News In Brief – Sept. 11, 2009

Brief items for use in local church newsletters
Prepared by United Methodist News Service

Two teams of young people will visit 30 U.S. cities this fall to build a worldwide community in support of African Christians working daily with the poor, sick and hungry. Pray With Africa, a new Upper Room Ministries initiative, seeks to inspire people to connect across continents, to pray each other’s prayers and to put those prayers into action by giving their time, energy and resources to address key issues facing the African people, says Cary Graham, project director. A list of cities the teams will visit and opportunities to schedule a viewing of the film, “Listen: A New African Narrative,” are available at www.PrayWithAfrica.com.

More than 500 young people are expected to converge on Nashville, Tenn., next summer to perform mission work, learn leadership skills and discover more about what it means to be United Methodists. And they will be doing it all with the help of a multidenominational mission planning group looking to expand into Music City. The planned seven-week Denominational Mission Experience, set for June 20-Aug. 6, is the result of a partnership linking the Minneapolis-based YouthWorks with Young People’s Ministries, a division of the United Methodist Board of Discipleship.

The top staff executive of United Methodist Men is returning to his first love, the local church. In a letter of resignation read Sept. 10, the Rev. David C. Adams told the Commission on United Methodist Men he was honored to serve as general secretary of the agency for the past three years, but he missed serving a local church. The resignation is effective immediately. The commission, meeting through Sept. 12 in Nashville, Tenn., will appoint a search committee for a successor.

Bishops of the three United Methodist central conferences in Africa declared the time is now to take an active role in "our school," Africa University. Bishop John Innis of Liberia spoke of a growing desire among church leaders to make greater contributions to the development of Africa University during a meeting of the College of African Bishops held Sept. 7-10 at the school in Mutare, Zimbabwe. "This is the time and such is the time that God has appointed for us to begin to make a contribution to this university," Innis said.

The summer after 9/11, the Rev. Peter Parish, Rabbi Murray Ezring and Shafiq Mohammad founded American Interfaith Camps. Two-week summer sessions at the United Methodist Elk Shoals Camp in North Carolina allow children of the Christian, Jewish and Islamic faiths to learn more about each other. Prayers can be heard several times a day in between traditional camp activities like hiking and canoeing. The goal of the camp is not to promote one particular belief, but to provide the opportunity for children of different backgrounds to play, eat, pray and grow together as friends both in body and spirit. See the UMTV feature, "Teaching Teens Tolerance," at www.umtv.org.

Two top mission leaders of The United Methodist Church are appealing to the government of Pakistan to ensure the safety of a Christian minority under violent attack in some parts of the officially Islamic nation. West Ohio Bishop Bruce Ough, president of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, and Inelda Gonzalez of Harlingen, Texas, president of the board's Women's Division, also asked the United Nations and the United States to pursue protection for Christians in Pakistan. In Geneva, the World Council of Churches has called on Pakistan to "guarantee the rights of all religious minorities in the country" and repeal the section of the country's penal code that has a mandatory death penalty for anyone found guilty of blasphemy.

Appalachian church leaders will gather for Bible study, leader training and networking at the Appalachian Assembly Oct. 28-31 at Mountainside Conference Center, Bethany, W.Va. Sponsored by the United Methodist Appalachian Ministry Network, the assembly will focus on eradicating poverty and equipping leaders. Bishop Thomas Bickerton, chairperson of the network, will be the keynote speaker, and participants will visit ministry sites in the region. Deadline to register is Sept. 30. For information, contact N. Sharon Leatherman, executive director, UM Appalachian Ministry Network, at (301) 791-7355 or umadc@aol.com, or visit www.appalachia-umc.org.

The African American Methodist Heritage Center is sponsoring a regional learning event Oct. 2–4 at Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta. The event theme is “The Journey: History as a Bridge to the Future.” Participants will learn information about African-American contributions to The United Methodist Church that will foster greater appreciation, insight and encouragement for effective discipleship, evangelism and mission. The center’s workshop is also sponsored in partnership with the United Methodist Board of Church and Society and the Commission on Archives and History. To register, write to methodistheritageworkshop@gmail.com or call the Rev. Sherrie Dobbs Johnson at (973) 494-3322.