Corpus Christi boulevard closed during conference
Participants in next week’s Southwest Texas Annual Conference session must use a route different from past years to the Bayfront Plaza Convention Center.
Shoreline Boulevard will be closed throughout the June 2 to 5 meeting.
Water and Chaparral streets will be the main thoroughfares to and from the Corpus Christi convention center.
Pastors to say ‘cheese’ for new photo directory
Clergy members are being asked to say “cheese” next week during the Southwest Texas Annual Conference session.
Olan Mills photographers are scheduled to snap pictures for a 2004 clergy pictorial directory June 3-5. Their photo studio is to be set up in the display are of Exhibit Hall A in the Bayfront Plaza Convention Center.
Photographers are to be on duty from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. June 3 and 4 and from 8:30 p.m. to noon June 5.
Pictures are to be taken first-come first served.
Delegates to discuss issues considered in Pittsburgh
Southwest Texas Annual Conference participants can learn firsthand next week what happened during the General Conference in Pittsburgh.
The 12 Southwest Texas Conference delegates to the April 27-May 7 meeting are to lead breakout sessions June 3 from 4 to 5 p.m. They are to discuss issues considered by the legislative committees on which they served.
Delegate legislative committee assignments were Jay Brim, General Administration; the Rev. Kim Cape, Faith and Order; the Rev. Austin Frederick, General Administration; Carol Loeb, Discipleship; the Rev. J. Michael Lowry, Conferences; Rick Mantooth, Finance; the Rev. Barbara Ruth, Church and Society; the Rev. Robert Schnase, Higher Education and Ordained Ministry; Beverly Silas, Judicial; Ilda Vasquez, Global Ministries; the Rev. Virigilio Vazquez-Garza, Local Churches; and Barbara Ford Young, Independent Commissions.
Daily newsletter dropped for next week’s conference
Southwest Texas Annual Conference participants won’t be receiving a daily newsletter during the June 2-5 session.
The Communications and Public Witness Office has suspended publication of the Daily Conference Witness for this year’s meeting as a cost-cutting move.
Feedback last year from conference members indicated the newsletter wasn’t an essential meeting element for them.
New issue of clergy journal now available on Website
A new issue of Los Companeros, the electronic journal for Southwest Texas Conference clergy members, is now available at www.umcswtx.org. The specific link is under “Special Interest.”
Topic for the issue is “conflict” and constructive ways to think about it and cope with it. Writers include the Revs. Kim Cape, Bill Henderson, Terrence Hayes and Harold Sassman.
The Order of Elders sponsors Los Companeros. Its purpose is to support, encourage and connect conference clergy members and their families.
Bishops call for U.N. role in Iraq, pray for soldiers
WASHINGTON—UM bishops are urging the U.S. government to request help from the United Nations in establishing a transitional government in Iraq.
In a May 11 resolution, the Council of Bishops said it “laments the continued warfare by the United States and coalition forces” in Iraq, noting that the cycle of violence has led to the “denigration of human dignity and gross violations of human rights of Iraqi prisoners of war.”
The bishops said they prayed for military personnel and their families and asked that United Methodists pray for peace.
UMs ask for policy change on Haitian asylum seekers
PITTSBURGH—The UMC has asked the U.S. government to change its policy on Haitians seeking political asylum.
General Conference delegates passed a resolution May 5 saying the United States should end the practice of both blocking and detaining Haitian asylum seekers. The resolution cited the unstable and often violent conditions in the Caribbean nation.
The church encouraged Washington to give Haitian asylum seekers full access to the process for seeking asylum and to increase resettlement opportunities in the United States.
The resolution also asked the U.S. government to assist Haitian asylum seekers who have fled into the Dominican Republic, which shares the island with Haiti.
British Methodists gather 11th commandment ideas
MANCHESTER, England—British Methodists went into bars, movie theaters and student unions across the United Kingdom recently looking for an “11th commandment.”
The church distributed three-quarters of a million “11th Commandment” beer mats and postcards in places where people in their 20s and 30s go to relax.
One side of the cards and mats featured an image with a slogan like “Eat more doughnuts” or “Never give out your password” to pique people’s curiosity. The flip side carried a challenge from the British Methodist Church to come up with a new commandment for the 21st century.
Using cell phones, people could text-message their suggestions to the church. The five best entries won cell camera phones.
Out of 2,000 submissions, the five winning commandment suggestions were:
> Thou shalt not worship false pop idols.
> Thou shalt not kill in the name of any god.
> Thou shalt not confuse sex with love.
> Thou shalt not consume thine own body weight in fudge.
> Thou shalt not be negative.
The campaign grew out of the church’s increasing concern that it is not serving the “under 40s” well enough and needs to know more about who they are and what they care about.
Efforts to rebuild Liberia slowly getting under way
NEW YORK—With renewed pledges of assistance from donor countries, reconstruction of war-ravaged Liberia is slowly getting under way.
For UMs inside and outside that West African nation, reconstruction means restoring basic services at Ganta Hospital. That’s a premier church institution nearly destroyed in the last round of fighting.
Other work involves repairing churches and school buildings; resettling church members and other displaced Liberians; and assisting in the reintegration of combatants, particularly child soldiers, into society.
The 168,000-member Liberian Conference is still taking stock of church property damages after 14 years of civil war. The UM Committee on Relief is assisting with on-site advisers and grant money.
Checks can be placed into church collection plates to support relief committee work in Liberia. Donations should be earmarked for UMCOR Advance No. 150300, Liberia Emergency.
UMC continues to rank 3rd among U.S. faith groups
NEW YORK—The UMC held its position as the third-largest Christian communion in the United States and Canada in the 2004 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches.
With 8.25 million members in the United States, the UMC ranks behind the Roman Catholic Church, with 66.4 million U.S. members, and the Southern Baptist Convention, with 16.2 million members in North America.
Rounding out the top five U.S. denominations are the Church of God in Christ, 5.5 million, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 5.4 million.
Other Methodist denominations listed are the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 2.5 million (12th on the list), and the African Methodist Episcopal Church Zion, 1.4 million (20th). Most data reflect 2002 statistics.
The book is edited by the Rev. Eileen W. Lindner of the National Council of Churches and published by Abingdon Press.
Delegates think of victims in Sudan, call for more aid
PITTSBURGH—General Conference delegates paused in the course of a busy session to pray and pass a resolution expressing concern for 5 million displaced people in Sudan.
The General Conference pledged support for refugees who have fled the east African country. The action came May 7, on the last day of the quadrennial assembly.
The 11-million-member denomination has no congregations in Sudan; however, it participates in an interchurch effort to care for Sudanese refugees entering Chad.
“As Christians, we must come to the defense of all victims of what is beginning to look like genocide in the southern part of Sudan,” said the Rev. R. Randy Day, top staff executive of the General Board of Global Ministries. “We cannot be concerned just for our own.”
Opportunites
First UMC, Austin, seeks a full-time director of children and family ministries. Target date for hiring is June 15. Position is responsible for full range of children and family programs. Those include Sunday school for nursery through fifth grade, older children programming, Vacation Bible School, family retreats, mission opportunities, parenting classes and relations with weekday preschool. Strong communication skills and ability to work well with others essential. Bachelor’s degree with two-to-four years experience in teaching or administration required. For more information contact the Rev. Mimi Raper, (512) 478-5684 or mimi@fumcaustin.org.
The Southwest Texas Conference, San Antonio, seeks a part-time director of health and education. Application deadline is June 7. Person is to assist Board of Ordained Ministries in fulfilling requirements described in Book of Discipline Paragraph 632 and in assessing health, welfare and education of Southwest Texas and Rio Grande conference clergy members. Qualifications include master’s degree and familiarity with education and healthcare issues of mind, body and spirit of clergy members. Contact the Rev. Austin Frederick Jr. at (210) 408-4500, (888) 349-4191 or afred@umcswtx.org.
First UMC, Victoria, seeks a minister of music/organist. Responsibilities include two adult choirs, two bell choirs, youth and children’s choirs and service on worship ministry team. Organ is a Visser & Associates-built 38-rank pipe organ. Salary commensurate with education and experience. For more information contact the Rev. Ricky Sanderford, (361) 578-2701 or sanderford@hotmail.com.
