Dwelling in Unity

“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters dwell in unity. It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes!  It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion!  For there the Lord has commanded the blessing: life forevermore.”  Psalm 133

I have always found this tiny psalm to be curious.  The image of sacred oil poured on God’s priest in such volume that is runs down his beard and onto the collar of his holy vestments does not exactly sync with my idea of unity. Get the Kleenexes! Dew on Mt. Hermon also is a puzzling analogy, this gentle water that covers an entire mountain!  What they both have in common is a sense of pervasiveness.  The oil and the dew are in abundance and they both are symbols of the Spirit which hovers consistently over the face of the earth and among all people. 

Unity is like that. When people are living in harmony with one another it covers everything that has been divisive, it gets into the crevices of partisan debate and intellectual and ecclesiastical pride. The result of unity is abundance and provision for all.  Psalm 133 says it is a blessing and it leads ultimately to everlasting life.

United Methodist Women touched my life

In the fall of 1978 I was an M.Div student at Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky.  But I wondered some days if I had heard God right about this call to ministry. 

My District Committee of Ordained Ministry had put my ordination interview on hold, so I could be interviewed again. I had no role models at the seminary for women in ministry leadership. Only the librarian was a woman. All the other leaders else were men, white men, except for an Asian professor who taught Greek and New Testament.

Then came word of the Consultation for United Methodist Clergywomen in Dallas, Texas, in January 1979. I wanted to go so badly, but money was an issue. So going to Dallas was a clearly a pipe dream. That was until the United Methodist Women of my home church (Lansdowne UMC in Baltimore) stepped up to the plate and sent me the money to attend the consultation. 

It was life-changing and inspirational. It gave me the courage to keep following my call, as I saw capable, bodacious clergywomen preaching and leading with grace and skill.  Those faithful women of Lansdowne will never know just how much it changed the course of my ministry.

Let us rejoice in our United Methodist heritage

United Methodist Heritage Sunday this year falls on May 20. That is also Pentecost Sunday, giving the day a double-heritage significance, since that is when we celebrate the birth of Christ’s church.

Speaking of births, however, I invite us all to begin our United Methodist heritage celebration a month early, on Sunday, April 22, in order to commemorate the birth of our denomination from merger and reorganization 50 years ago. That labor-intensive birth happened on April 23, 1968. But it came after nearly a decade of prayerful negotiations, General Conference legislation and prevenient mergers of racially segregated annual conferences—like ours—until the glorious day of delivery when we finally became The United Methodist Church.

The Methodist Church merged with the Evangelical United Brethren Church—both denominations being offspring of earlier mergers themselves. The new denomination abolished Methodism’s Central Jurisdiction, created in 1939 to unify and segregate annual conferences with predominantly black churches and members across the nation, like our former Delaware Annual Conference.

So, in 1968 and in the years that followed, after a history of divisions and dubious mergers, we finally got it right, for the most part. Getting it right meant reorganizing churchwide agencies and creating legislation and special commissions to monitor our still-unfinished journey toward racial and gender equity and denominational inclusiveness. For that same journey and others, it also meant creating special programs and funds, Special Sunday offerings and eventually, missional priorities.

Native Americans and the Church: Past, present, future

Sunday, April 15, is “Native American Ministry Sunday” in the United Methodist Church. I hope that every church will take a special offering to aid Native American seminary students and the many wonderful ministries that are happening in our Committees on Native American Ministries (CONAMs). More importantly, I hope on that Sunday people will learn something about this vitally important part of our church’s witness to its past, present and future.

At our 2016 Annual Conference session we engaged in an “Act of Repentance” for the sins committed against many indigenous peoples of the world by invaders who conquered, colonized and oppressed them, often decimating their populations and societies. In our country indigenous people were treated shamefully for the most part and the church was too often complicit in that mistreatment.

To this day the wounds of discrimination and genocide live on as a part of their historical trauma. The good news is that as we repent and partner with our Native American brothers and sisters, much healing and good can come. We need each other to survive. We as a church are not whole unless all are included and empowered for ministry and mission. Healing comes as we repent and then do the works of repentance. Let’s keep this before us!

Being April Fools

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18 (NRSV) 

No one wants to be called a “fool.” In American Sign Language the sign for “fool” looks like a person (represented by a forefinger) being struck with a fist of the other hand. Indeed, fools might be considered fortunate if only their egos are bruised.

The word “fool” conjures up images of weakness, gullibility, and stupidity. But like many things about the counter-cultural, and at times counter-intuitive, faith that we practice, as true followers of Jesus Christ we can gladly—and wisely—proclaim that yes, we are fools.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “We are fools for the sake of Christ….When reviled, we bless, when persecuted we endure, when slandered, we speak kindly.” (I Corinthians 4:10 a, 12 b)

Easter this year falls on April Fool’s Day (offering a second 2018 coincidence, after Ash Wednesday fell on Valentine’s Day February 14). The secular occasion’s origins are also religious. April Fool’s may go back to the time of Pope Gregory XIII, who changed the Christian calendar so that the first day of the year was January 1 and not April 1, as had been the case under the Julian calendar. Some people back then continued to follow the old calendar. Those who did were known as “April Fools” and were subject to tricks and ridicule.

Faceless Christ, Headless Disciples

By Bishop Peggy Johnson

In Berlin there is the Chapel of the Reconciliation. It was rebuilt after the reunification of Germany and the destruction of the Berlin Wall that divided East and West Germany from 1961 to 1989.

Originally, there was a much older church building located in that same space, which was built in 1894. It was destroyed in 1985 by the Communist government because this abandoned church blocked strategic security site lines on the Berlin Wall. The church was in the way.

During reconstruction of the chapel in recent years, excavation of the rubble from the original church miraculously revealed the entire chancel piece that use to hang over the original altar. It was still intact. Today it hangs in the center of the reconstructed chapel, giving the this sacred space a poignant connection between the past and present.

Grateful for the Congo Partnership

I returned in February from a 10-day mission trip with an eight-person team of clergy and laity from both the Eastern PA and Peninsula-Delaware conferences.  Our Philadelphia Episcopal Area has been in partnership with the Central Congo Conference for over a decade, and there is much to celebrate.

This was my third trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and my second trip to the Central Congo Conference. Each time I continue to be amazed at the work of God that is happening among faithful people there. What did I see?

1. I saw a deep respect for The United Methodist Church, its mission for souls and its appreciation for missionaries who began the work there over 100 years ago.
2. I saw passionate worship in song, prayer and sermon. People of all ages gather to worship God in great numbers.  The material lives of these people are meager, but the Spirit of God in their souls is the sustaining fire for life.
3. I saw people working very hard in schools, seminaries, hospitals, farms, clinics, trade schools and churches to improve and build up the lives of the people and the community. I saw them being witnesses for God’s love.
4. I experienced radical hospitality in hospitable accommodations, bounteous meals, and gracious and generous gifts from those who honored us. Whole towns came to greet our plane singing, dancing and waving palm branches. People who had nothing gave us generous and sacrificial gifts of clothing, rice, goats, chickens, carved wooden crafts and jewelry. Bishop Daniel Lunge and his team went all out to show us the utmost respect and make us comfortable.
5. I experienced their concept of mission as the work of starting new churches. They collected money for that purpose so more might know the love of Jesus. Many pastors start these new churches with no salary whatsoever. They do it out of their love and desire to serve Christ.
6. I saw many improvements since my last visit. There were much needed hospital repairs, e-readers for seminary students, new churches erected, a new well dug, a children’s program that started with a few children now increased to 1,000 children and 43 teachers, a new pediatric clinic with modern equipment and solar power, a second refugee children’s feeding program, bed nets in every home to prevent the spread of malaria and improved maternal health.
7. I experienced the amazing work of Rev. Jonathan and Donna Baker, our UM Global Missionaries, who have labored in the vineyard there for the past three years bringing untold resources and wisdom for the upbuilding of this partnership. They are responsible for promoting and executing many of the projects listed above.  In addition, they operate a cataract eye surgery clinic every year that literally gives sight and hope to the blind.  They will be retiring at the end of March as GBGM missionaries but not retiring from the work of the Partnership.

I am grateful for the Congo Partnership and to all who graciously supported this mission trip with prayers and financial support. There is still much work to be done, and even the smallest gift goes a very long way in the Congo.  I encourage every church to consider putting the Congo Partnership into their budget as a regular line item and watch God work!

This is a solid project with a long track record of faithfulness and productivity that all of us can be proud to support.  As God blesses us, let us continue to be a blessing to the people in the Congo.

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Want to learn more about this powerful, eye-opening, uplifting mission adventure? Read “Mission tour reveals Congo Partnership’s lifesaving impact” and also Bishop Johnson’s and the Rev. Dawn Taylor-Storm’s “Notes from the Mission Field.” Also, view our 2018 Congo Partnership Visit Flickr album to see more photos!