A Social Creed you can sing? Revision aims for broad usage
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A UMNS photo by Kathy Gilbert Bishop
Susan Morrison and a group of fellow Church and Society board members
have written a new version of the Social Creed for consideration in
2008.
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United
Methodist Bishop Susan Morrison and a group of fellow members of the
Board of Church and Society have rewritten the denomination's Social
Creed for consideration by the church's 2008 General Conference. The
creed will turn 100 that year. The working draft of the Social Creed was
presented to the April 20-23 spring meeting of the Board of Church and
Society in Washington. A UMNS photo by Kathy Gilbert. Photo #06422.
Accompanies UMNS story #236. 4/25/06 |
April 25, 2006
By Kathy L. Gilbert*
WASHINGTON (UMNS) — A “user friendly” Social Creed will make its way
to the 2008 General Conference, and if the writers have their way, it
will be set to rap, African, country and many other musical beats.
Bishop Susan Morrison and a small group of United Methodist Church
and Society board members took on the task of rewriting the
denomination's Social Creed in preparation for the 100th anniversary of
the creed and Social Principles. The anniversary will be celebrated at
the 2008 General Conference, the church's legislative gathering.
The original creed was written in 1908 and rewritten in 1972. Changes must be approved by General Conference.
“The current creed doesn’t roll off the tongue,” said Jim Winkler, top executive with the Board of Church and Society.
“We wanted to rewrite the creed for the new generation,” Morrison
said. “We wanted to make it memorable so it would inform young people
about their faith in language they use.”
If the creed is approved, Morrison and Winkler hope it will be sung
in many different musical styles at the 2008 General Conference in Fort
Worth, Texas. The revised creed can also be used as a litany, and plans
include giving it a visual treatment on DVD.
“It has a freshness, it not cultural specific and it is global,”
Morrison said. “I have a dream that at General Conference we will stop
every once in a while and sing a new version of the Creed.”
“You know how you can sing ‘Amazing Grace’ to the tune of ‘Gilligan’s
Island’?” Winkler asked. “That is the vision I have for the creed, that
it can be sung to many different tunes.”
Winkler will send the creed to different musicians and ask them to set it to music.
“It is positive in tone and outlook and it addresses issues of the 21st century,” he added.
Following is the working draft of the Social Creed as presented at
the April 20-23 spring meeting of the Board of Church and Society in
Washington:
God in the Spirit revealed through Jesus Christ calls us by grace to
be renewed in the image of God, that we might participate in God’s love
for the world.
Today is the day we accept that
God embraces all hues of humanity,
cares for the plight of the world’s children, and
weeps as we undo earth’s goodness,
And so shall we.
Today is the day we accept that
God values the health, healing, and wholeness of all life,
delights in difference and diversity, and
favors hospitality turning strangers into friends,
And so shall we.
Today is the day we accept that
God cries at the flood of starving people,
abhors the rapidly increasing disparity between rich and poor, and
yearns for the just treatment of workers in the marketplace.
And so shall we.
Today is the day we accept that
God deplores the violence in our homes and streets,
rebukes the world’s warring madness, and
humbles the powerful on behalf of the powerless,
And so shall we.
God in the Spirit revealed through Jesus Christ calls us by grace
to do those things that make for God’s Shalom in our homes, churches,
communities, nations and world.
*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.
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