Daily Wrap-up: Delegates hear restructuring report, Laity Address April 28, 2004 GC04-014 By Linda Bloom* PITTSBURGH
(UMNS) – How United Methodists relate to one another, both structurally
and spiritually, was a topic of discussion during the April 28 session
of the denomination’s top legislative body.  | Rev. Bob Hoshibata presents part of the General Council on Ministries' report to General Conference.
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Delegates
to General Conference received a report from the churchwide Council on
Ministries called “Living into the Future,” which proposes merging the
work of program and finance agencies into a “Connectional Table.” In
that structure, leaders from around the church would coordinate the work
of most of the denomination’s agencies and would oversee ministries
budgeted at more than $500 million per quadrennium.United
Methodists in all regions of the world, including Africa, Asia, Europe
and North America, would be represented at the table, along with the
Council of Bishops and agency officials. Under
the proposed plan, the General Council on Ministries and General
Council on Finance and Administration would fold into the Connectional
Table by Jan. 1, 2007. Ten other agencies would retain their own board
of directors but be accountable and represented at the table. “The
plan is about bringing mission and money to the same table,” said
Darlene Amon, a delegate from the Virginia Annual Conference and one of
the voices in the video describing the benefits of “Living into the
Future.” Bishop
Joseph Yeakel described the proposal in terms of “connecting the
connection.” A rejection of the plan by General Conference would amount
to the church choosing to “retain a disconnected structure,” he said. Delegates will vote on the document during the week of May 3.  | | Gloria Holt, lay leader of the North Alabama Annual Conference, gives the Laity Address |
In
the General Conference Laity Address, Gloria Holt told delegates that
until each individual church member is willing to let go of “me, myself
and I” and make a concerted effort to become “we, ourselves and us,” the
denomination will continue to be involved in “power struggles, selfish
decision-making and un-Christian action toward each other.”Most
troubling is the “apparent unwillingness” of laity and clergy to be
equal partners in ministry, according to Holt, president of the United
Methodist Association of Annual Conference Lay Leaders. “If
clergy are singing their own song while the laity are dancing to their
own beat, how in the world are we going to get in sync with one
another?” she asked. “Unless we do, the church will not be creating the
music for which God gave us the notes.” She
also urged the international assembly to move away from doing things in
the same old way and to realize that the absence of youth and young
adults in local congregations could be due to an unwillingness to change
in ways that would welcome that age group.  | | United
Methodist Bishop Bruce P. Blake, Oklahoma, preaches during morning
worship on April 27 at the denomination's 2004 General Conference in
Pittsburgh. |
In the morning worship service, Bishop Bruce Blake of Oklahoma noted the legislative concerns over budget issues. “Our
attitude is one of giving until it hurts, rather than heals. Everything
is focused on our limited resources when, in fact, if United Methodists
would give until it heals we would have so much money to facilitate
God’s mission in the world that conferencing would be a celebration of
sharing rather than our experience of divvying up a shrinking pie.” He
suggested that United Methodists have lost the connection between grace
and giving, and he challenged the delegates to live a gospel of giving
until it heals. *Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer. News media contact: (412) 325-6080 during General Conference, April 27-May 7.
After May 10: (615) 742-5470.
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