Connectional Living

Message to the People of The United Methodist Church
from the President of the Council of Bishops,
Chair of the Table of General Secretaries,
and the Chair of the Connectional Table


The global financial crisis is bringing hardship and suffering to people in every part of the world. For those in wealthy nations, it causes anxiety and uncertainty about declining pension accounts and the threat of lost jobs. Others are coping with unemployment and foreclosed mortgages. And for still others who live in places with scarce resources or exist in conditions of poverty, it means empty stomachs, lack of care for urgent health needs, and no prospects to earn a day's bread.
The International Labor Organization projects a loss of 50 million jobs globally by the end of 2009. The World Bank warns that an additional 53 million people will fall into poverty (living on less than $2 per day) and that 200,000 to 400,000 more children will die by 2015 if the crisis persists.

Local congregations, annual conferences, and the general agencies likewise face economic constraints, requiring them to reassess how they carry out ministry and to seek greater effectiveness and economies while keeping focused on loving God and neighbor.
In addition, the crisis is generating increasing global unrest and violence, creating even more misery and an insecure world. It is a prophetic reminder that our destiny as a worldwide community and a global church is interwoven with complex bonds of prosperity, security, dignity, and justice. We are no more secure than the most vulnerable among us; no more prosperous than the poorest; and no more assured of justice and dignity than those who live in the shadows of power, void of fairness and equity. We reclaim anew Jesus' teaching, “as you [cared for] the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Matt 25:40), as an urgent appeal for how we can live today.

At all times, but especially in fearful and dangerous days, we followers of Jesus are called to live in hope and in the assurance that God is present with us. Facing hard times, the Apostle Paul asked: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:35 and 37, 39).

To the Israelites, having lost everything and living in exile, God offered assurance: “Do not fear , for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you” (Is. 41:10). The psalmists are similarly convinced: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear” (Ps. 46:1, 2).

With this firm assurance that the whole of creation lives within the embrace of a loving God, we are confident that the Four Areas of Focus for the mission and ministry of the people of The United Methodist Church affirmed by General Conference 2008 are among the most important ways we faithfully bear witness to the Gospel. We urgently need principled Christian leaders for the church and the world. People searching for meaning are seeking new places of welcome and hospitality for worship, prayer, and spiritual growth. It is abundantly evident that United Methodists must engage in ministry with the poor and tackle the diseases of poverty that rob people of the fullness of life, health, and wholeness.

As we enter into the season of Lent we are called to reflection, repentance, and sacrificial living. Lent is a time of preparation when we look beyond human frailty and the brokenness of the world to resurrection, hope, and new life. We are reminded that our faith does not rise and fall with the financial markets but resides in the enduring love of God who is present with us as we struggle and strive to love God and our neighbors. This Lent can be a time when we recommit to practice every day the Wesleyan values to do no harm, do good and stay in love with God.
A church-wide conversation is asking that we envision ways to reinvigorate our outreach to a hurting world and offer hospitality to those seeking deeper spiritual understanding. Local congregations are engaging in self-examination to “Rethink Church” and strengthen their outreach beyond the doors of the church buildings. Annual Conferences are working to ensure the human rights of the poor, to address the diseases of poverty, and to offer direct intervention to relieve human needs arising from poverty, including those of women and children in local communities and of persons who lack opportunity for artistic expression.

The general agencies of the church are finding ways together to achieve economies and assure greater effectiveness in support of annual conferences and local churches. Information on the Four Areas of Focus can be found by contacting the general agencies of the church directly and at www.umc.org/focusareas.

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18) calls for individual and corporate responsibility. John Wesley wrote, “The gospel of Christ knows of no religion, but social. No holiness but social holiness. Faith working by love is the length and breadth and depth and height of Christian perfection” (Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1739, ¶ 5).

As we pray and reflect this Lenten season, may we embrace life with hope, expectancy, and the assurance that God through Christ Jesus is calling us to prepare our hearts, minds, and hands to work for the New Creation. And may we nurture and care for one another and for those to whom we are inextricably connected by God’s grace around the world.

With expectancy and hope,
Bishop Gregory Palmer
Neil Alexander
Bishop John Hopkins

Corporate Prayer for Ash Wednesday

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. (Psalms 51:3, NRSV)

O, God, when we pause to look back at our lives on this Ash Wednesday, we realize that we have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.

We have neglected to do good when it was in our power to do so.

We, like believers of old, have pulled down your altarsand erected idols crafted in our own image.
We have turned our backs on the poor, choosing instead to criminalize poverty.

We have ignored the cries of the motherless, the fatherless,the widow and the widowerchoosing instead to turn children and the elderly into the new poor.

We have bankrupted the country with our greed andconsumed more than our share of the world's riches

We have not dealt honorably with our enemies or our friends, and we have feigned a place in the company of the righteous.

Forgive us, O God, for turning sackcloth and ashes into a fashion statementby pursuing form without substance.

Forgive us, O God, for the times we have neglected to provide our childrenand our world an authentic example of Christianity.

As we begin the journey of these 40 days
Wash us, O God and we shall be clean
Cleanse us, O Lord, and we shall be made whole. Amen.

(Silence)

Words of assurance: Hear the Good News. The LORD, our God, is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love (Joel 2:13). God hears the earnest cries of the repentant and forgives our sins.

A Corporate Call to Confession for Ash Wednesday, Year B Copyright © 2009 General Board of Discipleship. All Rights Reserved. Posted on the General Board of Discipleship Worship website: www.umcworship.org. About the Author: The Rev. Dr. Safiyah Fosua serves as the Director of Invitational Preaching Ministries at the General Board of Discipleship in Nashville, TN, and is a clergy member of the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference. Safiyah is the associate editor of The Africana Worship Book series, the author of several books and writes Preaching Helps for the General Board of Discipleship's Worship Website, www.umcpreaching.org.

Ash Wednesday & artistic Lent

Ash Wednesday again. Tomorrow begins the season of Lent. What does this mean for those of us who are observers of Lent? Some will undoubtedly engage in the competition to "give up" something for Lent. Some will "take up something" in resistance to the tradition of giving up something. Some will look at the "givers" and the "takers" with much amusement and wonder how any of that will help in our spiritual journey.

For the 2009 Lenten season, the Lenten Meditations created by Episcopal Relief & Development will focus on the Millennium Development Goals Inspiration Fund, which focuses on three of the MDGs (goals 4, 5, and 6). "Lent offers us the opportunity to reflect on our lives, our neighbors and our world." Indeed, as we each think about our own lives, our own families, and our own faith communities, we must also remember to think about and pray for and take action with our neighbors in need.

Short version of the MDGs:
1) Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2) Achieve universal primary education for children
3) Promote gender equality and empower women
4) Reduce child mortality
5) Improve maternal health
6) Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7) Ensure environmental sustainability
8) Create a global partnership for development

In 2000, the international community developed the MDGs to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty by the year 2015. We are in year 2009, and very far from reaching our goals. For this Lent, I can give up all the chocolate in the world and it wouldn't make that much of a difference to the people around me, unless the money I would have spent on chocolate is put to some good use (e.g. contributed to a fund or program or organization like Episcopal Relief & Development to help buy insecticide-treated nets to prevent malaria).

A good friend has invited me to join her in an artistic observance of Lent. For the 40 days of the season (excluding Sundays), we are invited to create/develop/build a small art or writing project -- whatever inspires us and revitalizes our creativity. Since I haven't done anything artsy for a long while, I'm tempted to accept her invitation, with a bit of a twist, actually. I'm going to focus the art on the MDGs. Let's see where the Spirit takes us during this season!!

"Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing." - Luke 10:41

The Vibrator Play

Last week, I went to the Berkeley Repertory Theatre to see Sarah Ruhl's play In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play). Yes, it's a play that involves vibrators. And you wouldn't be wrong to think that the production of the play involved a lot of research. When I walked into the theater lobby, people were gathered around display cases filled with many different kinds of vibrators. It was quite a sight; all the people gathered around glass-encased replicas (& some originals!) of turn-of-the-century vibrators. That kind of scrutiny was a bit funny to witness.

Read what the Artistic Director, Tony Taccone, says about Sarah Ruhl's play:

Set at the dawn of the age of electricity, the story follows a fictional psychiatrist who uses a remarkable new invention, the vibrator, to treat women suffering from “hysteria.” Through a series of relationships Ms. Ruhl introduces us to a world where stifled Victorian mores clash with burgeoning, secret desires. The disparity between the scientific experiment that the doctor thinks he is conducting and the social drama he unwittingly catalyzes is not only the stuff of comedy, but provides a dynamic theatrical vehicle to examine the beginning of a social revolution.

Beyond its comical veneer, however, In the Next Room immerses us in the mysteries of gender and the quixotic nature of desire. By using the vibrator, each character is induced to undergo experiences that they do not cognitively understand. Sexual climaxes awaken dormant parts of their deepest selves, and they begin to recognize the profound gap that separates their acculturated behavior in the external world and the yearnings of their inner life. They begin to question their definition of happiness. The sheer power, delight and availability of orgasms prompt the demand for satisfaction in other aspects of life. For some characters, increased self-awareness brings sorrow upon realizing that they cannot sufficiently change their circumstances. For others, a new life unfolds containing a dream of happiness they never thought possible. Moreover, what it revealed is the melancholy that lives below the surface of each and every desire.

There are six characters: Dr. Givings, who is providing new treatment for "hysteria"; Mrs. Givings (Catherine), who just gave birth to a baby daughter; Mr. Daldry, whose wife, Sabrina, is receiving treatment from Dr. Givings; Elizabeth, the wet nurse hired by Mrs. Givings; Annie, assistant to Dr. Givings; Leo Irving, the artist. The play explores the deep, complex relationships between each of these individuals, and decompartmentalizes rooms, the multiple layers, of very real human relationships. Sarah Ruhl unravels and complicates relationships between neighbors and friends, doctors and patients, husbands and wives, employers and employees, and mothers and children. We also embrace issues of race, gender, and social class. To top it off, add discussions of art and same-sex relationships.

I laughed, and cried, and laughed a lot more than I expected I would. Two moments stand out in my mind, and hopefully sharing them will entice you to go see the play:

In one scene, Catherine and Elizabeth are in the room talking about motherhood (that's simplifying it 200%). Lots of back and forth -- very deeply touching -- about each mother's love and sense of duty and conflicting emotions about their own children. As Elizabeth laments her inability to give life's milk to her own child, she begrudges giving that same source of life, which rightfully belongs to her son, to Catherine's daughter. On the other hand, Catherine grieves over the loss, the disconnect, between her and her daughter whose life is nourished by another woman's milk. Elizabeth wonders why Jesus would take her son, and ponders if it was because she loved him too much so that Jesus wanted to take him back. Catherine compares herself to Jesus, saying she wants to give and give and give but there is nothing of the broken body to give, while Jesus's body is broken in order to be given over and over and over.

In another scene, Mr. Irving the painter says he loves a lot of women so that he can be an artist; if he were to love less, he would be a musician; if he were to love more, he would be a poet. (Aaaahhh... now I know why I got my MFA: so I wouldn't be a musician or an artist?)

It was an incredibly funny, poignant, intelligent piece of art. You must go see if it comes to your area.

Is it a want or a need?

My search for a new personal computer continues. From various sources, I've gathered 1 vote for a Lenovo, 6 votes for a Mac (inclusive of Janet's and E's votes), 1 for Dell, and 1 vote (mine) for the HP. I love the Mac, and at the office, I've been using the new iMac and the MacBook Pro. However, I've decided to hope for, about, and toward my HP recovering itself -- perhaps it'll miss me and want to be good and come back. You'll be wondering why I've voted for my pathetic HP. You can't imagine how much I want a new computer, but I just can't. Partly because I have hope. I hope HP will suddenly realize how much it values me as a customer and then send me a brand new computer; I hope that somehow this major company will show some decency and treat its client right. Mainly b/c I have no money for another. No matter how much I want a new laptop, I can't afford to buy another one. Mostly because I don't want to just throw away an old computer. I may recycle it, but is all of it recyclable? What will that do to the environment? Am I contribuing to global warming by buying yet one more product? There's a One Laptop Per Child project and here I am buying computers left and right.

So, for now, I wait, and I borrow my brother's computer. (Imagine that, we each have a computer at home, and we each have at least one computer at our fingertips at the office.) Thanks brother!

HAT's computer - withered like stubble

Isaiah 40:24 "Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble."

While reading the lessons for tomorrow, I came across this verse in Isaiah and immediately thought of my poor little computer. Of course Isaiah 40 is talking about the princes and rulers of earth; however, I still can't help but think that my poor computer is not so different in the sense that it was scarcely purchased and scarcely used, scarcely taken root in my daily life, before it died completely and was carted off to the computer cemetery. Borne off on the winds of some evil virus that snuffed out its little laptop life. So very sad.

Isaiah 40:21 "Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?"

Wasn't I told not to buy a cheap HP? Wasn't I warned not to be such a cheapskate? Wasn't I advised to buy the extended warranty? Have I not heard how poorly HPs perform compared to a Mac? Have I not known how these things might not be reliable? Yes, yes, yes. Alas, alas...

My poor computer is still out of commission and I'm having to borrow chunks of time on other people's computers. But, I'm hoping I can save up to buy something really reliable -- soon. I'm thinking of crossing over to a MAC... Or is there a non-MAC that I can really use?

Does anyone have any suggestions?

HAT hung to dry...

Year of the Ox begins inauspiciously. My personal computer crashed. Completely. Was not wearing its seatbelt so it is dead. (I've resorted to borrowing my brother's computer for small chunks of time to do things like check email and to write this post. Other than that, I feel a bit bereft.) I am crossing fingers and toes and hoping that the Ox will bring me some luck soon -- because I haven't seen anything yet. It is quite difficult to go without a laptop, and I'm missing it terribly. This is a major lesson.

My laziness was the problem. The external harddrive that I owned was not compatible with Vista running on my new HP (only 6 months old!). Instead of doing something about it, I kept thinking nothing bad will happen; I'll have plenty of time to get a new hard-drive, I thought. Well, I was wrong.

Lessons I learned:
1) Back up everything immediately after purchasing a new computer b/c you never know when your laptop will die. Even new ones.
2) Don't buy HP. I trusted HP, and despite everybody telling me that it's not a good investment, I believed that it would work and that it would work well, and believed that I could be faithful to it, and it to me. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
3) Think carefully before rejecting the warranty that they offer. Think very carefully.
4) Don't assume you understand the stupid error messages that appear on the screen.
5) Email every important document (e.g. Board of Trustees meeting minutes!) to yourself at another email address. Don't focus so much on consolidating your "assets" into one place b/c it'll all be GONE when your computer dies.

I do not recommend purchasing an HP. Don't let it fool you.

Thank you, year of the Ox, for a wonderfully challenging beginning. After this, the rest of the year must be a breeze.

ox,
hat