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Olive Branch Newsletter For July 2001

Stewardship

From The Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church

(Ed Note: Edited for length, see Rev. Richard or the UMC web site for the full-length version.)

To United Methodist People Around the Globe:

The crisis among Children and the impoverished continues unabated as we enter a new millennium. With increasing urgency, we hear the voice of God calling us to respond to the cries of the vulnerable and the violated.

In 1995 the Council of Bishops launched an Initiative on Children and Poverty with three goals:

1. To reshape The United Methodist Church in response to the God who is among “the least of these” and the evaluation of everything the church is and does in the light of the impact on children and the impoverished.

2. To provide resources for understanding the crisis among children and the impoverished and enabling the church to respond.

3. To engage in evangelization: the proclamation in word and deed of the gospel of God’s redeeming, reconciling, and transforming grace in Jesus Christ to and with children and those oppressed by poverty.

We rejoice in the many ways the Initiative is influencing the church and the impact it has had on children and those who live in poverty.

Our focus upon children and the poor has borne fruit. However, too often what seems to preoccupy us are our own children and children like ours. Too little attention has been paid to the economically poor, to the systemic causes of poverty, and to the theological and ecclesiological implications of God’s identification and presence with the poor.

We confess that our own lifestyles often reflect being in the community with the affluent rather than in community with the poor. The benefits we derive from the very economic system that leaves others impoverished undercuts the credibility of our witness. We stand in need of conversion, and we yearn and commit ourselves to live, like Jesus, in more complete community with the poor.

We knew when the Initiative began that reaching the goals would involve confronting formidable challenges and would require many years of sustained focus by the church. Nevertheless, we have been tempted to and have:

• Treated the Initiative as an optional program or temporary missional emphasis rather than as a call to confront powerful idols and to reorder the church’s priorities in accordance with the God revealed in Jesus Christ;
• Sentimentalized children and the poor and substituted acts of charity for authentic community with the impoverished.
• Appealed to a general humanitarianism rather that rooting the Initiative in the nature and the mission of God.

Our own attempts to develop ongoing relationships with the poor and with impoverished children flounder in the face of the many ways we are separated form them by social, institutional, and cultural position.

The great challenge that faces The United Methodist Church is that of overcoming the barriers that separate the relatively prosperous from the impoverished. We are convince that the reshaping of the church and the proclamation of the gospel cannot take place apart form a newly developed sense of community: that is relationship of the church, including the bishops, with the economically impoverished and the most vulnerable of God’s children. God has chosen the poor, the vulnerable, and the powerless as means of grace and transformation.

Therefore, we call ourselves and invite The United Methodist Church to renewal and evangelism through community with the poor: those whom Jesus called “the least of these” and Charles Wesley called “Jesus’ bosom friends.”

While we celebrate the signs of hope and the renewed commitment to children and the poor, we realize that the conditions among many of the world’s children and impoverished continue to worsen. Accelerating gaps between the enriched and the impoverished place growing millions around the world at risk. The global economy increasingly resembles a giant casino in which the few are enormously enriched while myriads toil without prospect of a decent chance at life’s necessities. Women, children, and the poor continue to be the primary victims of violence and premature death. Growing violence by children against children shockingly illustrates the poverty of spirit present in our communities and nations. What is remarkable is that most of the severe problems facing the world’s children and the poor are readily solvable. Resources and solutions are available. What is lacking is the moral will, the theological vision, and the political commitment to respond.

In a world constituted by division and competition, in which the gap between the rich and the poor widens like a yawning chasm and human life is reduced to a marketable commodity while the impoverished majority of the earth becomes invisible to the prosperous few, it is the church that is called to be the visible and tangible presence of a community built upon grace(gift). It is the church which is summoned by God to be a sign, foretaste, and instrument of Christ’s victory over the powers of domination, division, and death. How closely the church resembles Christ’s inclusive community of grace is the true measure of its doctrinal integrity, its evangelical witness, and its missional faithfulness.

The United Methodist Church may yet be a visible and tangible presence of Christ’s victory over the powers of domination, division, and death, by the power of God through the Holy Spirit, if we seek obediently and humbly to constitute community with and among the impoverished. This will never be easy, for we struggle against systemic sin, the principalities and powers that seek to rule this planet. These powers lodge deep within our hearts and congregations as ignorance and fearfulness of the other, the one who is different form ourselves. Yet, with God, who raises Jesus from the dead and who in Jesus Christ has reconciled all things in heaven and on earth, all things are possible. The decisive victory in defeating the powers of sin and death and in removing the barriers among the human family has already been won in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we can live with confidence in the light of Christ’s present and future reign of justice, generosity, and joy.

Call to action and invitation to pilgrimage

In addition to the previously stated goals of the Initiative, we seek to engage the church in biblical and theological reflection for the purpose of articulating its mission for this new millennium and for reshaping the church in the image of Christ.

1. We call upon the whole church to pray that the Holy Spirit will guide our thoughts and actions as we seek to reshape the church toward a new community inclusive of children and the impoverished, all God’s people.

2. We call upon ‘the people called Methodist’ to join with us in seeking specific and dramatic ways to bear witness to the coming of God’s reign in which human division is abolished. Concretely we seek to be and to build up the body of Christ as a new community with and among the impoverished, in which the spiritual and material gifts of poor and rich are shared with one another.

3. Established congregations, especially those of the prosperous, must seek actively to involve the indigent and the working poor in their own congregational life, treat them not as objects of charity but as indispensable members of the body of Christ. The gifts and ministries of the impoverished must be nurtured, received and honored as others have the honor of serving them in their need.

4. All aspects of the life of the church need to come under review. We must examine everything in the light of Christ’s new community.

5. Our global connectionalism offers exciting challenges and opportunities to link congregations.

6. Let us enter into cooperative efforts with grassroots movements and organizations who can guide us into community with the poor and strengthen advocacy for justice and compassion in public policy matters and international monetary and trade policies. Congregations are challenged to collaborate with local school, hospitals, civic organizations, and government agencies to provide comprehensive systems of care for all God’s children.

7. Action and witness are one. As we seek to build community with children and the poor, we must also forthrightly speak on their behalf in the halls of power and policy making. Our advocacy for the poor is an extension of our proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ. With confidence, we can live now in the light of Christ’s sovereignty over all creation and celebrate the dawning of a new community in which God has broken down all dividing walls of hostility and in Jesus Christ has made us one.

Blessing

As bishops we joyfully and faithfully continue our journey toward a new community. We invite “the people called Methodist” to renewal and blessing by sharing in community with those whom God has chosen as special recipients and means of grace: children and the poor. As we share in community with them, we are blessed by the One who promised: “Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me”(Matthew 25:40b). “Peace be to the whole community, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who have an undying love for our Lord Jesus Christ”(Ephesians 6:23-24).

A BIG APPOLOGY:

to everyone who tried to submit something for the Olive Branch by email. Our free Internet Service Provider is having trouble and we keep not getting our email. The address works, we just can’t get to it from the office computer. We are trying to get it fixed and it is almost as frustrating for us as it is for you. Eventually we are going to have to get our own. But in the mean time we hope to have it fixed TOMMORROW. Thank you for your patience.

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