Bishops meet outside U.S. for 1st time

Council members travel
to Mozambique for
semiannual gathering

United Methodist News Service
MAPUTO, Mozambique—A Nov. 1 welcome service in Maputo marked the first time the Council of Bishops had ever met outside the United States.
Nearly 70 episcopal leaders came to this sub-Saharan country for their semiannual fall meeting to “demonstrate to The United Methodist Church and to all the world that we are a global church,” said Bishop Janice R. Huie, council president. “We embody a global reality by being here.”
Africa, she said, is where the church is “exploding.” She noted that “we have a unique opportunity to participate in kingdom-building” and to further the denomination’s more than 116-year relationship with Mozambique.
Unlike some African countries where peace is on a slippery slope, Huie said, “Mozambique is at peace. This country has been at peace for a good long time, and we want to nurture it, support it and make it a continuing reality.”
The day before the opening service, Huie and Bishop João Somane Machado of Mozambique were part of an episcopal delegation that visited the president of Mozambique, Armando Emilio Guebuza.
Calling the visit a privilege, Huie described the president as “a dedicated Christian and a man who is trying to lead his country in ways of peace and self-sufficiency.”
The council’s visit was “a way to thank him for the way he has worked with The United Methodist Church,” including his support of the Chicuque Rural Hospital and other church ministries and projects, she said.
The denomination considers Mozambique a significant area for mission through church growth and redevelopment, education, landmine clearance, water resource development and HIV/AIDS programs.
Machado found it difficult to express his feelings when the first council members began arriving Oct. 28 for a series of meetings before the opening welcoming service Nov. 1.
“I was surprised when they chose to come to Mozambique and decided to go outside the U.S. for a meeting,” he said. “It was just unbelievable.
“I feel so happy that they are in my country. To come here puts The United Methodist Church in Mozambique at a higher level of recognition and respect. The government will see that this church is a worldwide church.”
The United Methodist Church in Mozambique has 160,000 members in more than 170 congregations across two annual conferences. It has 132 ordained pastors, 32 deacons and 278 evangelists.
The bishops met in Mozambique through Nov. 6. The council comprises 69 active bishops and 100 retired bishops. They are the clergy leaders of the 10 million-member denomination in the United States, Africa, Europe and Asia.
Accompanying the bishops are executives of denominationwide boards and agencies and members of mission-related committees and groups that are also meeting.
A committee on a United Methodist holistic strategy on Africa, created by the 2004 General Conference and administered by the General Board of Global Ministries, met Oct. 30-31. A committee working to develop models for pension systems for pastors and church workers in the central conferences met Oct. 30.
“We feel humble, and we are trying to make everyone feel that it is safe here, that they are at home and they are with brothers and sisters,” Machado said.