa. Dr Chikane was a guest speaker at the fundraising dinner and celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the All Africa Conference of Churches on Saturday evening (May 3). Dr Chikane who is also Secretary to the South African Cabinet recalled that "the newly born baby called NEPAD was tempered by the new dark cloud of the tragic event of September 11."

WCC Co-Sponsors Consultations on HIV/AIDS at Nairobi

May 6, 2003 – Two consultations on HIV/AIDS, co-sponsored by the World Council of Churches (WCC), Caritas Internationalis, and the World Conference on Religion and Peace, and hosted by the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), will be conducted in tandem from May 7-13, 2003, at Nairobi, Kenya.

Episcopal Relief and Development Aids Displaced in Liberia

May 3, 2003, LIBERIA - Episcopal Relief and Development is providing emergency assistance to the Diocese of Liberia after escalating violence and civil unrest in the country. An estimated 250,000 internally displaced people need food and shelter. There are over 110,000 people in seven camps around Monrovia. Some 35,000 others have fled the central Liberia town of Gbarnga for the communities of Totota and Ganta.

Middle East News

In Once Forbidden Places, Find Women and Children Still at War

May 6, 2003, HAI EL MAHDI - Follow aid workers to the doorsteps of Iraq's big humanitarian problems and you find yourself in places that outsiders rarely visited in the past. Iraq's former regime clearly preferred palaces to poverty - a fact confirmed by a glance at Baghdad's skyline. But drive past the imposing monuments - including the mosque due to be completed in 2015, already bigger than a domed stadium - and there are unauthorized, hidden showcases of poverty newly accessible on the outskirts of town.

OGHS Funds Support Iraq Relief Efforts

May 5, 2003, VALLEY FORGE, Pa. - The American Baptist Churches USA World Relief Office has released $10,000 in One Great Hour of Sharing emergency funds to Church World Service in support of that organization's wide-ranging work in relief and redevelopment in Iraq. Since December 2002 CWS has provided more than $300,000 in school supplies, 4,500 blankets and food and medicine to help meet the needs of Iraqi civilians. Its "All Our Children" campaign has provided wheelchairs, blankets, bedding kits and critically needed hygiene supplies for pediatric and maternity hospitals in Baghdad. During Iraq's recovery and rehabilitation period CWS has pledged to continue to provide supplies, medicine and medical equipment to support child health, as well as educational supplies for schools.

Live Chats on Iraq Go Monthly –
Peacemaking Conversations on PresbyNet Now Are Every Second Thursday

May 6, 2003, LOUISVILLE - "International Voices on Iraq" - a series of electronic conversations between Presbyterians and Presbyterian Church (USA) partners around the world - have proven so popular that the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program (PPP) and PresbyNet, the denomination's computer communication network, have announced they will continue indefinitely on a monthly basis. The next "live chat" is scheduled for will be this Thursday, June 11, at Noon (EDT).

Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI):
The Incredible Importance of Being

May 6, 2003 – "Together we must wake the conscience of the world!," said Lutheran Bishop Munib Younan to a group of twelve ecumenical accompaniers meeting after their initial two-week placements in different parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. "The more you are critical of the present policy [of occupation and colonization], the more you help strengthen the position of the Christian church and community here as bridge-builders," the bishop said.

People in the News

Thomas Thomsen Resigns as President of Concordia College

May 5, 2003, CHICAGO - The Rev. Thomas W. Thomsen, president of Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn., announced his resignation at an April 28 news conference. The board of regents accepted his resignation effective July 1, according to a news release issued by the college. The board will form a transitional team to select an interim president and begin a search for president, the release said. Concordia College is one of the 28 colleges and universities of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), based here.