DURHAM--2




          126 (10-71)                                        March 12, 1991

          CONTACT:  Robert Lear
                    Washington, D.C. (202) 546-8722

          'Durham Declaration' Asks
          'Scriptural Approach' to Abortion

                            United Methodist News Service


               A  "Durham  Declaration"  that  sponsors  say is intended to

          "call  the  United Methodist Church to a scriptural,  theological

          and pastoral approach to abortion" has been endorsed by about 225

          persons, according to the convener of the group that produced the

          statement.

               Abortion,  the  statement says, "is testing our church today

          as  deeply  as  slavery  tested  our  church  in  the  nineteenth

          century."

               "Contemporary culture  insists  that  we  own our bodies and

          that we have a right to do with them whatever we  want," says the

          statement.   "However,  we  United Methodist Christians  declares

          that this is false."

               The  "Durham  Declaration"   is  so  named  because  it  was

          developed  out  of meetings held in Durham,  N.C.,  beginning  in

          February 1990.  The  Rev.  Paul  T.  Stallsworth, Creswell, N.C.,

          convened the sessions that were attended by about 40 persons.

               Stallsworth said the statement was  completed  in  September

          1990  and  sent  to  more than 400 United Methodists asking their

          signatures.  By early  March  about  230  clergy  and  laity  had

          responded, he said.

               The declaration says that an "unborn child ... is God's ....

          Therefore,  it  is  sin  to  take  this  child's life for reasons

          whether  of  birth  control,  gender selection,  convenience,  or

          avoidance of embarrassment."

               The statement also says that  "as  members  of  the  Body of

          Christ,  we know that children--those who are hidden in the  womb

          and those  who  are  held  by  the  hand,  those  who are labeled

          'unwanted'  and  those  who  are called 'wanted'--are gifts  from

          God....Because this God has welcomed  us  into the Church, we can

          likewise welcome the little ones."

               Stallsworth is a member of the advisory  board  of  the Task

          force of United Methodists on Abortion and Sexuality, a "pro-life

          network"  reported  to  include  about  400 persons.  He said "we

          tried to keep it (the Durham statement) separate"  from  the task

          force.

               Of the signers listed by Feb. 15, approximately 90 were from

          North  Carolina.  Another 38 were from Pennsylvania, and 21  were

          from Alabama.   The remaining signers came from 17 states and the

          District of Columbia.

               The  signers  included  four retired bishops--Ole E. Borgen,

          Wilmore, Ky.; Ralph E. Dodge,  Dowling  Park,  Fla.;  William  R.

          Cannon, Atlanta; and Lance Webb, Dallas.

               Others  who signed the statement included Steven P. Wissler,

          Ephrata,  Pa.,  director  of  the  Task  Force  on  Abortion  and

          Sexuality;  the Rev. Paul Paul A. Mickey and Stanley Hauerwass of

          the Duke Divinity  School faculty; the Rev. Thomas C. Oden of the

          Drew University theological  school  faculty;  the Rev. Donald E.

          Wildmon,   Tupelo,  Miss.,  president  of  the  American   Family

          Association;  the Rev. James V. Heidinger II, editor of Good News

          magazine; James S. Robb, senior editor of Good News; and the Rev.

          Edmund W. Robb  Jr.,  Marshall, Texas, a founder of the Institute

          on Religion and Democracy.

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