M. Unal Ozmen
News
ID 21570293 © Imagestore | Dreamstime.com
For all that its high-level shenanigans make me want to rage and weep most days, I love The United Methodist Church at its most local level. I’m convinced that few other groups or organizations in the United States or around the world could create such a delicious pastiche of human life at its most elmental.
Don’t believe me? Check out these headlines from this week’s Google searches:
Karol Licht's famous apple dumplings will highlight Cambridge United Methodist Fall Review – Quad-Cities Online.
This charming local-news feature from Cambridge, Ill., announces the Cambridge United Methodist Church’s annual fall fund-raiser that has been going on since 1989. Sadly, we never learn who Karol Licht really is, but obviously their dumplings have been elevated to saintly status.
What’s more, this event raises about $20,000 each year that Cambridge UMC “divides equally between the needs of local people, missions or missionaries outside of Cambridge, and ministry priorities within and programs for the youth,” according to member Sarah Nodine, quoted by Quad Cities Online. The Fail Review has become “a labor of love for the entire congregation,” Ms. Nodine is quoted.
Wesley Putnam comes to Muleshoe – Muleshoejournal
I confess to a personal connection with this news note. Not only have I met Wes Putnam, I’m enamored of the town Muleshoe, located about 350 miles northwest of Lubbock. An ordained United Methodist elder graduated from Asbury Theological Seminary, Wes and I don’t see eye to eye theologically; in fact, we have had some epic online debates in years long past. Nonetheless, being a biblical storyteller myself, I admire the creativity with which he’s put together a traveling evangelism ministry that combines music, song and storytelling to invite adults and children to faith in Jesus Christ. If you’re in the Muleshoe area, you might want to take in Wes’ appearances Oct. 13 – 16, at 7 p.m. at First UMC of Muleshoe. (Correction: An earlier version placed Muleshoe in another part of Texas. The editor really needs to wear her eyeglasses when reading maps!)
Historical Society Plans Picnic Meeting At Camp Hamby Oct. 13 – Thesummervillenews
We United Methodists have a great love of history, both our own and that of the world around us. Here’s a note showing how this love contributes to the community of Summerville, Ga.
“Gary McConnell will be the featured speaker at the regular fall meeting of the Chattooga County Historical Society at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct.13 at Camp Hamby located at 5025 Hair Lake Road, Summerville. … Rain or shine, a fall picnic is planned in the spacious pavilion nestled in the woods directly behind the historic Macedonia Chapel, originally the Macedonia Methodist Church.
“…Camp Hamby was created in 1968 through the generosity of the late Hugh Hamby of Menlo United Methodist who deeded 9.4 acres to be used as a Christian camp for young people.
“The Macedonia Chapel that sits at the gate to Camp Hamby is the original home of the Macedonia Methodist Church. The church began before the October 1840 deed where Humphrey Tomlinson deeded land to the original church trustees – among them a McConnell ancestor of this meeting’s featured speaker.”
A fall picnic. A historic site. And a family connection to the church. How marvelous that Summerville folk can get all that local history in one event!
Liberia: How Does a Bishop of the Church Violate the Very First of the Ten Commandments? – AllAfrica.com
Sadly, not all local news that comes our way shares charming or intriguing stories. Some are more like this editorial from the Liberian Daily Observer, commenting on a recent incident in which Bishop Samuel J. Quire and other clergy prostrated themselves in prayer before Liberia’s President George Weah. The visual image left viewers thinking Bishop Quire & Co. were venerating the embattled president, not praying to God. The episode has sent shock waves through Liberia’s United Methodist and Christian community. The editorial says:
“… The action by the Bishop of the United Methodist Church, the Right Reverend Samuel J. Quire, has left a lot of Liberians, especially Christians, feeling completely and shockingly let down. Why? Because they see the Church as a last bastion of hope, capable of asserting a strong moral influence against vices in society and against tendencies and inclinations to place the personal interests of the leader above the national interests.
“Would the Bishop, therefore, find within himself the courage to speak the truth, whereby his actions suggest loyalty and total submission, not to his Lord Jesus Christ, but to a mere mortal? Was the United Methodist Bishop's act an attempt to ingratiate the United Methodist Church of Liberia or himself into the favors and good graces of President Weah? Or was this just a mistake?
“… Quire owes it not only to the United Methodist Church but to the nation, to make an admission of his grave mistake and an apology, with a pledge never again to repeat it. Otherwise, he would force his fellow Methodists to rethink his role as their bishop.
I’m willing to speculate that Bishop Quire will be facing at least a private inquiry from his African bishop colleagues as well as needing a public response. I’m also willing to suggest that there are parallels between actual prostration in Liberia and figurative prostration before the current leadership in the United States of America. Further deponent sayeth not.
James Knight: The Methodist muddle – The Ledger
Even with encouraging and discomfiting news from parts of the United Methodist world, there seems to be no escaping our current dispute over the church’s official rejection of non-binary human sexuality. As to the last phrase, I’ve elected to make it my personal and professional statement of truth and support for LGBTQ+ persons. After 31 years of reporting on “homosexuality and the church,” I realize that the Book of Discipline language:
- is aimed primarily at gay men and to some extent, lesbian women;
- fails to acknowledge the wealth of scientific study into the nature of human sexuality over the past 30 years; and
- doesn’t include people of non-binary gender identity.
Ergo, I needed a new term and that’s the one I’ve chosen for now. Terminology aside, the results of the 2019 General Conference are still reverberating across the religious and secular landscape. Here’s an apt description by former journalist and university administrator James Knight, a United Methodist layman, in an op-ed for the Lakeland Ledger:
“Sadly, the atmosphere now has more in common with the U.S. Congress than with an ideal body of Christian believers. Trying to keep up with plans, strategies, goals, etc. from each faction has become a dizzying undertaking. Each ‘side’ is advocating for its position with arguments all rooted in varying understanding of scripture. Much of this effort to sway opinion sounds oddly like a political game plan.
“The good news is that, in the meantime, United Methodist churches are continuing to move forward with worship, fellowship and worldwide mission while the hierarchy tries to work it all out. No one knows just how the future will unfold, but no one doubts there will be a bright future for the Methodist church — united or not.”
From your mouth to the ears of our leadership, Brother James. So mote it be.
A journalist for 46 years, Cynthia B. Astle has focused on The United Methodist Church for more than three decades. She serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.