May 7, 1999

Bishops Vote to Continue Initiative on Children.

United Methodist News Feature

Contact: Tim Tanton · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn

CHATTANOOGA (UMNS) - The bishops of the United Methodist Church have voted to continue their Initiative on Children and Poverty for another four years, noting that young people bear the brunt of the dangers that exist in the world today.

The Council of Bishops was unanimous in its vote May 6, following impassioned testimony from African and U.S. bishops about the dangers facing children.

"Children are all we've got in Africa," said Bishop Nkulu Ntanda Ntambo, of the denomination's North Katanga Area in the Congo. "Children are the center of our hope. Children are the center of our development. Children are the center of our future."

Yet they are also at the center of suffering in Africa, he said, noting that most of the people killed in wars on that continent are children and women.

"When you have no children, I don't know how you can survive in Africa," he said.

The Initiative on Children and Poverty was launched in 1995. Its aims included evaluating everything the church does in light of its impact on children and the poor; providing resources on the crisis facing those two groups and enabling the church to respond; and proclaiming the Gospel among children and the impoverished.

In addition to continuing the emphasis, the council also voted to hire a retired bishop to staff the initiative.

Atrocities are going on throughout Africa, Ntambo said. Africa needs international help, particularly from America, to stop the wars, he said.

"The same situation in Colorado is the same situation going on 24 hours in Africa," he said, referring to the recent massacre of students at a Littleton, Colo., high school.

Other bishops described the widespread rape of young girls and women, the displacement of thousands of people, and the forced recruitment of children into armies.

"Africa is crying," said Bishop Joseph C. Humper of the Sierra Leone Area.

In addition to war, AIDS is having a devastating effect on the lives of African children. Bishop Christopher Jokomo of the Zimbabwe Area noted that many children are AIDS orphans.

"About 48 percent of the population in Zimbabwe is below age 15," Jokomo said. The parents are in the 25 to 39 age group, which is hard hit by the illness and death resulting from AIDS, he said. Recent estimates place the mortality rate at about 1,000 deaths a week from AIDS, he said.

"This has resulted in a very difficult social problem, including a situation where you have a household directed by a child," he said. He cited one example of a 12-year-old boy who is the head of his family, which includes two other boys.

The problems that children face are made worse by poverty, he said.

"Our Initiative on Children and Poverty is the right initiative at the right time in the history of our denomination," said Bishop Felton E. May of the Washington Area.

"At some point in time, this council must stand and say enough is enough, and we will use our considerable resources to care for the children of Africa and the world," May said. "For as Africa goes, so goes the world."

A task force guiding the bishops' initiative has decided to designate $750,000 for the construction of homes for children in Burundi, Angola, Mozambique and Liberia, said Bishop Elias Galvan of the Seattle Area. The Advance Special for the children is #101000-4.

The next steps for the initiative will include developing a foundation paper on community and justice, to make sure the effort is deeply grounded in the Bible and theology, said Bishop Kenneth Carder of the Nashville Area after the vote.

Community and justice are on the "growing edge" of the initiative, he said.

Community includes all of God's children, he said. He emphasized the need for relationships in which the rich not only serve the poor but also receive from them.

"God is the God who comes to us in the least of these, and therefore we cannot know and serve God without relationships with the least of these," he said.

Noting that the rich are accustomed to giving to the poor, Carder said that "what we need to learn is to receive from the poor." The poor offer spirituality, openness to grace and a sense of what a priority is, he said.

Commenting on some of the biggest problems facing children, Carder said society has the medical and agricultural technology to solve poverty, hunger and premature deaths. "What we lack is the moral vision."

In its interim report to the council, "Community with Children and the Poor," the initiative's task force spelled its vision.

"We prayerfully seek specific and dramatic ways to bear witness to the coming of God's reign in which human division is abolished," the reported stated. "Concretely, we seek to be and to build up the body of Christ as community with and among the impoverished, in which the spiritual and material gifts of poor and rich are shared with one another."

Bishop Arthur Kulah of the Liberia Area stressed the urgency of moving ahead as he thanked the bishops for their vote.

"Now it's time for action," he declared.

And from the audience, someone said: "Amen."