LAKE JUNALUSKA (North Carolinia) – “Do no harm. Do good. Stay in love with God.”
Nearly 1,000 United Methodists from throughout the world learned those three simple rules recently and committed to teach them to others as they extend the church’s mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
The occasion was the first joint meeting in almost 40 years of the United Methodist bishops and their cabinets.
Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living, a new book by Bishop Rueben Job, was one of the convocation’s guides.
In the book’s preface, the retired bishop writes that in the fast-paced and complex world of the 21st century, people of faith are ready for a more faithful way of living and discipleship.
Methodism founder John Wesley articulated how to live faithfully and then practised and taught those principles.
“And now it is up to us to see if we will take it, teach it and practise it until it becomes our natural way of living – a way of living that will mark our life
together and our lives as individual Christians,” Bishop Job said.
Throughout the convocation, the bishops emphasised a commitment to teaching the rules of United Methodist living in order that people and congregations may be strengthened and grow in faith.
The convocation brought together district superintendents and others charged with leading their Annual (Regional) Conferences to develop clarity around the church’s purpose, mission and identity and to prepare to lead the church in new ways.
Kansas Area Bishop Scott Jones felt that if the United Methodist Church (UMC) was going to reach its potential, it had to lead the church differently. While bishops and their cabinets were not the only denominational leaders, he said, they were crucial to moving the church into the future.
Missouri Area Bishop Robert Schnase, presenting from his book Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, described how effective congregations engage in radical hospitality, passionate worship, intentional faith development, risk-taking mission and service and extravagant generosity.
The convocation was the first gathering of bishops and cabinets since 1969, just after the merger of the former Methodist Church and the former Evangelical United Brethren Church to form The United Methodist Church.
Bishop Jones hopes that holding the gathering six months before the 2008 General Conference will build momentum towards understanding God’s calling for the church.
Delivering a sermon entitled “We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For”, New York West Area Bishop Violet Fisher said United Methodist leaders live in God’s world as God’s co-workers to enhance the welfare of people.
She stressed that they are called out of insulated individualism into solidarity with the other people, not only at home but also around world. “The world is waiting for us,” she said.
Iowa Bishop Gregory Palmer, president-elect of the Council of Bishops, said United Methodists “must rediscover the vocation of being full-time Christians”.
The church and all Christians must breathe in the spirit of God, and then breathe out in service to the world, said the Rev Karen Greenwaldt, top executive of the United Methodist Board of Discipleship. The church thrives, she said, when it offers hope and love not only to those inside but to the wider world.
“Imagine what could happen if all of us, by the grace of God and prepared by the Holy Spirit, start to move in the same direction,” said Houston Bishop Janice Riggle Huie, President of the Council of Bishops.
The United Methodist Church in Africa and the Philippines know how to make disciples of Jesus Christ while the church in the United States is losing members, she said.
Bishop Huie added that United Methodists in the United States need to stop bickering among themselves and focus on spirituality, their identity as United Methodists and what God is calling them to be and do. – United Methodist News Service.
Methodist Church hospitals promote healing in India
LUCKNOW (India) – For more than 100 years, the Methodist Church here has been a source of healing to Indians.
The South Asian nation has 15 Methodist hospitals serving people irrespective of their creed, class, language or background. They operate in a nation with 1 billion residents – the only country besides China to have hit that benchmark.
India has high rates of HIV/ Aids, polio, leprosy, tuberculosis and malaria, and the number of people with cardiac problems, diabetes, and physical and mental ailments is also increasing.
Many people recall the healing they received at Methodist hospitals run by pioneer missionaries, doctors and paramedics.
The Methodist Church has revived a hospital that now specialises in the treatment of HIV/ Aids patients in the Chandrakal region. “Here we treat the HIV/ Aids patients free of charge,” said Dr Ashok Kumar of Chandrakal Methodist JMM Hospital. “We will soon have a new hospital on the same campus to meet increasing demands.”
Methodist-related Isabella Thoburn College in Lucknow runs an outreach health project to create awareness of HIV/Aids. The college uses puppets and story-telling to tell students and faculty how to avoid the disease.
Clara Swain Hospital in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, is the oldest and largest Methodist hospital in India. It was started in 1870 as the first hospital for women and children in southern Asia. It has a wing to identify and treat HIV/Aids patients.
The Nur Manzil Psychiatric Centre in Lucknow, founded by Methodist evangelist E. Stanley Jones, monitors patients’ psychological, social and spiritual needs.
– United Methodist News Service.