> Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns 

Learning From the Past, Living Into The Act of Repentance (Press release 10/18/11)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, October 18, 2011
Contact: Ginny Underwood
gdunderwood@gmail.com

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Is an act of repentance by United Methodists for the treatment of  indigenous people a waste of time?
 
That question was posed early on by Bishop Melvin G. Talbert as an advisory group began to plan for a mandated act of “Healing Relationships with Indigenous Persons” at the 2012 General Conference. The denomination’s top-legislative body of nearly 1,000 delegates from around the world will meet in Tampa, Fla., in April. The Act of Repentance is scheduled for April 27.
 
At the earliest meetings of the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns General Secretary’s Advisory Council on the 2012 General Conference Act of Repentance Talbert expressed concern that an Act of Repentance might be an unproductive use of time, based on past experiences.
 
“I participated in Acts of Repentance in 2000 and 2004 dealing with African Americans and racism,” said Talbert. “I felt like the experience was just a show. When the General Conferences were over the issue was put on the shelf and it was business as usual.”
 
However, as plans have progressed, Talbert has concluded that such an event for indigenous peoples, including Native Americans, should not be delayed. “I came to the realization that maybe this is the right time,” he said. “We can’t simply wait until we are all ready. We could be waiting a long time. Our Native brothers and sisters deserve better.”
 
The Rev. Stephen Sidorak, staff executive for the GCCUIC, agrees that now is the time for the healing process to begin. “The United Methodist Church is being called to confession. We need to own up to our part in history and work toward a demonstrable denominational contrition for our collective responsibility. It’s the only way to move forward.”
 
Sidorak points to denominational support of the Sand Creek Massacre National Site Research and Learning Center in Colorado as one example of how an Act of Repentance can move from words to action. “The United Methodist Church has a shocking connection to Sand Creek,” Sidorak explains. On November 29, 1864, Colonel John Chivington, a Methodist clergyman, led the attack on a Cheyenne and Arapaho encampment along the banks of Sand Creek. At least 165 were killed, mostly women, children and the elderly.
 
The United Methodist Church has committed $125,000 to the center which will be matched, thereby providing a quarter-million dollars in seed money. The donation will go towards research materials as well as tools needed to set up "virtual" connections between the Center and other institutions, including United Methodist-related Iliff School of Theology, tribal colleges in Oklahoma, Montana and Wyoming, and the extensive archives, libraries, and museums that house the Sand Creek Massacre research materials.
 
With Talbert’s concern at the forefront of the planning process, the GCCUIC governing board and staff are taking a resolution to the 2012 General Conference titled, “Trail of Repentance and Healing.” The resolution includes a request for $325,000 to ensure credible church-wide follow-up. The Council of Bishops will be asked to direct the implementation of the resolution. One provision in the proposal asks that land and property be transferred to “an indigenous community,” as described in Paragraph 2547.2 of the church’s Book of Discipline. The paragraph currently gives guidance to deeding church property to other denominations represented in the Commission on Pan-Methodist Cooperation and Union or to another evangelical denomination.
 
“The goal of the proposed resolution is to make sure the Act of Repentance will be followed with tangible results,” said Sidorak.
 
Talbert says he hopes that when the Tampa conference concludes the bishops of the church will be committed to giving visible leadership to the Act of Repentance in their respective areas. “I also hope the delegates will carry that commitment with them and begin the process of healing in their own communities.”
 
In preparation for Act of Repentance event in Tampa, the GCCUIC has held nearly two dozen listening sessions with indigenous people in the United States and two in regional conferences outside the United States.
 
To help prepare United Methodists for the Act of Repentance the GCCUIC will be publishing commentaries and stories in the months leading up to the General Conference.  A study resource will also be made available  For  more information about the Act of Repentance, visit www.gccuic-umc.org.
 
The General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Affairs is a general agency of The United Methodist Church that “engages and works with other Christian denominations toward greater visibility of our essential unity in Jesus Christ; it also works toward better interreligious relationships with all of God’s children.”

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Christian-Muslim dialogue: Working toward common understanding and mutual support (from The Connector, May 2011)

by Merrilee Wineinger

Wearing a pink dress embroidered with delicate white flowers, the young girl pranced on her tippy toes. She swung her arms in a graceful pirouette as her white eyelet headscarf caught the breeze created by her movements. The crochet tatting on her scarf floated off her shoulders before landing on her soft sleeves.

Four feet away, the girl's mother placed her head on the ornate carpet, her headscarf secure around her face and neck. Her arms remained by her side as she returned to a standing position. With her palms turned inward, her arm movements drew an image of a straight path, "the way to water" in a barren desert – Sharia. With body and voice, the young girl and her mother were participating in the movement of Islam. This freedom of movement and the praise of God is what we witnessed during our recent visits to the Islamic Center of Nashville.

Our relationship with the Islamic Center resulted from questions that the members of our Wednesday Night Book Club at Hendersonville First United Methodist Church (HFUMC) raised about Muslims and the Islamic faith. In February, a small group of Christians gathered to study about the lives of women in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. We watched the movie adaptation of the graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and read Azar Nafisi's memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran. The class members came from varied backgrounds, some with preconceived ideas, and most with a media driven perspective on current events.

After two sessions and too many unanswered questions, I contacted Chance Dillon at Scarritt Bennett's Wisdom House in Nashville. The Wisdom House recently opened with a mission to bring interfaith dialogue to the forefront within our theological conversations. Dillon put me in contact with Imam Mohamed Ahmed from the Islamic Center, who met with our book club the following Wednesday. Imam Mohamed responded to questions about terrorism in the U.S. and abroad, relations between Muslim men and women, and the revolution in Egypt.

Days after the Imam's visit, Tennessee lawmakers proposed a joint Senate and House
bill that would make being a Muslim  in Tennessee a felony. In response, the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition along with Muslim, Jewish, and Christian leaders spoke out at a press conference in front of the Capitol building. The coalition and the interfaith community were successful in influencing legislators to remove all references to Sharia law from the proposed bill.

The building of relationships continued on March 26 when the Islamic Center of Nashville hosted an open house. Guests feasted on savory and sweet delicacies representing various cultures within the Islamic world. After the feast, Imam Mohamed presented a lecture on Sharia law, the code of law derived from the Quran and the teachings and example of Mohammed. After his presentation, Imam answered questions from the audience. The questions varied from simple curiosity to vigorous debate. The open house provided an opportunity for dialogue, a chance to learn about and from people whose lives and beliefs are different from one's own. More than once an audience member interrupted the dialogue by attempting to draw the Imam into a debate. With grace and compassion, Imam Mohamed addressed each question or confrontation. He demonstrated the difference between dialogue and debate by working toward a common understanding, rather than striving to prove the questioner wrong even when provoked.

That morning's conversation served as an example that we cannot learn from each other as long as we hold our opposing ground and refuse to re-evaluate our assumptions. For many people their knowledge of Islam comes from the mainstream media, a platform that excels at debating the issues, rather than bringing people together to enter dialogue. By attending the open house, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Agnostics, and Atheists were working to debunk these media-driven stereotypes.

Two days later, another group of seventeen men and women from HFUMC visited the Islamic Center. We were living out our Christian faith in loving our neighbor. In the 2008 Book of Resolutions #6061, United Methodists are encouraged to study Islam, visit local mosques, and "remedy situations in which Muslims encounter misunderstanding, prejudice, stereotyping, or even hostility from the neighborhood or population when they desire to express their faith in everyday life." In total thirty members of HFUMC opened their hearts and minds to be in relationships with our Muslim neighbors.

Similarly, the Islamic Center of Nashville maintains an open door policy to visitors. They are dedicated to bringing about a better understanding among Muslims and their neighbors through open houses, lectures, classes, and community activities. Clergy and Laity can arrange a visit, bring a class, or request a speaker to visit their congregation or small group by contacting the mosque at 615.385.9379.

Additional opportunities to engage in Interfaith Dialogue are available through programs offered by the Wisdom House at Scarritt Bennett in Nashville. The Wisdom House hosts the Common Table Breakfast on the second Wednesday of the month from 7:30 to 9:00 am, where people meet to break bread and discuss a table topic on faith. The Wisdom House also sponsors Essential Conversations, an informal spiritual discussion and lunch series held on the first and third Wednesday now through June from 11:30am to 1:00 pm. Additionally, Scarritt Bennett hosts Diversity in Dialogue, giving community members a venue to move away from debate as they practice the art of dialogue. For more information visit www.scarrittbennett.org/programs/wisdom.aspx.

The Tennessee Annual Conference Board of Church and Society urges United Methodists to seek out opportunities to enter Christian-Muslim discussions. When we dialogue with members of other religions, we demonstrate compassion for all people. We grow in understanding of another's beliefs and a deeper understanding of our own. We are then able to join with our brothers and sisters of faith to live out God's greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors as ourselves.



To learn more about Islam, watch the Unity Productions Foundation documentary based on six years of groundbreaking research conducted by Gallup, WATCH HERE

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Music ministry that's making a difference (from TNUMConnects 4/7/11)

Though still in its infancy, Crossing The Divide Music Ministry has already crossed numerous denominational and cultural boundaries to impact communities across the country. From undergraduate students and university professors to neighborhood senior citizens - Georgia to Nevada; from Methodist ministries to Catholic Diocese, Baptist, Episcopalian and Unitarian Universalist congregations alike, the response to Crossing The Divide’s powerful message of love and reconciliation has been the same: “Excellent,” ”thought provoking,” ”inspiring,” ”beautiful," ”courageous!,” “A much needed message, Thank you!”

Psalmist and speaker Connye Florance along with husband, pianist, and arranger Kevin Madill, having just mounted the music ministry outreach in June of this year, say they are “blessed and inspired” by the overwhelmingly positive response to “Crossing The Divide.” “We’ve reached and impacted communities of faith in three different UMC Conference jurisdictions already,” says Florance. "People are coming away from the music and message feeling hopeful and grateful. It is wonderful to experience.”

Having gathered the support of congregations and colleagues from within the UMC’s Tennessee, North Georgia and California/Nevada Annual Conference regions, “Crossing The Divide” Music Ministry is now hoping to gain national attention and support from the United Methodist Church, which embraces April as “Celebrate Diversity month.”

The inter-racial couple’s musical message of “learning to love across the boundaries” not only supports and uplifts diversity but gently extends the palm of healing love and reconciliation to one of America’s most difficult issues - racism. “We’ve come a long way since lynching of southern Blacks, Indian massacres and KKK marches were everyday news. But hate groups are still springing up in our country like weeds. Nearly 200 chapters of the KKK still exist in thew U.S. There is a subtle campaign brewing to 'stop the hate' - we’re hoping to ignite a strong campaign to 'spread the love.'"

"God has provided us with an effective way to re-open communication. That’s the main thing.” Florance and Madill are both professional musicians who have taken their love of jazz into the realm of “Christian inspiration.” The couple joined the United Methodist Church just after they married in 1997. As active members of Ernest Newman UMC in Nashville, TN, both serve as Administrative Board members and associate ministers of music. “Crossing The Divide” Music Ministry brings the beauty of scripture, poetry, stories and personal testimony together with an engaging and inspiring collection of hymns, original and familiar songs to create a “powerful message of love” in an outstanding one hour concert/dialogue presentation.

The touring ministry is available for booking at churches, colleges and conferences across the country. “One of those most faith-filled experiences of a lifetime” - Katheryn Mitchem, Deaconess (retired).

> DOWNLOAD Crossing The Divide press kit
 

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