Women’s Division Sponsors Educational Event on Mercury-Containing Vaccines, Drugs

by Barbara Wheeler*

Raising awareness of the use of mercury as a preservative in some vaccines and other drugs will be the focus of a June 6-7 event sponsored by the Women’s Division of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries. “The Truth is Coming to Light” will be at Simpsonwood Retreat Center in Norcross, Ga.

The event is focused on education about the dangers of vaccines and other drugs that contain the mercury-preservative Thimerosal.

In April 2006, directors of the Women’s Division called on the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to take action to protect children from mercury-containing drugs.

The division advocates informed consent before mercury-containing drugs or vaccinations are administered to children and adults. The division supports vaccinations as a means to prevent disease and encourages parents to seek out vaccinations that do not contain toxins or preservatives that may be dangerous, especially to developing bodies.

The Women’s Division, the policy-making arm of United Methodist Women, has a legacy of advocacy for children, including issues related to their health and well-being. In recent years, this work has been done through United Methodist Women’s Campaign for Children, which is on improving the lives of children in their communities, safety and well-being of children, and promoting all children’s access to quality public education. United Methodist Women members support and volunteer in ministries of health and well-being for children and adults in communities across the United States and around the world.

June 8, upon the conclusion of the Women’s Division’s educational event, two grassroots organizations, Moms Against Mercury and the Coalition for Mercury-free Drugs (CoMeD) will hold a rally and press conference at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Tonya Murphy, president of United Methodist Women in North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church, and Lois M. Dauway, interim deputy general secretary of the Women’s Division, will speak at the rally.

United Methodist Women is an organization of approximately 800,000 members within the United Methodist Church in the United States. Its purpose is to foster spiritual growth, develop leaders and advocate for justice. United Methodist Women members give more than $20 million a year for programs and projects related to women, children and youth in the United States and around the world.

*Barbara Wheeler is an executive secretary for communications for the Women’s Division of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries.

See Also:
Division Examines Danger of Mercury-Containing Vaccines, Drugs
http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umw/news/news-1/division-examines-danger-of-mercury-containing-vaccines-drugs/

Division Addresses Mercury Poisoning through Vaccines
http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umw/news/news-1/division-addresses-mercury-poisoning-through-vaccines/

A UMNS Commentary by Linda Bales*: Peace remains elusive in Middle East

Delegation members Linda Bales (left) and the Rev. Brenda Girton Mitchell visit with Prince Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan. A UMNS photo courtesy of Linda Bales.

How ironic it is to be in the Middle East, the birthplace of three major religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The irony is this is a place where everyone greets one another with the word for peace, but this land is anything but peaceful.

Both Israelis and Palestinians are finding themselves more and more isolated from the other, which is resulting in further instability in the region. Violence is increasing, and Palestinians lack adequate access to services such as education and health care. The number of displaced persons in the region is growing with Palestinians and Iraqis fleeing their respective homelands in search for security. Many are settling in Jordan and other Middle Eastern nations.

This alarming situation was studied by a delegation of women from U.S. churches on a two-week pilgrimage sponsored by the National Council of Churches of Christ. The 16 women arrived here in Amman, Jordan, on May 10, the first all-women delegation from the NCC to visit the region.

The Rev. Thelma Chambers Young, an NCC vice president, approached the council in 2006 to request such a pilgrimage be organized, knowing that far too often women's voices are marginalized and not recognized for their courageous efforts to promote peace.

Our pilgrimage began in Jordan, a nation significantly impacted by tensions between Israelis and Palestinians as well as the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Representatives from nine faith groups met with Jordanian religious leaders, women who are making a difference in Jordanian society, Iraqi women and girls, and Palestinian refugees. The Jordanian portion of the trip was coordinated by the Middle East Council of Churches.

Ninety-five percent of Jordan's 6 million people are Sunni Muslims. Christians are a minority in this desert land where Jesus was baptized. Visiting the Jordan River provided a chance for delegation members to symbolically reaffirm their own baptism by dipping their feet into this holy water.

"It was a moving experience for me," said Sandra Pyke Anthony, a representative from the African Methodist Episcopal Church and a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago. "I was where Jesus was when he was baptized by John the Baptist, and I felt humbled."

Jordan is now home to 1.8 million Palestinian refugees, representing 23 percent of the total number of Palestinian refugees in the world. Approximately 290,000 live in camps in Jordan where they are provided housing, health care and education. The refugees have been embraced by the Jordanian population and the majority given full rights.

The country also is home to approximately 700,000 Iraqi refugees, due to the Iraq war. The "guests," as Iraqi refugees are called, are permitted to access government services for a total of six months; however, like the Gaza refugees, they are refused work permits.

Hearing about this overwhelming upheaval and migration of Iraqi people due to the unjust actions of my own country brought deep sadness to my heart. The United States - the "home of the free and the brave," has now become the oppressor. I felt ashamed and felt like crying out, "No more!" Where are the peacemakers in our day?

The good work of the Middle East Council of Churches is a blessing of hope to this region. Wafa Goussous, who directs the council's ministry with refugees, has a story of courage and conviction. After starting with the council, immediately following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, she journeyed to the border to meet with Iraqi guests and was faced with the suffering experienced by those who had fled.

"Children were crying and were refusing to go into the tents, which were their temporary home," she recalled. "Going into the tents reminded them of the war, the bombs and the loss of people they loved."

Wafa said she, too, cried and cried and cried. People told her she'd "get over it" in time. She hasn't. And she continues speaking out on behalf of the thousands of people who are uprooted and living in a foreign land. About 50 percent of the Iraqi guests come to the camps with nothing. The council operates programs in five different areas providing education, health care and other social services.

Additional signs of hope were witnessed by the delegation during a dialogue with six leading Jordanian women, one of whom was on the staff of the Ahliyyah School for Girls. She described herself as a lifelong learner, one committed to social change through trusting in the human spirit. Her family had to leave Palestine after 1948 and moved to Lebanon and then later to Jordan.

She is a Christian but also, in one sense, a Muslim; the whole world is her world, and all are connected in spirit. She still hopes that Israel will soon give her some sign of welcome - some sign of reconciliation.

During our time in Jordan, the word "coexistence" was mentioned frequently. Peaceful coexistence is a hope for many Jordanians, including Prince Hassan Bin Talal, uncle of King Abdullah II. We had the privilege of meeting with the prince - a brilliant intellect committed to peace and filled with compassion for the poor and marginalized.

"We must stop focusing on war and military security and begin investing in peace," said Hassan during the hour-long meeting. We left our meeting feeling gratitude knowing such a visionary resided in a land mired in challenges created by others' wars and conflicts.

*Bales is an executive with the United Methodist Board of Church and Society in Washington.

NCC's Bob Edgar to lead Common Cause

NEW YORK (UMNS) - The Rev. Bob Edgar, a United Methodist pastor, former congressman and current chief executive of the National Council of Churches, will soon lead Common Cause, a national advocacy group.

His election as president and chief executive of Common Cause was made public May 22 by that organization. He succeeds Chellie Pingree. Edgar's departure date from the NCC has not been announced.

Edgar, 63, who has led the NCC since 2000, told the ecumenical group's governing board last October that he would not seek a third four-year term. The search for a new chief executive is under way.

He brought the council, which now has several million dollars in reserve, through a financial crisis and initiated a major campaign against poverty. Before joining the NCC, Edgar was president of Claremont (Calif.) School of Theology from 1990 to 2000 and earlier had served six terms as a congressman from Pennsylvania.

In the news release from Common Cause, Edgar said he looked forward to carrying on that organization's tradition "as a people's lobby both in Washington, D.C., and in the states." The 35-year-old nonpartisan group has more than 300,000 members and supporters.

Edgar's recent book, Middle Church: Reclaiming the Moral Values of the Faithful Majority from the Religious Right, pointed to "the many millions of faithful people who do not always connect their spiritual values with political issues and whose voices are, as a result, often drowned out by the far religious right."

"This faithful majority must have the courage to confront their government when it makes bad decisions and have enough confidence in their own judgment not to believe unquestioningly the 'expert' political leaders, who most Americans assume know more than they do," he wrote in the preface.

Commentary by Kenneth C. Horne, Executive Director, Society of St. Andrew*: Enough is Enough

It’s well past time to end hunger

Kenneth C. Horne

Enough is enough. Now that’s a phrase you’ve heard many times. When your mother said it to you it meant "I’ve had all I can take, stop it NOW". To me it still means that and much, much more as I reflect on nearly twenty-eight years in the anti-hunger movement in this country.

We Americans are rich beyond imagining in most things. The list of what there is enough of in this country is impressive.

► There is enough food thrown away every year in our country to feed every man, woman, and child that ever goes hungry. According to studies conducted by the USDA, we throw away well over ninety billion pounds of food each year in our country. Most of that food is edible but unmarketable for cosmetic, size or other reasons. We have over thirty-five million hungry people in our country, one third of them children. No self-respecting people should ever allow that to happen while food is going to waste.

► There is enough surplus wealth in our country to deliver that food to those who hunger. We are the richest nation in the history of mankind. We can afford to fight wars in several countries simultaneously. We can afford disposable diapers for our children, disposable cameras to take pictures of our children, and disposable packaging for virtually everything we use. A country as rich as this lets its children go hungry because it wants to, not because it has to.

► There is enough know-how in our country to devise ways to distribute that food to those in need. It should be obvious to even the dimmest among us that a nation that can put a man on the moon, invent the internet and manipulate human genetics can find a way to put three square meals a day on the plates of all its children.

► There is enough compassion in our people to want all of our hungry neighbors fed adequately. As so often happens in our democracy, the people are way out in front of the leaders on the whole question of hunger. A recent poll taken for the Alliance to End Hunger shows that the vast majority of people – Republican, Democrat, liberal and conservative alike – all place elimination of hunger in the USA among their highest priorities.

Then why do we still have more than thirty-five million hungry people in our country? What is there not enough of?

► There’s not enough leadership. Our priorities at the national level simply do not include eliminating hunger. Our tax dollars are not spent in a way that reflects the people’s wishes where the hungry are concerned. Unless and until we insist that our elected representatives act so as to insure that all hungry children are fed, they won’t be. Elected "leaders" who don’t lead in this area should be unelected as soon as possible.

► There’s not enough vision. Far too many of our religious institutions spend far too much time squabbling about the hot button issues of the day and neglect the fundamental command "when you see your neighbor hungry, feed him." Instead of allowing issues of theology and philosophy to divide us, America’s religious bodies should band together and show our leaders and our people a vision of what "one nation under God" could look like if we let that God guide our priorities. Religious institutions that can’t muster that level of commitment should be abandoned.

► There’s not enough outrage. Hunger has been with us for so long we have grown numb. The temptation, even in the anti-hunger community, is to go about our tasks as if hunger will always be with us. We need to step back a little until we can see clearly again. To see a child go hungry is a shame and a pity when the hunger is caused by lack of food. It is a sin and a crime when food is plentiful and the people around that child will not trouble themselves to feed him.
It’s time for us to declare "enough’s enough".

*The Society of St. Andrew is a national nonprofit hunger-relief ministry and Advance #801600

Civil rights pioneer helps launch book on Little Rock Nine
By Jane Dennis*


Carlotta Walls LaNier, a member of the group known as the Little Rock Nine,recounts her desegregation experiences as she helps launch a book on thecivil rights struggle in Arkansas. A UMNS photo by Jane Dennis.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (UMNS) - Five decades ago, Carlotta Walls was 14 years old and excited about her first day of school at Little Rock's Central High School. To her it was simply a "new" school, not a "new white school."

But she and eight others were not allowed in because of their skin color. "I remember Ernie Green saying, 'What? You're not going to let us go to school?' It was a moment of disbelief. I loved school, I was ready for school, and there I was not going to be permitted to go to school."

Walls, who knew White Memorial Methodist Church in Little Rock as the church of her childhood and youth, was the youngest of the group now known as the Little Rock Nine. Taunted and heckled by unruly mobs of segregationists, it was weeks before the nine African-American students were allowed to attend classes. Initially, they were prevented from entering the campus by the Arkansas National Guard, called out by then-Gov. Orval Faubus to "protect the citizens of Little Rock," she recalled.

Then, once permitted to attend the school at the declaration of President Dwight Eisenhower, the children were pushed and shoved and spat upon. Most brought along a change of clothes each day because food or ink or something was sure to be spilled or thrown on them.

These were "days that marked me for life," she said.

World spotlight
Today, she is Carlotta Walls LaNier, a successful, independent businesswoman who lives in Denver. She returned to Little Rock April 24 to address a luncheon gathering and help launch a new book edited by United Methodist clergyman James T. Clemons. Crisis of Conscience: Arkansas Methodists and the Civil Rights Struggle features the stories of many who lived and took stands during the days of turmoil and conflict spurred by the slow dismantling of Southern segregation.

LaNier credits the historic decision of Brown vs. the Board of Education with putting her "in the world spotlight as a member of the Little Rock Nine."

"Brown impacted all of our lives in more ways than the right to have equal access to educational opportunities," she told the gathering of 200 people. Brown was the foundation for the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. "Individuals who seek recourse for salary inequities are indebted in part to Brown," she said.

"Minorities who vote without having to pay a poll tax or take a literacy test are indeed indebted to Brown."

Making history
Hardships aside, according to many historians, the Little Rock Nine changed the course of U.S. history by championing the right to receive an equal education.

Clemons, a native of Arkansas and professor emeritus at United Methodist-related Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, gathered the personal stories of Methodist leaders embroiled in the civil rights struggle in towns and cities across Arkansas. The book, co-edited by Kelly L. Farr, also includes the integration-related histories of Camp Aldersgate, Hendrix College and Philander Smith College, United Methodist institutions in Arkansas.

Many of the stories had never been documented. "They now become part of the recorded history of Methodism, Arkansas and America," Clemons writes in the book's foreword.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the crisis at Central High School.

Other special luncheon guests were Elizabeth Eckford, another member of the Little Rock Nine, and Carla Fine and Jill Fine Mainelli, daughters of New York Times education editor Benjamin Fine, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the 1957 Central High crisis.

In addition to LaNier, contributors to the book include, among others, United Methodist pastors Sylvia Bell, Frank Clemmons, Joel Cooper, Dick Haltom, Jim Major, Ed Matthews, John Miles and John Workman, and such notables as U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers and former U.S. Surgeon General M. Joycelyn Elders.

The book, published by the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, is available by contacting Holly Mathisen at hmathisen@cals.lib.ar.us. Cost is $15 plus tax.

Dennis is editor of the Arkansas United Methodist, the newspaper of The United Methodist Church's Arkansas Annual Conference.

Philippines Ecumenical Bishops Group Protests “Vestiges of Martial Law” in Use of Troops

New York, NY, May 18, 2007—Less than a week before the Philippines national election on May 14, the bishops of five denominations saw vestiges of martial law in the deployment of troops in urban areas prior to the vote.

"It is another nail hammered on the flailing limbs of freedom in this country," said a statement from the Ecumenical Bishops’ Forum (EBF), whose co-chairs are United Methodist Bishop Solito K. Toquero of Manila and Roman Catholic Bishop Deogracias S. Iñiguez, Jr.

The election was held to select members of the Philippines national legislature and local officials. The results will not be known until near the end of May because many votes are counted by hand.

At stake in the national vote are control of the Senate and House of Representatives and the future of the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The executive branch has been criticized by many Filipino religious leaders because of a series of what are called "extra-judicial killings," allegedly committed by the army and security forces. The estimates of such deaths range from some 110 to more than 800, including clergy and church lay workers identified with civil rights and the economic interests of the poor.

In the statement issued on May 9, the EBF said that the troop deployment was for the purpose of intimidation and harassment. The bishops said: "It smacks of covetousness where those who wield power are evidently after their own political survival and thus twist the definition of democracy to suit their ends."

The forum is a fellowship of bishops from the Roman Catholic Church, the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, The United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church in the Philippines, and the Philippine Independent Church.

President Arroyo, said the bishops, would have already imposed martial law, "were it not for the vigilance of the citizenry."

The statement also said: "No country claiming to be democratic allows its solders to roam around communities in full battle gear. No country claiming to be free allows its soldiers to engage in partisan politics."

Observers of the election reported incidents of fraud, which the government said it would investigate.

According to widely publicized police reports, 116 people died and 121 were wounded in election-related violence since the start of the 2007 political campaign in mid-January.

The Voice of America broadcasting service reported that some 80 percent of those eligible to vote did so on May 14.

A UMNS Commentary by Bishop Linda Lee: A Pentecost vision for an inclusive church

Bishop Linda Lee

As we celebrate the season of Pentecost, we recall the birth of Christ’s church in Acts 2, when people of many lands—diverse in their tongues and traditions—gathered, not knowing what awesome miracle and transformation was about to happen.

Many similarly diverse United Methodists will also gather in this season of annual conferences, not knowing what miracles and transformations may occur in the midst and in the wake of their deliberations.

We can only hope that God’s Holy Spirit will likewise come upon us, invading our meeting places and infusing us with its inexplicable power to inspire our meager ministrations and make us like those first Christians.

Will our worship, fellowship, evangelism, selfless outreach and spiritual nurture take on new, surprising vitality, just as it did for our ancestors in the faith? What signs will we witness—and indeed, perform—in our gatherings and in the months that ensue to give proof that the spirit of our convictions has become flesh?

Perhaps those signs will emerge from our racial, ethnic and cultural diversity, as on the day of Pentecost. Perhaps that will again be the context for the Holy Spirit’s work among us, as we discover unity in our diversity and as we honor that diversity by electing leaders for and from our conferences to serve the church of Jesus Christ among the people called United Methodist. We can only hope.

When our denomination gathers to elect leaders and pass legislation at our spring 2008 General Conference, and when our U.S. jurisdictions gather that summer to elect bishops, how diverse and healthy will the fruit of this season’s annual conferences be? Will our U.S. delegations and elected leaders resemble the Acts 2 church and provide the same inclusive representation that welcomed and manifested the visitation of the Holy Spirit in that day? Again, we can only hope.

But perhaps we can do more than merely hope. Through our prayers, promotion, advocacy and monitoring for racial/ethnic inclusiveness, we can be intentional about encouraging our annual conferences to vote for diversity.

In our balloting processes, we must help clergy and lay members be sensitive to the need and dedicated to the goal of inclusiveness, as together we seek to affirm our denomination’s call and commitment to that sacred principle.

The United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race is mandated to challenge the church "to a full and equal participation of the racial and ethnic constituency in the total life and mission of the Church … so as to further ensure racial inclusiveness." (Book of Discipline 2000, Section XIV, Paragraph 2002)

Our Inclusiveness Counts! campaign, a partnership with conference commissions on religion and race and other supporters, is one attempt to fulfill that mandate, as we encourage sisters and brothers to vote for diversity when they vote for delegates, bishops and other leaders of the church.

The burgeoning racial/ethnic minority presence in our nation—including recent immigrants—now totals about one-third of the U.S. population. Truly, we are witnesses that today, to update John Wesley’s claim, the world is in our parish.

If we want to increase our denomination’s membership among these groups, we must remember that becoming more inclusive in our leadership and our legislation is crucial to that goal. That means including the voices, concerns and perspectives of racial/ethnic leaders in the deliberations of our General and jurisdictional conferences.

We hope that as annual conferences elect their delegates, they will try to reflect not the limited diversity of their congregations but the rich diversity of their communities and the vision of inclusiveness many of us desire to see in our denomination. If we strive for that goal, we will realize the vision and miracle of Pentecost anew: a global church where all God’s children have a seat and a voice at our common table, and where we can all acknowledge in truth that inclusiveness does count.

*Lee is president of the United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race and leader of The United Methodist Church’s Wisconsin Annual (regional) Conference.

United Methodist diaconate celebrated, challenged

By the Rev. Kathy Noble

ORLANDO, Fla. (UMNS) - Images of light entering into dark places and calls to affirm and use the varied gifts of God permeated "Celebrating Diakonia," a convocation bringing together the United Methodist diaconate.

The April 19-22 event, sponsored by the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry, marked the 10th anniversary of the creation of the Order of Deacon and 30 years of diaconal ministry in The United Methodist Church.

Deacons and diaconal ministers comprised most of the 350 participants. Others joining the celebration were deaconesses and home missioners - also part of the United Methodist diaconate - as well as laity, bishops and elders. Together, they celebrated the ministries of leading, equipping and serving the church for service in the world.

The 1976 General Conference created the Office of Diaconal Ministry - lay people consecrated to ministries of love, service and justice. In 1996, the church's top lawmaking body passed legislation to create the Order of Deacons to enable United Methodists to answer the call to an ordained ministry that connects the church with the world. The first deacons with full clergy rights were ordained in 1997.

Speakers at the convocation stressed the importance of connecting the church and world, celebrated different ways of leading servant ministry, alluded to difficulties in accepting varied forms of ministry and encouraged seeing the different roles as complementary and equal.

The Rev. Barbara Garcia preaches at the opening worship service.

"This call to ministry that you and I share, embodied by love and service, belongs to the whole church," the Rev. Barbara Garcia said in the opening service.

Diaconal ministers, deacons, deaconesses and elders "share this primary representation of God's love, (but) there simply is no way to separate service from the ministry of any person who claims to follow Jesus Christ, be it in baptized, consecrated, commissioned or ordained leadership. The distinctions are revealed in the different gifts God has given us and where we find our primary identity in ministry.

"There is sufficient need for ministry to go around - and no human being has all the gifts needed for every ministry," said Garcia, a deacon and assistant to the bishop of the Nashville Area.

Worship and Bible study leaders stressed connecting the world and the church, both by caring for individuals with a myriad of needs and by confronting systems that contribute to pain and suffering.

When the 1996 General Conference voted to establish the permanent Order of Deacon, it reclaimed "the visible manifestation of the servant ministry of Jesus Christ in the world," said Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker of the Florida Area.

"Your ministry, your leadership, your servanthood and your equipping say over and over and over and over to the baptized, 'Turn your faces outward toward the world ... not the world as you wish it was, but as it is," said Bishop Gregory Palmer of the Iowa Area, president of the church's Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

"Through your leadership," he said, "we stand a chance of being the church not hunkered down in fear, not hidden behind locked doors, but the church seeing and hearing the Risen Christ" and having "fresh courage to run our faces toward the world."

Shining the light of love
"Celebrating Diakonia" opened with a procession of light as candles were carried through the darkened room to the altar and held aloft by participants sitting around their tables. It ended two and a half days later with women and men agreeing in song to carry the light of Christ's love, symbolized by mini-flashlights, into the world. In between, the assembly:

.Celebrated the diaconal ministry and Order of Deacon anniversaries; "

.Practiced Sabbath keeping; "

.Offered more than $45,000 in gifts and pledges to launch efforts to build a rehabilitation center in Zimbabwe for people living with HIV/AIDS and their families;
.Heard about the current Study of the Ministry; and

.Participated in professional development workshops.

The theme first voiced by Garcia and echoed throughout the gathering was one of shared responsibility "to bring the light of love to people who suffer."

Garcia suggested John the Baptist - and St. Bernard dogs - as models for the diaconate. John the Baptist "was honest, obedient, self-aware; he knew his role as being a God-revealer," she said. "Is that not our role - to share in the revelation of who God is through Jesus Christ by leading and equipping others in Christ's ministry of service?"

Garcia drew laughter when she offered St. Bernard dogs - named for the founder of a hospice in the Alps in the mid-10th century - as another role model. The dogs are members of the community who spend most of their lives in the mountain passes, guiding lost travelers or bringing aid to those who are injured.

The deacon is a member of the Christian community whose territory is primarily outside the church, she said, who "serves those within and outside the church who have lost their way and are in need of a pathfinder and reliable guide to help them find the way to Jesus Christ."

She cautioned that thinking the diaconate does "all the servant work" is a trap. "The deacon is to serve the congregation by giving the alarm, interpreting the needs, concerns and hopes of the world and then guiding a rescue party from the congregation to get involved," she said.

Scriptural guidance
Times of Bible study focused the church as the unified Body of Christ, using God's gifts to tear down walls of division in both the church and society - walls that create "others."

The lessons were led by the Rev. Janet Wolf, an elder, college professor and social justice advocate from the Tennessee Conference, and the Rev. Joaquin Garcia, a deacon now serving as a chaplain at the Veterans' Administration hospital in Nashville, Tenn.

The Rev. Joaquin Garcia, a deacon, and the Rev. Janet Wolf, an elder, lead Bible study.

Summarizing Ephesians 3, Wolf said that "God is lavishly and extravagantly blessing us with gifts."

Wolf said gifts and calling are given to all people regardless of race, class, gender, nationality or sexual orientation.

"We are altogether in the household of God," she said. "We have been given power to love when loving is hard to do; power to dream in defiance of death; power to hope in face of despair; power to dismantle injustice one piece at a time; power to restore, reconcile, renew and revive, gifts for the sake of the world."

God gives gifts and calls "us to use them," Garcia said. "There is no gift without a task, no calling without being sent out for service."

While disagreement about roles and tasks may be inescapable in both the church and society, Garcia said it also can be "energy-producing as long as we maintain our unity in the spirit of Christ" and become reconcilers in a divisive world.

"We have become new creatures with the Holy Spirit as the new driving force," Garcia said. "We have been building walls, but God keeps tearing them down and calling us to reconciliation."

Wolf said that dismantling walls of racism, gender and nationality "is the work of every congregation." "We need to embody our stuff in larger and riskier ways … (to) provoke and prod congregations to confront systems" of injustice, she said.

"What might it mean to move Christian education from the sanctuary to the streets, to listen to Jesus talk about wealth and mammon in a shopping mall or in front of a for-profit health care corporation? The number-one form of violence in the world is economic. What would it mean to gather the stories of those struggling because of no access to health care and to incorporate them into the Sunday morning moment?"

Confronting injustice
Palmer repeated the call to confront unjust systems in his closing sermon based on the parable of the Good Samaritan.

He wondered if the "innkeeper is a symbol and metaphor for the church … an ongoing institution providing proper care for the broken and wounded and also raising questions of systems and advocacy and justice."

The Body of Christ as the innkeeper, Palmer said, cares for the broken and beaten traveler even when "there might be a gap in the denari and the realities of the day," but the innkeeper "also asks the city when it will do something about lights on the road.

"This world is full of folks on the Jericho Road who have fallen among robbers and thieves. Life, systems, darkness, robbery, pride, greed and arrogance have robbed them and beat them and left them for dead."

Key to the story, Palmer said, is the Samaritan seeing the man who has been beaten and asking what will happen to him "if I don't stop." He also overcame fear "of robbers and thieves who may be present or of the priests and Levites who believe he is less than human."

"In the busyness of church work and living our days, we've stopped seeing. We don't see because we are moving too fast; we don't see because we are numb to all of the pain around us and feel an inability to make a difference."

He closed, "As the wounded are brought to us, we must make sure the place is a balm in Gilead.

*Noble is editor of Interpreter, a publication of United Methodist Communications and the official ministry magazine of The United Methodist Church.

Defining the United Methodist diaconate
By United Methodist News Service

In The United Methodist Church, the term diaconate most often refers to those whom the church has commissioned, consecrated or ordained to lead the church in servant ministry. Diaconate and its other names grow from the Greek roots diakonos (servant) or diakonia (service).
Here are some common terms and definitions:

Deacon: Clergy ordained since 1996 to the ministry of word and service to both the community and the congregation in a ministry that connects worship with service to God in the world. Deacons teach and proclaim the Word, assist elders in administering the sacraments, form and nurture disciples, conduct marriages and bury the dead, lead the congregation's mission to the world and interpret the needs, concerns and hopes of the world. Appointed by the bishop to ministry in a local congregation or in a church-related, faith-based or secular setting. (Most United Methodist elders who began preparing for ordination prior to 1996 were first ordained deacon.)

Deaconess/Home Missioner: A laywoman (deaconess) or layman (home missioner) commissioned by a bishop, on recommendation of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, to share faith in Jesus Christ through ministries of love, justice and service. Appointed for service in any agency or program of The United Methodist Church and in other agencies or programs if approved by the Office of Deaconess and Home Missioner of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries in consultation with the bishop.

Diaconal Minister: Laity called to specialized ministries of service, justice and love, consecrated by a bishop and appointed to a local congregation or in a church-related, faith-based or secular setting. No new candidates for diaconal ministry were accepted after Jan. 1, 1997.
Deacons, as clergy, are members of an annual conference. Deaconesses, home missioners and diaconal ministers are members of a local church and lay members of an annual conference.

Source: Definitions adapted from The Book of Discipline and the glossary found on www.umc.org, the denominational Web site.

A UMNS Commentary by the Rev. Carol Lakota Eastin: Sand Creek Massacre site offers historical truth

It was an honor to represent the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns at the April 28 memorial dedication of the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site near Chivington, Colo.

Chivington is a small, dusty town that has no retail businesses whatsoever and only a few sand-beaten dwellings. This town is named for Col. John Chivington, who led the 1864 massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho innocents.

It is because of Chivington that I, a United Methodist, found myself in this remote territory. A strange tie binds me to Chivington and the 200 who died at Sand Creek.

My tie to Chivington is that we are both Methodists and both preachers. I am left with questions: By what set of circumstances did this Methodist Episcopal pastor give up his Christian ministry and choose a path of violence - not a battle, but a vigilante massacre? And what happens to a man's spirit that he looks upon the perfect little faces of Indian children and says, "Nits make lice," ordering his men to kill them all?

I am not sure, but I am reminded that sin abides in us all, and evil can and will assert itself even through the very vessels which hold the souls of Christians.

My personal connection to the Massacre of 1864 is that I am Native American as well as a Methodist. My knowledge of the massacre dates back to my teen years, when our pastor showed the movie "Soldier Blue" to our youth fellowship group. The graphic images of that film have stayed with me over 35 years.

Another connection is that I had a friend, Dee Wright, a Pawnee Indian who was one of the last living members of the Pawnee Bill Wild West. I remember him telling me about a good friend of his who had escaped the Sand Creek Massacre at the age of 7. Dee said this friend had hidden in the creek, breathing through a reed for a day and night before daring to move. You don't forget images like these.

Descendants of the massacre survivors - Northern and Southern Arapahos, Northern and Southern Cheyenne - made the pilgrimage to Colorado, camping and praying along the now-dry creek bed.

The singers, with steady drumbeat, sang old songs, including the actual death song of White Antelope, which he sang while lying at the edge of Sand Creek. It is still remembered in this most sacred oral tradition.

About 2,000 persons attended the ceremonials, which lasted from early morning till dark. In the evening, we were honored by descendants who danced gourd dances and round dances.

Darrell Flyingman, governor of the Southern Arapaho and Southern Cheyenne tribes, described the days of encampment and ceremonies by noting that "we were welcomed by our ancestors and our relatives." U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., brought the words "I apologize deeply. Forgive us."

It has become clear that words are not enough. At the 1996 United Methodist General Conference in Denver, a resolution was adopted to support government restitutions to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes for wrongs against humanity, but the statement offered only words from our church. A new resolution is being brought to the 2008 General Conference seeking financial support for this national historic site.

As a nation, we have come to this good day when we do acknowledge and remember what happened at Sand Creek. A monument will be built at the site, and perhaps of equal importance, a research center is being established in the nearby town of Eads, dedicated to not only this particular event, but also to the study of genocide. The park service is providing matching funds for donations to the project.

We envision Indians and non-Indians coming to the site to remember what happened at Sand Creek. We envision scholars and students, pastors and church folk coming to learn the truth of history and to continue raising the important questions lest we repeat the sins of our forebears. It is time for more than words.

*Lakota Eastin is the pastor of the Native American Fellowship - Dayspring United Methodist Church near Peoria, Ill., and a director of the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns.

Agency awards $55,500 in Peace with Justice grants

By Kathy L. Gilbert*

WASHINGTON (UMNS) -- Efforts to teach young people about peace building, aid children living in poverty and promote health care reform are among projects across the globe that will receive grants from the social action agency of The United Methodist Church.

Sixteen Peace with Justice grants totaling almost $55,500 were approved during the April 26-29 spring board meeting of the Board of Church and Society.

The funding comes from a churchwide offering to be collected on Peace with Justice Sunday, which falls on June 3 this year.

An appeal from the Rev. Jonah Wakile Yukwa in Nigeria translated into a $3,000 grant to help the Nigeria conference organize a youth leadership training event focused on peace building.

Ministry to Nigeria's young people has languished due to civil and church conflict, a high rate of illiteracy and lack of resources for the church in the African nation.

"Young people were forced by the prevailing circumstances to take sides in the conflict, thereby working against each other," Yukwa said in his grant application to the board.

"The United Methodist Church in Nigeria has not been able to faithfully respond to this crisis due to the fact that over the five years, the church has been going through a very painful period of conflict that has nearly brought the church to a virtual standstill."

In addition to the "peace building workshop" in Nigeria, other grants for 2007 are:

.Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Berkeley, Calif., $5,000. The alliance was formed in April 2006 to support the demands of the immigrant rights movement and to engage African Americans in a dialogue about the underlying issues of race and economic status that frame U.S. immigration policy. The grant will be used to lead discussion groups in black churches, mosques, community centers, labor unions, nonprofit organizations and youth centers and to sponsor public events on immigration featuring prominent African-American leaders.

.Shalom Center for Justice and Peace, Lansing, Mich., $2,000. "As You Do it for the Least of These: A Conference on Children in Poverty" will address critical issues of children in poverty during a two-day conference in October. Attendees will come from the West Michigan and Detroit Annual (regional) Conferences and other people of faith.

.Faith-based Organizing for Fair Food, Immokalee, Fla., $2,000. The purpose of this project is to pressure fast-food companies to work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to improve tomato pickers' wages and working conditions.

.Seminary Outreach Program in Criminal Justice, Nashville, Tenn., $2,500. This project will extend a course for clergy at Vanderbilt University on "The Theology and Politics of Crime and Punishment in America" to additional seminaries.

."Beyond the Fences" Ministries of Restorative Justice, Lee's Summit, Mo., $5,000. This program will invite, offer and resource congregations in the Missouri Annual (regional) Conference to develop and pursue ministries of restorative justice in the local community and possibly to correctional centers in their areas.

.Harbor House Crisis Shelter, Faith United Methodist Church, Superior, Wis., $5,000. The mission of the shelters is to provide a safe, hospitable place for single women and families and to help them attain housing. Money will be used for case management, educational material and community awareness.

.Human Rights Defenders Workshop for Students and International Youth and Solidarity Mission, Mongkok, Kowloon, Hong Kong, $3,000. The death toll of human rights workers continues to rise in Indonesia, where an utmost concern continues to be the need to raise awareness, especially among young people, to protect the basic human rights of all people. Funds will be used by the World Student Christian Federation Asia Pacific to train students in the Philippines.

.Youth Active for Peace Initiatives, Manila, Philippines, $3,000. United Methodist Youth Fellowship in the Philippines is joining with other religious organizations to promote and advocate for peace. Funds will be used to help Filipino youth become peace advocates and strengthen unity and consolidate collective efforts among Filipino church youth in addressing situations of peace and violence and other peace-related issues.

.Domestic Violence Program, Yaounde, Cameroon, $4,480. In Cameroon, abuse within the family is common. Funds will help The United Methodist Church Cameroon begin a ministry that teaches Christ's value of love, promotes anger management and nurtures relationships between spouses and within families and communities.

.Regional Inter-Faith Association Home Repair Program, Jackson, Tenn., $5,000. Many low-income homeowners, many of whom are senior citizens, cannot afford to make minor or costly repairs to their homes. Funds will be used to help this nonprofit organization use volunteer church work teams to make repairs at no cost to the homeowner.

.Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity, Jericho Table, Kansas City, Mo., $2,000. Jericho Table has become the community-wide focal point for negotiating expanded participation of minorities and women in bi-state Kansas City's construction industry. Funds will help overcome barriers blocking full participation by minorities and women in construction.

.Faithful Reform in Health Care, Cleveland, $5,000. The project's goals are to connect research in value-based messaging with theological understandings and scriptural narratives to help move forward health care reform and to create an infrastructure through which faith and secular advocacy groups can work together. Funds will be used to start the initial planning and implementation work, add staff, recruit partners, plan for spring meeting and seek funding.

.Peace Tax Foundation, Washington, $1,000. The foundation's purpose is to inform the public about the concept of conscientious objection and alternative tax payment programs. Funds will be used to produce a video to introduce people to the Peace Tax Fund and to national budget priorities.

.Empowering People to Activate Churches and Communities, Oklahoma City, $2,500. The program builds relationships with people in blighted communities and in declining churches to allow them to climb out of poverty. Funds will help develop a training process to be taught in an inter-active manner with visuals, workbooks and mentoring in small groups.

.Peaceful Resolution of Conflict, West Congo Annual Conference, $5,000. The Democratic Republic of Congo recently held its first democratic elections. Three projects -- justice and reconciliation during post-election period, transformation of conflicts for youth and young adult leaders, and reconciliation between the attackers and the victims -- will help participants understand the judicial system and train church leaders in conflict management.

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.

Bishop brings 'freedom' to death row inmate

by Kathy L. Gilbert*

Bishop Beverly J. Shamana

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - Andre Burton, 44, has spent all of his adult life in a small steel cell. He has been on death row since he was 19.

But when United Methodist Bishop Beverly J. Shamana went to visit him in San Quentin State Prison in California, Burton told her she brought freedom.

Shamana, president of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society and episcopal leader of the San Francisco area, shared her experience at the opening plenary of the board's spring meeting, April 26-29.

"He seemed genuinely pleased and thankful, grateful that I was there," she said. "I just kept asking myself over and over again - what do you say to yourself day after day, week after week, when this is your life?"

The United Methodist Church marked 50 years of opposition to capital punishment in 2006, and the Council of Bishops asked each active bishop to visit an inmate on death row. It took a year to gain permission to visit death row, but Shamana fulfilled that goal when she saw Burton in March.

Her role, she said, was to bring him the unconditional love of God, "and to be able say that I come from a church that does not believe you should get capital punishment ... no matter what you did."

Burton was convicted and sentenced to death for fatally shooting Gulshakar Khwaja of Long Beach, Calif., as she ran to help her son, whom police said was shot in the eye by Burton during a 1983 robbery in front of his mother's house. Burton has maintained his innocence and denied that he confessed to police.

In 1997, the California Supreme Court heard his case, including an order challenging the attorney general's office to show cause why his murder conviction and death sentence should not be overturned. The grounds for the order were that he "was denied the right to present a defense at the guilt phase of the trial."

"Andre and his lawyers await the court's decision," she said. "Two of the five justices agreed with his appeal. Andre has not lost hope."

Powerful experience
"I'm still processing what happened," Shamana said of her prison visit.

When she returned to the car, her husband asked her how it went. "I couldn't even speak, I could not speak, I had no words to describe," she recalled. "I could not form a thought that I could say. It was just such a powerful experience at such a deep level."

The bishop said visiting Burton made the United Methodist Social Principles come alive for her. "It made it so much more real to me when you talk about restorative justice because death row prisoners cannot take part in any of the education or seminars or anything that are offered to others," she said.

Shamana realized early in the visit that Burton needed conversation and to connect with another person.

"I didn't feel like a bishop when I was in there," she said. "I don't know how I was supposed to feel or expected to feel. I felt like a person who loves God, who knows Jesus, talking to another person."

Shamana expects to visit Burton again and plans to send him the church's position on capital punishment found in paragraph 164G of the 2004 Book of Discipline.

At the close of their visit, Burton asked Shamana for the church's prayers.

"I bring you his request," she told the board.

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.

Conference Offers a Forum for Learning and Sharing How to Live OutOur Call to Justice and Peace

Washington, D.C. – Those in our world who are “voiceless” cry out for partners and advocates to work toward peace and justice. The “Living Faith Seeking Justice” conference, sponsored by the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Church and Society, will gather congregations from around the globe to share their stories of working for peace and justice to accomplish change in the attitudes, structures, and trends that continue to silence those whose voices are ignored.

The conference, which will be held in Forth Worth, Texas, from November 1-4, 2007, will include several ways for attendees to share their work and learn from what others are doing, including general session speakers, workshops, a “Cityscape” space that will highlight art that reflects justice, and site visits to several ministries that illustrate a commitment to justice in what they do and how they do it.

“Violence abounds from the Middle East to the campus of Virginia Tech,” says General Secretary James Winkler. “How do congregations participate in helping to provide an alternative—a vision of a just and peaceful society—and then act together to carry out that vision? That’s what this conference will give people a chance to do. Everyone who gathers in Fort Worth will have an opportunity to hear, learn, and discuss solutions.”

Speakers
Speakers include Methodist ministers, activists, and others who are working to bring justice to their communities, countries, and the world:
· Shane Claiborne, a founding members of The Simple Way, a community in inner-city Philadelphia that has helped birth and connect radical faith communities around the world

· Emmanuel Cleaver, senior pastor of St. James UMC in Kansas City, Missouri and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Kansas City

· Rev. Adam Hamilton, minister at Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, who believes that the church must serve as a conscience to the community and state.

· Rev. Chebon Kernell, a pastor and member of the Oklahoma Missionary Conference, which was instrumental in organizing “Rock the Native Vote”

· Rev. Dr. Pamela Lightsey, dean of students at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary and a recipient of the Denman Award for evangelism

· Mercy Amba Oduyoye, an African theologian, feminist, and activist who works to ensure that women's voices and concerns are heard in African society

· Dr. Harold Recinos, professor of church and society at the Perkins School of Theology, who has written widely on the call of the church to engage the world

· Dr. Elizabeth Tapia, director of the Drew Center for Christianities in Global Context at Drew University and Theological School and an ordained elder of the Bulacan Philippines Annual Conference

· Rev. Janet Wolf, the director of public policy and community organizing for a national interfaith coalition working to challenge U.S. drug policy, with a focus on restorative justice, harm reduction, and alternatives to incarceration

· Rev. Michael Yoshii, a clergyman and activist who works for justice in Alameda, California
Conference workshops will be grouped into five categories: health and wholeness, gender justice, peace with justice, economic and environmental justice, and civil and human rights. Conference participants can expect the workshops to be experiential and interactive, giving them an opportunity not only to hear what the workshop leader has to say but also to share their own experiences and to hear from others.

For the conference organizers, it is important that every part of the conference be a part of the collective call to faith and justice. For example, the conference bags have been made by the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference and the meals will be healthy and built around using sustainable, renewable resources.

A “Cityscape” will open space for art that reflects justice and provide room for exhibitors like Ten Thousand Villages. A call to artists invited artists of all type—whether church members, Sunday school classes, community groups, youth groups, church committees, choirs, or people from the community—to submit their artistic expressions, including artwork, poetry, photographs, or short films, that share how the artist(s) or the community have experienced social justice in action.

Find out more about the conference or register at www.umc-gbcs.org/livingfaith.

The General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church is the international public policy and social action agency mandated to speak its convictions to the church and to the world.

Board focuses on U.S., global justice issues
By Kathy L. Gilbert*

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - A criminal justice system that focuses on healing instead of incarceration, a plea to stop the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines and a commitment to justice ministries were among the concerns addressed at the spring meeting of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society.

The board, the church's international public policy and social advocacy agency, is calling for Congress to repeal the mandatory sentencing provisions of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which it said "treats addiction as a crime instead of a public health concern."

The 1986 act established harsh penalties for low-level offenses involving crack cocaine. Defendants are subject to a minimum five-year sentence for possession of five grams of crack cocaine while the same five-year sentence is given for the sale of five hundred grams of powder cocaine.

The statement on the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine came during the board's April 26-29 meeting.

"This sentencing unfairness and the mass use of incarceration of mostly poor and minority people cannot be maintained by faithfulness to scripture," the statement said. "Locking up minor drug offenders for long prison terms is not only ineffective, it is inhumane."

The statement calls for Congress to pass legislation that equalizes cocaine sentencing to 500 grams for both crack and powder cocaine and offers treatment to those with addictions.

The statement refers to an American Civil Liberties Union report that African Americans make up only 15 percent of the drug users but 37 percent of those arrested for drug violations, 59 percent of those convicted and 74 percent of those sentenced to prison for a drug offense. The report also states that although two-thirds of crack cocaine users are whites and Hispanic/Latinos, 80 percent of the crack cocaine defendants are African American.

"We urge all people of faith to cry out until the U.S. criminal justice system reflects the true intentions of biblical justice: to bring healing to the world," the board said.

Human rights in Philippines
The board also released a report and statement on human rights violations in the Philippines and the need for urgent solidarity and action.

"The Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church remains alarmed by the unabated egregious violations of human rights in the Philippines. Such violations continue to take the form of extrajudicial killings and summary executions, abductions and torture, arbitrary political detentions and disappearances."

Recently, Chief Justice Reynato Puno of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, the first Filipino United Methodist to hold this position, said in a commencement speech: "The rich and the powerful should not consider the protection of the rights of the poor and the powerless as peripheral problems just because for the moment their own rights are unthreatened."

More than 800 extrajudicial killings have been reported in the Philippines since 2001, during the tenure of President Gloria M. Arroyo. In March, a human rights delegation from the Philippines testified at a U.S. Senate hearing and asked the United States to review military aid and development assistance being sent to the country to make sure the assistance was not being used to violate human rights and further extrajudicial killings.

Bishop Beverly Shamana, president of the board, led a fact-finding mission from the church's San Francisco Area to the Philippines in February.

"The apathy of those who can make a difference is the reason why violations of human rights continue to prosper," Puno said. "The worst enemy of human rights is not its nonbelievers but the fence sitters who will not lift a finger despite their violations."

The Board of Church and Society endorsed and called for action on a report released by the ecumenical and nongovernmental community in the Philippines led by the National Council of Churches in the Philippines. The board led in producing and distributing "Let the Stones Cry Out: An Ecumenical Report on Human Rights in the Philippines and a Call to Action."

'Living Faith, Seeking Justice'
The board will sponsor a conference, "Living Faith, Seeking Justice," Nov. 1-4 in Fort Worth, Texas.

"We want to hold a different type of event rather than a legislative briefing in order to lift up justice ministries in local churches and annual conferences, with the expectation this can provide support and encouragement to others," said Jim Winkler, top executive of the board, in his opening address.

"This kind of help is needed. I've known churches where the switch from Styrofoam cups to paper cups at coffee hour was denounced as pandering to 'tree-huggers' and the removal of a pew in the sanctuary to accommodate wheelchairs resulted in protests.

"However, we can point to wonderful examples of our churches moving from mercy to justice." Information about the conference can be found at www.umc-gbcs.org/livingfaith.

The board also adopted "A Commitment to Unity in Mission and Ministry," a common proposal by the general agencies of the church emphasizing four areas of witness and mission: leadership development; congregational development and new church starts; ministry with the poor, with particular attention to caring for and protecting children; and global health, especially confronting the diseases of poverty and advocating health care access for all.

Said Winkler: "We must question the growing gap between the rich and poor and advocate for fair trade and government priorities that care for the last, the least and the lost."

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.

Lawsuit filed against Ohio church in teen's death

By United Methodist News Service

COLUMBUS, Ohio (UMNS) -- The family of a teenager who died during a 2006 church youth retreat has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the congregation, alleging foul play in the reported suicide of James McCoy III.

The lawsuit also says racial factors may have led to the death of McCoy, who is black and attended the primarily white Church of the Messiah, a United Methodist congregation in Westerville, a suburb of Columbus.

The suit was filed April 23 in Franklin County Common Pleas Court in Columbus, one day after the congregation held a memorial service in McCoy's memory on what would have been his 19th birthday.

McCoy was active in the church youth group and a member of the congregation's praise band.
"Our community loved James deeply," the Rev. Stan Ling wrote in an April 26 letter to the congregation after the lawsuit was filed. "We still grieve and miss him. I invite your prayers for all of those affected by this tragedy, including the family of James McCoy III."

The teen was found on April 22, 2006, hanging from a tree in the woods of Camp Cotubic, a Christian camp that is not affiliated with the United Methodist denomination.

The Logan County coroner ruled the death a suicide, but the lawsuit alleges he died as the result of a choking game that was "willfully or recklessly" forced on him as a birthday prank by four white youths on the retreat. The suit also says the youths later "gave false testimony to police suggesting that James McCoy had been depressed and had suicidal thoughts" and even "created writings as false evidence of such thoughts."

The lawsuit by his mother, Tonya Amoako-Okyere, is against the church, charging that church leaders did not properly supervise the retreat; four unnamed youths who were also on the retreat; and four unnamed Logan County authorities, alleging negligence in their investigation. It seeks a judgment exceeding $25,000.

The eight individuals were not named in the lawsuit pending the release of an FBI report requested by the family into the matter, according to Cliff Arnebeck, the family's attorney. Arnebeck expects the report will be released in the next month.

The U.S. Department of Justice also investigated the family's "hate crime" complaint, concluding there was "insufficient evidence or legal authority" to prosecute, according to the department's March 9 letter to the family.

Bishop Bruce Ough, who leads United Methodists in the West Ohio Conference, said The United Methodist Church joins the Church of the Messiah in praying for all parties affected by the tragedy.

"The conference is supportive of the staff and leadership of Messiah as they seek truth and justice in this matter," Ough said.

While McCoy was active in the congregation, he and his family were not members. He was described by church and family members as socially popular, musically gifted and academically solid. He had been accepted to attend Mount Vernon (Ohio) Nazarene University and planned to become a minister of music.

Arnebeck said McCoy also had been dating a white teen.

"From all I can understand, James greatly enjoyed that church and was much appreciated," Arnebeck said in an interview with United Methodist News Service. "… But given the difficult history of race relations in our country, even if the church is committed in principle to equal treatment of all people and universal love and brotherhood, we have to recognize there are remnants of racial attitudes."

Arnebeck questioned why authorities were quick to accept explanations from other youths that McCoy was depressed and had committed suicide when his life suggested otherwise. "If you talked with any of the many people who loved this young man, he was not despondent. He was happy. He was exuberant as a person," he said.

The church's attorney, James Brudny Jr., declined to speak with United Methodist News Service, issuing a statement that "it would be inappropriate to comment at this time."

In his letter to the congregation, Ling offered assurances and asked for prayers.

"Because a lawsuit has been filed, please understand that we are limited in what we can say and/or do with respect to this situation," he said. "This by no means diminishes our emotions or feelings regarding this matter. We are a community that has stated that we value 'Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Open Doors.' I want each person in our congregation to be assured that we will do everything we can to stand for truth and justice."